His flask wasn't underleveled. He had upgrades from Undead Parish and Blighttown, New Londo Ruins should be done after Anor Londo and killing Firekeepers is evil. There is Anastasia's soul too, but you could bring her back to life. +2 Estus for O&S looks like something Miyazaki intended for new players.
@@ZeroLenny It's that moment in the souls game you forget about everything else and say: "I'm not here to play anymore, I'm here to win", which is, I think, mostly popular on souls games. Its fun to see how we grew up, but everyone once, either gave up on a hard boss (or, hard at the time for him), or soldiered on and gave himself the best chance at winning, AKA, the "full havel's".
Moving through Dark Souls really feels like it's The Hero's Journey. Going from the familiar, but still dangerous, down into the dark and foreboding underworld, only to re-emerge back where you started at Firelink Shrine. It's stayed the same, but you've changed, you've progressed and become more powerful. Climbing out of Blighttown, it genuinely felt like I had gone on a capital-Q Quest, not just some NPC telling me to fetch some garbage for them quest, but an actual adventure that had me go through trials to prove that I could. That's why I really love Dark Souls as an RPG. It's not just about getting numeric stats, and you don't get a whole bunch of dialog choices and companions that tag along all day like more narrative focused games, but it really gives that sense of The Journey that things like long tabletop campaigns give. When you start Dark Souls for the first time, you've got no idea what's going on. But when you finish Dark Souls for the first time, you can look back and feel like you've not just "gotten gud", but really learnt and grown with a game. I know that's really fuckin' cheesy to say all that, but I do really love the game, and the series as a whole.
I'm really glad you put into words why the lack of fast travel is so good. I honestly think it's why DS1 is still my favorite to replay, especially on challenge runs where I need to plan my pathing carefully
@@littlemoth4956 It's both though. If you had fast travel from the start you wouldn't need to bother using the interconnected world nearly as much. He talks about this a LOT in the video.
@@littlemoth4956 but that world only comes to life because the lack of fast travel. The world design and the lack of fast travel is the best combo Fromsoft uas ever made and it's in Ds1 only
I legit teared up, you bastard. That brief silence as the lift goes up to firelink, desperate to hear the music, had a full flashback of all my favorite dark souls moments in a single instant. freaking teared up man.
There is something about this first game that was never recaptured. It was the perfect mix of everything. Now the games just feel like difficulty is the main goal above all else.
the teleportation point is absolutely true. i will never forget how i thought. oh my god. i am in the sewer now AND i am cursed. what the hell should i do now. how do i get out here? the feeling of isolation was just awesome. and in blighttown i thought i will never see the sunlight again in this game. but i did. and it was the best feeling i ever had in a game.
@@ZeroLenny I don't know, to me being cursed was just annoying and tedious running back to Oswald as I remembered he had an item that cured curse. It was just a pointless extension of play time to me. Also the depths weren't a well designed area with mostly boring same corridors. Maybe I am alone with this though, I loved almost everything else in the game too.
Blight town is at the core of the dark souls experience interconnecting everything else, also there's no other level in any videogame that has given me *the blight town* experience, my 2nd favorite level behind painted world and ash lake, they all make you feel something for the first time like nothing else
My first playthough I went down through the tomb of the giants before going to anor londo. With no lantern or sunlight maggot, you really can't see more than 3 feet in front of you, and I had to dodge and hide from every enemy, since my +2 or 3 longsword did next to no damage. Because I hadn't placed the lord vessel, when I finally got to the bottom, the path forward was just blocked off. I was trapped down there. I had to find my way back up through the tomb of the giants in the pitch dark with all the pit falls and skeleton hounds that would instantly shred me. It left such a strong impression on me because games are designed to be beaten, and thus, they are reasonable and "gamey". But this felt like I really wasn't supposed to be there (because I wasn't). It felt like I was trying to claw my way out of the under world. It was a weirdly gripping moment, and I've never been so immersed in a game before or since
I also did that! It was great Another fun experience was getting cursed and not understanding how I was supposed to lift it, had to kill gaping dragon hitless
happened to me too. It took me several hours to find my way out back to surface. But when I did came out I almost physically felt virtual sunlight and fresh air hit me once I came out of cave entrance.
There's something so wholesome of just watching a video of someone explaining why they love something so much to the point where they run out of words. What an enjoyable video
There’s one little mechanic about the fast travel in ds1: You can’t travel to every bonfire in the game, only some specific one in an area. So no matter if you have fast travel or not, you still have to walk around and memorise the world. That’s why ds1 world feels so much impactful.
The teleport point is so true. They've done a huge open world game but now I'd love a game where they take the same attention to detail and instead create a crazy elaborate interconnected underground dungeon maze. A 2022 dungeon crawler.
I played the series in reverse and I wasn’t very impressed with DS1 the first time I played it. Then, when I was stressed out of my mind with a tough college semester, I got the urge to revisit this game. During that second play through, I just got sucked into the world and atmosphere of the game. After obsessively playing through the game another 3 times, I can say that DS1 has easily become my favorite game of all time. Keep it up with all your awesome content!
DS1 was the first game in the series I played, and while it's not my favorite, I definitely have the fondest memories of it, and I will never forget how rewarding it felt to finally git gud and slap Gwyn a new one 💪
for me it was ds3. since i was a big puss boy when i played ds1 and spoiled the whole game for myself because i was afraid of the difficulty, then i played ds3 blindly and i just love it more because of it. i still hate myself because of that decision.
@@ZeroLenny I have more notable small moments in Demon's Souls however DS1 consistently kept a great pace for feeling accomplished. The Bed of Chaos may be the most frustrating bullshit, but every time I had died I just felt an urge to come out on top that I haven't felt with any other boss in the series. Honestly it could be solely because of how dumb of a boss it was though.
Not having a simple teleport option means deciding you are prepared enough to venture through a new area, espescially knowing you are traversing further and further away from a Blacksmith for example, means thay every little shortcut backwards you unlock doesn't only serve as a convenient "get back to the boss quicker" thing, no; all the way until you find the elevator out of Blighttown, every small shortcut unlocked in Undead Burg and the Depths (door next to the Undead Burg bonfire, door connecting the Firelink Shrine to the bottom of Lower Burg and start of Depths, and the door between Gaping Dragon and the Depth's bonfire) serves as a significant decrease in backtracking to get back to the Blacksmith and various spell vendors in Firelink Shrine (and Oswald at the Gargoyles if you get cursed by the basilisks). It adds soooo much satisfying, impactfull feeling to exploration's risks and rewards.
The feeling after finally seeing firelink after hours in the sewers and blighttown is indescribable. Blighttown is a great area and it does its job perfectly, making you never want to go down again
Totally agree with the teleport thing. The biggest mistake of DS2 and 3 were having teleportation to any bonfire from the get go. You HAVE to get immersed in DS1 and pay attention to where you’re going, because you can’t just teleport back. Bonfires in 2 and 3 were like save checkpoints, and it really took the immersion level down. DS1 also gave you limited teleportation when you did get it, not every bonfire. Why they didn’t do that with 2 and 3 is beyond me.
The main reason DS1 *can* do that is the fact that everything pre-anor londo is physically connected to Firelink, so even though you can't teleport, you can still get back to your hub area relatively often Doing such a thing in the sequels would mean completely redesinging the world to work around Majula/Firelink DS2 can't do that, as every place in Drangleic is so unique and different that it wouldn't make sense if it was all built around the same small hub area I personally don't mind the choice to remove the interconnected world design, it's an amazing feature, but it would feel less special and more repetitive if present in every entry of the trilogy
Best is how Elden Ring has those really well done dungeons like Stormveils with plenty shortcuts that are made completely pointless because there are graces at both ends of said shortcut lmao. FromSoft design is really all over the place after Dark Souls 1
13:30 *chills* This is it. This is the magic. Dark Souls 2 and 3 are fun games. Darks Souls 1 is an *adventure*. And you captured it perfectly: the stigma around Dark Souls 1 being for "hardcore gamers" is not because of the difficulty, but because it is willing to mercilessly butcher convenience and consistency to maintain its artistic vision.
This game feels like a living breathing thing, how organic it is. I played it at 24 years old, and even after having grown up playing alll the classics; The marios, zeldas, half lifes, counterstrikes, warcrafts, etc etc etc, it still catapulted itself into the stratosphere of my personal favorite games.
Bloodborne is my favorite souls game, it was my first platinum trophy and my introduction to the genre. Personally ive never had a tougher boss experience than dark souls 1 dlc. Awesome video!!!!!
