JK Reviews: Dark Souls

[Julianking93]

Platforms: Ps3, Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: M
Developer: From Software
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Release Date: Sept. 22, 2011 (Japan), Oct. 4, 2011 (US), Oct. 7, 2011 (EU)
Genre: Fucking hard Action-RPG​

Fear is such a strong tool to use in interactive mediums. Given that it can derive from multiple points and sources, it more or less becomes a perfect way to evoke raw emotion from people. Possibly the foremost way to build such fear is by casting an air of tension so thick, it becomes palpable. Not grotesque imagery, not flashy jump scares accompanied by an obnoxious screech but slow burning tension that keeps your heart racing beginning to end. Back in 2009, From Software's Demon's Souls became not only a prime example of outstanding gameplay in terms of challenge and reward but in creating a tension that did nothing but build as the player progressed. After the sleeper success of their previous title, From Software has gone all out in developing a world that makes Demon's Souls feel like a game made for a child and one that is just as brilliant as it is inspired.

When describing Dark Souls to someone, on paper it sounds very simplistic and traditional, almost to a fault. The player creates their character by picking a class, leveling up, dungeon crawling, treasure hunting, grinding and raising their stats according to how they wish to play. This explains the core elements of gameplay but doesn't capture what it's like to truly experience it in the slightest.

On your right, death. On your left, more death.​

The world presented is a bleak and dreary one, casting an air of hopeless despair onto the game world, much like Demon's Souls did before. The story isn't the driving force behind the game and isn't something even inherently obvious, but it isn't nonexistent. In the beginnings of the world, dragons held sole dominion until there was fire and light and along with it, humanity and the Souls of Lords who challenged rule of the dragons, soon ending their reign. The flames of life are slowly fading and humanity is turning to undead hollows where they are led to the north lands to await the end of the world. You, however are the chosen undead, said to ring the two bells of awakening and bring about a new age to the world.



This story isn't something pinnacle to the game itself and is something that most gamers can, and most likely will, simply ignore. There are only a handful of cutscenes to remind the player that there is an overarching storyline and a reason for taking part in such a perilous quest. It presents its story in a similar fashion to its spiritual predecessor in that, while it isn't the central element to the game's enjoyment, it is something that exists on a surprisingly deep level if you look closely enough. Despite my previous complaints to games that present very little in the way of story, Dark Souls presents its minimal narrative in such a way to ensure what sparse plot points are given keep the player hooked throughout.


What keeps the story alive is the beautifully presented world that shines brightly even through its disparity. It's surprising to see how a game with such a scarce story can have such a monumental affect on the player. Like its predecessor, Dark Souls offers gamers a brutal and unforgiving world that is seemingly determined to induce fits of rage within the first few hours of gameplay. Whereas most modern games tend to take you by the hand and safely guide you from one side to the other, Dark Souls slaps your hand away and demands you run towards oncoming traffic. The game does this to a point of near perfection by allowing merciless challenge to thrive and even to the point of absolute infuriation but never letting it slip into the realm of abjuring.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit...​

This is where the aforementioned tension and fear come into play. By cramming you into claustrophobic and dismal corridors with monstrous and disgusting creatures that can easily take you down without issue. From these dimly lit passageways to the bright and open castle grounds, every enemy is out to end your life as quickly and as frequently as possible without remorse. This is made more challenging as the game starts off the player completely under leveled and without much hope of getting passed simple enemies but this is when Dark Souls becomes demanding and requires the player to grind their way up through levels, becoming more powerful to take on bigger baddies or to press on, learning from your mistakes as you die again and again with an unwavering sense of determination to beat the game's arse. Some of the best fun to be had in the game is leveling up to a moderately high level and utterly destroying weaker enemies once you learn the tricks of the game.


Where this game differentiates from its predecessor is where it shines the most, however. Rather than having distant lands connected through a central location, the world of Dark Souls is seamlessly and brilliantly connected with next to no gaps between areas save the upper city and the lower kingdom. This brings a more immersive atmosphere, taking ques games like Symphony of the Night where the player is able to go virtually anywhere they wish, to explore the ruins and discover the secrets of the connected areas from the haunting, fog shrouded forests of the Darkroot Garden to the sunlit rooftops of the golden, forsaken city, Anor Londo.

