Year three, at least, and I continue to play Dark Souls very, very slowly.
Actually, that’s not true.
Sometimes I play in frantic bursts.
At others I let it lie for months and months with no progress at all.
In Souls terms, I’m nowhere, a total novice.
Yet I never would have gotten this far if it wasn’t for bonfires.
Bonfires in Dark Souls are fascinating.
In a game filled with incredibly good ideas, they may be my favourite incredibly good idea.
They reset the world and all the monsters in it?
But I get that now, too.
Or at least I get why it works for me.
I would absolutely abuse that ability if there wasn’t skin in the game.
I love bonfires a little bit because there is so much to hate about them.
It’s a bit cosmic, so apologies in advance.
People get tangled in the lore and fascinated by the landscape and its history.
And I am starting to think the bonfires encourage that.
And that’s it, I think.
FromSoftware’s world-building is brilliant, best-in-class perhaps, but they have this extra trick.
When you come back to the game you know you’ll be at a bonfire.
When you leave the game, you’ll often be leaving it at a bonfire.
The imagination of the player - this player at least - is susceptible to these cues.
Horrible, dangerous, beautiful world.