Best way to explain that bit with Demon souls is this: Demon Souls is to Dark Souls what Wolfenstein is to Doom. It came first, but the next game improved upon it and got the recognition it needed to cause dozens of games inspired by it to make it a genre.
Ds1 was the first souls game I picked up back in 2012 and I will never have another amazing experience like that, I know that much. It's so unmatched. Based review, Lenny
The best part to me from getting to fire link after blight town was that i've never had gone to new londo ruins because i was not trying to explore everything so when i got to new londo ruins i was shitting my pants because i knew that if i die i was going to go back down again, so when i got to the elevator i was just praying to god that it was a bonfire and then, the music hits... mate i can`t express the feeling i got there, i think i will remember that momment forever, i was 14 when i played dark souls 1 for the first time and i`m 21 now and i still remember that moment dearly.
That firelink shrine music is just amazing, the feeling of peace and just relief when getting back to firelink shrine after that slog through blight town is a feeling no other game has given me before lol. I love the souls series in general but DS1 has a very special place in my heart :) .
I agree with the teleportation segment 100% and I felt the length of it is justified. When you talked about that second bell, and struggling to climb back up to firelink, man I felt that on a spiritual level. The best part of Dark Souls 1 is really before the Lord Vessel. Everything was an uncertainty, there was no assurance that you could win and beat the game. And the thrill, suspense and hype of it all was surreal. But once you defeat O&S, it's like you've already made it. The hardest parts are over, you are now a lord-to-be just finalizing the last details of your adventure. It's like a well-deserved reward, after the hell you've been through. Dark Souls 1 is definitely the best of trilogy (tho Dark Souls 2 has the most heart!).
Agree with this take a lot. Dark souls stands out as a masterpiece in a time where games were at their creative peak. Elden ring, while fantastic and a culmination of the souls series, just feels like what a modern AAA game should be, and stands out in the sea of corporate greed that has infected the games industry.
nah disagree with your elden ring comment, its far more of a masterpiece than ds1, regardless of when it came out, and i believe your comment applies far more to demons souls than ds1 tbh. demons souls crawled so that dark souls could walk and give the other miyazaki games the ability to run. frankly elden ring flew into orbit. "and stands out in the sea of corporate greed that has infected the games industry" my man thats irrelevant when calling a game a masterpiece or not. on a game design level, ER is just on another league compared to ds1, even its level design substantially outclasses it, let alone everything else barring music. "Dark souls stands out as a masterpiece in a time where games were at their creative peak." disagreed IMMENSELY, to an almost mind boggling degree, considering the creative peak was in the ps2 era, when there were more new genres and types of games in those consoles launch years alone than the ps3, 4 and 5 eras combined. also, creative peak in what exactly? gameplay? narrative? i would give you narrative, but gameplay? new genres? new types of games? not even close. besides, the indie genre has some of the most creative experiences ever made to this day. ds1 came out around the time the indie genre was a baby, and tired overplayed genres like diablo-style games and the fps shooter genre was flooding and saturating the industry, very much like how battle royale and ubisoft checklist-style open world games are saturating the industry right now, and then breath of the wild and elden ring came along. frankly speaking i dont even think its the best era, its best we dont act like the most creative era is objective to begin with. i think elden ring is gonna change open world games pretty much, just like ds1 changed 3rd person rpgs. i believe it will be just as influential as ds1, if not more so, and doesnt just show what a AAA game should be, its an unrivaled triumph of markerless open world design combined with 10 years of extra refined souls mechanics. As a whole, its almost unfair to compare them. now after saying all that, ds1 will always hold a special place in my heart as the one i started with and to a degree, it did build the foundation of souls as we know it, although its fanbase likes to forget every game after it added to that foundation.
@@flamingmanure Before fairly recently open world RPGs had the exact same map system that ER has 😮💨young people acting like fromsoft created the idea because they cams into a cushy ass game era with map markers. That's literally the only difference ER has that other modern RPGs don't is the marker less map cause fundamentally its the exact same formula with subpar, after BB and Sekiro, fromsoft combat thrown in. Calm down kiddo.
The feeling of living in a dying world that's just scraps hanging off of a once great civilization in Dark Souls 1 has never been matched. The descent into Blighttown is the best illustration.
Goddamn love you, Lenny. Drawn in by the let's play, staying for new, reviewy, insightful Lenny. Channel has grown and I now have that happy face. I can't belive you've done this! 😃
I am a level 33 gamer, and I am playing video games from the youngest age, because my father was a gamer too, so I know games from very first Prince of Persia, Doom, Baldur's Gate etc.. And I thought I saw everything, and there is nothing that can really amaze me in gaming anymore. Yeah, there are still great games coming out, but nothing really "magic". Yet I never played any Souls game, because all I ever heard about them was that they are hard as f.., which was not really interesting for me. But in 2020, so nearly after a decade from premiere I played for very first time DS1 Prepare do Die Edition and my man... That first playthrough was EASILY the best gaming experience I've ever had! That world, that armosphere, that level design, it just blow my mind. Up to this day I finished that game (as well as DS3 and Elden Ring) several times, and I'm just keep going back to play it again. Amazing game. As a pc gamer I am really dissapont that I cannot play Demons Souls and Bloodborne, yet I still have Sekiro untouched.
Dark Souls 1 managed to do the impossible for me, it made me rethink my favorite game of all time (which was Team Fortress 2). Dark Souls 1 is my favorite game ever and I will always come back to replay it.
When I first looked over the silent, moonlit expanse of Darkroot Basin after finally getting past the Burg... that was the moment I knew this game was something special. And when the music for Ash Lake began to play... I can't think of many games that had that powerful of a moment for me.
I also took photos of the time when I first time beat S&O. I didn't get photo of the exact moment they died as I was too busy screaming my lungs out, but I took some immediately afterwards. In the first one, my character is just left standing there dumbfoundedly in the middle of the rubble and you see can that magical +50000 souls being added. What a moment! What a feeling!
I never saw a video that described my love for this game better than yours. Dark souls 1 is my favorite game in the souls series because of the interconnected world it just feels so real and it builds tension like you described with the purging stone. My fondest memory of the game was being stuck on the gargoyles for one entire day but the triumph afterwards made me a fan of this series for life.
Dark souls 1 was so amazing, it made me actually dislike a lot of open world games, seeing how dark souls changed open world gaming and optimized it only highlighted the failures of most open world games to me
Lenny's screenshots at O&S are priceless 👌 Leveled enough strength to one-hand the giant shield BUT STILL uses the Drake Sword-- a dragon weapon which lacks all scaling... love seeing this classic revisited, Lenny, never let yourself go hollow, mate!
Dark souls 1 is definitely my favorite, demon souls started off too aggressive for me to get into and steered me away, but DS1 really lets you gradually get use to the kind of game it is. The learning curve is still steep but managable for most players. Finding new ways to get places, and returning to firelink is so fulfilling, and the lack of teleportation makes everthing you do feel so much more weighted. I never felt like the games I play were actually challenging me and DS1 was my first exposure to the kind of game that wants you to succeed. I never even been to blighttown from the sewers either, I always got there some other way. I remember learning about the map and being astounded with the level of intricacy and interconnectivity. Just when the world starts to get too big, is when they give you the lord vessel. Perfect execution of punishing but fair gameplay, that not only interconnects with the story, but the world too. Excellent video, Lenny !!
Nothing compare to the rollercoaster of emotions that is the satisfaction of finally getting out of blightown and hearing the firelink shrine song, just to discover that the very unsuspicious golden boy that was sitting near the firekeeper killed her and you cannot use de firelink bonfire anymore
what a lovely video, It was so nice to re-experience and reminiscing about the first playthrough of the game. The second half of dark souls was a slow decline but i can't help but look back fondly. it is rose tinted glasses and the experience this game has given me will stick with me forever. This whole video just made my day, thank you. :) I remember using the full black iron armor, black iron greatshield and the zewihander. I also remember doing ng+ because i forgot to do the dlc lmao and that's when i really struggled against orienstiend and smough and the dlc bosses.
The realisation of where you are when you go down the elevator from the parish is great But hearing the Firelink theme after coming up through new Londo and realising where I was after Blighttown? That was pure bliss
Every of the souls games are really different in their own ways, they all seems connected and they are, I just think that dark souls 1 as a very interesting “soul” lol. This game feels and hits different compare to his younger brothers.
