How to Soulsborne
TL;DR on git gud
NOTICE: I’m far from an expert. I’ve only completed Sekiro, Bloodborne and Demon Souls. I’m still playing DS3 and ER. But maybe thats a good thing when it comes to taking advice from me.
- Patience: You need to think hard on what else you can do. The bonfire/checkpoint being 2 km away from the boss is so you can reflect on your attempt before you reenter the arena rather than mindlessly do the same thing again. Maybe even give up and try again tomorrow.
- Farm: There are a few game mechanics to make the game easy. Which is mostly to farm skill points and level up something. Every game has its own early, mid and late game farming spots for both skill points and items. This is by design and very intentional.
- Guides: There is no shame in lookup up tutorials and guides when looking up an area. This is a tough game to begin with, everyone doesnt have the time and ambition to figure out everything themselves.
My Story
The first time I saw a soulsborne was watching a friend play Dark Souls 1 or 2. I found it quite ridiculous as he was rolling into boss attacks !! and sipping on his health potion flask while slowly grinding away at the boss. “Oh God, what a terrible game, who could even enjoy such a thing” I thought to myself.
At some point I heard of sekiro and ☠️ it. I tried twice and gave up both times because I couldn’t get past the ogre. Then another friend of mine told me to look up a guide and find Hirata Estate. By the time I was done with that area I had developed the patience and skills to defeat the ogre. This was it. Once beyond the ogre I had the skills and patience to complete the game without help.
Of course, after completion I bought the game and have bought it again on the ps5 due to reasons. I was a student during my sailin-the-high-seas-days…
My next game was demon souls (2020 remake). Like the first time I tried and failed 2 times. I couldn’t get past the tower knight and the walk back was torturous. On my third retry, which is starting the game from the beginning I made it with the help of a tutorial. It’s amazing how the Tower Knight is a joke fight now. I don’t even take out the archers, I barely roll and run around the boss. (SPOILER) I walk up straight to the boss and break his ankles then crush his skull. The aha moment was certainly realising that the boss is big and slow. I am much faster and have the time to see what he will do five seconds in advance.
From then on I’ve platinumed (achieved all achievements on the PlayStation) Demon Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro. Bloodborne happens to be my favourite.
Yes the graphics aren’t the best, understanding the story requires a few
videos and the game is
very unfriendly to beginners. Many people have the opinion that people like
souls because we are masochistic and feel elite completing a game which is
inaccessible to portion of gamers because of its difficulty. Maybe thats true
for some people but I don’t think thats the case for most people. For me
personally there is the grtification of watching myself improve and get good at
a fight. I love the world design and how everything ties back together. It is a
small intimate world and there is great thought put into what goes where.
Finally there is the RPG aspect where I can play the game again with a different
build and style, introducing challenges for myself.
I’ve done 40-50% of Elden Ring and I don’t like it too much because the game is way too big, even after 60 hours I am not close to completing the game, there are too many dungeons and side bosses which are clones of each other. Plus somehow Demon Souls remake is prettier than ER.
I’m close to completing DS3 and this one is also quite good.