{"id":165005,"date":"2015-06-01T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jbsgame.com\/22-probably-games-that-are-way-harder-than-dark-souls\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T02:00:00","slug":"22-probably-games-that-are-way-harder-than-dark-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jbsgame.com\/22-probably-games-that-are-way-harder-than-dark-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"22 (probably) games that are way harder than Dark Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Prepare to die,” Dark Souls<\/em> warns, flashlight under face, as if 30 years of video games hasn’t already prepared me.<\/p> “I’m not a masochist,” people say, letting six years of Souls<\/em> pass from afar, like they’re looking out a train window at a neighborhood they dare not stop in.<\/p> “I played this game, which makes me good and not bad. Perhaps if you were good you would play this game, but it seems you are bad? This game? It’s good, or not bad. I played this game because I am really strong,” Souls<\/em> fans say, probably.<\/p> <\/p> Conversation around From Software’s turgid-uttered sacred cow, the Souls<\/em> series (Bloodborne<\/em>, too) has such a strange fixation on difficulty, of shuddering players shivering under its hurts so good sadism. Namco Bandai fed into it with Dark Souls <\/em>and Dark Souls II<\/em>‘s marketing.<\/em> I’ve died hundreds of times in hundreds of games. And it’s very strange how people nod in agreement to the novelty of death and difficulty as if instant fail states were not one of gaming’s founding blocks (to the point where some people have stupid arguments about whether things are or are not games).<\/p> It reminds me of how Telltale’s recent adventure games trump up “player choice” as if players haven’t been choosing since positioning their Pong<\/em> paddle. Ok, “narrative” choice? Umm, how about text adventures from 1981. Come on.<\/p> Souls<\/em> games aren’t hard. I don’t say that as a nose-upturned, “gotten gud” vet. They are about endurance and resilience more than sadistic, chronic difficulty. They are a challenge, but not monstrous or mean as people often make them out. Heck, I’ve seen someone who plays maybe one or two games a year get a platinum trophy in Demon’s Souls<\/em>. There’s no club. Anyone can do this. They’re designed<\/em> to let anyone play and finish.<\/p> <\/p> Over on the webpage (and mobile application) Twitter<\/a>, one-time Destructoid contributor Stephen Beirne (no relation!) loosed a series of posts<\/a> about Souls<\/em> and I am in accord. “I can’t get behind the argument that Dark Souls<\/em> is abusive due to its (presented sense of) difficulty. And I think this is because I find Dark Souls<\/em> to be far, far less difficult than a game like, for example, Super Mario Brothers<\/em>. Platforming is difficult! It’s very difficult! It’s not fun and it’s agonizing and it’s pointless and hateful.”<\/p>