Quote from: Christopher Brady;968336I'm not pissed at the game.  I'm actually confused at how easily fooled the younger generations are.  Are there no actually 'hard' or 'challenging' games anymore that people are willing to be tricked into thinking that waiting and cheap tricks are 'difficulty'?

I've found the game difficult only the first playthrough, then it gets pretty easy (well, for the most part). Which leads me to your second point..

QuoteTo be honest, I like the idea behind Dark Souls.  But it's built on lies and tricks.  People claim it's about exploration, but there are places you shouldn't go, because you won't survive it. That's not exploration, that's funneling into a linear progression path.

That is true for your first playthrough but false from here onwards, because once you learn the game mechanics the "impossible" areas open up right from the beginning (like New Londo, Cathacombs or Lower Burg in first game, Nightmare Frontier and Hunter's Nightmare in Bloodborne, Lothric Castle in third, etc). Besides that, there is so much optional side-stuff (items, levels, bosses) everyplace that, even if you were right, the game would still reward exploration. So, I disagree with your argument of "false exploration".

Other than that, I agree with you that the game gained a fame for difficulty that's misleading. It's a simple game of learning patterns (or puzzles, as Voros said). I particularly love Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, and find these games the best thing to come out in a very long time, but I admit part of it is related to it's intangibles (the environmental storytelling, the lack of exposition/deductive quality of it's plots, the moody atmospheres, tension and sense of accomplishment when fighting bosses, etc).

Blade of the Iron Throne?

That D&D rip off Mearls wrote?

Not sure why anyone would want to emulate Dark Souls combat but hey to each their own.