When Dark Souls: Age of Fire went live, countless Dark Souls fans rushed in, eager to witness the epic story of "carrying the flame."
Before entering the game, many imagined themselves holding sword and shield, carrying a giant weapon on their back.
Fighting the old Lords — Gwyn the Sun King, Nito the Lord of the Dead, and the Witch of Izalith.
They wanted to know what it truly meant to be the Chosen Undead!
The gods? Nothing special!
But the moment they entered the game, reality hit them like a brick.
First, the Asylum Demon gave countless players a brutal "welcome."
Then, at Firelink Shrine, countless people accidentally wandered into the Catacombs or the ruins of New Londo.
Some even went far enough to light a bonfire deep in the Catacombs, only to realize one thing: they couldn't get back!
Meanwhile, another group that headed into Undead Burg didn't have it much better.
Black Knights, Havel, and the Hellkite Dragon on the bridge.
All of them were there to teach players the true meaning of being undead!
In an instant, across borders and time zones, gaming forums worldwide filled with players' blood-soaked complaints.
Different languages, different words, but all sharing the same thought:
"This prequel… is way too damn hard!"
After being crushed again and again, countless players cried out the same thing.
Even though they thought they had prepared themselves mentally.
But once inside the game, they quickly realized what "there's always a bigger mountain" really meant.
The difficulty, the tricks, the traps — way more brutal than the original Dark Souls!
The Chosen Undead who stepped into Lordran full of ambition instantly understood what a true sequel should be.
Familiar graphics? Familiar story? Familiar combat system?
Totally wrong! A real sequel is one that stirs something deep in your soul when you play it.
And without a doubt, Dark Souls: Age of Fire was exactly that.
This brutal, hopeless experience felt both nostalgic and painful.
It instantly reminded them of that old feeling — the struggle between life and death.
The suffering players endured in Dark Souls came in all forms, like scenes straight out of a disaster movie, never repeating.
Almost everywhere you went, someone was meeting a horrible end.
...
One player wandered into Valley of Drakes and got lost. When he saw a huge, dead, rotting dragon, his face lit up with joy.
Because right beside the dragon's head, two items were glowing with white light.
After carefully checking his surroundings and making sure nothing was going to drop from above, he grinned.
"Wonder what good stuff I'll get from this!"
Full of excitement, he ran over to pick them up. But just as he got close, the dragon's corpse moved.
It swung its massive head, knocking him into the air, and followed with a disgusting blast of phlegm that sent him straight back to the bonfire.
"What the hell! Its body's rotting, and it's still alive?!"
Staring at the familiar three words on the screen, the player completely broke down.
...
After coming back from the water channel to the lower part of Undead Town, the players who had just beaten the Gargoyle Demon with Sogo were still full of excitement.
Wearing mighty knight armor, the player stepped through the white fog gate.
Another thrilling boss fight was about to begin.
In the ruins that were broken and crumbling, the boss appeared before his eyes—a fierce goat-headed demon.
"Come on, let me see if your goat head is stronger than that minotaur from before!"
Staring at the goat-headed boss in front of him, the player was fired up.
The next moment, a vicious sound came from his ears.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
Along with the charging goat came two blood-red dogs.
"What the hell? You've got two dogs too?"
"What the... these dogs are insane!"
"Selling dog meat with a goat's head!"
Seeing the words 'YOU DIED' on the screen, the player was stunned.
Wasn't this boss supposed to be a goat demon? Why are there two dogs, and why are they so damn aggressive?
Feels like the real bosses are the dogs!
...
Besides that, almost every area in Dark Souls is pure madness.
For example, the infamous Blighttown, praised by countless players as no less than Sen's Fortress—some even say it's worse.
In Blighttown, visibility is extremely low.
And the vertical span is huge. One wrong move and players completely lose their way. On top of that, you need special items like the Sunlight Maggot just to move forward normally.
And here, almost every monster is poisonous. Especially those damn mosquitoes in Blighttown—their models are so tiny that many players can't even hit them.
Once you're poisoned, your HP drops like you've been stabbed in an artery, and without the Spider Shield or antidotes, clearing Blighttown feels like hell difficulty.
In the lower area, it's full of dogs, plus blowdart guys on the upper level—it's nothing but cruelty.
And there are plenty of disgusting monsters: freaks who use corpses as weapons, big club fatties, giant maggots, mosquitoes, rabid dogs—the whole map feels insanely oppressive.
The worst part? Blighttown is only the beginning of the game.
On the beams in Anor Londo, there's a narrow walkway like a tightrope.
But then, on a distant rooftop, two archers start shooting you.
Sure, they're called archers, but what they're shooting are basically spears.
The damage is high, but that's not the main issue—the main problem is you're on a beam in Anor Londo, way above the ground.
Without the Black Iron armor, one shot will send you flying straight into the abyss. Even with heavy armor, those arrows hit like a truck.
Then there's Sen's Fortress with its killing traps: giant axe pendulums, trap elevators; the Great Hollow with one-punch mushroom guys; and the Bed of Chaos fight, where the hardest part isn't the boss but avoiding death from the broken floor.
One misstep into those cracks and you're dead, and the boss sweeps the floor with giant hands like a table cleaner.
Even the first stop, Undead Burg, is full of malice.
Black Knights blocking your way and the brutal Hellkite Dragon on the bridge.
When you reach the church area, the staircase corners and the hall full of hollow swordmasters make players taste real despair.
And if that wasn't enough, someone is actually buffing those swordmasters.
Combine that with the fact that you can't warp between bonfires until you get the Lordvessel, and countless players were on the edge of breaking down.
Sure, there are shortcuts, but you need skill to reach them.
God knows how nerve-wracking it is to walk back from Blighttown to Firelink Shrine.
(End of The Chapter)
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