Recent reviews by ForgottenLore

RimWorld is a superb colony simulator with an equally superb modding community to add anything you might feel is missing from the base game.

FlowScape is both a useful tool and a wonderfully serene experience. It's great for quickly creating beautiful outdoor maps for D&D and the like, especially with the convenient orthographic view and optional grid overlay. Even if the scene won't be used for anything in particular, I could see this being an excellent way to wind down.

Do note that the controls are a bit unintuitive at first, but they're perfectly usable once you're familiar with them. I'd just recommend looking up a tutorial rather than trying to figure the controls out on your own.

Even though it's still in beta, Wildermyth feels quite polished and has impressively deep character-development mechanics that depend partly on choice and partly on chance. The combat mechanics are fun, but the dynamic characters are what made this game really stand out to me.

Everyone seems to be reviewing the remaster, not the game itself. Given that the original version is no longer available for purchase, it seems someone should post a review of the content in its own right. To that end, an updated version of my original Dark Souls review is below. First, though, I'll briefly address the remaster.


People say it should have been a series of patches, but the remaster changed the engine to allow for 60 FPS. I doubt this would have been possible to achieve without a major update, which would not have been worth FromSoftware's time. I was happy to pay $20 for a renewed online community and the aforementioned framerate. They didn't update the game itself—just the engine, interface, network, graphics, etc.—but they said that would be the case from the start. I think their actions were perfectly reasonable. Others are free to disagree, but that's my take on the situation.


Dark Souls is known for its difficulty. For that reason, people who don't have much patience for retrying an area over and over might be dissuaded from attempting this game. More's the pity: this game is amazing. You will die hundreds of times, perhaps even twenty or thirty times against the same boss (though summoning phantoms can expedite things a great deal), but it's totally worth it. Indeed, the fact that each area will likely take many tries actually adds to the game.

Allow me to explain:

When you begin, you will have to figure out which way to go, as Dark Souls is more or less open-world. (By this I mean that, although you can pretty much go where you like, certain areas need to be unlocked by story progression while others will simply be too difficult to take on until you're stronger.) You will also need to learn how to fight each new type of enemy: you'll need to know its tells before it attacks, how long it remains incapacitated after missing, whether or not an attack can be blocked and/or parried, etc.

How does this initial cluelessness enhance the game? As you attempt an area time and time again, you will gradually come to know it by heart. This feeling of familiarity with the game adds more to the experience than I can say. It's hard to pin down exactly why, but I can say it without reservation.

I once read a review of Dark Souls that claimed the developers could have ruined the game by adding a mini-map. I was dubious about this assertion at first, but after playing the game, I completely understand and agree with the sentiment. The extent to which the game rewards acquired knowledge and skill is unparalleled in my experience.

By the way, when I say "unparalleled," I mean it. I bought Dark Souls II in the hopes that it would be even better, but it's not. It's simply not. For the longest time, I could never get into it, try as I might. I eventually got far enough into it to find it enjoyable, but it still wasn't as good as its predecessor. (Dark Souls III, however, is almost as good as the first installment of the series.) If you want to try out Dark Souls, start with the first game.

Do I recommend it? Yes. Absolutely, yes.

Let me begin by saying that this may well be my favorite game ever. In the six months since its release in North America, I've played it through five times. I'm not bored yet (though I did take some breaks between playthroughs), and the DLC isn't even out yet (though the first one comes out in six days).

I was a huge fan of Dark Souls, and while I won't repeat everything I said about it in my review, much of the same applies. In short, while such a difficult game may sound like a recipe for frustration—and I won't claim it isn't at times—one must also consider the other side of the coin: by punishing lack of experience, the game rewards acquired knowledge and skill to an unparallelled extent. Add to that the perfectly tailored atmosphere, the carefully interconnected world, and the wealth of well-hidden secrets, and you arrive at a masterpiece.

