5/5 ★ – SilentKnight's review of DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED.

Dark Souls is one of the most popular games in gaming history mainly because of its difficulty. I have heard of this game years ago actually, but I have never cared about it until this year. A lot of people have struggled to beat this game and it made me curious, What made this game that challenging? Why is it still loved by most people if it's that "painful" to play? I finally got the answer for both question by playing it for around 1 or 2 weeks and it was satisfying. Dark Souls is the most rewarding game I have ever played in my experience with gaming and it all thanks to its difficulty. The difficulty of this game is not a joke. What people said about their struggles in this game, I felt it. Dark Souls is difficult and it's not because of only the boss fights. I find everything about this game is difficult to be honest. From its level design, levelling up your character and weapons, and the boss fights, everything is just challenging in their own way. What I find the most difficult about this game is *surprisingly* the level design. The level design in this is incredible and I could see the developers put so many thoughts and efforts on putting each challenges in every levels. There are so many types of enemies that you fight throughout the game and I must tell you, even though they are "regular" enemies, they can be difficult. Each level/location has different type of enemies with different move sets. There are skeletons, snake people, knights, giants, and others. They all can't be defeated with the same strategy. Some are aggressive and others are slow and hit hard. These enemies can't be underestimated, and you should be careful to engage them. What makes it even more difficult, every time you die from bosses or regular enemies, you lose your souls and transported back to the last checkpoint we called "bonfire". These checkpoints are such a grace every time you find them because that place is the only way you can finally take a break and breathe. You don’t have to worry about anything, just sit and chill. But the bonfires are not close to each other. From bonfire A to bonfire B, most of the times they are far from each other. So, if you are already far from the last bonfire and then you die, you are going to be transported to that bonfire and you have to go through it all again. Sounds painful, yes? But don’t worry, the feeling every time you manage to get through all those challenges and sit at a new bonfire is just amazing and peaceful. The bosses is what I expected the most from this game. I think I beat all the bosses in this game, but I'm a bit disappointed. I don't think I can blame the game for my disappointment because it's my fault for having a high expectation for an old game after playing a 2019 game called "Sekiro". Most of the bosses aren't as hard as Imagined. Most of them are easy to beat, like I only needed 2-8 attempts to beat them. Most of the bosses are still kinda basic. The way they attack is just too "robotic" or slow so it's just easy to find the opening. Well, this can't be applied to every boss, but most of them are kinda like that. The bosses that I think is actually good are Ornstein & Smough, Knight Artorias, Black Dragon Kalameet, Manus, and Gwyn, The Lord Cinder. These bosses are either fun, memorable, or just really a great boss. I'm going to talk about them one by one. Ornstein & Smough is officially the hardest boss fight I have ever fought in my entire life. Yeah, even harder than any Sekiro bosses imo. It took me 2 or 3 days to finally beat them. I admit I got a little frustrated, but in the end I did it. This boss fight design is very well done. I was amazed by how perfect the coordination between Ornstein and Smough was. It's like they were played by real players talking to each other to beat my ass over and over. It's just amazing to see that every time I fight them. Not to mention that boss music went absolutely hard! So yeah, I think this is my favorite boss from this game. Black Dragon Kalameet is an optional boss from the DLC. This boss is almost as insane as Ornstein & Smough in my opinion. It's only one boss, but it's really aggressive and it hits really hard. It took me hours to beat. I admit, I actually begged to my screen every time I got low on health, because it was that hard for me. Also what makes it even worse, you don't get anything except a ring from this boss. So it was kinda pointless, but nah I enjoyed the victory so I still think it was worth it. Knight Artorias is also a boss from DLC, and I find it difficult too. It was almost impossible for me to dodge his attack. He's aggressive and hits hard, but I like him. His moveset is really badass and the victory I got from beating him was quite satisfying. Manus is also a boss from DLC. This beast reminds me of Demon of Hatred and Guardian Ape from Sekiro because of how aggressive it is. I really like aggressive boss if you can't tell because it makes the fight even more intense and rewarding to beat. And lastly, Gwyn Lord of Cinder. He's the final boss of Dark Souls and he was surprisingly one of the easiest bosses in the game. I have seen a lot of people saying this was an anticlimatic final boss and I understand why they said that. There are a lot of ways to beat Gwyn that make him so easy to beat. The reason why I like this boss is because of the background of this fight and its soundtrack. I read the lore after finishing the game and that boss fight was actually fitting to the plot of Dark Souls. It wasn't an epic finale, but it's a depressing one so I think it was a perfect finale for the game if you understand what the whole game is about. Those 5 bosses are my favorites from this game. It's not in order, but I can confidently say that Ornstein & Smough is my favorite boss fight in the game because they made me push into my limits and the victory, I felt was amazing. Dark Souls is a game where you can't choose the difficulty setting before playing the game, but it has a customization feature where the players can create their character and level up. That feature is the only way for the player to make the game easier. I love this mechanic so much because it relates to real life scenario where you can't just make your problems easier without any efforts. You have to work yourself out to solve something and that is exactly how Dark Souls works. To level up your stats, you must kill enemies and gain their souls and then exchange them for levels. It's not instant process. It takes time. Maybe an hour or two even six. it depends on the players itself. Even though it sounds exhausting (I mean it is), in the end, It's worth it. All the hard work you give for your character is going to pay off in the end. Also, what makes it even more fun about this is it means every players will experience different experience from each challenges. Some players will find a certain challenge super easy, but the others find it super difficult. Reading these differences in youtube comments is fun to read. Just like Sekiro, this game has a massive lore to study and explore. They are interesting because I find it very philosophical. This game is about nihilism, life and death, and existence itself. They are deep themes to explore which is why I can't really talk about it because I don't have a deep understanding about those stuffs, even though I love to read about them. I understand what Dark Souls is about and the meaning of each endings, but I just really can't explain it. It's just something that I find better to enjoy it myself instead of retelling it. My main issue in this game is the weapon upgrade mechanic. I swear I could have missed a lot of upgrades if it wasn't for youtube guides. The game made it so unclear on how to upgrade them, so it was a little bit annoying. And also, the fact that you only need one maxed weapon is just a bit of a wasted potential. There are a lot of weapons in this game so maxing one weapon is just kinda wasted? It's really monotone. I mean you can just collect the others, but you know, it would be better if you can actually use them all instead of just one maxed weapon for the whole walkthrough. Dark Souls is exactly like what people said. It is difficult, "painful", and amazing. I felt a lot of emotions playing this game -mostly frustration- and I think that's what made it so special for me. I felt each victory I gained. Even though the bosses were easy, I had no idea they were easy so yeah I was still on panic when I fought them and when I gained a victory, it's always satisfying. I think that's why me and most people love this game so much. I'm so excited to play Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring right now!!