This will be quite long, so for those who don’t feel like reading it all, the tl;dr is: played Dark Souls III, then Elden Ring, then Sekiro, then Dark Souls 1, then replayed Dark Souls III.
Back around when the final dlc for Dark Souls III released, I saw it go on sale. Just the base game, but I decided to pick it up as I had heard Dark Souls games were supposed to be really good. I knew it was hard but that was about it. Once I booted it up and heard the title screen music, I immediately fell in love. If the rest of the music was half as good as this, I knew I’d love the game even if the gameplay sucked. So I started playing.
I really sucked at it. I kept dying to the intro boss. I even tried making a new character just to beat him. However, after many failed attempts, I finally got him, and I felt the rush. I’d never felt like that before while playing a game, but it made me want to keep playing and go through whatever challenges necessary to feel that feeling again. So I pushed on. Went to Firelink, did the High Wall of Lothric, fought Vordt, died many times, finally killed him and got that awesome feeling back. So I kept going.
I eventually got decent, and started getting bosses in 10-20 attempts which was better than what I was doing at the start, embarrassingly. Pontiff brought me back to dozens of attempts, but other than that I was doing well. I continued to do even better, and even managed to kill the Dancer on my second attempt (first real attempt, since I died almost immediately when she surprised me into a boss fight).
Then I got to the Twin Princes. Man, these guys drained me. I was stuck on them for so long. Literal hundreds of attempts went into these guys. I quit many, many times. I took breaks from the game for a while but I’d always come back and always get crushed. Full length games came and went, but I’d keep coming back to DS3, and I’d keep dying to the Twin Princes. I nearly gave up for good. However, literal years later, on one very lucky day, i finally killed them. I had sunk many, many hours trying to figure these guys out, and it finally paid off. I don’t need to tell you how good that felt. With that amazing feeling,
I went into the endgame and completed Dark Souls III. I missed out on all the optional areas, and didn’t buy the dlc, but I beat Dark Souls III. It was my greatest gaming achievement by a long shot at that time. It felt damn good.
A couple years later, Elden Ring came out. In typical patientgamers fashion (which I didn’t realize was a thing at the time), I waited close to a year before pulling the trigger. I think it was the Christmas sale when I got it, and man I fell in love. 200 hours later and I had all achievements. Another 60 hours and I completed every single dungeon, catacomb, and optional area. I think I’ve seen just about every pixel of that game at this point. With my DS3 experience going into ER I started out playing decently well, but ended up a pretty competent player. I can fight pretty much any boss at this point without much trouble. Certainly not good enough for intense challenge runs, mind you, but still.
After that obsession started to get me burnt out, I decided to try the rest of their games out, so I got Sekiro next as it was on sale. It took a few hours and a couple attempts but I finally got into the game, and got sucked into it. I became obsessed, more than I was with Elden Ring. Whenever I wasn’t playing the game I was watching videos about it or reading up on the game. Another game I’ve probably seen every pixel for. After 100 hours and 4 playthroughs, I got all achievements in Sekiro too. Those are still the only two “long” games (longer than a few hours) I have all achievements for. Sekiro is also probably the game I feel I’m best at. I was able to do a deathless run so that was pretty awesome. I doubt I could do that now since it’s been a little bit, but still something awesome to brag about. I nearly did deathless with charmless and bell active but died to snake eyes unfortunately. That one stung.
Eventually, the Dark Souls trilogy went on steam sale for the first time in a year and a half. I immediately pulled the trigger. At this point, I had played a bit of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls 1 and 2 but never completed any, so I didn’t bother mentioning them earlier. I knew I’d like them but didn’t know how much. I started with the first one. The visual style (mostly lighting) threw me off a bit, but I got used to it and eventually ended up loving its charm. I fully completed Dark Souls Remastered including all bosses and optional areas. Another game I became obsessed with. At this point I was definitely feeling like a competent FromSoft gamer. No boss took more than 5 attempts on my first playthroughs which was a big step up from my DS3 playthrough. I still don’t have all achievements for DS1 yet, but that will come soon I’m sure.
After DS1, I tried the second. As mentioned before, I did play a little bit of it, but not much. Honestly, I couldn’t get into it right after playing DS1. The movement just felt too off. I felt way to fast and the gameplay felt way too sensitive. I got really used to the deliberate gameplay of the first one, that the second felt too fast and like I didn’t have as much precise control over my movements. I’m not sure how to better explain it than that, but it might just be a me problem because I tried a different third person action game after and felt the same feeling so maybe DS1 just ruined some games for me. Wouldn’t be surprised. I still haven’t gotten far yet into DS2 but I do plan on eventually playing it and completing all areas and bosses.
Temporarily skipping the second one, I finally decided to replay DS3. I booted it up for the first time in years, and instant nostalgia hit. It felt good to be back. The movement felt better too which was good, I was worried I’d have the same issue as with DS2 and it would sour my experience, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.
I created a character, cleared out the first area, got to the first boss, and, well, wow. I shredded him. Like, it wasn’t even close. How did I struggle with this guy so much before? Like I mentioned, I created multiple playthroughs in an attempt to hopefully kill this guy, and I died many times on him, and this time around I tore him apart without much thought. Despite the easy fight, killing him first try felt awesome, because it showed me how far I had come. That was a way better feeling than a simple boss kill rush feeling.
