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I've recently started replaying Dark Souls 1. I've been playing a little bit every day, and I just reached Anor Londo today. Sen's Fortress was a pain in the ass, but what surprised me was I actually enjoyed exploring Blight Town this time around. I believe Dark Souls 1 functions essentially as a massive dungeon crawl; you slowly navigate through the world, methodically taking on threats, finding shortcuts between areas, and creating this sort of "map" in your head as you go. Future entries in the series opt for a linear and segmented experience, where you go from dungeon to dungeon in a straight path, and you can tell exactly when each dungeon begins and ends. In Dark Souls 1, the entire game is a dungeon. Going back to my point, Blight Town feels much better when you approach it with this mindset. Using the camera to figure out where the path lies among the perilous labyrinth of rickety wooden platforms, walking slowly along thin, wooden beams and wobbly wooden bridges, waiting in ambush for the infested ghouls, the enemies located in Blight Town that I had to google the name of, to climb up ladders in their attempt to rend you. It all meshes together well for a rather fun experience, if you enjoy dungeon crawlers that is. Perhaps this is already something many people are aware of, but I'm just figuring it out now. When I first played Dark Souls, I viewed it as a sort of status symbol and rushed through it as fast as I could before Elden Ring came out. I used guides, watched YouTube videos, and all that jazz. Now, I'm trying to replay it completely blind, besides a few google searches into the rather convoluted weapon upgrade system. I'm trying to fully experience it instead of treat it as a checkbox. And not only that but experience it through my own perspective rather than through the lens of other's. It's something I've been trying to do with a lot of other things as well.

My ideal From Software game would probably have all the modern mechanics and engaging boss battles of Elden Ring, but with the level design of Dark Souls 1. No clue if that will ever happen.