My first fromsoft game was Elden Ring. Dark Souls 1 is objectively the best they have made. Mostly driven by the world design and lack of teleportation. My favorite is probably a tie between DS1 and Bloodborne
Your point on how much the interconnected world makes a difference wasn't long winded at all. It's an extremely important point to make. It's what a lot of us adore about the first game
It’s my favourite game ever. I could start a new character now and have a blast. Only game where I’ve used up every save slot creating characters. One thing that separates it for me from all the others is the sense of atmosphere, the clinking of armour, the grey sky, the cobbled streets of undead burg and the eerie quietness. All the games have excellent world and character design (except 2), but 1 will always feel special to me. Lordran feels like a real place
I started the series with DS2 when it came out in 2014. Then I went back to try DS1 and even though it wasn't the first Souls game I played, I instantly clicked with it so hard and still find it endlessly replayable to this day. Each of the games have their own pros and cons, but nothing will suck me back in like DS1 can.
Man Sen's Fortress is rough! Confidence is key when dealing with traps, rather than trying to dance around them, timing full sprints through them works really well!
I think no teleportation is what makes Dark Souls so much better than anything else in the series. Also the exploration. I mean, at the start of Dark Souls 3 you literally use a bonfire to teleport to the first area then walk a straight line to the end of the game
I have been chasing the feeling darksouls 1 gave me, it was challenging and mostly felt fair, I could see where I went wrong. However with the experience I got from ds1, none of the sequels feel as challenging. DS felt so rewarding after getting rocked by a boss or an area for a couple hours.
The only game to give me the same feeling as Dark Souls 1 so far is Hollow Knight, which then becomes a much better game at the highest end of difficulty
It's an incredibly hard balance between challenging and fair, and I feel Dark Souls 1 succeeds at that more times pound for pound than any of it's sequels manage to
I do love ds1, but everything that made it genre defining is from demon's souls, demon's souls made a new genre, dark souls refined and popularised it.
@@ThyBigCheddar but those two things don't make a genre, notice how i said ds1 refined demon's souls. It's iconic bosses, such as the asylum demon or the gargoyles are simply just ripped from demons souls with a fresh coat of paint, they're just the vanguard demon and the maneaters. Ds1 was popular, and thus those bosses became iconic. Demon's souls was doomed upon release due to sony being a-holes and people not understanding the whole souls concept in japan. And the interconnected world, while amazing, isn't a core of the souls genre. Ds2, Ds3, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Demon's souls are all linear compared to ds1, even games like nioh and jedi fallen order, so i wouldn't say thats genre defining.
I have had this exact discussion about fast travel with other people before. It's genius, is that it creates a quest system, without explicitly having a quest system. If you need to upgrade weapons, farm souls, buy items or whatever, you need to really think about the journey too and from the relevant places. You can't just teleport to a farming spot then teleport to a vendor. And you forgot to mention probably the bravest and coolest design decision I have seen in any game... Just as you are starting to get comfortable with game, the Firelink Shrine Bonfire gets extinguished. Your home base, your resting point on long journeys is taken away from you. Genius. It melted my brain the first time it happened to me. It really helps create the feeling that the world is not created for the players convenience (as with the hub world styles of DS2 and DS3) but is instead this living, breathing place that you just happen to be passing through.
Check out Displate with my link!! You get a cheeky discount for 25% off 1-2 displates, and 29% off 3 or more on anything you buy! There's also a summer sale going on right now til the 26th June where you can buy 1 for 22% off OR Buy 2+ for 33% off!! displate.com/browse-brands/?art=6297d84ac84b4
That DS2 intro cutscene criticism always puzzles me. The game is about the curse and it really sets it up well, i dont even think the “wife” you see melt into mush is explicitly the players, it just stresses that everything which makes people human is taken away by the curse. I really liked the way that cutscene set the tone for the game, it cements a feeling of “wtf is going on and what am I doing here?” which is the entire atmosphere of the game! It’s how the player character and all humans feel in Dranleic, and it does a great job of giving you that feeling. As you progress you learn more about the world around you, yet you’re stuck with that mysterious feeling the whole time. I agree that the DS1 opener cutscene is goat, there’s just a lot of unfair, unironic criticisms of DS2 that don’t make sense to me. Sometimes i feel that people want DS2 to be DS1: 2.
Agreed. I do think there are some pretty legit criticisms, but between that complaint and the memes I don’t think the game gets the credit it deserves.
My favorites of the Dark Souls Trilogy: 1. DS2 (+ Best PvP, - Soul Memory) 2. DS1 (+ Best World, - 4D Lock-on) 3. DS3 (+ Best Bosses, - Copy/Paste) I personally have more hours into DS2 than DS1 and DS3 combined.
I remember ranting about how teleportation sucks under other souls-related videos many months ago, and was so happy seeing this video with Lenny explaining this feeling to everybody else! (Though getting out of ash lake without teleportation wasn’t very fun)
i like darksouls 1 but honestly playing it feels like a chore, after finishing it a few times now i can only focus on the stuff i dont like about it because the good stuff doesnt impress me anymore
My favorite Dark Souls has to be 3. It was my first and I remember everything like how I used my Farron Greatsword all of the time or how I spent an entire week on Pontiff because I was so bad at the Parry timing
thanks for making this and shining light on legendary ds1. So many great memories which go back to 2012. And years later when I had decent internet, with the remastered version, ds1 became my favorite pvp game as well. Such a great community all around. Sure there are flaws, but ds1 is the game where I really don`t care about them, it will always have a special place in my heart, it's the best!
I tried to get into the souls games with DS1 back when the remaster released but I just couldn't. I gave up multiple times on the road to the taurus demon and basically just said these games aren't for me. But then I finally decided to try again with Elden Ring, and I ended up falling in love with it. So after beating ER, I decided to go try DS1 again and I ended up loving it. Even after playing DS2, original demon souls, and DS3, DS1 has remained my favorite but it does have it problems. I think DS1 is a perfect example of a game that needs a remake (and not the "barely anything has changed" remaster.) It's an amazing game but it hasn't aged well when compared to DS3 and ER. It has very clunky controls and not as good late game areas caused by a rushed development. I think a good remake that keeps the core of the game but removes some of the clunkyness and redone later areas would really make this the perfect souls game with little to no flaws.
ds1 genuinely was an amazing experience after my 1500+ hours in ds3. im glad i experienced it just before playing elden ring, it made the absolute freedom of that game much sweeter and had me grounded in the roots of the series.
A lot of the issues present in Dark Souls 3's world are also present in Elden Ring's. I sort of was disappointed that fast-travel was available right of the bat once again. Though I understand the themes of these games may be different, immediately available fast-travel still really doesn't feel right to me.
I can't help but feel how genuinely palpable the feeling of perseverance could have been, had Elden Ring not allowed warping. Stuck in the Shaded Castle? Find your damn way out. I'm also not a fan of a lot of the trends it took from Dark Souls 3, but that's a personal gripe.
@@PotassiumLover33 I don't think it'd be shit, but I think it'd be an interesting experience. Something along the lines of a continuous adventure type thing. Always somewhere to go, something to do, etc etc. Plus, you have the horse, so it's not entirely a scuffed thing.
I played Bloodborne first, but DS1 is just so much more... special. I may love Yharnam just as much today as I did when I first played it, but DS1 resonates with me on a whole different level. I'd hoped that Elden Ring would capture that as well, but honestly, it fell very flat. And, this isn't nostalgia speaking either... I only played Bloodborne and DS1 for the first time last year.
Another notable point on how the lack of teleporting creates a sense of adventure is that encourages you to talk to NPCs. You mentioned how your second trip through an area is enriched by getting to plan for an area based on what you saw, but the other way you might try to plan is to base your knowledge on what the NPCs have told you. As an example, when you hear that you are going to Anor Londo, the city of the gods, and you heard that the gods used lightning to defeat the dragons, you may choose to pick up some lightning resistant gear before going. You are then rewarded when many of the enemies do lightning damage. In contrast, you have no need to learn that the Old Iron King is going to use fire before going to Iron Keep because you can just warp back and buy some fire resistant gear when you actually see the lava. This is an example of gameplay-story integration, which is pretty universally considered a good (and I might say rare) thing.
I really adore your description of how the depths and blight town really give you that feeling of being submerged and so far from home. It's something I just haven't thought about in so long. But yeah DS1 was outright nerve-wracking because of stuff like that. It's because of that feeling as well that I first started just trying to run through entire levels, a combination of doing it for corpse runs back to the boss and just trying to get out of zones. And the feeling of when you get back to those old areas and absolutely slaughter what used to give you trouble is a feeling like no other. Going back to Andre and being able to backstab or parry all those dudes after getting killed so many times just feels so good. Whereas the linear souls games never give you that feeling of returning to old zones.
