Dark Souls (2011) - The Gods’ Plan Challenge (Patreon)

After the surprise success of Demon’s Souls, From Software and Bandai Namco decided to double down on their success. This time, the team was allowed to make their own game from the ground up rather than just kill themselves salvaging what may have been the worst game of 2009 if not for their intervention. While they may have run into budgetary and deadline issues that account for the game’s notorious backhalf, it is safe to say that 2011’s Dark Souls was an improvement on its immediate predecessor in every single way. 

This week, Spencer joined me to discuss the game that launched millions of utterly repellant webcomics, billions of the most annoying posts of all time, and marks perhaps the highest point in level and world design the modern catalog has ever seen. The game is obviously not without faults. I never had the misfortune of playing Blighttown on Xbox 360, frame drops and all. I cannot defend Bed of Chaos. I truthfully expected some of the game’s more hated sections to wear on me as they did my first couple playthroughs. Instead, I ended up having possibly the most fun I ever had removing my grip socks in the Northern Undead Psych Ward and choosing between the Primordial Serpents AIPAC and J Street. If you haven’t played this game, I cannot recommend it enough. Then again, there are a lot of psychos who listen to these incredibly long episodes and make it a point of pride to never even touch the games we’ve wasted years of our lives on. So do what you want, I guess.