Second verse same as the first

I've decided to make my way through all the souls games with my free time and decide which I really like the best and why.

Like, at first I didn't really appreciate bloodborne, because fast and loose has never been my preferred playstyle in these sorts of games, but I do have to admit, that the changes have forced me to basically start from scratch and relearn everything, in a playstyle I never would have chosen otherwise.  Which creates a feeling as close to my first day with dark souls as I can get without a lobotomy, which is pretty great.

Holy shit though, Father Gascoigne?  Why the hell is this guy the gatekeeper for 90% of the game?  He's brutal and unrelentingly aggressive, especially in his final stage.  Basically he says "Now prove you can use what you've learned or I'm never going to let you past this gate to the rest of the game."  It feels like having ornstein and smough in the beginning, especially with how much the game opens up afterwards.  With the way progression works in this game though I guess it makes sense.

Boss music is amazing though.  Like seriously.  When I finally beat him I had to take a break.  I had no blood vials left and was too afraid of what might be past the gate to go on.

ANYWAYS.

One of my favorite criticisms of dark souls two has always been how people say "It isn't harder, it's just more cheap."  And to that I have only two words to say in response: "capra demon."  This fight is right in the beginning and the absolute nadir of the experience for me.  The combination of the end game monster that you're not prepared for, with the two dogs, and the closet you have to fight it in, makes the fight an absolute clusterfuck.  The only challenge comes from surviving the first few seconds out the gate.  When you enter he is already in mid wind up, so you better have a shield up or dodge, but the dogs are also on your ass, so if you get stuck and can't get away it's game over in about 20 seconds.  If you manage to survive long enough to lure the dogs away and take them out before capra manages to lumber back over your only concern is not getting the camera caught on the extra scenery while you bait and smack a bog standard enemy to death.

It's badly designed is what I'm saying.  You win not by skill and learning a complex enemy's attack patterns, you win by luck and exploiting the terrible A.I.  Don't even tell me that's not why that pointless staircase is there, because it totally is.  I know from a design perspective the fight is to show you how much stronger you've become, when you spank the enemy later in the game without any trouble.  But from gameplay design it is just garbage.  Without the shitty design of the arena you fight him in, capra would be an absolute joke, and that's probably why his boss fight is what it is.

My point is, don't call dark souls 2 cheap and pretend the first one isn't, because it totally fucking is.  Don't even get me started with the bed of chaos, "fight."