Ummmm, Illinois ninja?

[Cainad (dec.)]

What's the deal with the difficulty? Are we talking about a challenge or just bullshit unfairness?

There is little to nothing in Dark Souls that I would consider "cheap" difficulty.  Compared with, for example, the supposed "Platinum" mode of the ME3 coop, whose chief difficulty lay in the increased spawn budgets for sync-kill enemies, increased enemy health and damage and reduced ammo/grenades for the player.

Instead, the difficulty comes in not giving in to your Leroy Jenkins-like tendency to bullrush and brute force the enemy, since it's an RPG and the whole point in an RPG is to become overpowered as shit, amirite?  Instead, you need to assess the situation, maybe do some lateral thinking, and consider coming back later on, after acquiring certain items.

Nice. I was a bit nervous that it was going to be more the former scenario, which I'm typically not a fan of, since I tend to play video games when I want to unwind. Needing to work up to/plan, etc. killing difficult enemies is more up my alley, even if I occasionally give into the temptation to "just go in and kill all the things! Strategy later!"

From what I can see, your ability to just be smashy increases with grinding. Always a bonus as endgame too.

You can totally become a super-destructive monster in Dark Souls once you level up your stats and improve your equipment sufficiently, but you'll pretty much never become completely invincible. Just about everything that can be increased (hit points, stamina, magic slots, weapon damage, etc) becomes exponentially more difficult to increase and the benefits for increasing them tend to taper off very sharply after a certain point.

Unlike many RPGs, the Action Game aspect of Dark Souls means that it is entirely possible to complete the entire game without ever leveling up, if you are badass/determined enough. I sure as shit couldn't do it, though.

The only thing that I found to be a little wonky in Dark Souls is the rather surprising slipperiness of every single cliff and ledge. Apparently guard rails are not a thing in this fantasy universe, and instead some malicious programming deity has coated all of the ledges in butter.

Other than that, though, it's a rather beautifully designed game that's immensely satisfying to beat.