#4
Change YoY: = My Rating: 9.7 / 10
It's a little weird that a game that is this high on my list was one that I didn't actually really get along with all that well when I first played it. I got maybe eight to ten hours in, didn't really understand the gameplay or the story properly, and just ended up giving up after failing to beat the Bell Gargoyles one too many times. Some years later I watched someone else start a playthrough of the game, and after a while I decided to give the game one more chance before giving up for good. It did look like something I really should enjoy after all, and having watched someone else play for a bit helped me figure out some of those things I had missed earlier. So, I restarted the game, created a new character, and began my journey anew. You can probably guess that the second time around was quite different from the first.
Whatever the reason, this time everything about Dark Souls just clicked into place. The gameplay was challenging but in exactly the right way, as I now had a much better grasp of its intricacies, discovering small fragments of the world's history and lore felt rewarding, and as the game itself slowly opened up and I found new and interesting locations to explore, there was no going back anymore. I knew I was playing something exceptional and special. Later games in the series, as well as other FromSoftware games, have improved upon the gameplay side, but the feeling and atmosphere that Dark Souls conveys is just something unmatched by any other game of its kind.
My top three favourite games have remained the same for over 20 years now, and while it's unlikely that anything will ever change that at this point, Dark Souls got extremely close to doing so. Many of the later Soulsborne games may be better in terms of pure mechanics, but none of that has yet unseated the original Dark Souls from its spot on the top of the genre in my opinion. It's the game that made me fall in love with the whole genre after all, and the one I still compare all others of its kind to this day.
