Yes, i'm gonna be talking about Dark Souls.
Some would probably say this was an easy choice since the entirety of the game could be resumed up as a Challenging Gaming Moment, but for someone who has gone through the game several times with different builds, characters and strategies, i'm gonna bring out and detail what impacted me the most during my first playthrough of the game. In this case, an entire area of the game. Enter Anor Londo, The City of Gods.
But first, let's recapitulate a little bit about how I got there.
After Killing the Gargoyles atop the church, I managed to ring the first Bell of Awakening. I was then directed to the second Bell of Awakening, which rested below everything I had gotten to see as of that time in the game. Buried in the depths of what's called Blighttown the Bell awaits, guarded by the monstrous fire witch who turned herself and all of her people into Demons and abominations in a horrible mistake.
Getting to Blighttown through the sewers was a bloody mess. After dealing with huge decaying rats, slimes made out of flesh and finally a Dragon who had become more stomach and teeth than anything else, Blighttown is reached. But little did I know that all of what I had experienced was only a minimal test compared for what Blighttown had to offer. Venomous bugs, transformed humans who had become more animal or monster than any other thing. The toxic wastes deposited at the lowest level of Blighttown had really taken the population to a whole different level of existence down there.
Once I had reached the basement level of what could no longer be considered a city, I noticed that just from walking and breathing through the marshes of rotten waste and deceased corpses, one could get intoxicated. It was up to the endurance and stamina of my character to get to the sanctum where the Bell of Awakening was waiting for me, but more importantly, get there in a good enough shape to face the now arachnid merged fire witch.
It took me more than 20 tries filled with hope and rage to take down the beast, but once I did, I felt myself and my character had grown stronger from that encounter. We both went up the stairs through the sanctum and rang the second Bell of Awakening
Once both Bells of Awakening were rang, we're taken into a cutscene that shows us the next place we have to go. The previously closed fortress is shown while opening its doors, waiting patiently for us, the "chosen undead" and me. We headed onwards to Sen's Fortress, the final stepping stone before The City of Gods.
Sen's fortress doesn't honor it's name lightly, but the origin of why it was called like that doesn't come from the actual difficulty of infiltrating the titanic Castle, it comes from the journey and willpower you need to have to actually traverse it since it's a man-serpent, demon and trap infested maze. My undead insertion in the setting of the game and I were bound to be assassinated by lightning shots, backstabs, arrow shots and finally cuts from giant blades that hanged from the ceiling like pendulums. The first time I traversed Sen's fortress it took me more than 30 tries to get to the last bonfire where I could rest... And by last I mean the only one since you're expected to clear the fortress in one sitting because there are no resting spots in between.
Once the top of the fortress was finally reached there was only one thing to do. Deal with the boss. At first I didn't know what to expect from this encounter, I didn't know what it even was, but my doubts were soon cleared out once I entered the final fog wall separating me from Anor Londo.
A giant but hollow armor made entirely out of iron is what awaited me as a final challenge in the fortress. Honoring it's name, what better pun than to make the boss also a Fortress on it's own? It clicked instantly inside of my brain, but it was too late to laugh. My character and me, becoming closer in every encounter we participated in, gripped our swords (I wish I had an irl sword :c ) and went on to clash with the hulking Iron Golem.
The titanic armor suit battled hard against both of us, swinging his giant axe an inch closer every time, I had to be quick and smart about my moves. Once I took his soul into my hands, I catched a breather. I sat down to progress what I had been through, but before I could completely calm myself and stop my hands from shaking, something sparked my interest just again. Where the (Now separated) hunks of iron rested motionless, an orange ring appeared out of thin air. I got up and then walked towards it in increasing eerie curiosity. A prompt appeared as I got closer to it. Without much thinking about it I pressed the A Button and the screen went black.
