Since really, it seems like about everyone and their extended family has played Dark Souls by now (between frequent sales/giveaways and lots of exposure), I didn’t really want to go super in depth about it, but I wanted to at least *touch* on the game.

I put off playing Dark Souls for a long time, mostly because I have a thing about fantasy settings, especially ‘gritty’ ones, but after lots of recommendations from friends, seeing it enjoyed by some LP-ers with similar tastes to mine, and well, its cheapness, I finally took the plunge, and what a plunge it was. FROM Software has never liked to hold your hand through their games, as any Armored Core veteran would probably relate. Even the bulk of the story in Dark Souls is inferred through item descriptions and stopping to really think a moment about how some of these important-sounding names relate to each other. (For example, Artorias the Abysswalker is mentioned early in the game, and later on, you need to enter the Abyss- now where was that Seal with his name on it…?) As far as its infamous difficulty goes, yeah, it’s hard, but there is always a way out, and it usually feels like it’s on you when you fail, which keeps you coming back rather than throwing in the towel and writing it off as crap. I hear mixed things about DS2, mainly the gist seems to be that it’s good, but not as good as 1. I’m more interested in going back to play Demon’s Souls, though… Not like I don’t have other things to play.

I’m always sort of screwing with my style or format with these things, partly trying to find just the right feel and partly to keep things fresh. I like how the coloring in this one came out, especially compared to the one before it (especially since both strips have involved Dixie’s dark room.) For a while, I’ve been trying to be more concise and wrap these things up faster so I don’t spend a fortnight on every single one, though in the case of the last one I wound up doing way more panels than probably necessary for sake of comic timing.

I think eventually I’m going to start delving into retro/obscure game awareness sort of material though, since that’s what interests me the most. It’s been neat sampling the mainstream and seeing that it’s not all hype, all the time, but it’s a tad on the pricy side, and well, I’m not really making money on art or anything. The fact that we’re transitioning to a whole new hardware generation isn’t really helping my optimism either. But hey! Not everyone on Earth has experienced the joy of Wolf Fang or Bahamut Lagoon yet.

Sorry for the long post. I think I’m chattier tonight than I counted on starting off. Have a good one, my friends.