Dark Souls II, on the other hand, was something of a disappointment. Although it was fun, it was nothing compared to its predecessor. However, this was largely because the lead developer of Dark Souls, who had shaped virtually everything about the first game, was busy with Bloodborne during the development of Dark Souls II. Many people worried that Dark Souls III would be a similar experience, but such worries proved unnecessary. Miyazaki, the first game's "brain-parent," so to speak, returned for the third installment and created another wondrous game.

Finally, we have Dark Souls III itself. As I have mentioned, it has much more in common with Dark Souls than it does with Dark Souls II. I'll admit that I prefer the world of Dark Souls over that of Dark Souls III, but the latter subtly reminds the observant player that many of the areas are the same ones present in Dark Souls, only with their beauty faded over the ages. Where Dark Souls fostered a feeling of solitude in a beautiful but unknown land, Dark Souls III strove for, as Miyazaki put it, an atmosphere of "withered beauty." It goes without saying that Dark Souls III has much better graphics, but I still feel more drawn into the world of Dark Souls.

In terms of gameplay, activity of the online community, and general playability, Dark Souls III shines through. I never played Dark Souls while its online community was at its prime, but the fact remains that it currently has rather little in the way of online interaction. Dark Souls III, on the other hand, is quite active, and it will likely remain so to a greater extent as it is the last installment of the series.

If FromSoftware released a remake of Dark Souls [edit: they did, and I'm personally glad despite the controversy] with better graphics, no framerate limit, and—most importantly—a renewed online community, it would likely surpass Dark Souls III in my opinion; I would certainly buy it. However, as things stand, both are among my favorite games, and the modernity of Dark Souls III wins out over the ambiance of Dark Souls.

Overall, 10/10: would did play again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . .

Dark Souls is known for its difficulty. For that reason, people who don't have much patience for retrying an area over and over might be dissuaded from attempting this game. More's the pity: this game is amazing. You will die hundreds of times, perhaps even twenty or thirty times against the same boss (only on the harder bosses, such as Knight Artorias in Artorias of the Abyss), but it's totally worth it. In fact, the fact that each area will likely take many tries actually adds to the game.

Allow me to explain:

When you begin, you will have to figure out which way to go, as Dark Souls is more or less open-world. (By this I mean that, although you can pretty much go where you like, certain areas need to be unlocked by story progression while others will simply be too difficult to take on until you're stronger.) You will also need to learn how to fight each new type of enemy: you'll need to know its tells before it attacks, how long it remains incapacitated after missing, whether or not an attack can be blocked and/or parried, etc.

How does this initial cluelessness enhance the game? As you attempt an area time and time again, you will gradually come to know it by heart. ("Turn right and climb that ladder before fighting the boss." "Is that where the boss is?" "No, that's where the crossbowmen are." "Wow, you're really good to have around.") This feeling of familiarity with the game adds more to the experience than I can say. It's hard to pin down exactly why, but I can say it without reservation.

I once read a review of Dark Souls that claimed the developers could have ruined the game by adding a mini-map. I was dubious about this assertion at first, but after playing the game, I completely understand and agree with the sentiment. The extent to which the game rewards acquired knowledge and skill is unparalleled in my experience.

By the way, when I say "unparalleled," I mean it. I bought Dark Souls II in the hopes that it would be even better, but it's not. It's simply not. For the longest time, I could never get into it, try as I might. I eventually got far enough into it to find it enjoyable, but it still wasn't as good as its predecessor. Again, it's hard to pin down what it is about Dark Souls that's missing from the sequel, but if you want to try out the series, try the first game. (I have high hopes for Dark Souls III, though, as the first game's lead director—Hidetaka Miyazaki—is back in charge. Come on, FromSoft!)

As for the PC port:

The PC port of Dark Souls has a reputation for not working very well, but I've never been bothered by it. That said, a controller is a must for this game; my opinion of the port would be much worse if I hadn't taken this same advice.

Do I recommend it? Yes. Absolutely, yes.