When I say I'm a fan of FromSoftware games, people tend to give me a funny look. It's only when I mention the games they are famous for, do people recoil. Dark Souls, Demon Souls, and Bloodborne have been called some of the hardest games of the modern age, and for good reason.
These games buck the modern day conventions we've all come to expect, and in doing so they turned the difficulty up to 11. However, most people only go that far, many don't get past the "If at first, you don't succeed, die die die again" tagline. The Souls-Borne games (Demon Souls, all of the Dark Souls, and Bloodborne) are masterfully crafted worlds. They are not only great for knocking a gamer's ego down a peg but also incredible to explore and examine. Lordran is an amazing place but one thing keeps me from it, myself.
Every human being is flawed in one way or another (some do not grasp this idea). I have at least two major flaws, I'm impatient and I have a temper. Any of you who have played the games know that these flaws are a recipe for broken discs and thrown controllers. I'm impatient, I don't like waiting and I don't like going slow. Souls-Borne combat is all about being patient and waiting for the right time to strike or heal.
The combat is very rhythmic and more like a dance than a battle to the death. Such slow combat bores me on good days and enrages me on bad days. Even the quick rouge type of play is too slow for my liking, I would end up very frustrated very quickly, which leads me to my next point.
I'm an angry individual. My friends and family know this, they've known it for years. Which is why it baffles me that they suggest I play these games. They know I've broken controllers in anger before so I don't understand why they want me to play, arguably, one of the most rage inducing games of all time.
I can envision it. I get killed, probably in Blighttown because screw Blighttown, then I have to hike back to where I was, which was probably the wrong way because again screw Blighttown. All the while I'm getting more and more pissed off about wasting time and BS deaths. It is just a cycle that would have a bad ending for my controller.
All of that being said, I still enjoy the worlds that FromSoftware make. I don't play the games but I watch people play them. I don't fight the bosses but I study how they move and how they fight. I laugh when a YouTuber rage quits after the 152nd attempt at Ornstein and Smough. I laugh when people get to the end and go "That's it?". I'm baffled at how people can beat the game using only their feet on the controller.
Just because the games are hard doesn't mean people can't still enjoy them. I'm looking forward to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Thanks to all of the YouTubers who attempt those games, and let me explore the worlds of Lothric.