Been dodging Elden Ring spoilers waiting on my long delayed copy so haven't kept up on all the new vids so I'm stoked to see a Lenny vid I can actually watch! Good shit, lad!
Watching Lenny with a sword that isn't broken feels like walking in on your parents. There's never gonna be enough therapy to undo what I have seen with these eyes.
Man the pokemon music always hits hard with the nostalgia in all of your videos no matter the actual topic ^^ also started the soul series with ds1 though and pretty much feel the same about it. The feel of that first playthrough could never be achieved again. Great vid as always 👍
1 was also my first. I love all the games but the tail cutting mechanic for dragons was my favorite. Now every game I play I always go for the tail first.
Lenny you thread a fine line between an absolute lunatic Lord of Spice and a very leveled and heartwarming individual. This duality for me at least assures that whatever your cheeky ass posts will always be something that that is worth clicking on. As Dark Souls defined a genre, in your own way you defined your genre as a youtuber. I know I am cheesy but god damn you are a fine fuck.
The teleport thing was absolutely huge for Dark Souls 1 versus the sequels. But I don't know for sure if it can be said that not having it improved or made the sequels worse. One of the strongest points of FromSoft games were that, if you found yourself struggling against something, you could explore something else in the time being instead of bashing your head against the wall again and again. Not that you HAVE to, its an option. But the important thing was that both options were equally present and equally respected by the game. That's where having the teleport can be very important, and we even see that in Dark Souls 1. Where the path splits is exactly when you obtain the teleporting between bonfires. In the sequels, you could say it is a failing of the game to require so much teleporting. The Gulch comes to mind; no coming back from that without teleporting. In Dark Souls 3, so much teleporting is necessary because its so linear, and almost never loops back on itself. But here's the beauty of Dark Souls 1. It didn't need the teleporting, and it knew that as a fact. So it played into that fact, and they played into it beautifully. It was an opportunity to have so much interlinking worlds that you didn't need teleporting. That in itself is a part of the charm of Dark Souls 1, and the respect people have for the interlinking worlds. I would even go as far claim that Bloodborne could have also done away with teleporting, with exception of Castle Cainhurst. Yharnam was almost as intertwined as Lordran, and sometimes, when the world is so confusing but connected like that, you NEED to feel lost. Feeling lost and confused brings with it that brilliant realization when things all come together. That moment when you step out of Blighttown and enter the sunken ghosttown that you may have recognized from the start of the game. That moment when you can see Lost Izalith from Tomb of Giants. That moment when you can go to the locked gate of Sen's Fortress, to realize that the rest of the game hides behind its gate. Irreplaceable. But not every FromSoft could do this without serious repercussion for the user. And I acknowledge and respect that. But it just makes my respect for Dark Souls 1 that much greater.
Absolutely amazing! I just don’t teleport between outside of firelink bonfires, I started with Bloodborne, then Elden ring, now im on 3 and I love getting to the point you have no flasks, few hits left if you are lucky, miles from the last bonfire, turn a corner and for god sake I’ve actually yelled FUCK YEAH at my TV! 😂😂😂 Deffo getting DS1 from your video, BRING ON THE FUCKING PAIN BROTHER!
Finding a new bonfire in the fast half of darksouls was comforting because it was a new, safe area, but with it came the uncomfortable feeling that you're even further away from home.
I think half the playtime of a game is when it haunts you. How often are you thinking about the game afterward? Are you just thinking, "this was good, that was bad?" Dark Souls gives you so much to think about after you put it down, and it's not just pleasure or displeasure. It gives me the same kind of emotional afterschock as reading an incredible book. It combines dungeon crawl RPG design and sensibilities (the resource management, the anxiety, the brutality) with a seamless world and real-time combat. It's hard to pick apart your experience playing something that's testing so much of you at once, and I think that's what makes the game so transcendent. In a Soulslike, what I'm really looking for is a game that gives you that all-over transcendent feeling. Usually they just give you bonfires and corpse-running. Rarely, they successfully develop stamina-based combat that far exceeds the depth of From Soft's games, which is admirable. But it's not what I'm deep-down yearning for.
It's been a long time since I felt the magic of the genre. Probably not since DS, and BB (I like DS2 as well, but shaddup). You've accurately captured my experience with 1 here. Playing through 3 and ER felt different. Obviously the gameplay loop has been refined, but neither really inspired the same kind of feeling that these ones did. Dark Souls was and remains my favorite game they've put out. It's just built diff'rent.
Yooo hope your house guests are impressed with the painted world lmao thank you
I also got your Dragon on the bridge one! I've wanted them ever since you released them tbh they're sick 👍👍
Living pot lore when?
@@saberwarlord7784 literally this week haha how did you know
@@VaatiVidya thanks for finally dropping🙏
@@VaatiVidya thanks for consistently being such a legend
The screenshot of you blocking with full havel, and underleveled flask, and a drake sword was so funny to me, i loved that
everyone starts somewhere! It was a wholesome big chungus doge moment!
His flask wasn't underleveled. He had upgrades from Undead Parish and Blighttown, New Londo Ruins should be done after Anor Londo and killing Firekeepers is evil. There is Anastasia's soul too, but you could bring her back to life. +2 Estus for O&S looks like something Miyazaki intended for new players.
@@ZeroLenny It's that moment in the souls game you forget about everything else and say: "I'm not here to play anymore, I'm here to win", which is, I think, mostly popular on souls games.
Its fun to see how we grew up, but everyone once, either gave up on a hard boss (or, hard at the time for him), or soldiered on and gave himself the best chance at winning, AKA, the "full havel's".
@@lxlADlxl me wearing the stone armor to beat four kings agrees with you
Me too, it reminded me of when i first beat o&s in full black iron
Moving through Dark Souls really feels like it's The Hero's Journey. Going from the familiar, but still dangerous, down into the dark and foreboding underworld, only to re-emerge back where you started at Firelink Shrine. It's stayed the same, but you've changed, you've progressed and become more powerful. Climbing out of Blighttown, it genuinely felt like I had gone on a capital-Q Quest, not just some NPC telling me to fetch some garbage for them quest, but an actual adventure that had me go through trials to prove that I could.
That's why I really love Dark Souls as an RPG. It's not just about getting numeric stats, and you don't get a whole bunch of dialog choices and companions that tag along all day like more narrative focused games, but it really gives that sense of The Journey that things like long tabletop campaigns give. When you start Dark Souls for the first time, you've got no idea what's going on. But when you finish Dark Souls for the first time, you can look back and feel like you've not just "gotten gud", but really learnt and grown with a game.
I know that's really fuckin' cheesy to say all that, but I do really love the game, and the series as a whole.
I understand. Completely.
Exactly in the feels
I'm really glad you put into words why the lack of fast travel is so good. I honestly think it's why DS1 is still my favorite to replay, especially on challenge runs where I need to plan my pathing carefully
It's not the lack of fast travel. It's the interconnected world, where you can go anywhere with enough planning.
@@littlemoth4956 It's both though. If you had fast travel from the start you wouldn't need to bother using the interconnected world nearly as much. He talks about this a LOT in the video.
@@littlemoth4956 but that world only comes to life because the lack of fast travel. The world design and the lack of fast travel is the best combo Fromsoft uas ever made and it's in Ds1 only
@@filipgasic2642 Except DS1 has fast travel
@@A_Black_Sheep94 after anor londo
I legit teared up, you bastard.
That brief silence as the lift goes up to firelink, desperate to hear the music, had a full flashback of all my favorite dark souls moments in a single instant.
freaking teared up man.
You're not alone, he does it well.
There is something about this first game that was never recaptured. It was the perfect mix of everything. Now the games just feel like difficulty is the main goal above all else.
the teleportation point is absolutely true. i will never forget how i thought. oh my god. i am in the sewer now AND i am cursed. what the hell should i do now. how do i get out here? the feeling of isolation was just awesome. and in blighttown i thought i will never see the sunlight again in this game. but i did. and it was the best feeling i ever had in a game.
this gamer gets it
Ahhh, the good old days before we figured out we could just run past everything.
@@ZeroLenny I don't know, to me being cursed was just annoying and tedious running back to Oswald as I remembered he had an item that cured curse. It was just a pointless extension of play time to me. Also the depths weren't a well designed area with mostly boring same corridors. Maybe I am alone with this though, I loved almost everything else in the game too.
