How the fuck is possible to like Anor Londo so much, coming from areas like the Undead Burg/Parish, Blighttown, Sen's Fortress and the Painted World?
The guys who designed Blighttown and Ariamis need a fucking medal. I played today Ariamis for the first time, blind and it was a masterpiece. I mean, From charges for DLCs with worse areas.
And then, it's Anor Londo. The most overrated area in the series which leads to probably the most overrated boss fight in the series.
It has retarded level design (the window crack at the start), flying enemies that fall to their death, a huge area with nothing, bad bonfire placement, the archers who I had an epiphany to parry to get through and the interior is bland. Most people say everything is going downhill after Anor Londo, I say the decline starts there. Although I like some later areas more. This place gets away because it's beautiful.
But seriously, DS1 >>> everything as a game. Take Blighttown for example. It's big, complex, vertical, deadly. It has a cool boss and you ring the bell. Now you have to crawl your way back to Firelink Shrine, there is no fucking warping. You go there and you realize that the bonfire is off. Sure there are so many bonfires nearby, but you have to be extra careful because should you die, you're going to Blighttown again.
From never dared to do this again. Other games, while great, are so "gamey": Go to a new area, explore and fight, open the shortcut, repeat, kill the boss, next level. The first DS is an adventure, a constant struggle against the game and yourself. It's so charming. I thought that I liked it because it's the first of this kind I played. Nope, it's just superior as an experience. The worst is DS3. Clearly DS1 is a work of love, while DS3 is a professionally made piece of obligation.
All I want from future From games is to think about removing bonfire wrap until later in the game, be more creative in shortcuts and have more complex design in levels.
