Retro Encounter Final Thoughts: Dark Souls

Dom Kim

I must confess that I feared how this playthrough for Retro Encounter would turn out. It had been years since I last booted up Dark Souls, and having recently gone on a month-long Elden Ring spree both preparing for and playing through the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC I couldn’t help but wonder how going back eleven years in quality-of-life features and design changes would turn out.

While I can’t say the fears were completely for naught, since places like Lost Izalith remain a complete chore to get through, I was more amazed at how well the game as a whole has withstood the test of time. The magic of the interconnectedness of Lordran remains a singular experience that not even the FromSoftware has been able to capture since. 

Whether you’re a newer player exploring FromSoftware’s celebrated catalog, or a passerby wondering what the heck “Soulslike” even means, this timeless classic is sure to have something for those willing to give it a shot.

Gio Castillo

Revisiting my favorites has occasionally led to disappointment, but I can emphatically say that is not the case for Dark Souls. This game remains excellent, and replaying it helped me to appreciate its less-celebrated aspects. For one, I started to find beauty in the environmental design of places not named Anor Londo; the likes of Darkroot Garden and the Catacombs are so full of character and history in their own right. I also grew to love bosses I’d previously dispatched without much thought, such as the Four Kings and Great Grey Wolf Sif. With Sif, I noticed the little details, like the cute way he does his spin attack or how he starts to limp when he’s close to death. He’s such a good boy! Sad face.

With that said, I did have to scrape against some parts of Dark Souls. This game is not above cheap shots (e.g., the Capra Demon, the Great Hollow), but those are thankfully few and far between. Also, FromSoftware has refined a lot of Dark Souls’ ideas in the 13 years since it was originally released, so adjusting to the jankier movement and mechanics took some time. But the best part of this game—the Artorias of the Abyss expansion—has held up tremendously well. Its enemies and bosses wouldn’t be out of place in Elden Ring, and the tragedy of Oolacile is endlessly fascinating. My advice for the final boss: find Sif! He’s such a good boy.

Aleks Franiczek

I remember my first playthrough of Dark Souls more vividly than most other games. Because it was my first game in the FromSouls extended universe, that initial playthrough involved what seemed like a mountainous mechanical learning curve just to be able to comfortably dispatch a trash mob of enemies. It involved the consultation of guides, unpleasant surprises that had me Seathing, and more deaths than I’d like to dwell on. I took an extended hiatus from the game after reaching Sen’s Fortress before coming back two years later to finish what I started. It was a unique love/hate relationship that eventually became pure love as I sunk more into the absurd logic, surreal atmosphere, contemplative flow, and architectural brilliance of the game’s world.

Even after playing all the other FromSouls games, there’s still something unreplicated about Dark Souls that makes it my favorite. Yes, it’s janky compared to later Souls games, but I think that jankiness is a distinct part of its character. You can sequence break in interesting ways. The sound design still has the weird, uneven mixing of earlier FromSoftware games. Areas like Blighttown and Tomb of the Giants test the will as much as the fingers. The second half is full of experimental level ideas that, although varying in quality, keep you engaged with creative premises. Everything about the way the game feels and plays contributes to a consistent vision—even if it’s a vision that embraces incoherence. Most Soulslikes polish Dark Souls’ punkish roots to a poppy sheen that loses something in the process.

Ben Love

Revisiting Dark Souls after so many years and so many FromSoftware games built on its foundation has been such an enlightening experience. The intricacies in the interconnected world design have carried over into the legacy dungeons and open world in Elden Ring. The introduction of Covenants changed the series’ approach to multiplayer. The aggressive and complex movesets of the DLC bosses set the template for all Souls series bosses to come after. So much of the roots of FromSoftware’s current output come from this title, and it’s only in coming back to the game after so long that I’ve been able to truly appreciate everything this game established.

Although the game lacks many of the later mechanics and design elements that make later entries like Dark Souls III and Elden Ring so interesting to replay are missing here, the game still drew me back in due to the strength of the environmental design and core mechanics. The lack of weapon arts is especially noticeable, but the absence of a wider variety of movesets allowed me to focus more on the basic foundation of blocking, dodging, and parrying. I was struck by how much Dark Souls still has to offer, and returning to it granted me a greater appreciation for how far the series and its developer have come.

Michael Sollosi

I’m a relative newcomer to playing FromSouls games, and this is my first time playing Dark Souls. I was concerned about Dark Souls’ reputation for unforgiving difficulty and minimalist presentation, because, well, what if I hated it? What if I struggled to finish the game before recording? What if I found Lordran’s bleak emptiness too boring? Was I going to be a contrarian? 

I shouldn’t have worried, because Dark Souls is just as excellent as everyone said it was in 2011. The boss fights are intense and difficult, but never maddening or unfair. The dungeons are dark and arduous, but also impressively atmospheric and interconnected. I even liked my Chosen Undead’s combination of knight armor and giant scythe. I’m in so deep now that I started checking prices on the Solaire Amiibo from 2018. 

I’m going to use this space to advocate. If you’re like me, and avoided FromSoftware’s dark fantasy RPGs for several years because of reputation or intimidation, please try them anyway. Dark Souls is a masterpiece of an RPG that rewards focus, patience, and persistence. Praise the Sun.