Dark Souls is a weird phenomenon, the overall general opinion would seem to be that this game is, incredibly frustrating yet satisfying and rewarding but most people are unable to describe why. Of course the reasons for this are highly subjective but for me it is how the game hands the content to the player. When you explore new locations you go on slowly, watching the environment. You do not rush through it. You take your time unless you want to die over and over again. Here the difficulty of the game forces the player to be aware of his/her surroundings. By not giving the player any direction and by providing this level of general difficulty the creators of Dark Souls give simply more meaning to the content.

This goes on with the items. Every item you find by maneuvering over some weird structures, balancing on beams and looking into every nook and cranny feels valuable even though you'll probably won't use it depending on your character-build. And the weapons are not just different skins with different stats on them. Different weapons feel different and use different move lists and animations.

The combat itself is another thing for me, every new enemy brings the excitement of finding out how much HP it has and what moves it has. And damn ... the bosses. The last game that made me feel this good after defeating a boss was Ninja Gaiden 2 and the original Castlevania before that.

So what do "Dark Souls Addicts Anonymous" say to this? Why are you still playing this schizophrenic mess?

Apart from what you already mentioned I'm so sucked into it because it feels like a very dark fairy tale. There is so much weird stuff that creeps me out (why are there mushroom people in the forest?). The NPCs are a big part, too ... the way they talk and what they're talking about etc. It's great!

@CptBedlam: I agree the NPCs are very well done. I like how some of them are hollowed out/ lose their mind at some point and try to kill you.

@TaliciaDragonsong: I was kinda creeped out by the guy when he was sitting in front of Sen's Fortress, humming "still closed, still closed".

The most rewarding part for me is returning to areas that gave me trouble and absolutely destroying enemies. After all the deaths, all the souls I lost, all the frustration; it's really rewarding to conquer the game.

I was a little freaked out when I went back to firelink shrine after I rang the second bell. Also I ran fast as hell trough the walley of the drakes to discover that thing, discovering blighttown and a door back to firelink. I love that I went trough blightown that way, beat queelag, beat ceaseless and beat a capra demon but got the hell out of there when I saw them all.

I went down to the sewers after and I was so careful not to get cursed. Suddenly I was invaded for the first time and I was tense as hell not wanting to die carrying 15000 souls and not losing my humanity. It felt so rewarding to not get cursed, killing the invader, killing the gaping dragon and then find out the "right" way to blighttown. I am now carrying 25000 souls, any tip to what I should buy before I waste them?

I picked up the gold hemmes cloak and went "Cool! I'm like the Grim Reaper!", Then I immediately wen't and found a great scythe.

You have no Idea how happy I am.

I seriously have no idea how I'm still playing this. I usually play games for their storyline with everything else just being a bonus. But Dark Souls barely has a story so far (2nd bonfire in Blight Town ) and yet it's still managed to soak up 20hrs of my time and countless hours outside just thinking about it....i think I like it because it's so unforgiving in terms of difficulty as well as simply the choices that you make. It makes everything you do have a certain weight to it that's not really there I've found in other games. The game would be completely different with a quicksave feature and frankly I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten bored of it by now if it did.

@TaliciaDragonsong: yeah, that dude never seems to be scared or anything.

He's like "well yeah, giant boulders stop me from going forward, but whatever, it'll get fixed at some pojnt :) ".

I think he'll go nuts at some point and try to kill me

a guy u meet in anor londo saving him from black knights then appearing in blighttown giving him a cure and then appearing in goddamn lost izalith to help me jump in this freaking poison pit to loot al lot of goodies? i really loved that =)

@sanBASHi: whaat? never met that dude. Found the poison pit by myself but that dude sounds like fun!

@TaliciaDragonsong: I love how he looks like an onion

i was REALLY enjoying it till i hit blighttown. and now im not.

playing on the PS3 and the framerate is really bad at some points, causing me to die.

think im going to take a break from it for a few weeks or it risks being smashed to pieces.

im sure il push on though.

@TaliciaDragonsong: Yeah, I was thinking of buying it cause in the description it says something about making it easier to parry.

But since I'm not using a guide on my first playthrough I can't look that up. Will have to wait for new game+.

Seems to me like most players preferr the light armor dodgy style gameplay ... weird. I've got a high stamina and strength build using the black iron armor, a heavy shield and black knight sword and well I BLOCK ALL THE THINGS

I am so tempted to give this a try, but I am almost certain I will end up hating it.

It`s a fucking video game. There`s no hidden genius held within its mystical crystal enigma. You kill shit, you level up, you get sweet swords.

THIS HAS BEEN THE FORMULA FOR GAMES FOR YEARS.

Stop playing Halo and wake the fuck up. Now excuse me, I have some new game + to play.

@TaliciaDragonsong: yeah I'm fast dodgy as well, but I'm kinda tired of my Dingy Robe+10.

I need a new look, and giant metal onion sounds good to me.

also, parrying is the most satisfying part of Dark Souls combat, just love the sound after a sucessful parry and riposte.

@the_red_mage:

Yeah, I think it's mostly because it's possible to have light armor and still be able to block everything (mostly).

All you really need is a sheild that blocks 100% phys. dmg. but it's nice to be able to roll away from attacks that take away all your stamina in one block.

And with the ability to upgrade armor, it's possible to have light armor with very very high defence.