Nothing feels better than critical kills on these bastards​

Gone now is the central hub of safety that was The Nexus. This system has since been replaced with bonfires, scattered throughout the world that serve as a small place of rest and meditation between stents of shouting at the television and throwing your controller against the wall. Here, the player can level up, spend souls repairing or forging equipment (after the proper tools are purchased first) and attuning their magic.

Also added to this is the new "humanity" system to replace the soul system of Demon's Souls. Rather than having your health bar halved, you turn to a simple undead. Now, this has no real ramifications to gameplay other than changing the character's appearance and enabling you to summon help from other online players or to be invaded but it adds a sense of relief when finally being able to revive yourself back to human form.

This brings me to the online system brought over from before. There is no real interaction between players such as team-speak seen in other online games. Rather, players communicate through messages formed from predetermined sentences in order to cut down on trolling, I'd assume. Nevertheless, this system works well by allowing useful information to be shared from player to player like the location of certain items or hints on how to defeat a specific enemy. Players can also be seen as ghostly images throughout the playthrough, giving a small sense of hope in the fact that you're not alone in your adventure.

Along with this comes the summon system mentioned before. Other gamers can leave their summon signs to assist players with difficult bosses, adding an extremely entertaining cooperative element to gameplay. One new addition to the this is the existence of a covenant system. Virtually every NPC you meet that isn't a merchant of some kind is a member of a particular covenant, one of nine that the player can choose to enter if they wish. You don't lose anything by not joining but you gain opportunities for possible loot and rewards for serving the covenant, which is integrated into the online system. Other members of different covenants will attack yours and it's up to you to defend it. By doing so, you gain both souls and rewards that can greatly aid you on your quest.

I'm in ur gaem. Testin' ur patience.​

Unfortunately, this also means the invasion system from before is back, wherein anytime you're in human form, you're taking the possible risk of being invaded by a black phantom who will likely be a primary cause of more fits of anger when some asshole comes along and fucks up your game after they kill you for an abundance of souls and this isn't only limited to covenants. Personally I've only been invaded a few times but the times it's happened, I've had my arse officially handed to me by players with better equipment but rather than causing me to give up, it instead made me grit my teeth and seek revenge in any form I could, adding a new level to the game entirely.

Now, it's easy for a game to claim challenge but it's another level entirely to offer it in such a way that doesn't reach a point of "cheap" that many gamers dread. Demon's Souls was able to perfectly come to a balance of being difficult without cheating its way to challenge. Dark Souls on the other hand, lacks this quality overall. While the challenge is still there, and as promised from the developers is cranked up to 11, it unfortunately manages to come across as unfair. Too many times did I find myself in a situation I couldn't pass unless I was ridiculously over-leveled. A horde of enemies flocking towards you with no way of defeating them all at once does not make for fair gameplay. There's even one section where you're expected to take on literally ten previously faced boss characters at once and that was only as far as I could get before I gave up after seeing yet another mass on the level below me. This can be put off on the game's exploration aspect and I simply went the wrong way but with no clear direction on where to go, I can't be the only player who faced similar problems such as finding myself drowning in pools of poison while being overwhelmed by what appeared to be hallucinating crack addicts with a sword who saw me as the physical manifestation of their worst nightmare come to rob them of all joy and cupcakes... or something like that.

...Nice doggie...​

Regardless of this, the game is not perfect and presents flaws that cannot go unnoticed. Among these include the previously stated difficulty issues but also technical problems such as extreme drops in framerate and screen-tearing that could have been easily fixed if release was delayed a week or so. In fact, the recent patch has seemingly fixed these problems entirely, but it still is an issue that bugged the hell out of me when playing for the first time and having action come to a literal crawl on several occasions, breaking any beauty to be seen in the game's wonderfully crafted world.

Aside from a few minor issues that mostly lie in technicalities, Dark Souls is a magnificently made game that nearly verges on being perfect for what it is. It presents a beautifully bleak world that shines even through its disparity while creating gameplay that's not only challenging but both addicting and rewarding. It blends not only intense action with traditional RPG elements, but is able to harmonise these fundamental details with such a deep sense of desolation and isolation that it can even be compared to some of the best horror games out there. Even though it may border on the extreme in terms of difficulty and occasionally slaps unnecessarily arduous gameplay in the face of under-leveled characters, depending on how much the player puts into the game, it very well could be one of the most rewarding experiences of the past few years.