Blight town is at the core of the dark souls experience interconnecting everything else, also there's no other level in any videogame that has given me *the blight town* experience, my 2nd favorite level behind painted world and ash lake, they all make you feel something for the first time like nothing else
@@tinminator8905 well... just git gud, don't get cursed. You extended the time for yourself
My first playthough I went down through the tomb of the giants before going to anor londo. With no lantern or sunlight maggot, you really can't see more than 3 feet in front of you, and I had to dodge and hide from every enemy, since my +2 or 3 longsword did next to no damage. Because I hadn't placed the lord vessel, when I finally got to the bottom, the path forward was just blocked off. I was trapped down there. I had to find my way back up through the tomb of the giants in the pitch dark with all the pit falls and skeleton hounds that would instantly shred me.
It left such a strong impression on me because games are designed to be beaten, and thus, they are reasonable and "gamey". But this felt like I really wasn't supposed to be there (because I wasn't). It felt like I was trying to claw my way out of the under world. It was a weirdly gripping moment, and I've never been so immersed in a game before or since
I also did that! It was great
Another fun experience was getting cursed and not understanding how I was supposed to lift it, had to kill gaping dragon hitless
@@Radgerayden-ist lmao I'm 50-50 on weather you are sarcastic or not, but then again, this is on a zero lenny video
@@ManCar_ I'm not being sarcastic - you bet I was fuming at the time, but after the fact it's just a memorable experience
happened to me too. It took me several hours to find my way out back to surface. But when I did came out I almost physically felt virtual sunlight and fresh air hit me once I came out of cave entrance.
There's something so wholesome of just watching a video of someone explaining why they love something so much to the point where they run out of words. What an enjoyable video
There’s one little mechanic about the fast travel in ds1: You can’t travel to every bonfire in the game, only some specific one in an area. So no matter if you have fast travel or not, you still have to walk around and memorise the world. That’s why ds1 world feels so much impactful.
The teleport point is so true. They've done a huge open world game but now I'd love a game where they take the same attention to detail and instead create a crazy elaborate interconnected underground dungeon maze. A 2022 dungeon crawler.
Likely a fake account don't send him anything.
I remember being lost in dungeons of TES:Daggerfall..
So, a modern take on King's Field? Or a finished and released version of Deep Down? Either way, I would LOVE that!
@@noop9k imagine a modern, handcrafted daggerfall
I played the series in reverse and I wasn’t very impressed with DS1 the first time I played it. Then, when I was stressed out of my mind with a tough college semester, I got the urge to revisit this game. During that second play through, I just got sucked into the world and atmosphere of the game. After obsessively playing through the game another 3 times, I can say that DS1 has easily become my favorite game of all time.
Keep it up with all your awesome content!
DS1 was the first game in the series I played, and while it's not my favorite, I definitely have the fondest memories of it, and I will never forget how rewarding it felt to finally git gud and slap Gwyn a new one 💪
My most memorable is Demon's Souls, but im in the same boat. Neither are my favorite but DS1 was the most rewarding.
i feel like this game has the potential to produce the most memorable moments despite how a person ranks it.
@@ZeroLenny pretty much ye
for me it was ds3. since i was a big puss boy when i played ds1 and spoiled the whole game for myself because i was afraid of the difficulty, then i played ds3 blindly and i just love it more because of it. i still hate myself because of that decision.
@@ZeroLenny I have more notable small moments in Demon's Souls however DS1 consistently kept a great pace for feeling accomplished.
The Bed of Chaos may be the most frustrating bullshit, but every time I had died I just felt an urge to come out on top that I haven't felt with any other boss in the series. Honestly it could be solely because of how dumb of a boss it was though.
The discovery of ash lake in my first playthrough absolutely blew me away. Probably my strongest memory of this entire game.
Not having a simple teleport option means deciding you are prepared enough to venture through a new area, espescially knowing you are traversing further and further away from a Blacksmith for example, means thay every little shortcut backwards you unlock doesn't only serve as a convenient "get back to the boss quicker" thing, no; all the way until you find the elevator out of Blighttown, every small shortcut unlocked in Undead Burg and the Depths (door next to the Undead Burg bonfire, door connecting the Firelink Shrine to the bottom of Lower Burg and start of Depths, and the door between Gaping Dragon and the Depth's bonfire) serves as a significant decrease in backtracking to get back to the Blacksmith and various spell vendors in Firelink Shrine (and Oswald at the Gargoyles if you get cursed by the basilisks). It adds soooo much satisfying, impactfull feeling to exploration's risks and rewards.
The feeling after finally seeing firelink after hours in the sewers and blighttown is indescribable. Blighttown is a great area and it does its job perfectly, making you never want to go down again
I absolutely love this format keep up the great work man! Also i hope that there will be videos like these about other souls games.
i did dark souls 2 and 3 reviews, maybe bloodborne, sekiro, demon souls, or souls trilogy dlcs sometime
@@ZeroLenny sekiro! Please! Your format is highly entertaining!
Totally agree with the teleport thing. The biggest mistake of DS2 and 3 were having teleportation to any bonfire from the get go. You HAVE to get immersed in DS1 and pay attention to where you’re going, because you can’t just teleport back. Bonfires in 2 and 3 were like save checkpoints, and it really took the immersion level down. DS1 also gave you limited teleportation when you did get it, not every bonfire. Why they didn’t do that with 2 and 3 is beyond me.
The main reason DS1 *can* do that is the fact that everything pre-anor londo is physically connected to Firelink, so even though you can't teleport, you can still get back to your hub area relatively often
Doing such a thing in the sequels would mean completely redesinging the world to work around Majula/Firelink
DS2 can't do that, as every place in Drangleic is so unique and different that it wouldn't make sense if it was all built around the same small hub area
I personally don't mind the choice to remove the interconnected world design, it's an amazing feature, but it would feel less special and more repetitive if present in every entry of the trilogy
they wanted more people to buy their game.
I don't agree with it, not able to teleport was so annoying holy shit
Nah
Best is how Elden Ring has those really well done dungeons like Stormveils with plenty shortcuts that are made completely pointless because there are graces at both ends of said shortcut lmao. FromSoft design is really all over the place after Dark Souls 1
13:30 *chills*
This is it. This is the magic. Dark Souls 2 and 3 are fun games. Darks Souls 1 is an *adventure*.
And you captured it perfectly: the stigma around Dark Souls 1 being for "hardcore gamers" is not because of the difficulty, but because it is willing to mercilessly butcher convenience and consistency to maintain its artistic vision.
Dark souls 2 is fun???
@@crazyfriend50 Yes, fun and frustrating
@@crazyfriend50 Ds2 is a game. But you're the one being played
@@crazyfriend50 better than 3
@@crazyfriend50 don't disregard other peoples opinions.
This game feels like a living breathing thing, how organic it is. I played it at 24 years old, and even after having grown up playing alll the classics; The marios, zeldas, half lifes, counterstrikes, warcrafts, etc etc etc, it still catapulted itself into the stratosphere of my personal favorite games.
That likely fake don't send him anything.
I had the same experience, albeit a little younger at 20.
Just absolute genius & a total masterpiece
Bloodborne is my favorite souls game, it was my first platinum trophy and my introduction to the genre. Personally ive never had a tougher boss experience than dark souls 1 dlc. Awesome video!!!!!
Best way to explain that bit with Demon souls is this: Demon Souls is to Dark Souls what Wolfenstein is to Doom. It came first, but the next game improved upon it and got the recognition it needed to cause dozens of games inspired by it to make it a genre.
Ds1 was the first souls game I picked up back in 2012 and I will never have another amazing experience like that, I know that much. It's so unmatched. Based review, Lenny
The best part to me from getting to fire link after blight town was that i've never had gone to new londo ruins because i was not trying to explore everything so when i got to new londo ruins i was shitting my pants because i knew that if i die i was going to go back down again, so when i got to the elevator i was just praying to god that it was a bonfire and then, the music hits... mate i can`t express the feeling i got there, i think i will remember that momment forever, i was 14 when i played dark souls 1 for the first time and i`m 21 now and i still remember that moment dearly.
true joy
That firelink shrine music is just amazing, the feeling of peace and just relief when getting back to firelink shrine after that slog through blight town is a feeling no other game has given me before lol. I love the souls series in general but DS1 has a very special place in my heart :) .
Feels a lot like the resident evil safe room music
I pray one day my editing skills will be even half as good as yours 🥲🙏
all i do is put epic lolcatz on screen i like ur videos theyre comfy xx
You have been blessed, child. Go make the best of it.