The thing I find most rewarding is the sense of discovery and accomplishment, which relates to how the game hands content to the player. I felt like a genius the other day when I figured out how to get up to the bird nest at Firelink Shrine. After around 30 hours playing a game I discovered something that was right in front of my face the whole time.

I'm playing it because I liked Demon's Souls, I liked Demon's Souls because of the options it gave me in regards to what weapons you could use (spears weren't useless!) and how you could use them. I really liked things like how you could parry with your shield and how you could two-hand any weapon to increase it's power. Also I'm a sucker for cool looking armor.

Dark's Souls is a little different than Demon's Souls, but mostly better I think. I haven't run into any memorable music in Dark Souls yet though, which is a shame. I absolutely loved this theme from Demon's Souls:

@xaLieNxGrEyx said:

It`s a fucking video game. There`s no hidden genius held within its mystical crystal enigma. You kill shit, you level up, you get sweet swords.

THIS HAS BEEN THE FORMULA FOR GAMES FOR YEARS.

Stop playing Halo and wake the fuck up. Now excuse me, I have some new game + to play.

It is not just a "fucking" video game that I am talking about. I am talking about how the design decisions made in the creation of this game affect the gameplay experience and make it so satisfying. Of course the core formula isn't new, it's how everything comes together. Plus I don't like Halo.

@RockmanBionics: You're right, that's a pretty cool piece of music.

There have been a few instances in Dark Souls as well though where the music contributed a lot to the experience. The moonlight butterfly boss fight comes to my mind. Also, I like the Firelink Shrine music

It's a game, whose entire appeal is the reward factor, so nothing surprsining here...
 
I am kinda torn on which game is better, I think I like Dark Souls more so far but I'm not sure if that's the cause of the shift in gameplay style.... Demon's Souls on the other hand had much more awe-inspiring music.

@the_red_mage: My main is a spear'n'shield knight, wearing steel armour all upgraded to +9 (better physical defense than the stone set), but no helmet. With the Ring of Divine Favour and a very high END I can keep myself just under 50% equip load.

I love being able to block huge hits, and because my Eagle Great Shield is +14, I spend very little stamina on huge blocks, so I can counter attack right away.

I like the predictable results of full plate and a big shield. I feel like I would roll into more trouble than out of it if I were a light character. Being +50% load is too slow for me though, I like to keep my options open.

@CptBedlam: I like the Firelink music too, I don't remember the Moonlight Butterfly music all that well though since I have only faced it once so far. Once I finish the game I'll probably bust out the soundtrack and listen to everything more thoroughly, so if there were any parts where I was too distracted by giant scary monsters to pay the music much mind I'll likely rediscover those tracks there.

@Stahlbrand: Same here I like it to jump in and stay close to my enemies. Blocking nearly everything allows me to simply stay there like a rock and circle around them as soon as I get the chance to attack them.

@the_red_mage: I like both fast, rolling characters and heavy armored guys, but I feel a greater sense of accomplishment with the slower melee focused characters. You're forced to get up-close and personal and it takes more skill to find openings while avoiding some really dangerous moves. Playing keep-away with ranged attacks or hit-and-run tactics can feel like cheezing the game.

Also, sometimes rolling around is not the best tactic. Like when you're on narrow pathways and could easily fall off. Also it's easy to screw up your roll and still take a ton of damage if lightly armored. Also in most cases you don't need to roll. Simply moving to the side or backward is all you need to do, while rolling might be overdoing it.

Then again, as a tank I find it hard to move out of the way when enemies go for their unblockable grab attacks, or lunging attacks that take all your stamina to block. It's also annoying moving slowly from point A to B, with that constant armor clinking noise.

All builds have their pros and cons.

I play a mix. Under 50% load but with Havel's ring on so I can have heavy armor equipped. I block most attacks but dodge the bosses.

You guys have articulated very well what I love about this game. I also love the open world. Feels like I'm discovering every location and he immersion and tension is always there.

When I was a little boy and fantasizing about fighting as a well armed hero in a dark and dangerous fantasy world, it pretty much looked and felt like dark souls. It just connects directly to my very soul.

One of my favorite things about Demon Souls and Dark Souls is the level design. Crawling slowly through something that seems almost like a maze, only to open a door and realize that you have a new shortcut back to the bonfire (From Software is great at utilizing the game spaces they've created). Or reaching the swamp area in Blighttown, turning around and looking up and knowing that you just conquered that crazy mass of wood and steel. Some of the areas of Dark Souls are just spectacular, Anor Londo, Demon Ruins, and Ash Lake in particular. I find the idea of a forest of gigantic trees holding up the rest of the world intriguing.

I thought about making a thread on this, but it's like an evolution of Zelda for those who grew up with Zelda but aren't satisfied by what Zelda has to offer anymore. The way you progress through dungeons, the "Z-targeting" combat, the fun of finding some stuff after doing some shitty platforming, finding chests with stuff in them, generally cool boss battles... All similar-ish to Zelda, but Dark Souls a bunch of stuff that really adds to the experience (loot, upgrading loot, really deep character upgrading, actual challenge, etc). I think that may be why I love it so much.

I think Dark Souls combines what I loved about Zelda I and II, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in terms of difficulty and reward.

Dark Souls is the best 3D C:SotN every made. Instead of mobility powers (super jump, grate-misting) you unlock shortcuts to change the way you move though the world, and even when you're super levelled, hum-drum enemies can clean your clock if you're playing lazy. Also I love the gothic dark fantasy design.