Dark souls remastered review

Introduction
Welcome to the hell that is Dark Souls 1 remastered. If you are going to play this game, which I really recommend. You will need to have the skill to control your emotions to not throw the controller at your screen.
This game is designed to kill you as many times as possible. The screen, you have died, will be engraved in your mind. You will need to learn from your mistakes and learn where the enemies hide.
Dark Souls can be classified as an action-adventure game with a semi-open world. You can choose where to go from the beginning of the game. If you choose the wrong path, death will be swift.
You are able to choose from many builds in Dark Souls. You are able to choose whatever you like from magic to using arrows and bow. Magic is divided into multiple categories in Dark Souls which I will describe in the gameplay section.
I have managed to platinum Dark Souls remastered. It took me around 90 hours. Even though you will die a lot Dark Souls will suck you into the world of Lordran and quitting will not be an option.

There will be spoilers in the story. There are many items in Dark Souls who give you more background and lore into the story. I will leave out certain story details. You can find these in Dark Souls by playing the game.
The most important part of Dark Souls is what happens before the game begins. I will explain this in detail in the story section.

What did I think of Dark Souls before starting the game?
Before I started Dark Souls I had already played Bloodborne which is the reason I looked at this game. The game looked really good and the remastered edition had very good graphics.
The story of Dark Souls attracted me and I wanted to know how your constantly dying was explained since this works differently in each game.
The sound was just what you expected from this kind of game, mostly creepy.

Story
The story begins with the everlasting dragons who rule the land in darkness. The dragons were immortal and they had scales that were almost impenetrable. There was one dragon that was born without scales.
The dragons ruled the land until the fire came into the world. From the depths of the world came a glowing light, the first fire. Great souls came out of the fire and whoever possessed the souls would gain god-like power.
The great souls came to be known as the souls of the lords. The first lord soul was found by Gwyn the Lord of sunlight. The second lord soul was found by Nito the first of the dead. The third lord soul was found by the witch of Izalith. The fourth lord soul was found by the furtive pygmy, the first ancestor of humanity. The furtive pygmy was easily forgotten by history. The three beings Gwyn, Nito, and the witch of Izalith raged war against the dragons with their newfound god-like abilities.
Gwyn harnessed the power of lightning to penetrate the scales of the dragons. The dragon’s defense was destroyed by lightning. The witch of Izalith and her daughters of Chaos unleashed giant firestorms to destroy the trees where the dragons lived. Nito spread a giant miasma of disease on the lands to poison the dragons. The dragons were still a formidable foe. They should have defeated the enemies that raged war on them. When the dragons thought they could defeat the beings carrying the lord souls the unthinkable happened. The dragon without scales called Seath betrayed his own kind sealing the fate of the everlasting dragons.

Destroying the dragons led to a new era, one of light and fire. The gods will prosper in this era. Cities were built and life was good for the holders of the lord souls. Except for Seath he lived alone in his cave. Nothing is known about where the furtive pygmy is.
As time went on the flame started to dim and slowly fade. Another age seems to be ending as the power of the lord souls started to weaken. In a desperate attempt to regain the power that once challenged the dragons the Witch of Izalith and her daughters attempt a ceremony to rekindle the flame. The ritual goes horribly wrong and the flame does not get rekindled. The witch of Izalith and all her daughters transform into hideous monsters and demons. The corruption swept across the land creating more demons and monsters. Gwyn decides to sacrifice himself to rekindle the flame and give power to the lord souls once more. The undead curse is created and now the undead also roams the lands. The loyal knights of Gwyn want to fight the undead but are cursed by the rekindling of the flame. The lord souls are weakened and there is no plan to save everyone. The furtive pygmy split his lord soul into pieces creating humankind. Each human holds a piece of the lord soul called the Dark Soul. When they lose the dark soul they become hollow and undead. The hollow humans are sent to an asylum far away. There is one person slowly becoming hollow but he has a strong mind and does not lose his soul. He keeps fighting even though he is locked away in the asylum. Fortune smiles upon him and someone drops a key in your cell. This is where Dark Souls starts.

