u/Turbulent_Form3888

found it on the sidewalk. I went out for a walk despite the weather, hoping for it to change at some point. It did not.

I'm using it as a bookmark now. I guess the printer ran out of ink... it would be a lovely music album cover. acoustic folk, early Sun Kil Moon albums , bands like Jacob's Ware RAPT or Moth Hands etc .

la version supplément Natto sur le 2eme slide me donnerait presque envie, même si je sens que ça serait probablement le dernier repas de ma vie ...

quelqu'un peut confirmer qu'on survit a ce truc ?

I always assumed most players would stop leveling up around BL110/120. that's more or less the meta for PvP, and aside from that it forces you to make decisions regarding your build, and keeps the game interesting + challenging.

I'm relatively new to this sub, but on more than one occasion I noticed that most players seem to ignore that kind of limitations and continue to level up way above what I assumed to be commonly regarded as the usual cap.

what's your opinion? when do YOU stop leveling up ? And for what reason ?

So, as some of you have suggested yesterday, going blind was maybe a bit brutal. I offered him to explain a few things, spoiler free. After all, back in 2011 two of my friends were playing it at the same time, and we helped each other frequently with whatever discovery we made.  As one of you said, even though they are single player games, souls games were also meant to be a community experience. 

So I told him about weight thresholds and their impact on rolling, and suggested to stay under 50% to avoid fat roll , but added that 25% was probably too much of a price to pay for light rolling at this point. 

And... He gave up his character, started a new one, and started to play naked like a Speedrunner 🤣 and it worked surprisingly well for him! He first tried asylum demon AND Taurus, light rolling his way around them like a pro 😁 

Can't wait to see how far that approach will carry him, but I just love that we had completely different experiences for our respective first runs. Mine was terrible to be honest. Like, the usual fat rolling full havel + spear . Took me like 50h to realise that playing defensively was actually making the game HARDER... apparently , it took him less than a dozen. I couldn't be more proud of him ! 😁

what was YOUR first run like ? what mistakes did you make ?

He's 50 something, a weird mix of occasional gamer and veteran. I got him into hollow knight like 6 years ago, he loved it and finished it several times, then hadn't touched a controller for years. He got himself Silksong recently and finished it twice (that's no easy feat, for those who haven't tried it). He's capable, resilient, skilled and most likely has more than what it takes to enjoy Dark Souls. 

I told him to go blind, he did, and ... he's struggling. Like, a lot. 

I gave him basic informations about stats and that's it. I wanted him to experience the amazing process of figuring that gem of a game out on his own, just like I did 15 years ago on my 360. But as I watched him struggling just to find his way, raging about run backs, tedious progression, stupid accidental falls, loss of xp/humanity, the absence of teleportation (he just got past the Taurus Demon...) , I can't help but think: yeah that game is actually full of, let's say... Weird game design choices. And I say that with  utmost respect, it's undoubtedly a masterpiece.

And yet ...

How well has it truly aged? Are we biased by nostalgia? Is it really a game one should recommend to a souls virgin in 2026?

To some extent, I believe that what makes this game so fantastic and a life-changing experience for many players is probably the fact that it stayed true to its creator's "vision". 

And that vision was not perfect. And that "imperfection" allowed it to venture where other games would not go. 

So what do you think ? Would quality of life modifications really ruin the experience?

Things like :

- tp between every bonfires. 

- simplified weapon upgrade system 

- checkpoints before bosses (stakes of Marika)

- a respec system 

- free NPC summon 

- easier to farm upgrade materials 

- etc.

And ultimately, should we still recommend DS to souls virgins or wouldn't it be better to get them into Elden Ring or even DS3 ? Those are undoubtedly more ... "User friendly"

non-exhaustive list, feel free to add more, those were the ones I immediately thought of on top of my mind.