Ode to the Dark Souls Difficulty
Oh brutal warden,
Harbinger of frustration and cursing;
At least for most, you are.
I am not so frustrated by your laws,
As you ensure that almost everything in your game can be avoided
As long as I don't be reckless and ignorant.
Many would call you impossibly hard, and at times that irrational part of me speaks out.
But unlike others, I hush the irrationality and see the actions of mine that cause my downfall.
You reward me for exploring and for finding multiple paths,
And you punish me when I do, frankly, really stupid things.
And usually if I scrape out through the really stupid acts, I end up being rewarded just a little;
I don't think most people know that you reward ballsy moves if executed correctly.
If I have a bad thing to say, it's your starting difficulty.
Although if you started easy and ramped up from there to how difficult you are;
Well, you'd be no better than Battletoads.
I hold you in high esteem,
Mostly because I've looked ahead and saw other persons' experiences.
I don't know; if I didn't look to the other legends,
I might've never given you such as chance.
I can say you've taught me some very important things,
If not for my own life, then at least for the way I play games.
I must pay attention to my surroundings;
They hold important things that can either bring prosperity or pain.
All things are telegraphed in some way to be avoided;
There may be variances in timing of telegraphing, but all things have telling signs of what they will do.
Raw output is not without application;
How something is used is just as important as what it can do when used.
So I must say, you are hard to please.
But you are very generous when pleased.
I played by your rules and conquered your game.
…well, not entirely.
At least I can make it through the levels.
So unto you, Dark Souls-ian Difficulty,
I grant to you my respect.