So I finished my Black Knight Halberd run of Dark Souls. (
@TheIronSheik Dark Souls is a video game originally released in 2011, widely considered the best game of the PS360 generation). I've done strength builds in every other Souls game, but never this one for whatever reason. This time I used no sorcery, miracles, or pyromancy at all, and I only used my bow for occasionally drawing aggro and killing one particular enemy near a bonfire in Duke's Archives who I didn't need to kill but it was a matter of general principle. A few comments:
1) The BKH is a murder-stick. By the time you get it, you'll probably have enough twinkling titanite to get it to +2 right off the bat, and you can max it out prior to O&S. What makes this run challenging though is that you have to pour a ton of levels into Strength just to wield it effectively, so your HP and Stamina will be weak and you won't be able to wear heavy armor. Even at 40 Endurance, I still couldn't wear the black leather set and fast roll. But this weapon just cuts through most enemies and destroys lots of bosses. I could just stand there in front of Seath and mash R1 and that's all it took.
2) Gwyn is
so much easier with a melee build. I remember struggling with this boss with casters because he almost never gives you an opening to uncork a spell. This time I nearly beat him on my first try, but I got greedy and tried to get in an extra hit when he was down to a sliver of health. You know how that sort of strategy works out in Dark Souls. After respawning back at the Lord Vessel, I made my way back and beat him with no problems at all.
3) This game is so much easier than Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne. There is nothing even resembling Dancer or Nameless King or Defiled Watchdog or Martyr Logarius in this one. If you approach NG with a sense of patience and build your character rationally, you will be fine even if you have no actual skill. NG+ is a different story thanks to Four Kings of course.
4) The world-building in this game is still amazing after nearly 10 years. No other game has topped this one or even come close.
5) Having said that, let's remember that technically the world-building is amazing for 95% of the game. The other 5%, as we all know, is the segment from Quelaag to Bed-of-Bull####. I heard you liked the Taurus Demon! Well, there's 27 of them just standing there waiting for you to tediously pick them off one by one. I heard you liked the Capra Demon! Well, there's a bunch of them standing there in a tiny little area for you to skip over since there's a bonfire that you can reach by just rolling off the main path. I heard you liked the Asylum Demon! You already fought a re-skinned version of this guy if you went back to the asylum, but what the heck let's give him to you a third time. And now let's give you a boss that you fight in a lava field on a patch of earth the size of a postage stamp. And another lava area that features hostile dinosaur legs and makes your eyes bleed with the color palate. And the worst boss in the entire franchise, that should have been removed from the remaster out of embarrassment. I can't get over how terrible this segment is every time I play it, and the rest of the game is so phenomenal. It's like the developers lost a bet, and the interns got to design this part.
6) This game still holds up extremely well. The build variety is great, the levels are well-done (see #5 above), the atmosphere is incredible, etc. I'm not ashamed to say that the Demon's Souls remaster is my most anticipated title coming up.