Saying Goodbye to Dark Souls

I imagine you'll be back in a decade with a renewed enthusiasm for Dark Souls.

Oh great algorithm, pleased be you and recommend this video to others, so that Thane can buy lunch.

This video is brutally relatable to me, getting 'tired' of something once beloved just happens so much, whether it is games or music or whatever, a lot of times maybe it just means that i need to try new things, but the feeling of not being okay while doing something that is supposed to be comfortable is awful

I mean this is kinda the point of the game right? The whole philosophy of dark souls is that nothing can last forever. An age of fire, no matter how bright can't shine eternally. I feel it's the exact same with the game, because you're right it IS perfect, it's a shining gem in video game history. A true masterpiece, a timeless classic. And yet. Time marches on, and just like the great heroes and gods of dark souls, they all fall into obscurity when faced with the endless march of time. It's actually quite beautiful, you're experiencing the final lesson dark souls has to teach you, that you can't cling to the fire forever, don't endlessly do the same thing over and over again like some mindless hollow, it's okay to let the flame fade and fearlessly embrace what comes next... TLDR: you're choosing the real life age of darkness ending. And that's perfectly fine.

Goddamnit Thane i didn't need a philosophical discussion on the nature of personal growth and change hidden within a dark souls video essay like my past regrets and losses wrapped up in a suspiciously friendly looking trenchcoat

For a brief moment in my teens, maybe two weeks, I just had /zero/ interest in gaming. Like none. I genuinely contemplated selling my PC, because I just couldn't imagine that numbness going away. I hope your joy comes back after some time apart or you find something new to help you enjoy your time. Me? After a while I found a new game, specifically with a friend to enjoy and enjoying it together brought a new dynamic gaming that's kept me part of the hobby decades later. Take care of yourself Thane, this is your sign to treat yourself to a little self care :)

When you know the entire game front to back, every cheese and every powerful item, every perfect synergy for every possible build including ones you’ve never touched without needing a guide.. coming back is pretty much just for the nostalgia for me by this point, there’s a strange comfort with the relative ease

I have done everything in Dark Souls I have ever wanted and have no desire to pick it up again. And I doubt that will change. Nowadays I enjoy watching opinion pieces like yours or watching someone experience it for the first time. This will always ne beautiful. So I know that I will someday return to Dark Souls, simoly because I will play the game with someone. And I am really looking forward to it!

This video feels like a tearful breakup conversation. I went into it knowing the title and so hearing all the wonderful things about darksouls left me waiting for the “but.” And when it came it felt really familiar. “There are so many wonderful things here and I truly do want to love it but at some point the flame went out and I didn’t even notice. I wish I could bring it back and I tried so many things that used to be wonderful and it just…. Isn’t.” Excellent video, I hope you can find joy in it once more or appreciate what was.

You've reached the point that its time to start doing challenge runs, you'll find a whole new appreciation for the game.

I’ve had this feeling before in some way or another, I keep replaying things I SHOULD be enjoying because they’re “masterpieces” and I’m missing out if I’m not sucking out every last drop of entertainment I can. You have to let go, because you’re not going to “find” the spark again, you either come back to it after time has made it alluring again or you just accept that you have seen enough of what a game or piece of media has to offer. Masterpieces aren’t so because we can come back and continue to constantly experience them, they’re masterpieces because they change us and alter how we see the world. That change equips us to move BEYOND the art, to enjoy it not by repeating our consumption ad nauseam; but to enjoy art through how we live after seeing it. Your memories are enough, they aren’t useless because they aren’t present

From Software has gotten better at making games and challenging their players. As they evolve, we evolve as gamers. Going back to their older games shows how far we came. I love Dark Souls but Elden Ring is the standard now.

