In Elden Ring the player expends a portion of their Focus Point or FP bar to cast spells. In Dark Souls, each spell has a specific number of casts before it must be recharged by resting at a Bonfire. Weaker spells, like Soul Arrow have thirty charges, while the best spells, like the Crystal Soul Spear only have four. You'd still rather have those four than thirty. Sif, the Great Grey Wolf, fell to three Soul Spears.
I played Dark Souls with Sorceries and a weapon, Velka's Rapier. This rapier is attuned to the player's Intelligence stat, which is the source of Sorcery damage. Magic is powerful enough that it feels like a gimmick. But it is also clunky to use. The range of spells gives the player an advantage against enemies, but casting a spell causes the player to stand stationary for a short time. They can't dodge or block during this time. As mentioned above, sometimes spells don't function like they should. But when they do, they inflict massive damage against all but magic resistant enemies.
On this playthrough I played Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, the original version on the PC. This version is no longer available for purchase on Steam. It's been superseded by the 2018 Dark Souls Remastered, and no longer supports online play. The lack of other players, even the white messages, lent the game a morose air. The greatest feeling of Dark Souls is the interaction with other players through messages (even if half of them are crude jokes), the bloodstains, the summon signs, and the invasions. The lack of multiplayer also eliminates the use of Covenants. These were a favorite element of mine. Despite existing in Dark Souls III they were eliminated from Elden Ring. Each covenant has a goal, such as the Warriors of Sunlight. Their goal is to help others in Co-op defeat enemy bosses. Or the Forest Hunters, who invade any player that enters the Darkroot Garden.
The lack of multiplayer has rendered Humanity largely useless. These consumables reverse hollowing. In Dark Souls the player is a Hollow. To become human the player consumes Humanity. Only when human can the player summon another player in co-op, or invade another player. The player can still spend Humanity to Kindle Bonfires. Dark Souls uses healing flasks, called Estus. Each Bonfire resupplies the player with five Estus charges. Sacrificing Humanity at a Bonfire Kindles it. A Kindled Bonfire refills an additional five Estus charges per Humanity consumed, to a maximum of twenty. This allows a player to boost a bonfire near a boss to have extra healing.
Dark Souls, unlike Elden Ring, includes weapon durability. This is a mechanic I hope disappears. It adds nothing to a game. Every so often the player has to remember to pay a small fee to fix while resting at a bonfire to repair my equipment so it doesn't break.
Dark Souls also lacks many innovations of newer games. Jumping is possible, but it requires running before taping the run button. Despite the difficulty of jumping, and the lack of a jump button, mastering the odd controls is critical for success. This is complicated by the roughness of terrain. It can be difficult to negotiate, and the player regularly gets stuck on roots, small stones, or other debris that isn't supposed to interfere with their movement. Visual effects hinder the player's performance.
Visual effects are an attempt to create a believable setting. In my memory the realms of Dark Souls looked fantastic. In reality, they haven't aged well. It can't compare to the grandeur of Elden Ring. The game is exceptionally dark, making it difficult to see. It looks like the player has a spotlight on them, so only objects nearby are visible. Everything else is in shadow. Dark Souls contains a number of large empty spaces to walk through. At the time they seemed impressive, but now they are boring. And don't get me talking about the lava that nearly burned my eyes out. Visually Dark Souls is a dated game. Thematically it contains more horror elements than Elden Ring. Environments overflow with dead bodies, skulls, dismemberment, and horrific monsters, though these are shrouded by poor visuals.
While I died quite a bit, Dark Souls still felt easier because of my experience with later FromSoftware games. Enemies seemed to be delayed in reacting to the player, with poor visual range. They were more predictable for parrying than later games, but I wasn't able to take advantage of this with the sorcery build.
On the other hand, Dark Souls contains more gotcha tricks than exist in Elden Ring. Anyone who has played this, remembers the Blowdart Snipers of Blighttown. These guys fire nearly invisible darts that inflict Toxic, a particularly potent form of poison. Toxic effect is certain death unless the player has a cure.
Then there are the two silver knights in Andor Londo with Giant bows. As the player runs up a long exposed ramp, they take free shots. A single hit knocks the player off into an abyss of certain death.
And finally, there are the Catacombs. In this location, Skeletons come back to life every time the player kills them. There are two solutions to this problem, but it seems crazy that Dark Souls never explains how to permanently defeat them.
The best part of Dark Souls is definitely the DLC. It is so much tougher, but with a feeling of fairness. It also contains three of the best, but toughest bosses. I died fifteen times to the Four Kings and ten to the Bed of Chaos. These were regular bosses, and the losses felt frustrating. The enemies weren't fighting me, just doing their thing, and I died. The first was a boring hack and slash without much action. The second had a strange victory condition. But my ten deaths to Kalameet, five to Knight Artorias, and twenty to Manus were great. Each of these felt like an epic battle, against a Dragon, a Knight, and a dark monster respectively.
In Conclusion,
I had fond memories of Dark Souls. Having played it I still enjoy it, but I recognize that it may no longer be a game that everyone should play. It has many rough spots, though I imagine the remaster ironed out the visual weakness. I miss some of the mechanics of the original Dark Souls. It was more multiplayer focused, with covenants and better player interaction. But, some mechanics, like weapon durability, are best abandoned on the scrap heap. Elden Ring is a refined version of its predecessor that has lost some of the charm, but greatly improved compared to the original. I would recommend trying Dark Souls if the player has played Elden Ring and is looking to explore the original material. But for the real experience, I would recommend a weapon, not sorceries.
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