How to Git Gud in Demon’s Souls, From Someone Who Sucked

There’s always a lot of discourse online about the difficulty of the Soulsborne genre. Some say it’s too difficult and inaccessible, others say that the challenge is what defines the Souls series as a whole. While reviewing Demon’s Souls last week, I went from feeling that Souls games just weren’t for me to being ready to tackle them head-on. How? I “got gud,” as they say. But that doesn’t mean what you think it does, as I didn’t suddenly become incredible at the game. Rather, I gave up my preconceived notions of the game, and let it teach me.

When I started Demon’s Souls, I was embarrassingly poor at the game. Almost any enemy could kill me, I tried to fight everything (to middling results,) I disliked dying, and I felt genuinely anxious upon entering any type of fog. To put it plainly, I stunk. I tried to skirt around the game like it was some wild dog, and I was walking on eggshells to avoid being mauled. This naturally led to me dying over and over, to the point where I thought: “maybe I’m just not made for this kind of game.” I even considered whether I was good enough to bother reviewing the game if I wasn’t getting the proper experience out of it.

But if anything matters to me, it’s this dang website. So hey, time to “git gud.” I watched my brother play it, because he’s way better at Souls games, and I examined his strategies. I looked up Souls-based YouTuber playthroughs to see how they were playing too, and I came up with one major difference in my playstyle and everyone else’s: confidence. It’s like Demon’s Souls was playing chicken, and I was sidling away while others looked it dead in the eye. I wasn’t letting the game show me how to play it, I was trying to awkwardly brute-force my way through using my experience with other action RPGs. This was the wrong way to play.

Dealing With Death

The first thing I had to do was accept death. Not in real life, it’s still a terrifying and unstoppable force that claims all of us one day. No, I needed to accept in-game death. Dying is a very common and, for most, unavoidable part of a Souls game. Losing your progress stinks and sometimes hurts, but that’s the game showing you where you messed up. To accept death is to accept that you’ll make mistakes and that it’s all a part of learning how to play. Once you stop being fazed by every death, the game becomes a lot less stressful and a lot more fun. You start to think, “How far can I explore this area before dying?” instead of “I can’t get to the boss immediately without dying, yeesh.” A major step forward.

Go With the Flow

Next, I had to follow the game’s lead. I had to treat each enemy like it was a threat and pick and choose my fights. I don’t need to fight every Dobby-looking miner every time I run through the caves to get to the Armor Spider. I could skip a lot of them, preserving my health and sanity rather than fighting and stressing over a meager helping of souls every run. When I did fight an enemy, I took them seriously. There are certainly lesser foes, but there aren’t really any completely harmless enemies in this game. At least, not to someone as new as me. So I guarded, rolled, and carefully planned my strikes against each enemy. It’s not easy, but it’s very rewarding. That sums up the game, really.

Buff Up

Finally, I had to take advantage of the systems available to me. My brother and I found spots with good materials to upgrade equipment with, while I leveled up the stats that I found myself using to further facilitate my playstyle. Some veterans may scoff at this step, but hey, I’m not exactly at the level yet where I can unga-bunga my way through the game with no equipment and a club at Soul Level 1. Baby steps guys, baby steps.

So we made my equipment better, leveled up a bit, and I entered another Archstone. I was ready to put all my newfound confidence and skill to the test. So I died a lot, explored a lot, and practiced skills like parrying and backstabs. Very few deaths felt meaningless until I eventually got to (and killed) the Armor Spider. Wow! Wimpy old Spencer P. Legacy killed a boss on his own! And then the Adjudicator, and then the Leechmonger, and then the Fool’s Idol. Suddenly, I was able to navigate my way through levels using only my own resilience. I went from thinking I couldn’t review the game to genuinely enjoying it for its difficulty.

So if you’re discouraged by any of the Souls games, know this: “gitting gud” doesn’t mean becoming good at the game. It means putting in the time and effort to adapt to and understand the game. It means giving in to the game and letting it show you how to play it, without bailing immediately. It’s less daunting than it sounds, and anyone can do it. I mean, if a game journalist can get good at Demon’s Souls, surely you can too!