But this is completely false. Most people in this thread were retorting your baseless declarations about the game.
That isn't what happened at all either. People gave you some sound advice, but you came into the thread with your mind already made up. Go reread your opening post - it left no room for discussion or argument. You were 100% convinced that this game was a waste of time, no matter what other people had to say.
Well you are way off in this case....
This is also false. The souls series (because you know there is a spiritual predecessor, plus some) was not about difficulty. It was about exploration, mystery, and finally having a game that didn't tell you what to do at every single moment and let you walk through the entire thing in a haze.
It wasn't until the PC release that people started acting like the game was hard. I don't know if it was because of the marketing, the weird lack of skill in certain pc gaming crowds, or a mixture of both.
But it isn't that hard! On the physical, reflex based side of things Ninja Gaiden is more certainly harder. The difference is on the mental side. In Ninja Gaiden you don't have to think much - just purely react. It's more timing than character buildings, situational management, or any sort of exploration. You go from area to area linearly while beating baddies.
Dark Souls tones down the twitch difficulty and adds a layer of mental challenge. The best part of the game is trying to figure out where you are, what to do, and finding your path to victory. Everything is intentionally opaque to have the game be shrouded in mystery. It adds to the dark and foreboding atmosphere, but none of it is so far reaching that you can't grasp the reigns of destiny and steer your character into taking down demigods.
I think you are simply being way too dramatic for you own good. You are acting in an emotional manner, and it causes a disconnect in the thread.
Look, i know you enjoy the game, you know i did not enjoy the game. Let me play a scenario for you. I was in the game, and this was just a random moment, not like a defining moment, but one that just happened to occur. I was fighting 3 skeletons at a time, and i used the hotkey to lock onto said character so i could swing at him. I had already que'ed up the attack.
Problem was, apparently there was an archer 70 feet in the background that was targeted instead of the 3 skeletons 2 feet in front of me. so i proceeded to swing incoherently at a skeleton that was nonsensically far away.
So i died, again. It's stuff like that that puts me off about the game. This happened often. I found that i could easily progress through the level by dual wielding my club and just jump lunging at skeletons rather than slowly pick through them with shield. Even if i died once, the 10 other times i was flying through them, so it was worth the time investment, even if it meant having to redo it again.
Again, within the first 30 minutes of the game, i received a "note" which most had actually been helpful, to kill the shopkeeper. I did not know he would not respawn, i actually felt like it might be a bad idea, but i figured hey, maybe i'd get some stuff and it's some secret. He died, i could no longer buy ranged items, and it hampered me in a very bad way. Another learning moment. I became increasingly frustrated. Clearly i put my trust in the wrong people, but when the game explains nothing to you--i literally was unable to find an explanation for what stats effected what in my entire playtime--i decided to trust someone. It did not work out for the better, and god knows i did not enjoy my playtime up to that point so i certainly did not want to start over and grind through everything again, even if i was not very far along.
I trust you read the part about the Dragon that smote me with impunity with barely a warning. Please tell me how i was supposed to expect that. Someone said after the fact that there were spots of oil on the bridge--which made no sense, but whatever--and charred bodies. Well earlier in the level, twice in fact (if i remember correctly), the dragon dropped in front of me and seemed to ignore me completely...so honestly the dragon was the last thing on my mind, especially considering i had killed a boss and felt i should have a campfire ahead soon. It was not. I lost all those souls, because i did not want to backtrack to have to go through everything again just to rest at the campfire. That's tedious to me. If it's not to you, i understand, and more power to you, but i just have very little patience for that kind of game design.
I could continue about being blind sided around corners whilst having to block arrows, but i will not. The game just uses every opportunity to needle the player, and it got to me.
Consult my graph.
I did not find this game to be very explorative. Just as i did not find Dark Siders 2 to be very explorative, even though the game is much more open than Dark Souls. It's fairly linear, just because they do not tell you exactly what path to take does not mean you have a bunch of options really. At least not at the point where i was...Who wants the exploration to come after you've logged hours upon hours into a game. Wasn't that one of the main gripes about FF13?
I wanted to like it. The loading screen and character creation was awesome, afterwards i was sadly sadly disappointed.
Why do you hate drama so much? Are you afraid of emotions? Why can you not understand emotions in others. I have admitted a hundred times now fault of my own in this thread, nobody else really has.
Why do i continue to post? Because i like to think i can get through to people. Because maybe i feel at fault, because maybe i feel that if i talk to someone enough they will get to see i am not a horrible human being.
Sorry if that all makes you uncomfortable. I am stubborn, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon.
If after all that you cannot find it within yourself to see an inkling of why this game upset me, i don't know what more i can say.