I have a love
affair with Dark Souls. I’m not going to try to hide it; it’s not even
something I could try to hide. I love challenge in games, and Dark Souls has
that in spades. But I also love well designed games, and Dark Souls may just be
as good at that as it is at being difficult. It was only a matter of time
before I post something about Dark Souls, and in fact, waiting a whole week to
do it was really a grave mistake. The analysis I wanted to do on it ended up
being so long I had to break it up into two parts. Ever since playing the
original Dark Souls, I’ve wanted to explore the very definitive change in mood
that occurs between the game’s first two acts, and that’s exactly what we’re going
to do now. This week we’re going to take a look at the mood set up in the
game’s first act, and then next week take a look at the second and see how the
tone of the game completely changes.
After
you leave the tutorial area in Dark Souls, you only have a vague sense of what
to do. You are told you need to ring two Bells of Awakening, with “One up above, in the Undead Church. The
other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base of Blighttown.” Finding
and ringing the first, upper bell is what I refer to as the ‘first act,’ and
journeying down to the second one being the ‘second act.’ The first difference
between the bells and the journey it will take to reach them can be seen right
from this opening dialogue, and it’s in their verticality. The first bell is
up, while the second one is way, way down. Those differing directions have
inherent implications in our minds, whether we’re aware of it or not. Traveling
up is often a sign of accomplishment or achievement. Think about how one feels
to climb to the top of a mountain, or how the prestigious penthouse is at the
top of a hotel, and of course how heaven is always associated as being up above
us. Down, on the other hand, is not so good. Descending a cave is dark and
murky, and we all used to fear what was hiding in the corners of the basement,
and not to mention what is down is very much the opposite of heaven. Journeying
up to the first bell is an accomplishment, an achievement, but descending down
to the second one is very much a tense and unsettling challenge, and the use of
these different vertical directions subconsciously enforces those two feelings.
The journey to the first Bell of Awakening feels kind of like an epic quest. Yes, this is still Dark Souls and enemies are tough and areas grueling and stressful, but not overwhelmingly so. Enemy layouts are relatively simple, and there are plenty of somewhat-hidden optional paths to make players feel intelligent for finding these secrets. Even with these secret paths though, the areas are still linear and easy to navigate, with optional paths ending by cleverly looping back onto the critical path. Shortly after entering the Undead Burg, the first area on the path to the first bell, there is a bonfire, which provides a source of refuge for players and creates a forgiving checkpoint for future challenges. With your first steps into the Burg, you’re greeted with a cameo by a giant dragon that briefly lands on a bridge before flying away, which is frightening at first, but really just hypes up the player. And it’s important to note that this dragon encounter is something you’d expect from your generic fantasy tropes.
All
of the enemies in this area follow the kinds of themes you’d expect from a game
like this. They’re all weak humanoids that all use the same model, with the
only thing differentiating them being the different weapons they wield. You’ll
know what to expect from the behavior of every enemy you come across, and the
scariest ambushes you’ll find will simply be an enemy hiding around a corner.
This entire area is designed to be familiar and unthreatening, by Dark Souls
standards of course. Even the theme of a crumbling old fort is something
players will feel at home with. There’s even a friendly merchant close to the
bonfire that will sell gear and supplies should you ever run out.
Reaching the end of the
area shouldn’t be a major challenge, even for new players, especially given how
short it is. The area’s boss, the Taurus Demon is the second in the game, and
seems very imposing at first. However, players are nudged to cheese him using
plunging attacks they learned in the tutorial area, so he won’t put up too much
of a fight, and it feels like an accomplishment to overcome this foe through
either raw skill or clever ingenuity. Immediately after the triumph over the
Taurus Demon comes the fight with the dragon that you met at the beginning of
the area. Even though once again, it’s something that initially seems
threatening, perhaps even impossible, the dragon can be easily bested by proper
running away, or a lot of arrows, and it still feels pretty great afterwards to
overcome the foe that struck fear into you at the area’s beginning. As a reward
for all this triumph, you even unlock a shortcut back to the area’s bonfire
that once again gives player’s access to that refuge it provides, and means you
won’t have to redo the portion of the Burg you just did ever again.
I kind of lied when I
said that immediately after the Taurus Demon you encounter the dragon, because
there is a little, seemingly insignificant, optional interaction that occurs
beforehand that helps make a key point about this first act of the game. Before
you go to the dragon, you can find a lonely NPC staring at the sun. This NPC is
Solaire, the most famous and beloved character from the entire series. His
dialogue is friendly and encouraging and his presence makes it feel like you’re
not entirely alone on this journey. The presence of NPCs is something that
you’ll find sorely lacking in the areas in the second act, and the contrast helps
further the mood difference between the two.
The
area past the Burg, the Undead Parish, is still a rather friendly and
encouraging environment by Dark Souls standards. New players will find it
challenging, but the training wheels are still on in many regards. The parish
is still full of the same humanoid enemies you have fought the entire game, and
sticks to fantasy tropes and similar enemies with weak
knights, tougher knights, and armored knights. You face an initially
frightening encounter with a giant armored boar, but once again the game will
nudge you towards a clever way to best it without any real confrontation.
Before long, you reach one of the game’s major safe zones, a large tower with a
bonfire and helpful blacksmith that connects multiple areas, with no threats
(save for a mini-boss in an area outside the bottom, but still no harm can come
to you in the tower itself). And very soon after finding the tower, you find a
massive shortcut that links the area right before the pre-bell boss all the way
back to the starting hub of Firelink Shrine. Not only is it a nifty feat of
world design, but it also makes this part of the world feel cozy and connected.
There will be no long, dangerous trek to return to Firelink or any other
previous area. It’s all nice and neatly connected.
And
then once you’ve beaten the boss of the Undead Parish, you climb one long
ladder to reach the top of the bell tower. And this beat of silence is just
about all you need to revel in your accomplishments. Once you’ve climbed to the
top of the tower, you can look out from this vantage point and see all the
areas you conquered to reach here before ringing the bell, bringing the great satisfaction
of knowing you’re halfway done with your objective.
As
I’ve hopefully been able to point out, the first act of Undead Burg to Parish
is designed to feel very rewarding. Player shouldn’t get overly frustrated, and
every victory feels like an accomplishment. I’ll be saving a list of important
takeaways for next week, as the meat of this analysis will be coming when we
take a look at the Depths and Blighttown, and it’s necessary to be able to
contrast this first part of the game to what’s to come.
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