Dark Souls and the Importance of Difficulty

     Here's a question for you: When was the last time you played a game that you weren't sure you could beat? Go on, think about it. Look at the shelf of games behind you. Out of those games, were there any you didn't think you could finish? When I look at my own shelf, every single game was bought with the assured foreknowledge that I would be able to finish them... save for one: Dark Souls. Back when I first tried Dark Souls, it didn't take long for me to rage quit. I blamed the game for being unfairly difficult, for not showing me the way, and for having clunky controls. What I didn't blame was the only thing that actually deserved to be blamed: Myself.

My bad...

     There's a term that's thrown around often when talking about Dark Souls: artificial difficulty. This could be the idea that there are certain points where taking damage or dying is unavoidable, or that enemies and bosses simply have too much HP, are too fast, or are too strong. This is absolutely false. There is only one point, over halfway through the game, where death is unavoidable. The enemy stats are based on their location: a low level character can't be expected to take on an high level enemy, which is true of any game. Dark Souls is difficult, but not nearly as difficult as many make it out to be.

     When I first experienced Dark Souls, I wasn't ready for it. My mindset was that of the "modern casual": I wanted everything spelled out for me and given to me on a silver platter. When I met with the first boss, the Taurus Demon, I was utterly unprepared. He was "too fast", each hit took out massive amounts of my health, and the arena they gave me to fight him in was a narrow stretch of wall with little area to run around. I died over and over again, and each time I became more frustrated with the "unfairness" of the game. The truth is, I wasn't paying attention.

Sometimes the not paying attention is almost worth it...

     This is where the game design shines: the things you need to know are out there, you just have to look for them. Dark Souls rewards exploration and a constant state of awareness. Using your knowledge from past experiences and the environmental clues in the area, it is possible to avoid almost every ambush and trap. Being aware of your surroundings and using them to your advantage is as essential to mastering the combat of Dark Souls as knowing your weapon's moveset and the enemy's moveset. I wasn't patient enough to pay attention and learn these things, and so I failed over and over again until I gave up.

      Another question: Have you ever beaten a game and felt no satisfaction from the victory? If you've played any game that's come out within the past few years, I'm sure you have. This ties directly back into the first question: Games require a risk of failure to produce a sense of accomplishment. You might have enjoyed the story and atmosphere or had a fun with the gameplay, but there wasn't a feeling of satisfaction from victory because you had already won the game before you even started playing. The satisfaction I felt when I defeated Lord Gwyn (the last boss in Dark Souls) was incredible, and I literally jumped out of my seat, threw my hands in the air, and shouted for joy.

Such satisfaction. Very happy. Much rejoicing. Wow.

     VaatiVidya, a fantastic Youtuber who focuses on the Souls series put it this way: "Dark Souls is set apart from most modern games not because it's incredibly difficult, but because it handles difficulty really well." Yes, Dark Souls is difficult, but the player, through the amount of effort they decide to put into learning the game, determines just how difficult it is.