You manage to find weapons in the asylum and fight your way out by defeating the guardian. You have been chosen to go on a pilgrimage to save the world from the undead curse and rekindle the flame. You travel to Lordran to start the adventure.
You will need to travel the lands of Lordran and fight the cursed undead. You will see the lands in ruin, this is what is left of the beings carrying the lord souls. You will need to ring the bells to prove you can hold the lord souls and rekindle the flame.
Without all the lord souls the flame shall not burn again. After ringing the bells and proving your worth, the path to Anor Londo opens up. Anor Londo is Gwyn’s magnificent city, rather what is left of it after the curse has spread over the land.
You will need to find the lord vessel, this artifact is capable of holding all the lord souls at once. After obtaining the lord vessel you will need to fight the beings that hold the lord souls. There is no correct path, you can choose which lord soul you will pursue first. You will need to defeat the Witch of Izalith, Seath the scaleless, Nito the first of the dead, and the four kings of new Londo who each hold a piece of the lord soul that was once held by Lord Gwyn. When all of the lord souls have been collected you will encounter a primordial serpent called Kaathe. He will tell you that the furtive pygmy was waiting for the darkness. The flame was supposed to go out and not be rekindled. The furtive pygmy had patience and waited for the age of gods to wither and fade. The humans would rule in the age of the dark. Gwyn destroyed the natural life cycle by rekindling the flame and delaying the plans of the furtive pygmy. You will need to face Gwyn the keeper of the flame. After defeating Gwyn you will need to decide if you want to rekindle the flame or not. No matter what you do the cycles will keep repeating forever.

 Dark souls 1, 2, 3 are obviously connected. A question that will arise many times is: is Bloodborne connected to Dark Souls? I think that despite Dark Souls and Bloodborne have different developers they could definitely be related.
There are 2 options that come to mind. Bloodborne is very far in the future of Dark Souls timeline or somewhere along the line, the kindling stopped ushering in the age of the dark and by doing so split the world into multiple variants. One of these could be Bloodborne. This could explain some similarities between Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Then again these are all theories. I like to believe these two-game series are related. Bloodborne is either in a multiverse or far into the future of the universe of Dark Souls.

Gameplay
Dark souls expect you to learn from your mistakes. If you can’t learn from the mistakes you have made, you will keep dying. The enemies won’t change the place where they stand after dying. You can learn the layout of the world and spawn places of enemies.
Learning all enemy patterns is the key to winning this game. You can choose from many different builds in the game. If you choose a pyromancer in the beginning you can still become a warrior with a sword and shield in the end. You have many weapons and magic spells to choose from to build the exact character you want. Dark souls is a role-playing game, not only in the sense you can level up and become stronger. You can literally roleplay with different armor sets. I have made a character who was a black knight before he was sent to the asylum. Once I was strong enough I reclaimed my black knight armor and weapons. There are many secret items hidden in Dark souls. Exploring is very rewarding in Dark Souls. Magic is split into multiple variants Pyromancy, Faith and normal magic called sorcery. Pyromancy uses fire spells that originate from the witches of Izalith. Sorcery comes from the sorcerers. Faith spells are miracles left by the gods. Collecting all the variants in one game can be very challenging, they can be hidden very well. You are hollow and not a human. Luckily there is a way to fix that. If you find the humanity item you can use it to turn human again. You will need to sit at the bonfire and choose to become human again. You can now summon phantoms to help you fight the enemies in Lordran. This is also a huge problem, maybe one of the biggest flaws in Dark Souls. You can summon phantoms to help you but you can also be invaded! For example: you are fighting the enemies in Dark Souls and suddenly this pops up on your screen. Trollface has invaded you! A few seconds later a red phantom will be near you. This is another player and he will most likely kill you in a matter of seconds. You can summon friends or non-playable characters to help you, they will be blue.

As you defeat the enemies in Dark Souls you will collect the souls from the fallen enemies. Depending on how strong the enemy is, the more souls you will gain from the kill. You will need the souls to upgrade your level.
Depending on the build you are using you will need to choose wisely in which status attributes you will put the points. The higher your level is the more souls you will need to level up. When the inevitable happens and you die, you will lose all your souls. You will need to retrace your steps and locate the souls you have left behind. If you manage to retrace all your steps and collect the souls you have left behind you can still use them. If you die while retracing your steps you will lose all your souls. You have a estus flask to heal your wounds, you only have five estus flasks to heal yourself. There are ways to upgrade the estus flasks at the bonfire. The bonfire is very important in the game, Every time you rest at the bonfire all enemies will reset in Lordran. The bonfire will act as the checkpoint in the game. When you die you will respawn at the last bonfire you rested at. When resting at the bonfire you can level up and choose the magic you want to use. After buying the inventory box at the merchant you are able to re-organize your inventory at a bonfire.

