The beginning of Dark Souls Remastered
In the middle of my sophomore year of high school, I got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. Yes, this matters. After only having Smash Ultimate on it, one of my friends told me about this super hard game, Dark Souls. I hadn’t played it before (and this is in 2019) so my perceptions had been overblown to the point where I thought that when you died, you went back to the start of the game. Ignoring that, my friend gave me a copy of Dark Souls Remastered for the Switch, and I started to play. This post will be kind of short, because it was just me figuring everything out. I started the game and spent about five minutes deciding what my character’s name would be. I finally decided on a female knight named Samus, and I can’t remember what my gift was, except I can tell you this: it was not the Tiny Being’s Ring, and it was not the Master Key. I left my cell, courtesy of Oscar, and walked down the hallway, reading every developer soapstone I saw. Finally, I reached the fabled soapstone that told me how to roll, I pressed the button… and I fat rolled. I was amazed. “This is the rolling they told me about? One of the things this series is known for? What the hell?”. I continued, finally reaching the bonfire and having my fears of dying and returning to the beginning alleviated. I opened the doors and walked to the other side, before seeing the developer “Look Out!” message and getting the hell out, just in time to see the Asylum Demon smash his gigantic ass directly onto the ground in front of me. Ignoring the demon’s massive size, I charged forward, not knowing how to two-hand weapons, and hit the demon, doing the massive damage numbers of 2. I feel like when I did that the demon and I both looked at my sword, and he smashed my ass with his club. My first You Died. I actually didn’t notice the door on the side, so I died to the Demon a few more times until I did. “Well, that was stupid” I said to myself. I grabbed my equipment and slashed my way through with my new broadsword and shield, finally feeling powerful. I went up those stairs and BAM! Giant metal ball knocked me flat, and opened the way to Oscar’s cell. I didn’t notice, of course, and instead tried to get up the stairs where the Rusted Iron Ring is, failing the whole time. Eventually I made it to Oscar, got his dialogue, my Estus, and a key. Oh Boy! You know the rest: killed hollows, opened doors, and did a drop attack on the Asylum demon, doing almost a third of his health. Killed the demon, which was my triumphant, “Yes! I can do this!” moment. I walked up the hill, didn’t notice Snuggly, and- Oh shit! Giant crow!
So I was carried off to Lordran, waiting for my new adventure. Upon landing, I leveled up at the bonfire, where I, the mighty knight, decided to level… Intelligence. I didn’t know what weapon scaling was, and thought this game was “just another rpg” so I decided to rp as a “smart” character. Dumbass.
I talked with Crestfallen, didn’t want to kill him, and went to Petras’ building, fell under the elevator, and got all the stuff. Now, this will come up later in a big bad way, but… I don’t have Nintendo Online. I can’t play the online of Dark Souls Remastered. So when I got a bunch of online-use Cracked Red Eye Orbs, I was bummed to say the least. Then I made the mistake every DS1 newbie does: I went to Skeleton World! There, I died to the skeletons. A lot. I actually managed to get the Zweihander before getting sliced by about ten of these assholes. Eventually, I went the other direction, the happy direction, and went to the Undead Burg.
Where the story will continue next time I feel like writing.
Thanks for reading, if you did. Be safe, friends, don’t you dare go hollow.