Spoiler: Rating

[HEADING=1]5 Stars[/HEADING]​

Spoiler: Other JK Reviews

Movies:
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Games:
Bayonetta [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.169030-JK-Reviews-Bayonetta-Warning-May-Contain-Spoilers] I Game of the Year 2009 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.163760-Celebration-for-My-5000th-post-Game-of-the-Year-awards] I God of War III [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.182952-JK-Reviews-God-of-War-III] I NieR [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.203204-JK-Reviews-NIER] I Castlevania: Lament of Innocence [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.206361-JK-Reviews-Castlevania-Lament-of-Innocence] I Maximo: Ghosts To Glory [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.212014-JK-Reviews-Maximo-Ghosts-To-Glory] I Kingdom Hearts [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.229506-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Kingdom-Hearts] I Kingdom Hearts II [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.230725-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Kingdom-Hearts-II] I Assassin's Creed Brotherhood [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.248762-JK-Reviews-Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood] I Top 12 Games of 2010 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.252471-JKs-Top-12-Best-Games-of-2010] I Bioshock [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.262110-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Bioshock] I Fallout: New Vegas [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.266849-JK-Reviews-Fallout-New-Vegas] I Silent Hill 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.270928-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Silent-Hill-2] I Dragon Age 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.276414-JK-Reviews-Dragon-Age-II] I Infamous2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.300006-JK-Reviews-InFAMOUS-2#comment_form] I Catherine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.312121-JK-Reviews-Catherine] I Deus Ex: Human Revolution [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.314275-JK-Reviews-Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution]

Music:
Equilibrium's ReKreatur [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.204108-JK-Reviews-Equilibrium-ReKreatur] I Devin Townsend's Deconstruction & Ghost [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.307243-JK-Reviews-Devin-Townsend-Deconstruction-Ghost]

Remember, that I am now taking requests for reviews, so any suggestions for future reviews or lists you may have, please let me know via PM or in the replies to this review.

 

[Grey_Focks]

1) Awesome review! Agreed on everything, though I'd also add online issues to the bad list. The number of times I've seen "failed to summon" or "failed to invade" is just crazy.

2)Holy crap, a game you an I agree is awesome. I remember this not happening last year...

3)...there was a patch? Really? When did it come out? Was it only on PS3 or something, because the 360 version could still use a nice patch of it's own.

 

[Casual Shinji]

There's even one section where you're expected to take on literally ten previously faced boss characters at once and that was only as far as I could get before I gave up after seeing yet another mass on the level below me.

I remember the first time I came across that area very well.

Seeing 7 Capra demons guarding your way to the Boss is something not easily forgotten. But then, what do you expect from a place called the "Demon Ruins"? This is like thé hot joint where all the Boss demons come together for brews and share stories about which puny warriors they ground into dust today.

Honestly, the most impressive moment for me in the game was meeting Princess Gwennevere... Christ, was she a sight for sore eyes after all the hardships I'd endured to get there.

Terrific review, by the way.

The number of times I've seen "failed to summon" or "failed to invade" is just crazy.

The type of Covenant you belong to also factors into how well you can summon or invade. If you belong to The Way of The White you've got the best chance to summon or be summoned, and the least chance of being invaded.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I honestly feel the humanity system was very silly.

It seems to offer little benefit and I don't care if I lose it in my full-face helmet.

Good review, even if I ain't gonna beat this game until 2012 thanks to Batman, Battlefield, MW3, and Skyrim.

 

[Julianking93]

3)...there was a patch? Really? When did it come out? Was it only on PS3 or something, because the 360 version could still use a nice patch of it's own.

I own the Ps3 version so I'm not sure if it's solely on Ps3 but the patch I got fixed up any framerate issues I might have had before, even though it can still slow down from time to time when there are a lot of enemies on screen.

Thanks for commenting! Glad you liked it :3

Seeing 7 Capra demons guarding your way to the Boss is something not easily forgotten. But then, what do you expect from a place called the "Demon Ruins"? This is like thé hot joint where all the Boss demons come together for brews and share stories about which puny warriors they ground into dust today.

Not to mention the several Taurus demons on the left of that area that I didn't even inch towards out of fear of getting murdered. x_x
Now that I'm up to level 80 though, I think I might give that area another try.

