On the day Dark Souls went live and the day after,
The players who entered the ga mostly focused their discussions on just how absurdly difficult it was and how malicious the design felt.
Many of them also flooded Lucas's official account and the ga's platform page with protests.
Although there were so players defending the ga, the negative voices were still the majority.
As a result, the score kept dropping.
Now, two days later, there were still plenty of new players joining in and quitting quickly, adding their protests and curses to the pile.
But more and more players began defending Dark Souls, and the ga's score reflected this change.
From its drop to 8.3, it had now climbed back to 8.5.
Usually, a ga's rating starts high and then falls, but Dark Souls was going up against the trend.
This could only an one thing — players who had left bad reviews were changing them.
At the sa ti, on the ga's official forum, many players who have been playing since day one started writing their own reviews and impressions of Dark Souls.
One long post in particular drew thousands of replies and beca a trending topic on the forum.
In this post, the player shared their entire journey of experiencing Dark Souls.
"At first, I was just like most new players. The mont I entered the ga, I got wrecked by the crystal lizard and beaten down by Iudex Gundyr."
"I was so angry that I gave the ga a 1-star rating right away. But now, I've changed it back to 9 stars. I'm not sure if I'll change it again later, but based on how Dark Souls feels to right now, I think it fully deserves that score."
"Just like Lucas said before, this is a very different kind of ARPG. What's the core of an ARPG? Character stats getting stronger, and better gear."
"Dark Souls has that too, but it's different. Stats and gear are just support. The real core is us, the players."
"When I first faced Iudex Gundyr, I kept getting destroyed. I couldn't even trigger his second phase. Back then, I thought this boss was impossible to beat."
"But after two, three tries, I started noticing sothing: his health bar was getting smaller every ti. And when I finally defeated him, the feeling of achievent completely overwheld . I never thought beating a beginner boss could feel this amazing."
"Looking back, I realized Gundyr wasn't that hard after all. My stats and gear were still the sa. I was the one who beca stronger. And I don't an my in-ga character—I an , the player!"
"No other ARPG has ever given this feeling."
"And about the minimap—at first, I was so confused when I noticed there wasn't one, especially when I got to the High Wall of Lothric and ran into all those nasty traps."
"But after exploring and dying so many tis, I found that I had morized every corner of the High Wall. The entire map was cleverly connected with shortcuts that let you quickly reach other areas once unlocked. That made appreciate just how well-designed the map was. Think about it—how many ARPGs have maps we can actually rember clearly?"
"Beating yourself, surpassing yourself—that's the charm I feel in Dark Souls."
"And if you think about it, the map and level design in Dark Souls isn't pure cruelty either. There are bonfires for saving your progress. All we need to do is make it to the next one using the limited Estus Flasks we have, and then slowly make our way to the boss room."
"Holding out until the next bonfire, beating a boss that seems impossible, fighting through waves of enemies—that's what hooked ."
"There's nothing more satisfying than surpassing yourself, and Dark Souls delivers exactly that!"
"This might not be a ga everyone will like, but it's definitely not the garbage ga so people claim it is! I just hope every player can take the ti to truly experience this amazing ga."
When the first wave of players reached the High Wall of Lothric, and so skilled action-ga players figured out how Dark Souls works, those players—who had completely awakened to the ga's essence—just couldn't stop.
These players, who had died countless tis and were still dying, began posting advice and warnings for others.
More and more posts like this started appearing on the forums and the official blog.
Everyone described it in great detail, and almost everyone praised Dark Souls to the skies.
As more and more people talked about what drew them to Dark Souls and what makes the ga great,
many players started to take a fresh look at the ga.
After all, the tendency to follow the crowd is sothing most people have.
It's not that just because others say the ga is great, you'll automatically think so too.
But at least it makes players want to check it out more fairly before forming their own opinion.
This even made so players who were about to quit decide to keep going.
And when they finally beat Iudex Gundyr, they truly felt the charm of Dark Souls.
You could say Dark Souls is a very special ga.
It gives players a clear sense that they're slowly getting stronger.
The ga itself is built around a level-based progression design.
The bosses' attack patterns and the traps hidden in the map all follow patterns you can learn.
Just like Gundyr or the katana guy, they all have a wind-up before an attack so players can react.
Every enemy in Dark Souls is designed like this, which is why people call it a ga about morizing moves.
Unlike pure action or fighting gas, Dark Souls doesn't demand super fast reactions or split-second reflexes.
It's more about learning and understanding the boss's patterns and chanics.
Once players learn them, beating the boss isn't that hard.
This gives players a strong sense of real progress in the ga.
At first, you et a monster and keep getting one-shotted without even touching it.
But after dying over and over, you realize you can finally beat it.
That's one of the core joys of Dark Souls.
And after passing Gundyr's trial and getting through the High Wall of Lothric,
the huge world of Dark Souls slowly unfolds before the players.
The undead dragon on the bridge, the Fire Keeper everyone calls their waifu, and the legendary Lords of Cinder.
All these things keep pulling players deeper in.
(End of The Chapter)
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