These creatures I had never seen before appeared from the sky. What looked like winged skeletal demons got close to my character and grabbed him up by his arms. Expecting a rather gruesome death, I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, I could only hear the sound of soaring wind and the flapping of wings while I awaited; I got confused enough to trigger my curiosity again and I opened my eyes, I saw a huge cathedral that emerged from what looked like endless buildings... And then it clicked. I had reached Anor Londo, The City of Gods. It looked weirdly uninhabited, though.
Enter: The City Were Gods Once Lived
Awe... With a Slight Hint of Desperation
When you're first dropped (Literally) into Anor Londo, you take the view in. The city looks desolated but also shrouded in eternal sunset. It gives off a divine vibe because everything looks sacred, like if everything was made out of gold. The view makes you feel relaxed. The lighting is different, the architecture compares to nothing you've ever seen in the game before. I stared at the whole setting of Anor Londo like an idiot, immersing myself, taking it all in for 10 straight minutes without moving my character... But that's exactly when my brain kicked in again. This was Dark Souls, I was in unknown territory which meant I was danger. I started feeling very vulnerable as I took my first steps down the only path that was available to me. I needed to find a Bonfire... Fast.
After running into some sentinels and decimating them but also noticing how big and heavy they were, I decided it was best if I didn't mess with them too much. Some minutes later I found the first Bonfire and actually got to sit and gather my thoughts alongside a friendly NPC who was guarding that room in particular, I rapidly identified her as a Fire Keeper but moved onwards to my goal. When I first reached Anor Londo, what looked like the biggest joint in this city was the cathedral built in the middle of it. The goal was clear and I intended to not waste time any longer than I already had.
Getting Into Anor Londo
The first challenge of Anor londo comes into place when you have to parkour inside the chapel of another building. Sure, no biggie just a room filled with enemies, right? Yes but... There's actually not a lot of floor in there... Or rather there is but you wouldn't want to jump to it from when you are right now...
The rafts are filled with weird enemies who are all dressed in white clothes, wielding short but very sharp daggers, biting almost into the air as soon as they move. But aside from the threat they pose, as soon as they notice your presence, they will start throwing knives at you, wanting you to lose your balance and fall into your death... This happened a few times to me but as soon as I recognized their patterns and learned how to block their knives, it all became a little bit easier... Not by a ton but it was way more manageable to not lose my balance over and over again.
Once I reached the other side of this huge room, I was welcomed again by the hint of divineness exuded by the cathedral. I felt something ominous and powefull coming from it's depths but I didn't have a lot of time to think about it since there was a giant gargoyle coming my way.
Clearing the last room I was in made me get closer than what I had expected to be at this time in relation to the cathedral. It started getting bigger and bigger as I went up every step leading to it. I always found it was funny because there were three sets of stairs, 2 designed for humans and one for Giants, or more importantly, the beings who managed to reach deity status.
Getting Inside the Cathedral
As it could be expected, the cathedral was closed, inciting us to parkour some more through the city. I had to take an alternative route which was filled with the same demons who brought me here... the only difference is that these ones had electrified spears made out of their comrade bones... It was difficult enough to block and dodge their attacks, but whenever they hit, it always chipped off that bit of health which wasn't resistant to shock attacks.
When the next section of parkouring inside the Cathedral is reached, that's when the challenges that Anor londo offers really start to pile up, hear me out: You're bound to run through a very thin corridor while 2 Silver Knights start firing Greatbow arrows at you, what I mean by this is that these arrows are literally entirely made out of iron, also they're probably longer than your legs... After all these arrows were designed to kill the dragons of old ancient times but that's beyond what I want to tell you guys in here. Once you inevitably fall to your death a couple times by those arrows piercing through your internal organs, you'll eventually reach a stop through your progress. Those guys who had been firing at you? You gotta face them now because they block your way. 'Sure! only 2 enemies, right? No problem!' is what someone would normally say, but the trick in this situation is that you're on a sidewalk and they're both on distant sides of it. You have to confront one while facing your back against the other one which is no easy task for first time players. Heck, it wasn't for me. This is normally one of the spots where players suffer the most since they don't know how to handle a situation like this. But once you get to dispatch one or even both of them, you're free to go into the Cathedral after a safe jump to the nearest balcony.
