Link Drag with New Added Hellkite Dragon
HELLO I’M HELLKITE DRAGON AND AAAAARGH WHAT IS THAT

This edition of Link Drag is dedicated to a diary series on Dark Souls. 

Dark Souls Diaries

I have never played Dark Souls. Neither did I think I ever would. No console, no joy. So when Matt “Steerpike” Sakey started a diary series covering his journey through Dark Souls last year I thought, well, why not read it? There’s no spoiling me now, right?

And Steerpike made me laugh sometimes. I’ll grant him that. He made me laugh. And then there was some petition to get Dark Souls on PC. Right, like petitions work. Firefly is gone, man. Get over yourselves. And then From Software said, okay, we’ll make it. And I thought yeah yeah yeah, whatevs. And then it came out and I was still reading Steerpike’s epic diary masterwork, spoiling the shit out of the experience which was now available to me.

So thanks for nothing Steerpike.

Yes, I’ve noted the diary in a previous Link Drag, but the damn thing is finished now. Below you will find links to each chapter of the enormous and rewarding “Dark Souls Diaries”, an epic which began in December 2011 and was finally completed September 2012.

Deaths 1-133. “Have you picked up the strategy guide?” He adds, sliding my game across the counter. There’s a pile of them next to the register. “This is, like, hella hard.”

Deaths 134-199. GEGGIIS: Brilliant! I think that’s the part I played at the Eurogamer Expo! Did you kill it the same way I killed it? STEERPIKE: I bet I did. Assuming you killed it by screaming like a girl child and hurling firebombs at it until it died.

Deaths 200-331. Then a tree came to life and sucked my brain out. I shit you not. There I was, just standing there minding my own business, and a tree wrapped its branches around me and slurped on my head until I died. Brain right through the helmet.

Deaths 332-471. There is something seriously wrong with the people at From Software, that they could create a monster as revolting and as terrifying as the Gaping Dragon. It has a protuberance that looks like a crocodile, so at first when it pokes out of the sewer water you think, “Oh! A crocodile! I can deal with that!” then the rest of its 900 feet come crawling out.

Deaths 472-580. I don’t know if I have the words, but I’ll try. Imagine the city of Calcutta fucked a septic tank. Blighttown would be the profane, plague-riven overspill of that unspeakable coupling. Hey look! I did have the words.

Deaths 581-650. So in a way it’s my fault that poor silent girl is dead, and damned if I’m not going to find that bastard and teach him that nobody murders Fire Keepers on my watch.

Deaths 651-696. …this belies the shortsighted view that Dark Souls, and Demon’s Souls before it, “hate” the players. I think they love us. It’s just that love is not always kind.

Marcus Sakey takes Pepper Spray in the face
Hello I’m Marcus Sakey, Steerpike’s successful crime novelist brother. I’m so badass I went on television to get pepper-sprayed for the shits and giggles.

Deaths 697-834. And when you’re first summoned, almost everyone adheres to the unspoken courtesy of bowing to greet the other player. It brings out a kind of chivalry and greatness rarely seen in multiplayer games.

Deaths 835-897. Kingseeker Frampt was so excited when I turned up with the Lordvessel that he roared at me for like three minutes straight, then sheepishly apologized for his exuberance. Communication can be hard when you’re a giant snake-dog thing, but the incoherent language of joy needs no translation. I mean he was really jazzed about this.

Deaths 898-1043. Ultimately Great Grey Wolf Sif’s passing made me sad because though I had to do it, though she was the aggressor, and would have given me no quarter, she was also the first – the only – thing I’ve encountered beautiful enough that her absence will diminish the world. Snap, snap, puppy.

Deaths 1044-1102. Suddenly I didn’t like Ash Lake. It’s a cold and frightening place, not terrifying like the Depths, just… endlessly endless. With thoroughness in mind I sprinted across the lonely sandbar – ashbar – and cut around a corner fast enough that I like to think I did one of those heel-first screeching stops that cartoon characters do when they come around a corner and encounter A DRAGON THE SIZE OF A GALAXY.

Deaths 1103-1169. I killed my friend. In my carelessness I murdered someone I cherished.

Deaths 1170-1259. After all, I’m standing (and, occasionally, treading water) in a city where almost a million people were willingly sacrificed to stop a terrible threat from growing. That thought provides a sense of scale to the Darkwraiths. Something that dangerous, something so apocalyptic that no cost was too great to stop it.

Epilogue. To be honest I’m a jaded old bastard. I work in video games and as much as I wish they affected me the way they did when I was a kid, they don’t. I know too much about how things work – how the industry works, how games work, how players work. But I can’t say “the wonder is gone.” Sometimes it seems to have gone, but then I find a game like Dark Souls, and I realize that the wonder’s still there, I just need to look a little harder for it.

Hellkite Dragon leaves Tap-Repeatedly
HELLO I’M HELLKITE DRAGON AND I LIKE THIS SITE BETTER

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4 thoughts on “This Link Drag Has Died

  1. Wow, twice in one week? Thank you, Harbour Master! I should warn you, though, if Hellkite Dragon really has moved over here, he’s gonna be a thorn in your side. We had nothing but trouble with him at Tap.

    As I mention a couple of times in the series itself, I never actually intended to publish the Dark Souls Diaries. The whole story started years ago with Demon’s Souls – for some reason I was inspired to start emailing a rundown of the previous night’s adventures to six or seven of my friends. I didn’t give them any warning or context, so I kept getting bewildered replies like “What? What are you talking about? Is this a game?” until eventually they just started ignoring me. I picked it up again with Dark Souls. Eventually my brother – he of the pepper spray – asked me why I wasn’t running them on Tap-Repeatedly.

    The truth is I assumed I’d never finish the game and the Diaries would just peter out. I’d never finished Demon’s Souls, after all, and leaving a published series unfinished bothered me. But he pressured me and I decided to go ahead, and lo and behold, I did manage to finish.

    I need to figure out the best way to do an index of installments and stuff so the Diaries are easier to read. For now, I have added links at the bottom of each so you can head on to the next installment or go back to the category page.

    Thanks again – that anyone other than me read and was entertained by these is still amazing to me. 🙂

  2. I always intended to put up a piece on this and when I realised I had a separate piece about the unlikely coming together of NOLF2 haters, I knew they should go up in the same week. Some of those comments on the Sunday Papers seemed to miss the point of the diaries, though.

    I guess this week was about my public commitment to Tap. To say that I still read the site, I just don’t have as much to contribute in the comments or even the time to do so these days. The comments are piling up here on on “Is Challenge Superfluous?” and I haven’t even found the time to wade into those!

    While we’re talking about unfinished series, I still haven’t completed Armpit Empires. The reason was I wanted to finish with a proper tutorial video but as I’ve gone off videos due to risk/reward, I doubt I’ll ever finish the series now.

  3. “But I can’t say “the wonder is gone.” Sometimes it seems to have gone, but then I find a game like Dark Souls, and I realize that the wonder’s still there, I just need to look a little harder for it.”

    Right on. Just a phenomenal game that kind of makes me want to cry it’s that good. If “triple A” gaming has anything resembling a soul left, it’ll take lessons from Dark Souls.

    But I doubt that will happen.

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