Chapter 184: Who Am I? Where Am I? (Fourth Update, Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

Chapter 184: Who Am I? Where Am I? (Fourth Update, Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)

After spending an afternoon immersed in Dark Souls: Age of the First Flame, Song Ren exited the game and took a deep breath, glancing at the darkening sky outside the window.

It was just too passionate!

That was the sole conclusion he drew after hours of gameplay.

Let’s not even mention the awkwardness of starting in the Catacombs for now.

But after great hardship finally reaching the Undead Burg Outskirts, he had only one overwhelming impression:

The residents here were far too enthusiastic.

The local villagers, armed with straight swords and axes, warmly welcomed visiting Undead.

Along the way, the Black Knight offered equally warm hospitality.

Especially upon arriving at the Prison Tower—when confronted with an uninvited Undead guest, Javier didn’t get angry. Instead, he picked up his dragon-tooth massage rod and gave the Undead a full-body massage.

What players didn’t know was that Chen Xu had made a few subtle modifications to Javier.

In the original version, there were multiple ways to defeat Javier—strategies like the door-trapping strategy, the poop-throwing strategy, and the underhanded stair-exploiting strategy.

The easiest was the stair-exploiting strategy: players could run up to the Watchtower stairs, then jump down just as Javier climbed up.

The player would lose health, but because Javier wore Heavy Armor, he’d also take significant fall damage.

Since the player had Estus Flasks and Javier didn’t, Javier would ultimately perish beneath the 'dishonorable' Undead’s scheme.

To this, Chen Xu made a few adjustments.

After all, drinking an Estus Flask no longer froze the Undead in place as in the original.

So now, while Javier still took fall damage, it was slightly reduced. His recovery speed after falling was also faster, and the conditions for triggering the jump-down mechanic were stricter—adding just a bit more challenge for players.

And when the Undead finally reached the city walls, things became even more extreme.

Amidst arrows fired by two Hollow common soldiers on the wall, the Undead were invited to enjoy a Tauren feast—though the meal came served a little too hot.

Later, on a wide bridge, a passing Red Dragon generously lit up the sky with a fireworks display, burning pyrotechnics at great cost just for the Undead’s entertainment.

"I thought I was Invincible after countless playthroughs," Song Ren leaned back in his chair and typed into the game chat group, "but it turns out I was dead wrong!"

His words instantly resonated with others in the chat, sparking a wave of replies:

'Exactly! Dark Souls: Age of the First Flame is absolutely malicious!'

'Right! All these traps and mechanisms—completely Impossible to Guard Against!'

'I lost my first life in New Londo Ruins when I first reached Firelink Shrine!'

'You’re weak! I already lost my first life facing that big-butt demon in the Undead Asylum!'

'I wish they’d unlock teleportation soon—this feels so awkward!'

'Yeah, seriously!'

The chat group was filled with lamentations, each player recounting their painful experiences.

And it wasn’t just this group—identical scenes played out across every major forum community. Countless players from the first wave of access were wailing in agony.

These were the first buyers of Dark Souls: Age of the First Flame, players who had eagerly jumped into the game upon release.

Most were veterans like Song Ren—players who had already completed the Dark Souls series before.

Before even starting, they had been brimming with confidence.

After all, they were no strangers to Dark Souls.

Most had already Cleared the Game, some even on their second playthrough, third playthrough, or even eighth.

These Dark Souls veterans were deeply confident in their skills.

As excellent kindling bearers, they had overcome countless hardships.

Nameless King? Lords of Cinder? Farron Undead Legion? All were mere pushovers before them.

Hadn’t they defeated every single one?

By the end, Dark Souls had become more of a fashion and progression game for them.

So beating a prequel should’ve been easy to handle, right?

Yet the moment they entered this game, they realized—they were wrong.

Dead wrong!

Chen Xu had mostly retained the combat system from the previous entries rather than reverting to the original.

After all, many original mechanics severely disrupted player flow—especially the need for the Undead to stand completely still while drinking Estus Flasks.

But even with a familiar combat system, what good did that do?

For games like Dark Souls, the true attraction lies in using a simple action system to create challenges that are both fair and difficult.

Basic attacks, heavy attacks that rarely get used, and weapon arts that only come into play under specific conditions.

Combined with blocking, parrying, Perfect Guard, and rolling, the entire combat system remained simple and intuitive.

The real difficulty lay in the varied attack routines of each BOSS and monster.

Brand-new enemies, brand-new BOSSes—even with the same core mechanics—without knowing how to respond or being able to read a BOSS’s tells at the start of a fight, players would still have to suffer.

And there was another, even more critical factor: the map design of Dark Souls 1.

Arguably, the most praised aspect of Dark Souls 1 wasn’t its combat, BOSS design, or story.

Not that those were bad—rather, one element completely overshadowed them all:

The brilliant level map design. Each level was filled with Puzzle Solving, and traps lurked around every corner.

The entire environment was crafted into a massive, seamless whole, structured in a multi-layered, three-dimensional form. The connections between areas resembled a Möbius strip.

Firelink Shrine sat precisely at the center of this map, connected to every direction.

Precisely because of this, the game required players to first travel to Anor Londo and obtain the Lordvessel before enabling teleportation between bonfires.

The Dark Souls 1 map was so intricately woven that changing one bonfire’s function—allowing free teleportation across locations—would ruin the elegance of the map design and level layout.

After all, Dark Souls 3 used a more linear map structure.

If teleportation were disabled in DS3, players would waste enormous time traversing the map.

But in DS1, it was entirely different. The map was laced with countless interconnected shortcuts, making travel to distant areas surprisingly convenient.

Moreover, unlocking teleportation after obtaining the Lordvessel served as a meaningful reward milestone for players.

Of course, most players hadn’t yet grasped the brilliance of this design.

At this moment, the most immediate sensation for the majority was:

Who am I? Where am I?

On the very first day of the game’s launch,

the fastest-progressing players had barely managed, with the help of Solaire of Astora, to defeat the first Gargoyle and rang the first bell.

These were the more skilled players.

The vast majority of ordinary players were still being 'welcomed' by the enthusiastic villagers in the Undead Burg Outskirts.

(End of Chapter) <>