Wow this is the crossover we have all been waiting for!
Tye shut up your vids are great
@@benshirtfriends I know his contents amazing! I don't know what he's on about
I am always having a good time hearing somebody talk passionated about there favorite Dark Souls.
If Dark Souls 1 is defining a genre, Dark Souls 2 is "Perfecting a Genre"
10/10 GOAT epitome of gaming. Truly the 'Dark Souls' of Soulslikes
I agree
@@ZeroLenny for some reason there's a translate to English button under SpongeBob, haha
Agreed Patrick
Dark Souls of sequels
I agree with the teleportation segment 100% and I felt the length of it is justified. When you talked about that second bell, and struggling to climb back up to firelink, man I felt that on a spiritual level. The best part of Dark Souls 1 is really before the Lord Vessel. Everything was an uncertainty, there was no assurance that you could win and beat the game. And the thrill, suspense and hype of it all was surreal.
But once you defeat O&S, it's like you've already made it. The hardest parts are over, you are now a lord-to-be just finalizing the last details of your adventure. It's like a well-deserved reward, after the hell you've been through. Dark Souls 1 is definitely the best of trilogy (tho Dark Souls 2 has the most heart!).
A DS1 video?!?!? I won’t complain though. It’s really nice to see!
In your words: “Are you actually taking the fucking scooby doo?! This is amazing!”
Agree with this take a lot. Dark souls stands out as a masterpiece in a time where games were at their creative peak. Elden ring, while fantastic and a culmination of the souls series, just feels like what a modern AAA game should be, and stands out in the sea of corporate greed that has infected the games industry.
That's likely fake I wouldn't send him anything.
nah disagree with your elden ring comment, its far more of a masterpiece than ds1, regardless of when it came out, and i believe your comment applies far more to demons souls than ds1 tbh. demons souls crawled so that dark souls could walk and give the other miyazaki games the ability to run. frankly elden ring flew into orbit.
"and stands out in the sea of corporate greed that has infected the games industry" my man thats irrelevant when calling a game a masterpiece or not. on a game design level, ER is just on another league compared to ds1, even its level design substantially outclasses it, let alone everything else barring music.
"Dark souls stands out as a masterpiece in a time where games were at their creative peak." disagreed IMMENSELY, to an almost mind boggling degree, considering the creative peak was in the ps2 era, when there were more new genres and types of games in those consoles launch years alone than the ps3, 4 and 5 eras combined. also, creative peak in what exactly? gameplay? narrative? i would give you narrative, but gameplay? new genres? new types of games? not even close. besides, the indie genre has some of the most creative experiences ever made to this day. ds1 came out around the time the indie genre was a baby, and tired overplayed genres like diablo-style games and the fps shooter genre was flooding and saturating the industry, very much like how battle royale and ubisoft checklist-style open world games are saturating the industry right now, and then breath of the wild and elden ring came along. frankly speaking i dont even think its the best era, its best we dont act like the most creative era is objective to begin with.
i think elden ring is gonna change open world games pretty much, just like ds1 changed 3rd person rpgs. i believe it will be just as influential as ds1, if not more so, and doesnt just show what a AAA game should be, its an unrivaled triumph of markerless open world design combined with 10 years of extra refined souls mechanics. As a whole, its almost unfair to compare them. now after saying all that, ds1 will always hold a special place in my heart as the one i started with and to a degree, it did build the foundation of souls as we know it, although its fanbase likes to forget every game after it added to that foundation.
Elden Ring is a 6.5 at best. Worst fromsoft game yet. None of the reviewers got past Liurnia and the game got next to 0 playtesting.
@@flamingmanure Before fairly recently open world RPGs had the exact same map system that ER has 😮💨young people acting like fromsoft created the idea because they cams into a cushy ass game era with map markers. That's literally the only difference ER has that other modern RPGs don't is the marker less map cause fundamentally its the exact same formula with subpar, after BB and Sekiro, fromsoft combat thrown in. Calm down kiddo.
Creating a new genre is indeed an incredible achievement, specially in recent years. Even Kojima failed at it trying to create the "stranding" genre.
Likely a fake account don't send him any info.
The feeling of living in a dying world that's just scraps hanging off of a once great civilization in Dark Souls 1 has never been matched. The descent into Blighttown is the best illustration.
Goddamn love you, Lenny. Drawn in by the let's play, staying for new, reviewy, insightful Lenny. Channel has grown and I now have that happy face. I can't belive you've done this! 😃
I love this too. Most genuine and wholesome dude in the community of people who like souls
I am a level 33 gamer, and I am playing video games from the youngest age, because my father was a gamer too, so I know games from very first Prince of Persia, Doom, Baldur's Gate etc.. And I thought I saw everything, and there is nothing that can really amaze me in gaming anymore. Yeah, there are still great games coming out, but nothing really "magic". Yet I never played any Souls game, because all I ever heard about them was that they are hard as f.., which was not really interesting for me. But in 2020, so nearly after a decade from premiere I played for very first time DS1 Prepare do Die Edition and my man... That first playthrough was EASILY the best gaming experience I've ever had! That world, that armosphere, that level design, it just blow my mind. Up to this day I finished that game (as well as DS3 and Elden Ring) several times, and I'm just keep going back to play it again. Amazing game. As a pc gamer I am really dissapont that I cannot play Demons Souls and Bloodborne, yet I still have Sekiro untouched.
Dark Souls 1 managed to do the impossible for me, it made me rethink my favorite game of all time (which was Team Fortress 2). Dark Souls 1 is my favorite game ever and I will always come back to replay it.
The first half of DS1 on my first playthrough was really something else, if I could wipe my memory and relive it again I would in a heartbeat
When I first looked over the silent, moonlit expanse of Darkroot Basin after finally getting past the Burg... that was the moment I knew this game was something special. And when the music for Ash Lake began to play... I can't think of many games that had that powerful of a moment for me.
I also took photos of the time when I first time beat S&O. I didn't get photo of the exact moment they died as I was too busy screaming my lungs out, but I took some immediately afterwards. In the first one, my character is just left standing there dumbfoundedly in the middle of the rubble and you see can that magical +50000 souls being added.
What a moment! What a feeling!
I never saw a video that described my love for this game better than yours. Dark souls 1 is my favorite game in the souls series because of the interconnected world it just feels so real and it builds tension like you described with the purging stone. My fondest memory of the game was being stuck on the gargoyles for one entire day but the triumph afterwards made me a fan of this series for life.
lenny is one of those youtubers who i like the video before even watching it
I like these "analysis" videos, though there usually are many points I disagree with, please keep making them every once in a while
You described the feeling that no teleportation creates so very well. I would have struggled to put it into words
That's likely fake don't give him any information.
Dark souls 1 was so amazing, it made me actually dislike a lot of open world games, seeing how dark souls changed open world gaming and optimized it only highlighted the failures of most open world games to me
I agree. I could never go back to assassins creed again after dark souls.
Too bad elden ring open world is just copy pasted chalice dungeons.
i literally couldn't play any open world after ds1, even elden ring tired me halfway and i just finished to register the end
15:42 one of your funniest bits yet, this is a fantastic video absolute class pal!
Ily Lenny ur the goat bro
Lenny's screenshots at O&S are priceless 👌
Leveled enough strength to one-hand the giant shield BUT STILL uses the Drake Sword-- a dragon weapon which lacks all scaling... love seeing this classic revisited, Lenny, never let yourself go hollow, mate!
Darksouls 1 was without a doubt the best feeling I had right next to Marijuana. It's euphoric and an experience that's just out of this world.
Never played that game, what system is it on?
@@hatefulgaming1800 Marijuana is a console exclusive
@@shaw2024 Damn Pc gamers really taking a fat L on this one.
@@hatefulgaming1800 it's okay we have amphetamines
@@Ryan-op7ydamphetamines are the dark souls of the drug series
1:14 Nah it’s an action game. Monster Hunter did the inertia based combat and impossibly hard boss patterns in 2004.
Dark souls 1 is definitely my favorite, demon souls started off too aggressive for me to get into and steered me away, but DS1 really lets you gradually get use to the kind of game it is. The learning curve is still steep but managable for most players. Finding new ways to get places, and returning to firelink is so fulfilling, and the lack of teleportation makes everthing you do feel so much more weighted. I never felt like the games I play were actually challenging me and DS1 was my first exposure to the kind of game that wants you to succeed. I never even been to blighttown from the sewers either, I always got there some other way. I remember learning about the map and being astounded with the level of intricacy and interconnectivity. Just when the world starts to get too big, is when they give you the lord vessel. Perfect execution of punishing but fair gameplay, that not only interconnects with the story, but the world too. Excellent video, Lenny !!
