My 5-year-old gamer son can beat the Undead Asylum on Dark Souls in just under 9 minutes and I think the gaming world should know. Few games that are as good as Dark Souls have gotten as bad a rap and I think this video can help change the minds of many people who have missed out on this fantastic title due to its difficulty in the early stages. Don't get me wrong, those that like the games (Demon's Souls, King's Field, etc.) absolutely love them, but for every advocate that's glorifying From Software to the masses there is at least one naysayer telling his friends that those games are just too hard, look horrible and have no good learning curve.
I used to tell those people that they were dead wrong, that the game was just as hard as it had to be to be rewarding. I used to tell them that it brought me back to the days of Mario Brothers and Castlevania on the NES, in which making it all the way through a level meant nothing if you died to the nearly impossible boss because death meant starting again at the beginning of the level. I used to tell them that I preferred the checkpoint system and that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls story did the greatest job of integrating game mechanics in a way that was recognizable but still mysterious. I even enjoyed touting the grungy look and glitchy feel, at times.
I used to tell people that they were dead wrong...Now I just show them this video of my five-year-old son making it through the first 'level' in under 9 minutes.
Now I don't bother wasting my words. Now I just show them this video (below) of my five-year-old son making it through the first "level" in under 9 minutes. Sure, he's seen me do it before, and sure, we coached him a little bit at times ("Drink! Drink!"), but to everybody who's ever rage-quitted at the beginning of the game, I urge you to give this series another chance, especially with the arrival of Dark Souls 2 looming ahead in March. If you didn't play old-school 8-bit games and don't understand the point of playing something that's just that hard and "unforgiving," take it from someone who's done it and succeeded: it's absolutely worth it. The pride on Logan's face as he takes a bow at the video's end is proof enough for me.