-
First, Van responded to my phrase "A game is there to entertain the player, not assume the player will automatically care about everything it has". He says that that sentence insinuates that there is only one way for a game to entertain the player, and that Dark Souls itself rewards the player for being patient and 'practicing' within its world.
The latter I completely agree with, and what makes Dark Souls a better 'practice game' than something like Another World is that virtually every 'trap' is never hidden from you. For the most part, the only reason you would ever die in Dark Souls more than once (I'll get to that later) is that you're not trying hard enough, and many player, including myself, have revelled in its challenge and engaging gameplay.
Yet, I really don't see how my quote could mean that there is only one way for a game to entertain a player, and it's certainly not what I meant. I'm just saying that a Video Game's primary purpose is to entertain with the components that make it a Video Game. Them being a game that is displayed with video...of course.
-
He then responded to my description of the Crystal Cave area. I explained how the falling crystals didn't do a good enough job of showing the player the path to the other side of the cave, resulting in a boring and tedious road block in the game's progression.
Van called this particular moment of Dark Souls to be particularly tense, as the game gives you a necessarily vague idea as to where the path is, keeping you unsure as to where to go. This, he says, stays consistent with the 'feel' of Dark Souls.
Now my problem with the Crystal Cave is one based on personal experience, yet still has followed me on my two other playthroughs. Simply, the crystals just don't fall frequently enough, or at all. There were several moments where I just stood on the invisible path, waiting for a crystal to land onto an area in front of me...but never did, leaving a big gap that may or may not be safe to step on. There was never a chance for me to pay attention because there wasn't anything to pay attention to.
Also, he says that my tactic of 'running off the path and memorising the layout of it' to be the wrong way to tackle the area, but he goes on to say that a 'leap of faith' is something he found appropriately stressful, even though it's exactly what I was doing. I also don't think that is something the game should make the player do, which is something that really annoys me about many of Dark Souls' areas, especially finding Blacksmith Vamos in the Catacombs.
He also praised the ability for online players to leave messages on the invisible paths to 'mark' them, showing other players where to go, which I find very unfair to those who don't go online...like me.
-
Van then commented on my opinion of the first encounter with Seath The Scaleless, being (spoiler) the number 1 worst moment in Dark Souls, according to my list anyway.
I said before that I admire Dark Souls for always giving the player a chance to survive, and if you die, it's your own fault. But the encounter with Seath breaks that idea, creating a trap that automatically kills you without any warning.
Van said that it perfectly suits Dark Souls, as dying is a 'core' part of the game, and the fact that Seath kills you should be seen as one of the many traps Dark Souls has.
Now, I've played Dark Souls about 2.5 times, resulting into well over 100 hours of play time and I can't think of a single trap that 'imprisons' you and automatically kill you. There are traps that severely hurt you like the statues in the Catacombs, but that isn't the point. The point is you can't stop Seath from killing you, which wouldn't be so bad if you weren't then given the punishment of dying.
The first boss of Demon's Souls killed you but you kept the souls you earned. It didn't make any sense, but at least the game didn't swipe away your 'hard work' without warning. But here, you have NO way of knowing that Seath is going to kill you, at least not until the fight is already happening, and even then it's probably too late for you to equip a Ring Of Sacrifice.
Van also said that the only way it could be unfair and cruel is if Seath sent you back to the last bonfire you rested at, which raises my next problem with this moment.
It was established in Dark Souls' game play that you would return to the last Bonfire you rested at if you died . So why is it that you get, or even CAN be, put into a prison next to a Bonfire you haven't used yet? Do you stay as a corpse when you die? How do you get sent back to Bonfires in other situations? How do Bonfires respawn enemies? Why do some monsters respawn and others don't? It's these kinds of questions that really makes me dislike a lot of Dark Souls' vague and unexplained ideas that many people lazily call 'interpretive', as if the game they love is perfect in every conceivable way, and if you don't understand...'think' harder!
And finally, Van responded to a sentence I used in response to another commenter. The sentence was: "Exploration should never be mandatory".
Van said that exploration is a big part of Dark Souls and that your journey can feel aimless at times.
I completely agree with that, but a journey feeling aimless doesn't make it explorative. Just because you don't know where you're going doesn't mean you're exploring. And really, you don't know where you're going in Dark Souls, most of the time. You're vaguely told by some random warrior to ring two bells. One is up and one is down. Sure, your path is revealed to you at the same time your character is seeing it, but you're still progressing through the story because you're still travelling down a linear path, and Dark Souls' story can still be completed without exploring at all.
An example of exploration in games is getting an objective in Skyrim but deciding to disregard it and venture off into an unknown area for the sake of it. That is exploring because you're essentially disobeying the game's requests. In Dark Souls, you may not know exactly where you'll end up, but you're still pressing forward. A man who is walking down a corridor isn't instantly exploring if he suddenly becomes blind. Really, the only explorative areas of Dark Souls is The Great Hollow and Ash Lake because you can finish the game without even knowing they exist.
And that's pretty much it. I'd like to thank Van Hammersly for his thoughtful and, most importantly, civil comment. Sorry if I'm talking about Dark Souls too much...I have another article about it coming out in the next few days...you're welcome.