The cathedral is filled to the brim with more silver Knights and Sentinels, one after the other without much needed rest. The only rest you'll get is dying every so often until you memorize the patterns that Silver Knights possess. I redid this area so many times because it was so hard, that I learned all of the silver knight's moves and the exact timing to correctly parry them for a flawless riposte. These are the only enemies which are cemented into my mind in this way. After mowing endless waves of them, I started getting used to they way they winded and executed their moves. Little did I know that this experience wouldn't serve me for what would come next, which is something I call as The Final Chug of Strength.
Ornstein and Smough
You've probably seen these two around even if you haven't touched Dark Souls in your life. That's how iconic and challenging this moment is for the whole gaming universe, or let me rephrase that in some way... If you can't get past Anor Londo and Ornstein and Smough, you wouldn't be able to clear the game. I think the whole Anor Londo section is when Dark Souls reaches its peak difficulty level, not to be matched by any of the following levels after this one, but let's get onto defining what makes Ornstein and Smough for me, The Most Challenging bosses in the game.
First off: The most notable thing about them is that this is the first and only time the game throws 2 bosses at you at same time. (Excluding mini bosses like Capra and Taurus Demons) but the difficulty doesn't exactly come from there being 2 bosses. It comes from how these bosses complement each other. Their moves, their timings, their designs, etc. I could go on and on forever but there's just something about this encounter besides being the hardest boss fight in the game, that just makes it feel like a well thought out challenge. It doesn't feel like it's something put up there just to stale the players progress. Ornstein and Smough are a true test of Might, Effort and Willpower.
If you're taking on the challenge alone oh boy you're gonna be in for a ride. A ride that's gonna take you the time needed to memorize, act and counter attack both enemies at once while you're in close quarters. Buuut you can also tag along with your friends or the NPC Solaire in this case to make the game a little more even. Taking your friends along won't make the challenge a lot easier, just more manageable since both enemies won't be coming for you at the same time, but you could get careless and step onto where your friend is distracting the other boss and such.
Why do I consider Ornstein and Smough as the hardest bosses of the game? Because I lived through them. During my first playthrough I even considered dropping the run because of how hard and tough this challenge was being to me, that's how frustrated I was at first. Later on after rinse and repeating I started cracking through their strategies, memorizing moves, patterns and actions even before they planned them out. I was getting the hang out of the fight at a slow but steady rate, studying, analyzing and predicting possible scenarios which I could react to. I even remember forging a Fire katana specially designed to slay the Dragonslayer Ornstein and another Shock Katana to deal with Smough the Executioner. It's a test of will of how far I went to actually beat these guys and keep on the flow of the game.
Final Thoughts
Anor Londo hitting the highest peak of fair difficulty is what called me out in terms of considering all of the challenging moments I've faced in my life. It's not crazy difficult nor it's exactly fair... But it's possible and I've done it several times. But nothing will beat that first time I ever killed them both. The gratification feeling I felt back then was incomparable to anything I've ever felt in my life since then. It's just something so great that I haven't been near to be able to replicate it again. I guess there's nothing like that first time...
If I could get a wish right now, I would wish to forget everything I know about Dark Souls and relearn it by playing the game again, from scratch. Nothing more, nothing less.
That concludes my entry to the Challenging Gaming Moments organized by the @archdruid community but because of my own shortcomings and procrastination, I finished writing this after the deadline for the contest had arrived, invalidating my entry... I liked writing this though! So I thought it would be a shame keeping this in my draft and not letting you guys know how I feel about Dark Souls, which is a game I completely love. But hey feel free to let me know what you thought about this post and what you think about Dark Souls! Did you find this moment challenging enough? Have you beaten Ornstein and Smough? Let me know down below!
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