So on I pressed, eventually getting to Vordt, who I think took two attempts but went down easy enough. I carried on, through the next few areas, and eventually came to Farron Keep. This area was more annoying than I had remembered. It certainly wasn’t unbearable, better than the Tomb of the Giants from DS1, but still pretty annoying to deal with. But after making my way through, I got treated to the Abyss Watchers, my favourite boss my first time around, who I got a brand new appreciation for after having fought Artorias. Down they went, and on I pushed.
I think the first new content I explored was the Smouldering Lake. It was a bit tougher than expected, so I decided to put a pause on it. I did quickly grab the Fume Ultra Greatsword, a weapon I really wanted my first time around but that I was too scared to work for, and it became my weapon of choice for the rest of my playthrough once I got my strength up high enough. I was using Zwei beforehand if anyone was curious.
After dying a few times to the Old Demon King and deciding the Lake was to be put off until later, I carried on with the regular game, including Irithyll which is still my favourite city in any video game ever, and up until the Dancer, which I got first try. I guess it wasn’t a fluke before, she’s just a boss I fight well. I know a lot of people find her tough so I feel lucky that I understand her attacks well. She’s one of my favourite bosses now I think. Once killing her, rather than going to Lothric proper, I decided to go to the next optional area of the game, and kill Oceiros. The fight was pretty straightforward but a lot of fun. Reminded me a bit of Seath despite not at all playing like that fight. Not sure why, but not complaining. Both cool boss fights for sure.
I continued in that direction with the optional stuff, including the alternative starting area which was equal parts cool and creepy to visit, and fought Champion Gundyr, another boss fight I know some folks struggle with that I managed to get first try. I always play without npc summons but did this one with a summon because ha ha naked sword man funny, and also because it was cool to fight alongside a normally annoying npc, so maybe that’s why it was an easy fight for me, but after exploring the alternate Firelink, I went back on the main path and through Lothric proper.
Dragonslayer Armour was as annoying as ever, and I think killed me twice, but I learned to appreciate the fight a little bit this time around. The atmosphere is cool as hell, and I love the design of the butterflies. Going through the archives was also annoying, and unfortunately I didn’t learn to appreciate this one, I still don’t like that part of the game. Not the worst, certainly not as bad as the Irithyll dungeon, but not amazing like the Irithyll city either.
I kept going on, and finally got to the Twin Princes again. Man, I was dreading this. It was my run killer last time. It was the thing looming over my head the entire playthrough. I prepared myself, made sure I was ready, and went in. The music haunted me. It’s an amazing track, but it reminded me of the many hours spent angry at this boss all those years ago. This was my nemesis in terms of video games. I killed the first phase, but I knew that was the easy part. Queue the cutscene, then on to phase two, where I was surely to die over and over and over again. Except I didn’t. I killed them. First try. I still had their entire move set completely memorized. It wasn’t even a case of “oh I remember that attack now”, I always knew every telegraph. I never forgot, and I killed them first try. It was amazing. It was the best rush I’ve felt outside of Sekiro. I still can’t believe I managed to do that.
At this point, I paused the main game and did the dlc. I went through Ashes of Ariendel and had a lot of fun. I know everyone says Friede is one of the hardest boss fights ever, but after dying quickly to her first phase, I managed to kill her second try. It was intense, but I did it. That also felt really awesome.
I knew I still had the Nameless King to fight, so on I went to complete that area. The area itself was a bit annoying but also really cool so I’m not really complaining. I think it took 8 or 9 attempts but I managed to get the Nameless King, which was a really epic boss fight. I found the fight to not necessarily be incredibly hard but rather incredibly punishing. I was able to deal decent damage and his attacks were telegraphed well, but one wrong slip and the You Died screen would come say hello. His attacks just dealt so much damage. I completed the second phase with hardly getting hit because any time I did an attempt and got hit it would be game over, between the high stagger and high damage.
I then started the Ringed City. Once I finished the Dreg Heap including the Demon Prince, and got to the actual Ringed City, I realized I could kill the final boss of the base game and continue playing, so I did that. Second attempt, Soul of Cinder was defeated. I beat the game again, but I wasn’t done yet. So back to the dlc. I continued through the city a bit until I got to the bonfire just after the summoning archers. I went through the following area a few times with the ringed knights, but either kept dying or running out of estus and booting it back to the bonfire, and after a while I realized I wasn’t having fun anymore. I still want to fight the last three bosses in the dlc but for the time being, that’s where my journey has ended. I did end up going back and killing the Old Demon King, as well as finishing that whole area, but I forget when so I’m tacking it on at the end here.
I’d also like to mention I’m cheating with the whole patientgamers thing a bit because I actually preordered Armored Core VI and started playing day one. I never do that but did it this time, first time pre-ordering anything since 2016 I think. It’s definitely the exception, I don’t plan on buying new games again for a long time. But given that AR6 is also a FromSoft game I thought I’d mention it at the end here.
Anyway, that’s my journey so far. If even a single person read this, thank you! It took me, like, an hour to write this out, so I really do appreciate it. Drop a comment down below about anything pertaining to FromSoft and their games. I’d love to talk about it some more.
Update: I powered through the rest of the Ringed City and completed it. I haven’t killed Midir yet, but besides that I’ve killed every boss and explored every area of Dark Souls III. Midir is just a bit too tough for now, I’m going to put the game down for a while and work my way through Dark Souls II I think. One day I’ll come back and kill Midir, but that day is not today. For the time being, Midir stands as the only boss to beat me, the player (obviously my character has died many times though)
