Interview: Dark Souls, A Great Challenge

Today I interviewed a friend about what his favorite game is.  He gives me a bit of a tale about how he likes a deep and immersive challenge in the games he plays.  From Software’s Dark Souls is his perfect game.

Me: I guess to start off we need to know what is your favorite game?

Chris: Definitely Darks Souls. That game is mad fun.

Me: Dark Souls, eh? Interesting choice. Isn’t that game really hard though? It always gives me a really rough time.

Chris: I like the challenge. It makes the game more fun for me. There’s a definite feeling of success when you finally beat that boss that has been kicking your butt for the past three hours. Plus it’s fun learning each enemy’s tells and and then being able to dodge or parry those and come back to wipe the floor with it.  I like it a lot.

Me: I know a lot of people, myself included, that get some serious rage issues playing that game.  How do you deal with that?

Chris: I think it’s a mindset thing. You definitely have to be ready to die at any given moment. Any enemy in the game can kill you, and if you aren’t prepared for that then you’re gonna have some trouble raging. But if you’re sitting there ready to analyze how you died and what you can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again, you have a much better time.

Me: So I get that you like the challenge.  What parts of the gameplay do you really like?

Chris: Well, it’s a customizable RPG, so there’s definitely several ways to build your character. I tend to like quick, stealthy characters in RPGs, so in Dark Souls I tend to build dodge and react characters. They have a system for that that works really well, you wear light armor or no armor that lets you dodge better, and then you counter with a physical attack or spell.  I tend to go physical and play a hit and run game.  But I definitely like the option to build a character and tailor the way you fight to that build.

Me: What about the story? How well do you like that?

Chris: Well, there’s definitely a deep story there if you’re looking for it.  There’s a lot going on in the game and a lot of the bosses tie in to the major plot.  It gets a bit convoluted, though, since there’s a lot of different paths you can take early on into the game, so it can be hard to follow.  I tend to just play for the challenge.

Me: I know there’s some multiplayer in the game. Do you use that at all?

Chris: Oh heck yeah. you can summon other players to your world to help you kill a boss. it makes the bosses a lot more manageable and really helps if you’re having a lot of trouble. I don’t send myself out to help other players often but I definitely accept help if I can’t finish a boss easily.  The other form of multiplayer is the one I use more often, where you invade another player’s world and try to kill them. It’s a player versus player thing that’s a lot of fun, though admittedly it’s not always very nice and now that the game is sort of old it tends to punish new players or freshly made characters.

Me: That’s all the questions I have. Thanks for taking your time and the story.

Chris: No big, man. Anytime.