That's likely fake I wouldn't send him any info.
Nothing compare to the rollercoaster of emotions that is the satisfaction of finally getting out of blightown and hearing the firelink shrine song, just to discover that the very unsuspicious golden boy that was sitting near the firekeeper killed her and you cannot use de firelink bonfire anymore
what a lovely video, It was so nice to re-experience and reminiscing about the first playthrough of the game. The second half of dark souls was a slow decline but i can't help but look back fondly. it is rose tinted glasses and the experience this game has given me will stick with me forever. This whole video just made my day, thank you. :)
I remember using the full black iron armor, black iron greatshield and the zewihander. I also remember doing ng+ because i forgot to do the dlc lmao and that's when i really struggled against orienstiend and smough and the dlc bosses.
Likely a fake account don't send him any info.
@@jordimiller798 yeah, i know. never seen a more obvious scam. i just report them
OG lenny in full havel, giant sword block celebration for O&S triumph is ridiculously wholesome lol
Loved this :)) Can't wait to see dark souls 2 how to kill a Genre aha ;)
You dropped this, King 👑
DS1 = gaming
The feeling of getting back to firelink is when these games really clicked for me I love your videos thank you man
Likely a fake account. Don't send him any info
The realisation of where you are when you go down the elevator from the parish is great
But hearing the Firelink theme after coming up through new Londo and realising where I was after Blighttown? That was pure bliss
Every of the souls games are really different in their own ways, they all seems connected and they are, I just think that dark souls 1 as a very interesting “soul” lol. This game feels and hits different compare to his younger brothers.
My first fromsoft game was Elden Ring.
Dark Souls 1 is objectively the best they have made. Mostly driven by the world design and lack of teleportation.
My favorite is probably a tie between DS1 and Bloodborne
objectively?
Your point on how much the interconnected world makes a difference wasn't long winded at all. It's an extremely important point to make. It's what a lot of us adore about the first game
It’s my favourite game ever. I could start a new character now and have a blast. Only game where I’ve used up every save slot creating characters. One thing that separates it for me from all the others is the sense of atmosphere, the clinking of armour, the grey sky, the cobbled streets of undead burg and the eerie quietness. All the games have excellent world and character design (except 2), but 1 will always feel special to me. Lordran feels like a real place
Ds2 better tbh
@@seansean3659 2 definitely does some things better. All preference really.
@@octagonseventynine1253 facts
Hit the nail on the head my friend
I started the series with DS2 when it came out in 2014. Then I went back to try DS1 and even though it wasn't the first Souls game I played, I instantly clicked with it so hard and still find it endlessly replayable to this day. Each of the games have their own pros and cons, but nothing will suck me back in like DS1 can.
I’m stuck in Sens Fortress rn
Man Sen's Fortress is rough! Confidence is key when dealing with traps, rather than trying to dance around them, timing full sprints through them works really well!
I think no teleportation is what makes Dark Souls so much better than anything else in the series. Also the exploration. I mean, at the start of Dark Souls 3 you literally use a bonfire to teleport to the first area then walk a straight line to the end of the game
I have been chasing the feeling darksouls 1 gave me, it was challenging and mostly felt fair, I could see where I went wrong. However with the experience I got from ds1, none of the sequels feel as challenging. DS felt so rewarding after getting rocked by a boss or an area for a couple hours.
The only game to give me the same feeling as Dark Souls 1 so far is Hollow Knight, which then becomes a much better game at the highest end of difficulty
It's an incredibly hard balance between challenging and fair, and I feel Dark Souls 1 succeeds at that more times pound for pound than any of it's sequels manage to
@@TeddyBear1212121 so you like hollow knight, you must love me too... whats precept 1
I was in the same boat, then I played Bloodborne. What I felt was exactly what DS1 made me feel. DS2 or DS3 didn't do it but Bloodborne is different.
@@TeddyBear1212121 I loved hollowknight probably my favourite metroidvania
An absolute beast of a game,
Absolutely gorgeous
I do love ds1, but everything that made it genre defining is from demon's souls, demon's souls made a new genre, dark souls refined and popularised it.
I mean, the interconnected world and iconic bosses aren't in demon souls.
@@ThyBigCheddar but those two things don't make a genre, notice how i said ds1 refined demon's souls. It's iconic bosses, such as the asylum demon or the gargoyles are simply just ripped from demons souls with a fresh coat of paint, they're just the vanguard demon and the maneaters. Ds1 was popular, and thus those bosses became iconic. Demon's souls was doomed upon release due to sony being a-holes and people not understanding the whole souls concept in japan. And the interconnected world, while amazing, isn't a core of the souls genre. Ds2, Ds3, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Demon's souls are all linear compared to ds1, even games like nioh and jedi fallen order, so i wouldn't say thats genre defining.
I have had this exact discussion about fast travel with other people before. It's genius, is that it creates a quest system, without explicitly having a quest system. If you need to upgrade weapons, farm souls, buy items or whatever, you need to really think about the journey too and from the relevant places. You can't just teleport to a farming spot then teleport to a vendor. And you forgot to mention probably the bravest and coolest design decision I have seen in any game... Just as you are starting to get comfortable with game, the Firelink Shrine Bonfire gets extinguished. Your home base, your resting point on long journeys is taken away from you. Genius. It melted my brain the first time it happened to me. It really helps create the feeling that the world is not created for the players convenience (as with the hub world styles of DS2 and DS3) but is instead this living, breathing place that you just happen to be passing through.
Check out Displate with my link!! You get a cheeky discount for 25% off 1-2 displates, and 29% off 3 or more on anything you buy! There's also a summer sale going on right now til the 26th June where you can buy 1 for 22% off OR Buy 2+ for 33% off!! displate.com/browse-brands/?art=6297d84ac84b4
That DS2 intro cutscene criticism always puzzles me. The game is about the curse and it really sets it up well, i dont even think the “wife” you see melt into mush is explicitly the players, it just stresses that everything which makes people human is taken away by the curse. I really liked the way that cutscene set the tone for the game, it cements a feeling of “wtf is going on and what am I doing here?” which is the entire atmosphere of the game! It’s how the player character and all humans feel in Dranleic, and it does a great job of giving you that feeling. As you progress you learn more about the world around you, yet you’re stuck with that mysterious feeling the whole time. I agree that the DS1 opener cutscene is goat, there’s just a lot of unfair, unironic criticisms of DS2 that don’t make sense to me. Sometimes i feel that people want DS2 to be DS1: 2.
That has always been the complaint: it's not ds1.
Agreed. I do think there are some pretty legit criticisms, but between that complaint and the memes I don’t think the game gets the credit it deserves.
I stopped ranting about DS2 after I played DS3.
after beating elden ring, coming back to dark souls 3 feels like playing dark souls 2
My favorites of the Dark Souls Trilogy:
1. DS2 (+ Best PvP, - Soul Memory)
2. DS1 (+ Best World, - 4D Lock-on)
3. DS3 (+ Best Bosses, - Copy/Paste)
I personally have more hours into DS2 than DS1 and DS3 combined.
I remember ranting about how teleportation sucks under other souls-related videos many months ago, and was so happy seeing this video with Lenny explaining this feeling to everybody else!
(Though getting out of ash lake without teleportation wasn’t very fun)
Likely a fake account don't send him any information.
@@jordimiller798 do not worry, dude :)
i like darksouls 1 but honestly playing it feels like a chore, after finishing it a few times now i can only focus on the stuff i dont like about it because the good stuff doesnt impress me anymore
getting back to firelink shrine from ash lake feels really good XD
The first dark souls may not be perfect but I have way more fun playing that than any of the other souls games.
go tell them tyler xx
@@ZeroLenny You should make a video on Ninja Blade. It's FromSoftware's worst game even worse than dark souls 2.
that screenshot was absolute gold gotta make sure that is saved in the most secure folder so it never goes away
My favorite Dark Souls has to be 3. It was my first and I remember everything like how I used my Farron Greatsword all of the time or how I spent an entire week on Pontiff because I was so bad at the Parry timing
thanks for making this and shining light on legendary ds1. So many great memories which go back to 2012. And years later when I had decent internet, with the remastered version, ds1 became my favorite pvp game as well. Such a great community all around. Sure there are flaws, but ds1 is the game where I really don`t care about them, it will always have a special place in my heart, it's the best!
