Dark souls is a gaming icon for many reasons, but that doesn't mean it's immune to the passage of time. While it has held up pretty well overall, there are still a few issues that make revisiting it in 2026 a lot harder than it might seem. This in turn damages the perception many new players have of the action RPG titan.
Best Dark Souls Bosses (ranked by how satisfying they are to beat)
Find out which Dark Souls bosses provide the most satisfying fights, from the unique Four Kings to the epic Gwyn, Lord of Cinder.
Some of these things are fairly small QoL changes that have been refined over time by sequels and newer games in the genre, while others are more drastic, like cultural changes that have left the identity of the original game in a completely different state. With how far the Soulslike genre has come in just a short amount of time, it's only natural to want to return to the beginning, even if it means removing many of the improvements and finesse that modern players get to enjoy today.
Level Design
Linear but open
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Lack of direction means backtracking is common.
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More maze-like than a linear route.
One of the biggest things people rave about Dark souls is the unique way the world is designed. It's far from an open world game, but the way some sections intertwine and loop together makes it feel much more open. As a result, players will find themselves returning to previous locations quite often, with new items and paths opening up to keep things moving forward.
However, since it's neither strictly linear nor strictly open-ended, there are several areas where exploration can feel incredibly tough, especially due to the lack of direction the game provides. Players might run around the Darkroot Garden for hours before realizing they missed a small entrance to the south, making these discoveries incredibly satisfying, but it's a far cry from the more accessible style seen in later games in the genre.
Quick trips
No way back
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Getting lost can take hours of time.
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Moving between locations can be annoying.
Fast travel is a modern game design mechanic that removes all those annoying hours spent running between previous locations. While Dark souls gives players this power, it waits until much later to let them use it. For the first ten hours, players have no way to easily get back to the Firelink Shrine or check out another area, so exploration relies heavily on their ability to keep track of their surroundings.
Hardest Bosses In Dark Souls, Ranked
Dark Souls is known for its difficulty, and here are the most challenging bosses in FromSoftware's beloved action RPG.
Even when they gain access to Fast Travel, the locations are still quite limited, something that is simply not present in many other Soulslikes. Just for this reason, new players who are used to the freedom seen in games like Fire Ring often feels intimidated by the lack of convenience, reflecting how game design has moved toward putting utility over atmosphere, for better or worse.
Simpler Boss Designs
Far from the cinema seen later
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More basic attacks and mechanics.
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Complexity evolved over time.
Bosses have always been central to the Soulslike experience, and it's fair to say so Dark souls has some pretty good bosses overall, barring a few misses. But when it comes to the actual mechanical complexity of these enemies, many of them leave a lot to be desired. They have short chain attacks or basic swings that make the fights feel much more manageable than the Soulslike bosses seen today.
Now, in all fairness, this is not the game's fault, but a clear marker of how the passage of time has affected how developers design bosses. Gwyn may be cool, but he doesn't really hold a candle to Isshin or Slave Knight Gael. If players are taking a trip down memory lane or fighting these enemies for the first time, they should know that the mechanical and cinematic style is much lower on the spectrum.
“Dark Souls Is Hard”
No longer the gold standard
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The perception of difficulty has progressed.
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Other, more difficult matches have taken the top spot.
Right from the start, Dark souls was labeled as a hard game. Long before the term Soulslike even became popular, people often described difficult tasks as “The Dark souls by X.” While the game was far from the most challenging title in the industry, it was still a phrase often used to refer to challenging games with a brutally high barrier to entry.
This ideology still exists to some extent, as Soulslikes have continued to carry the same view they have had since their inception. However, it is quite difficult to find a player these days who would consider Dark souls to be at the top of the difficulty spectrum, with many other games in the genre taking the crown over the past decade. While the original still presents a great challenge, it's a much less mechanically demanding experience overall.
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Start
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Light (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
Frustrating places
Curse you, Blighttown
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Vertically oriented areas with very few safe places.
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Infamous poison swamps and lava filled places.
Dark souls was praised by many for its ability to transport players into a grim fantasy world where even light sometimes felt like a precious resource. There are some wonderful and memorable locations throughout the game, but that doesn't mean it's a cake walk to the finish line.
Places like Blighttown and the Tomb of the Giants feel almost sadistic in their design, punishing players for misplacing their foot or just beating them to their doom with a sly enemy placement or trap. These types of locations are much less common in later games in the franchise and the genre as a whole, though they still exist in the form of areas aptly dubbed “poison swamps”.
QOL changes
Everything feels better these days
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Rolls and combat feel have been improved.
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Moving while healing changes the gameplay dramatically.
QOL is everything in a Soulslike because of how demanding they are mechanically. If the game doesn't feel good to play, players will go through a tough time. The modern landscape is full of exceptional titles that refined the mechanics and removed much of the previous clunkyness, which is why returning to something like Dark souls can be particularly frustrating.
7 Scariest Humans In The Dark Souls Games, Ranked
The world of Dark Souls is filled with terrifying monsters, but some of the scariest enemies in the games are humans.
Simple things like moving while healing or having more control over movement with a dedicated jump button make a world of difference, especially over the course of a 30+ hour playthrough. These small but impactful issues are some of the biggest negatives that many players identify when jumping into an older Soulslike, as they can turn an otherwise fairly manageable experience into a borderline excruciating one.
The genre has moved on
An untouchable legacy
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Feels like a prototype for where Soulslikes is now.
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Innovation solves many of the problems.
Dark souls is over 15 years old today, and in that time the Soulslike genre as a whole has grown and completely changed in almost every way imaginable. The scope has expanded, the battles are faster, and players can now experience the same excitement on a much wider playing field, with several open world games entering the genre in recent years.
In many ways, Dark souls feels like a proof of concept for where the Soulslike genre is today, showing the early iterations of how fights should play out and how levels should be defined. Many iconic games and franchises owe their existence to it Dark soulsso while it hasn't held up exceptionally well in every respect, it still deserves a heap of respect for the impact it had on the gaming industry.
- Released
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September 22, 2011
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Publisher
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Namco Bandai