And yes... Gwenevere.... *sweats* Wow. That was quite awesome. Shame though that she's

Spoiler

merely an illusion cast by Lord Gwyn and it's revealed if you try to kill her. She simply fades away and everything becomes dark. Bastard game just toys with my feelings ;~;

I honestly feel the humanity system was very silly.

I think it was too but it still was nice being able to summon people to help in human form. That's what they did before in Demon's Souls. Soul form = no summons but there, it had a more adverse affect, but oh well. At least it gave me an excuse to farm for humanities and the like.

 

[My name is Fiction]

Good review as always.
I won't play it but someone will, saying it is harder then demon souls is no compliment.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Seeing 7 Capra demons guarding your way to the Boss is something not easily forgotten. But then, what do you expect from a place called the "Demon Ruins"? This is like thé hot joint where all the Boss demons come together for brews and share stories about which puny warriors they ground into dust today.

Not to mention the several Taurus demons on the left of that area that I didn't even inch towards out of fear of getting murdered. x_x
Now that I'm up to level 80 though, I think I might give that area another try.

The Taurus gang on the left are one-shot monsters like the armor plated boars - After you killed one it won't return even after you die.

And yes... Gwenevere.... *sweats* Wow. That was quite awesome. Shame though that she's

Spoiler

merely an illusion cast by Lord Gwyn and it's revealed if you try to kill her. She simply fades away and everything becomes dark. Bastard game just toys with my feelings ;~;

Aw man, I didn't know that. That sucks!

But right now I'm kinda suffering from Dark Souls fatigue. I've been playing the game for about 2 weeks now, and at the moment I'm sandwiched between Seath the Scaleless who is way out of my league, the Catacombs that I'm too much of a chicken to enter, and the Four Kings Boss fight.

 

[Julianking93]

[The Taurus gang on the left are one-shot monsters like the armor plated boars - After you killed one it won't return even after you die.
Aw man, I didn't know that. That sucks!

But right now I'm kinda suffering from Dark Souls fatigue. I've been playing the game for about 2 weeks now, and at the moment I'm sandwiched between Seath the Scaleless who is way out of my league, the Catacombs that I'm too much of a chicken to enter, and the Four Kings Boss fight.

Oh... huh, I didn't know that. I mean, I hoped it would be but wasn't sure since the Capras seemed to respawn still.

Though, yeah that is a pain but it brings a new dynamic I thought to the story.
Well not so much of a new level as more of "Gwyn's a fucking asshole" XD

Ah yeah, Seath wasn't too hard for me but that's probably because I checked a video walkthrough before the fight. Though, the Catacombs aren't too bad if you have the light spell.
When you go to fight the Hydra, you can run to the back of the lagoon into a large open space. If you quit the game there and restart, a golden golem will be there. Kill him and you free Dusk of Oolacille. She's a non-lethal sorceress who sells stealth spells and the light spell which works wonders in the Catacombs. Then you can at least equip your shield.

 

[Casual Shinji]

When you go to fight the Hydra, you can run to the back of the lagoon into a large open space. If you quit the game there and restart, a golden golem will be there. Kill him and you free Dusk of Oolacille. She's a non-lethal sorceress who sells stealth spells and the light spell which works wonders in the Catacombs. Then you can at least equip your shield.

I did already free her, but the moment she had her say she vanished. I figured she would end up at the Firelink Shrine like most of the other npc's, but I haven't come across her yet. Unless ofcourse she's settled in some remote outcove of the Shrine that I missed.

 

[Julianking93]

I did already free her, but the moment she had her say she vanished. I figured she would end up at the Firelink Shrine like most of the other npc's, but I haven't come across her yet. Unless ofcourse she's settled in some remote outcove of the Shrine that I missed.

Ah, that explains it. She's a bit different to find.
She doesn't appear anywhere. You have to find her summon sign at the front of the lagoon near the rock on the right side. Difficult to find but since it's in shallow water, you can kinda see it but I had to rely on the little icon popping up telling me to summon someone there.