I tried to get into the souls games with DS1 back when the remaster released but I just couldn't. I gave up multiple times on the road to the taurus demon and basically just said these games aren't for me. But then I finally decided to try again with Elden Ring, and I ended up falling in love with it. So after beating ER, I decided to go try DS1 again and I ended up loving it. Even after playing DS2, original demon souls, and DS3, DS1 has remained my favorite but it does have it problems.
I think DS1 is a perfect example of a game that needs a remake (and not the "barely anything has changed" remaster.) It's an amazing game but it hasn't aged well when compared to DS3 and ER. It has very clunky controls and not as good late game areas caused by a rushed development. I think a good remake that keeps the core of the game but removes some of the clunkyness and redone later areas would really make this the perfect souls game with little to no flaws.
ds1 genuinely was an amazing experience after my 1500+ hours in ds3. im glad i experienced it just before playing elden ring, it made the absolute freedom of that game much sweeter and had me grounded in the roots of the series.
A lot of the issues present in Dark Souls 3's world are also present in Elden Ring's. I sort of was disappointed that fast-travel was available right of the bat once again. Though I understand the themes of these games may be different, immediately available fast-travel still really doesn't feel right to me.
I can't help but feel how genuinely palpable the feeling of perseverance could have been, had Elden Ring not allowed warping. Stuck in the Shaded Castle? Find your damn way out. I'm also not a fan of a lot of the trends it took from Dark Souls 3, but that's a personal gripe.
@@stickystevie9047 in all honesty the game would be shit without fast travel the map is just too big
@@PotassiumLover33 I don't think it'd be shit, but I think it'd be an interesting experience. Something along the lines of a continuous adventure type thing. Always somewhere to go, something to do, etc etc. Plus, you have the horse, so it's not entirely a scuffed thing.
Man hearing that fire link shrine music after going to hell and back is so amazing. Even hearing it now almost makes me emotional.
I played Bloodborne first, but DS1 is just so much more... special. I may love Yharnam just as much today as I did when I first played it, but DS1 resonates with me on a whole different level. I'd hoped that Elden Ring would capture that as well, but honestly, it fell very flat. And, this isn't nostalgia speaking either... I only played Bloodborne and DS1 for the first time last year.
Another notable point on how the lack of teleporting creates a sense of adventure is that encourages you to talk to NPCs. You mentioned how your second trip through an area is enriched by getting to plan for an area based on what you saw, but the other way you might try to plan is to base your knowledge on what the NPCs have told you.
As an example, when you hear that you are going to Anor Londo, the city of the gods, and you heard that the gods used lightning to defeat the dragons, you may choose to pick up some lightning resistant gear before going. You are then rewarded when many of the enemies do lightning damage. In contrast, you have no need to learn that the Old Iron King is going to use fire before going to Iron Keep because you can just warp back and buy some fire resistant gear when you actually see the lava. This is an example of gameplay-story integration, which is pretty universally considered a good (and I might say rare) thing.
That's likely fake don't give him any information.
I really adore your description of how the depths and blight town really give you that feeling of being submerged and so far from home. It's something I just haven't thought about in so long. But yeah DS1 was outright nerve-wracking because of stuff like that. It's because of that feeling as well that I first started just trying to run through entire levels, a combination of doing it for corpse runs back to the boss and just trying to get out of zones.
And the feeling of when you get back to those old areas and absolutely slaughter what used to give you trouble is a feeling like no other. Going back to Andre and being able to backstab or parry all those dudes after getting killed so many times just feels so good. Whereas the linear souls games never give you that feeling of returning to old zones.
Been dodging Elden Ring spoilers waiting on my long delayed copy so haven't kept up on all the new vids so I'm stoked to see a Lenny vid I can actually watch! Good shit, lad!
Watching Lenny with a sword that isn't broken feels like walking in on your parents. There's never gonna be enough therapy to undo what I have seen with these eyes.
Loved the video Lenny! I really enjoy when you use Pokémon music. Somehow it always fits perfectly
That's likely fake don't give him any information.
Man the pokemon music always hits hard with the nostalgia in all of your videos no matter the actual topic ^^ also started the soul series with ds1 though and pretty much feel the same about it. The feel of that first playthrough could never be achieved again. Great vid as always 👍
1 was also my first. I love all the games but the tail cutting mechanic for dragons was my favorite. Now every game I play I always go for the tail first.
Likely a fake account, don't send him any info.
Don't worry Lenny, I also went full havels on my first playthrough. The memories still put a smile on my face even after all this time.
Lenny you thread a fine line between an absolute lunatic Lord of Spice and a very leveled and heartwarming individual. This duality for me at least assures that whatever your cheeky ass posts will always be something that that is worth clicking on. As Dark Souls defined a genre, in your own way you defined your genre as a youtuber. I know I am cheesy but god damn you are a fine fuck.
The teleport thing was absolutely huge for Dark Souls 1 versus the sequels. But I don't know for sure if it can be said that not having it improved or made the sequels worse.
One of the strongest points of FromSoft games were that, if you found yourself struggling against something, you could explore something else in the time being instead of bashing your head against the wall again and again. Not that you HAVE to, its an option. But the important thing was that both options were equally present and equally respected by the game. That's where having the teleport can be very important, and we even see that in Dark Souls 1. Where the path splits is exactly when you obtain the teleporting between bonfires.
In the sequels, you could say it is a failing of the game to require so much teleporting. The Gulch comes to mind; no coming back from that without teleporting. In Dark Souls 3, so much teleporting is necessary because its so linear, and almost never loops back on itself.
But here's the beauty of Dark Souls 1. It didn't need the teleporting, and it knew that as a fact. So it played into that fact, and they played into it beautifully. It was an opportunity to have so much interlinking worlds that you didn't need teleporting. That in itself is a part of the charm of Dark Souls 1, and the respect people have for the interlinking worlds.
I would even go as far claim that Bloodborne could have also done away with teleporting, with exception of Castle Cainhurst. Yharnam was almost as intertwined as Lordran, and sometimes, when the world is so confusing but connected like that, you NEED to feel lost. Feeling lost and confused brings with it that brilliant realization when things all come together.
That moment when you step out of Blighttown and enter the sunken ghosttown that you may have recognized from the start of the game. That moment when you can see Lost Izalith from Tomb of Giants. That moment when you can go to the locked gate of Sen's Fortress, to realize that the rest of the game hides behind its gate.
Irreplaceable.
But not every FromSoft could do this without serious repercussion for the user. And I acknowledge and respect that. But it just makes my respect for Dark Souls 1 that much greater.
Absolutely amazing! I just don’t teleport between outside of firelink bonfires, I started with Bloodborne, then Elden ring, now im on 3 and I love getting to the point you have no flasks, few hits left if you are lucky, miles from the last bonfire, turn a corner and for god sake I’ve actually yelled FUCK YEAH at my TV! 😂😂😂
Deffo getting DS1 from your video, BRING ON THE FUCKING PAIN BROTHER!
Finding a new bonfire in the fast half of darksouls was comforting because it was a new, safe area, but with it came the uncomfortable feeling that you're even further away from home.
I was smiling the whole time during the world section where you described your first journey finding all the shortcuts back to firelink shrine.
aww, Semi Pak's theme at 7:00 just fits so good too, im glad to see yiik once more in the videos!
I think half the playtime of a game is when it haunts you. How often are you thinking about the game afterward? Are you just thinking, "this was good, that was bad?" Dark Souls gives you so much to think about after you put it down, and it's not just pleasure or displeasure. It gives me the same kind of emotional afterschock as reading an incredible book. It combines dungeon crawl RPG design and sensibilities (the resource management, the anxiety, the brutality) with a seamless world and real-time combat. It's hard to pick apart your experience playing something that's testing so much of you at once, and I think that's what makes the game so transcendent.
In a Soulslike, what I'm really looking for is a game that gives you that all-over transcendent feeling. Usually they just give you bonfires and corpse-running. Rarely, they successfully develop stamina-based combat that far exceeds the depth of From Soft's games, which is admirable. But it's not what I'm deep-down yearning for.
It's been a long time since I felt the magic of the genre. Probably not since DS, and BB (I like DS2 as well, but shaddup). You've accurately captured my experience with 1 here. Playing through 3 and ER felt different. Obviously the gameplay loop has been refined, but neither really inspired the same kind of feeling that these ones did. Dark Souls was and remains my favorite game they've put out. It's just built diff'rent.
Seeing a bonfire in ds1 and feel that sense of progression was crack. That bonfire in blighttown on the bridge is something I'll always remember.