{"id":106970,"date":"2020-01-08T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/01\/feature_game_of_the_decade_staff_picks_-_dark_souls"},"modified":"2020-01-08T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T18:00:00","slug":"feature-game-of-the-decade-staff-picks-dark-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/01\/08\/feature-game-of-the-decade-staff-picks-dark-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Game Of The Decade Staff Picks – Dark Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Dark<\/a><\/figure>\n

Following on from our reader-voted Top 50 Games of the Decade<\/a>, Nintendo Life staff members will be picking their personal favourite Nintendo games between the years 2010-2019. Today, Damien tries his hardest to remember where the nearest bonfire is before he runs into another angry skeleton…<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Games are supposed to be fun, entertaining and \u2013 within reason \u2013 moderately challenging, so I\u2019m not entirely sure why I fell so badly for FromSoftware\u2019s brutal and almost sadistic Dark Souls<\/strong><\/a> when it launched back in 2011. As I\u2019ve gotten older I\u2019ve found that my tolerance for difficult video games has all but evaporated \u2013 there are too many other distractions in my life to contend with titles that require superhuman reflexes, extreme memorisation and saint-like reserves of patience, if you ask me \u2013 but Dark Souls, for some inexplicable reason, proved to be the exception.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d dabbled in the almost fatally obtuse and convoluted Demon\u2019s Souls<\/a><\/strong> a couple of years previously, drawn in by its Berserk<\/a><\/strong>-like grim fantasy aesthetic and haunting atmosphere, but it was, if anything, too<\/em> daunting; there were moments \u2013 such as the utterly terrifying Tower of Latria \u2013 which almost proved too much for my feeble resolve, especially in the total absence of the ability to save your progress mid-level. I trudged on nonetheless, respecting the game\u2019s rewarding mechanics but utterly down-beaten by its stern, gleefully harsh gameplay.<\/p>\n

Dark Souls, however, would ensnare me totally. Full disclosure: I played it on Xbox 360 on release (it would have been rather hard for me to obtain the Switch version in 2011, after all), and it consumed every moment of my waking life. I played it prior to shifting into my full-time position on this site, but I happened to be working with someone else who had bought it at the exact same time.<\/p>\n

\""Come<\/a>
“Come and ‘ave a go if you think you’re… oh.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019d convene on our coffee breaks to discuss progress in hushed, reverent tones; one day, I\u2019d be able to offer advice on how to defeat a tricky boss, whereas the following day it would be my co-worker who had overtaken me and had tips to share. This back-and-forth exchange went on for weeks. Dark Souls deliberately left a lot for players to discover on their own \u2013 hence the brilliant in-game messaging system, where players leave helpful (or not) notes for fellow adventurers, warning them of traps or pointing out safe routes \u2013 and having someone else to bounce tactics off of was a real boon, especially during those early days when online guides weren\u2019t quite as expansive as they could be.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of the best video games are based around a very clear \u2018risk and reward\u2019 mechanic; the thrill of putting hours of progress on the line and knowing you could lose everything, but then overcoming the odds to emerge victorious… that, in my opinion, is one of the best feelings you can get from a game, and the Dark Souls series nails it perfectly. The flip side, of course, is that you\u2019ll fail just as often, if not more. However, while Dark Souls is undeniably brutal, the fault always lies with you, the player. You failed because you didn\u2019t react in time to repel an incoming blow; you didn\u2019t look for the tell-tale sign that an enemy was about to strike; you didn\u2019t prepare properly for a tough battle. It might delight in rubbing your face in the dirt, but Dark Souls is never truly \u2018unfair\u2019 \u2013 you just need to make sure you even the odds as much as possible, and take your time.<\/p>\n

The other big reason I absolutely adore Dark Souls \u2013 and FromSoftware\u2019s other titles \u2013 is the fact that the lore behind the action is so fully-formed and dense; even the smallest, most inconsequential item in the game is blessed with a lengthy backstory, filling in gaps and building a unique and foreboding world that arguably rivals the best the fantasy genre has to offer. I fully admit I was totally enraptured by Lordran and its many varied locations and inhabitants; I wanted to know everything about every environment and every character. The thing that makes this grand narrative so incredible is that much is left up to the player when it comes to joining the dots and fitting all of the plot strands together \u2013 if, indeed, they actually do<\/em> fit together in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"That's<\/a>
That’s one big club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Dark Souls was confirmed for Switch, I literally leapt for joy. I didn\u2019t need an excuse to play through the game again, even if its punishing nature did bring back some bad memories (Blighttown, I\u2019m looking at you); if only I\u2019d had the ability to take the game with me on the road back in 2011, my progress \u2013 and that of my intrepid co-worker \u2013 would have been much more swift, and perhaps a little more collaborative, too.<\/p>\n

I hope now that Bandai Namco will find some means of getting the oft-overlooked sequel<\/a> onto Nintendo\u2019s console, and perhaps even move mountains to bring Dark Souls III<\/a><\/strong> to the system. Being able to play the entire trilogy on the move would be a revelation for me personally, and I\u2019m ready to admit that while my time is precious, I\u2019d be more than willing to put my body (and mind) on the line once more to experience these absolutely incredible games.<\/p>\n

While a great many games have had an impact on me during the past decade, few stick in the mind quite as strongly as Dark Souls \u2013 and that\u2019s why it\u2019s effortlessly the best game I\u2019ve played during the past 10 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following on from our reader-voted Top 50 Games of the Decade, Nintendo Life staff members will be picking their personal favourite Nintendo games between the years 2010-2019. Today, Damien tries his hardest to remember where the nearest bonfire is before he runs into another angry skeleton… Games are supposed to be fun, entertaining and \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}