Well, I caved and gave into the Dark Souls itch again over the last few days. It was going pretty well—for awhile I felt like I was finally “getting” the experience. I’ve gotten through three bosses (including one I’d only found on this playthrough, which was neat!) and back to Capra Demon: the wall that originally soured me on the experience so many years ago on the PS3
I stumbled upon it today quite by accident and was immediately reminded of why I quit before (and every subsequent time I’ve tried to approach the game again since, though this is the first time I’ve actually gotten to this particular boss again). Knowing I wasn’t prepared enough for the fight yet, I spent awhile exploring and the like, but unfortunately could not find any new paths to explore, which means I’m going to have to deal with the fight sooner, rather than later
And that knowledge has more or less sapped the newly growing enthusiasm I had for Dark Souls. I’ll probably load the game up again in a day or two and see if I can’t stumble on something I missed, but I feel like I’ve been pretty thorough in my exploration, so I’m not sure there’s much I can do outside of grinding souls for several hours in the hopes that stats will help me push through, which doesn’t sound like the most engaging time to me