I've experienced something like this before, many, many times. I'm a little up there in years in terms of your average games enthusiast, and its just something I've come to accept. Sometimes you go to dust off a (totally not emulated) copy of an older game you used to love as a kid and find the magic was mostly in your head at the time, your youth and inexperience and the fuzziness of old memories paving over the rough edges of an older, flawed product. Sometimes your mounting familiarity with a mechanic or setting begins to build apathy instead of enthusiasm. Sometimes you want to play something familiar for a hit of nostalgia and instead come face to face with a stranger. It's something that exists outside of games media too. That meal you grew up eating doesn't taste the same anymore, and you just can't replicate the taste in your memory. That show you used to love has just become grating and irritating. The first movie to make you cry fails to stir anything in you. As you delve the pages of a familiar novel or series, you can't help but wonder how it ever held your attention. It's never a fun feeling, to learn that something about you has changed so much that you can no longer connect with a part of your past, a part of who you used to be... but often the reverse is also true. Sometimes it's worth trying something you used to dislike. You might just surprise yourself with what you find you enjoy now.

There's always a sense of melancholy when you feel you've moved on or outgrown a series because it meant so much to you for a period of your life. But, you'll always have the memories that came with it.

I still love dark souls, I make new characters all the time, have thousands of hours on it, I'm playing it right now as I see your video actually haha. But you know? Your video made me realize that I always, ALWAYS, play it on mute with a video on the side, a podcast, or at the very least music. I know the game so well that I can do that and that's how I have so many hours on it. I was watching your video and laughing because, well, I was playing the game "weird thing buddy, that never happened to me" but it did hahaha. I don't think I'd find very fun to play DS without something on the side anymore. But I guess that's alright, I hate the idea that a game has to be infinitely replayable in order to be good. Gotta let the things we love go, sooner or later, so as a good firend always says: Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go hollow.

Unfortunately Thane, what you're feeling is completely normal. The human brain provides diminishing returns on THE GOOD CHEMICALS for repeated actions. It's like watching a TV series you're a big fan of and the main couple has their Big Kiss or the villain dies in a Massive Explosion. The first time you stand up screaming in joy, the second you do a fist pump and give an excited 'yes!' the third time you smile and by the fifth or sixth time you're barely watching because you know exactly what happens. This is, and I cannot stress this enough COMPLETELY NORMAL. It does not mean you are a completely different person or are bad, or that the media you once enjoyed was secretly trash all along, you just got burned out from over familiarity. The only thing you can really do is put it down and come back in a year, or three, or five before you try it again and you might find yourself saying 'holy crap, I forgot how much I loved this'. In short, give yourself enough time to forget the details of the game. And if you never want to play it again, or you come back in a few years and still aren't enjoying it? THAT'S OK TOO

Mr thane, I just have to say I appreciate your honesty. Like you, I've been enjoying Elden Ring and been obsessed with Cyberpunk 2077's world, it's what made me interested in your videos in the first place. I can imagine the anxiety and strange sense of 'this can't right, I'm doing what has always been what I've enjoyed in the past, am I doing something wrong?' When you started to realize that dark souls just.... doesn't hit the mark for you anymore. I can somewhat understand, as I personally have a hard time going back to dark souls myself, after numerous playthroughs of both Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3, there's certainly an upscale in gameplay, speed, and diversity of play that DS1 just doesn't have. The runbacks in some areas, just don't make me want to play it at all. However I suppose I still appreciate Dark Souls in a vaccum without comparing it much too it's successors, like a starting point that future entries improved upon, but I could also simply be baised to DS1 too. Anyway, to make a long comment shorter, I just want to say that I really appreciate you putting your honest thoughts out there, as others have said, take some time for yourself, and after checking over your channel, I realized I wasn't subscribed, so I went ahead and fixed that. ❤ Take care of yourself Mr Bishop, looking forward to whatever you release next!

19:30 that bit about growth taking people away from things really rakes over memories of Shamus Young he noted that a few times in his writings

I've played these games so much that almost all of the challenge is gone. I still play them regularly and love them. They are kind of like gaming comfort food for me.

I replay a souls game once or twice every year. somethimes i enjoy it more and some times less. but i alway get that itch to play it again. and sometimes i not really having fun and just get it over with and sometimes i end up playing a single save for 50 hours. Im sure youll come back to it, and even if you dont DArk Souls will always be special