 

[KaWaiiTSuKI]

Very nice review.
Didn't notice any flaws in grammar nor was there any wording I would have changed.
Only problem I saw was the third paragraph had a rather long sentence that could have been shortened down when you were describing the story but that's one small mistake out of this entire review, so good on ya for that!
I wholeheartedly agree though, here. It's a great game and I've just beaten Smough and Ornstein, fought off Lautric, brought back Anastasia (poor girl ;~, leveled up a fair bit, killed the Hydra and been given the task of

Spoiler

presenting the Souls of Lords back to the Lordvessel by Kingseeker Frampt

but I'm completely stuck right now. I'm going on to kill Sif right now but I do NOT wish to proceed. The Ruins of New Londo fucking terrify me, I'm too chicken shit to even think about traversing the Catacombs and I have no idea where to find Seath the Scaleless. I heard he was in Crystal Caves but... where the fuck is that? 0_o

 

[Valagetti]

Do you get paid to do reviews... because you should, christ that looks professional! Like the joker said, 'If you can do something good, don't do it for free!'

 

[McNinja]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I really don't see what was good about Demon's Souls, and by association Dark Souls. When I played Demons Souls, the controls were sluggish, the stamina bar was needlessly small (why it is even there is another thing altogether), and general suffered from an inflated difficulty level. By that I mean that if you removed the stamina bar and the character moved as fast as a regular person, the game would have been a lot easier. The challenge rested in being able to move your slow ass out of the way in time, then back to hit, then dodge, then hit, then dodge, then hit. While that sort of gameplay is quite common (not many games stray from that formula), the oppressive nature of Demon's Souls and the needlessly bad controls dragged that game down like a lead anvil. Nothing about the game was enjoyable.

There are two ways to make a game difficult, one is like Ninja Gaiden (on the Xbox), where the gameplay is fast, smooth, and offers many possibilities in terms of weapons (and thus weapon combos), and the bosses present a challenge, not a chore and the other way is the opposite, where you play a lumbering asthmatic who learned how to swing a sword yesterday, and the game plays more like an essay where the professor keeps telling you to redo it without telling you whats wrong with it, or what he is looking for. Eventually, you'll get it right, but in the meantime it's just a load of bullsh*t.

 

[Lost In The Void]

Since I haven't completed Dark Souls myself due to a bricking Xbox that has crippled my gaming time by large margins, I am here instead to focus on what you can do to better improve your reviewing overall. Please note that even if my critique comes off as cold, nitpickish, or just plain dickish, remember that I wouldn't even bother if I didn't think that the improvements I suggested could be completed by you.

The writing itself is solid, maybe even above average to what you see normally on the review boards. There are a few language choices I would do differently. Awkward sentences such as the ones I will cite below take away from the review's flow in general and sell short the rest of your fairly well written piece.

Where this game differentiates from its predecessor is where it shines the most, however.

Personally I've only been invaded a few times but the times it's happened, I've had my arse officially handed to me by players with better equipment but rather than causing me to give up, it instead made me grit my teeth and seek revenge in any form I could, adding a new level to the game entirely.

The first sentence could have been reworded in itself to something such as, "The game's differences from its predecessor, prove to be its greater strengths; traits that raise it above the previous game."

Another lazier fix could have been simply removing the 'however' as it is the word that destroys the sentence at its end.

The second sentence, while being technically, not a run-on sentence, has the feel of a particularly stretched one. A way I would have reworded it would be as such, "While I was only invaded a few time, they proved to be difficult and I was defeated several times. While normally this would feel cheap and cause annoyance or even a reason to quit the game, I instead grit my teeth and sought revenge. This particular element of the game brought it to a new level for me."

From what I can tell by these quotes, some of your writing suffers from trying to add advanced language to the piece where it doesn't belong. Sometimes simple language is better than intricate language. At other points, such as the latter point, its simply a case of trying to add too much into one sentence. Remember that in its most basic form a sentence boils down to the subject and describing the subject. By adding more than one subject, you stretch the sentence and lose its original point.

While your language could use some work, I find the largest offences in the review is your use of images and the captions attached. The general format of the review could also use some work. When it comes to adding images, size is an important factor. If one uses too large of images, it takes away from the writing itself. I find that several images used in this review were much too large and broke up the review unnaturally and destroyed the flow in several cases. I have always been a fan of the inline effect as well, it allowing for subtle captions while avoiding conflict with other written words. Another effect is the organized look it give your images encasing them in a border that distinguishes them without taking up the show from the writing.

I would suggest using code to resize images and insert captions via the _inline caption code. I would also suggest working on the wording in your captions as well. While a couple subtle jokes at internet trolling and leetspeek would not go amiss in the review, overuse of such a trope is a problem that can easily occur.

