Late to the Party #1 - DARK SOULS is an NES Game
I played through Dark Souls for the first time this past summer and I absolutely loved it.
When it released on Switch in October 2018, I knew I wanted to pick it up because so many people I know loved the game. But I also heard it was brutally difficult and I wasn’t sure if I would like the gameplay. So I waited a bit and eventually picked it up on sale, but it sat in my Switch backlog for years.
Years later, a bite-sized little Souls-like called Ashen went on sale for about $3; so I jumped in. After a few hours of getting my bearings and coming to grips with the gameplay loop, I couldn’t get enough of it.
So enter summer 2025, I wanted a nice epic to play during the warm months and I selected Dark Souls from my backlog to be that game.
After having invested over 90 hours into the game, I can say it was one of the most rewarding NES-type game experiences I’ve had in a long time. What do I mean by NES game?
Well, an NES game is akin to how games were back on the NES. They were ball-bustingly HARD. The only way to get good was by doing reps, over and over, until you discovered the boss pattern or found the best route through a particular level. Games were very punishing. You got limited lives and limited continues. Games wanted you to lose; purposely trolling you.
I got this feeling back with Breath of the Wild back in 2007. BOTW was a breath of fresh air for me relative to earlier 3D Zelda’s, which Nintendo made for babies in terms of difficulty. I cannot tell you how great it was to actually DIE in a Zelda game again. NES Zelda was no joke. Enemies hit HARD, taking several hearts/HP per hit. BOTW did an amazing job making Zelda challenging again and stopped treating gamers, or long time Zelda fans like myself, like newbs who need handholding.
Now what I love about Dark Souls is that it INDULGES in NES game tropes; and it does so UNAPPOLIGETICALLY. For example, compared to BOTW, Dark Souls is much more punishing. For starters, you can only save at bonfires. And when you die, you have to get all the way back to where you were - and don’t even get me started on how devastating it can be to lose all your souls if you fail to do so. This save system and the potential of losing all of your currency for good upon death are two elements that make the game extremely challenging. Dark Souls would not be a hard game if the player could save scum, for example.
I got stuck in the game twice - both times hitting what seemed to be an almost insurmountable wall.
Sen’s Fortress was particularly tough for me to get through. I felt like I was getting trolled left and right with very cheap deaths that frustrated me to no end (those damn boulders!). And the swinging pendulum blades were the death of me several times. I can’t tell you how many times I would get to the very end; that very last catwalk to complete the area just to be knocked off the ledge by one of those swinging pendulum blades.
was in complete disbelief when I got to Ornstein and Smough. I actually have to fight BOTH OF THEM TOGETHER!? Needless to say, I got stuck here the longest!
At this point, I felt the challenge was almost insurmountable! Fighting TWO bosses at the same time!? But I didn’t give up. I spent probably 10 hours in Anor Londo alone just grinding souls to boost my stats to an acceptable level. I eventually beat them silly. It was the most rewarding challenge in the game for me!
I respect From Software for having the testicular fortitude to make this ball-bustingly punishing game. They really could have alienated a lot of people with this. The game can be very frustrating. But overcoming the challenges laid out for you (like making it through Sen’s Fortress and finally beating Ornstein and Smough) make the gameplay loop so deeply rewarding.
While BOTW (and subsequently Tears of the Kingdom) are NES games as well, they’re not nearly as punishing as Dark Souls. In BOTW, unlike Dark Souls, you can save anywhere at any time and you aren’t penalized for dying at all. And the Zelda devs don’t do things like make you fight a lynel and guardian at the same time in closed quarters - but Dark Souls most certainly would!!
My only real gripe with the game is the number of thin ledges and catwalks you’re required to navigate while the character maintains the same running animation regardless. It constantly made me feel like I was about to fall off, which created unnecessary anxiety for me! It would’ve been nice if the developers had included a distinct shimmy or careful-walk animation for these moments to better match the environment.
Here are my final stats for the game:
Started: 5/20/25; Ended: 8/30/25
•Play Time: 93:32:28
•Level: 108
•HP: 1347
•Stamina: 192
•Vitality: 31
•Attunement: 14
•Endurance: 40
•Strength: 22
•Dexterity: 40
•Resistance: 22
•Intelligence: 12
•Faith: 10
In the end, Dark Souls reminded me why I fell in love with games in the first place. It doesn’t hold your hand, it doesn’t care about your comfort, and it refuses to compromise its vision. Like the best NES-era games, it demands patience, discipline, and humility; and then rewards you with an unmatched sense of accomplishment when you finally overcome what once felt impossible. Dark Souls isn’t hard for the sake of being hard; it’s hard because mastery means something here. And in an era where so many games are afraid to let players fail, that unapologetic commitment to challenge felt so refreshing.