Fighting enemies in Dark souls depends on the weapons you are using. When using a shield you can parry the incoming attack and riposte the enemy. Using a riposte deals tremendous damage. Learning to riposte can be hard to do.
You can wield weapons in two hands increasing your weapon damage. When using a bow and arrow you can shoot the enemies from far away, shooting enemies in the head will increase the damage dealt with enemies. Using any kind of magic depends on the scroll you are using. The spells will vary from short to long-range. Weapons can be upgraded with titanite. There are many kinds of titanite to find in Dark Souls. Using specialized Titanite will change your weapon. For example: Crystal weapons, they are very strong but can break on use and will need repairing. The maximum upgrade level of weapons is +14. The maximum upgraded version is +5 for armor. You will also find rings along the way to upgrade your stats. Rings cannot be upgraded. Some rings can break, they are not able to be repaired. The best ring in the game breaks when you take it off. Arrows are not infinite and need to be bought or found. Exploring every nook and cranny is the key to finding all the rings and weapons. A difficult achievement on steam is to collect all rare weapons in the game. Only 3,6% of the people have achieved this on steam in the remastered version. It took me a very long time to complete this achievement.

In Dark Souls you can join a covenant. You can be rewarded with items and new quests in the game depending on your covenant. Quests are not visible in Dark Souls. You will need to figure it out for yourself or gently ask Google for help.
To level up a covenant you will need to offer items that are related to that covenant. You can only choose one covenant, switching is possible but that is a sin. When you leave a covenant you will be invaded by dark moon spirits that will hunt you down.
You will need to find a person that can absolve you of your sins and pay him a small fee. The max level of a covenant is three. You cannot offer more than 100 covenant related items to one covenant. There is one exception, the covenant that asks for humanity can exceed the 100 rule all the way to 60.000. Humanity is a very rare and important item in this game, use it wisely. Dark souls will challenge you in every possible way. The reward you gain when you finally succeed and don’t die is great.

Sound and graphics
The sound in Dark Souls is perfect for the creepy and weird atmosphere that Dark Souls creates. It will keep you on your toes.
The remastered graphics look exactly what you would expect from a remastered masterpiece. There is nothing to complain here Dark Souls remastered still looks amazing.

What did I think after playing Dark Souls?

I have played both the normal and the remastered version of Dark Souls and the difference is highly noticeable. Dark souls remastered still holds up in the gameplay department but you will notice the gameplay is slower compared with Dark Souls three and Bloodborne.
This is no problem at all but when you have just played Bloodborne you will need to re-adjust your approach to the game.
I have died many times in Dark souls but I have more than 200 hours invested in this game including a platinum trophy. On the loyalty shop of Bandai Namco, I was able to gain points from completing Dark Souls on platinum and gain a real-life wall decoration!
Dark Souls remastered will always be a game I will come back to.

My personal rating is a 9.
Pros

– Dark Souls has a very rewarding gameplay.
– The combat is very tough.
– The weapons and magic in the game work well.
– The graphics in Dark Souls remastered are amazing. I really the visible details in the background
– The upgrade system of weapons and armor is done very well.
– Exploring the world is fun too. Until you reach a certain skeleton and you die.
– You can use mods if you like to randomize items or enemies. If you like you can even change the, you died screen.
– You can replay the game many times. Role-playing and different builds will change the game.
– You died!

Cons

– you can be invaded by random people who will kill you at the most inconvenient times.
– The game can be very hard for casual players.
– The gameplay can be slow if you have just played a high paced game.
– There are some minor glitches that can halt your progress.*
– It can be hard to figure out the story.
– You died!

* In the video of the review you can see me fighting one of these glitches!

I am very glad I have played this game. I recommend this game to everyone especially gamers that are into a challenge. You will die, you will learn, you will feel awesome when you overcome a challenge.
I give this game a…drumroll…

8.9!

I hope you enjoyed reading this review. You can always leave your own rating or leave a comment.
Are you interested in this game? You can purchase the game here: https://tinyurl.com/Buy-Dark-Souls
I hope to see you in the next review!