As far as things go, this review is a great start and stands above some of the pieces I have seen in the board. However it is in need of serious improvements if you, as a writer, want to stand out purely as a writer and not just because of the game you're writing about. This is encouragement to continue working on your reviewing. Keep writing, keep reviewing and never stop trying to improve in your pieces.

LITV

 

[Julianking93]

snip

Ah, thankie!
As for what to do... Seath is really fucking hard. Crystal Caves are in the back of the Darkroot Basin, I believe, right out around the area you fight Sif but the enemies there aren't too difficult. That's extremely deceptive though as Seath is one of the toughest bosses in the game. You'll probably want to level up a bit before you go there. What build are you and what lvl are you at now?
Also, yes... poor Anastasia. One little bit that I thought brought character to the game's world. Evil fuckers, they are. >:[

Do you get paid to do reviews... because you should, christ that looks professional! Like the joker said, 'If you can do something good, don't do it for free!'

I... wow. 0_0
My self esteem has shot through the roof from this. Thank you!
And no, I don't get paid for this, obviously. I do it just so people can read it and provide useful information for people... BWAHAHAHA. Sorry, I can't say that with a straight face XD
But yeah, I do want to pursue this as a career but I do it so I can help people out with decisions on games too :3

snip

That's part of the point, I felt in Demon's Souls. The stamina bar was just something that pretty much is present in all RPGs but it added more difficulty when it staggers you. As for it being cheap... well, I can only assume that you were playing as a heavy build where your stamina is ridiculously low and you're in heavy armour, meaning it depletes it faster and you move slower. If you go for a lighter build, the difficulty isn't as high when it comes to movement and the same goes for Dark Souls. Plus, you can always level up your endurance to get faster and stronger.

It's funny though that you mention Ninja Gaiden as I was just comparing the difficulty in that with this to someone else. Ninja Gaiden's difficulty felt, not only artificial but easy to overcome. The enemies had set patterns that you could figure out and work against. A few hits, a dodge and they repeat the animation, making it easy to just dodge for a bit then attack while they're vulnerable. Dark Souls felt more random, which isn't necessarily a good thing seeing as when enemies are purely random, that leaves no room for strategy but there was an element of strategy involved, I felt. Namely through observing the enemy's actions you can tell what they're going to do next. Besides, most baddies here telegraph the fuck out of their attacks 10 minutes before they even do it so it's not too hard to dodge.

I guess we're on opposite ends of the spectrum here seeing as everything you critique about Dark/Demons' Souls, I felt the same way about Ninja Gaiden, but oh well

snip

Aaaaaaaaaaand self esteem boost gone ;~;

I'll just make a few mentions to what you had to say here, though.

In terms of layout and formatting, that's the part I struggle on the most and that typically takes the longest amount of time when posting these. I do use code commands, by the way. Quote my review and you'll see I typically set it at "width=450" or something like that and I usually fuck with it a lot before I post it. Perhaps it's because I use an Apple and it looks better on my screen but I don't particularly notice anything wrong with it other than one picture messing with paragraph placement.

As for adding intricate language... I'm not entirely sure what you mean. I'm not trying to add really anything other than how I typically describe something. I tend to write how I normally speak.... maybe I use too many big words in my speech without realising it then >.<

Anyway, besides that... what did you think of the actual game itself?
Oh and what part where you on before Microsoft pulled yet another dick move with their shoddy systems? XD

 

[KaWaiiTSuKI]

As for what to do... Seath is really fucking hard. Crystal Caves are in the back of the Darkroot Basin, I believe, right out around the area you fight Sif but the enemies there aren't too difficult. That's extremely deceptive though as Seath is one of the toughest bosses in the game. You'll probably want to level up a bit before you go there. What build are you and what lvl are you at now?
Also, yes... poor Anastasia. One little bit that I thought brought character to the game's world. Evil fuckers, they are. >:[

Ah, in my absence here, I found the bastard and gave him what for.... after about 20 tries of attempting to get the bastard's tail x_x
Oh and I'm at lvl 80 something right now I think. Just barely enough to get passed Sif and Seath without too much difficulty. Had to leave Seath and go farm for a bit before I could really do any damage. Lightning Uchigatana does wonders on his arse XD

 

[AwkwardTurtle]

I enjoyed reading the review. It was very well written.

Thanks~^^

I ended up looking for a Dark Souls review by a user after Marter pointed out that not enough people check out the User Reviews section. I'm glad I took a look.