A game series that I have been recently replaying and enjoying once again is the Dark Souls series by From Soft. Dark Souls is a famous game that has been branded with a reputation of being difficult, and this reputation comes from the mechanics and dynamics of the game. One of the most important mechanics in Dark Souls is the fact that the player cannot pause the game at any time and has a limited amount of healing per checkpoint. The interactions of these mechanics leads to stressful situations where the player has no opportunity to stop and breathe and simply has to face challenges as they come, with a cognizant and on screen representation of how many more mistakes they’re allowed to make. If a player dies, they reload at the last checkpoint they rested at with all the enemies and challenges of the area reset, alongside their limited amount of heals.
This ultimately results in a dynamic where the player truly learns the game and can visibly see themselves improve, as they can observe how many heals they use in each attempt of an area or zone. Without the ability to pause, a player can’t always stop mid zone and assess their performance and skill; sometimes they simply have to keep playing. This also creates a dynamic where the first time a player attempts a zone they may very quickly die and lose before they can even think, which leads to the game’s famed difficulty. These same mechanics also create a dynamic where a player can improve through repeated attempts at the problem and be cognizant of that improvement, most easily seen when they manage to reach the next checkpoint and can stop and reflect.
