I fineshed the Dark Souls trilogy, all four of them.

For me, as for most people, I bet, it started with the first Dark Souls. But I was also scared by basically everyone not to go online, for fear that cheaters would destroy my equipment or even corrupt my save. Playing on a PC, where saves (allegedly) could corrupt themselves, didn’t help either. So even though I was hooked, I never made it past the famous pair of bosses. But I did everything else and really enjoyed my time.

When the second one was released, I decided to participate in the jolly co-operation, and with the help of strangers on some particularly annoying bosses, I finish it. The third was even smoother in that regard, and I even played a bit on a certain gaming publication’s stream (streamer was my buddy). I finished Demon’s Souls just last year.

Since I’m playing horror games for a foreseeable future, I used that as an excuse to go back and finish the first one. Dark Souls: Remastered, to be precise.

Calling it a remaster is a bit of a stretch, to be honest. On PC, it’s a much smoother experience than the Prepare to Die Edition was, but you’re not getting anything beyond that.

I don’t think I have anything special to add to what I said about Demon’s Souls. I still think that the discussion about the whole soulslike subgenre is full of misunderstandings, to say the least. I still think there is a lot to like about them besides the combat. I still like them, a lot.

You really made it when a game mechanic from your genre is an entire game. Save Room is that. There’s not much to add, but anyone who’s played a survival horror game – or any game with inventory Tetris, really – would know what’s going on.

Scars Above was a pleasant surprise, I never heard any kind of buzz about it. Which might mean that I like it a bit more because there were no expectations. But it is good! It takes the structure of a soulslike and mixes it with arcade shooter mechanics where enemies have weak points and different elements (water, fire, etc.) play a role. It’s relatively short and straightforward, so not too much complexity, but what’s there is pretty good. It is a bit on the “budget indie title” side, especially the dead eyes of the characters are jarring, but overall not bad looking. A decent sci-fi story and characters also help.

I also played some other games and watched some movies, but I hope to finish the series they belong to and write about them as a whole.