@manaburn's diary

Lovely art, and a thoughtful story where choices matter in small, human ways. The lettering changes with each character's education, which is the kind of detail I didn't know I wanted. Slow, and worth it.

Better than I remembered, and I remembered it fondly. The level design has a logic you only notice on a second visit; every shortcut is exactly where you'd hope it would be.

The first half is still the best interconnected world I know. Opening a door and realising you're back at Firelink, from a direction you'd never have guessed, doesn't get old. The second half is weaker, and Blighttown ran like a slideshow on the original release, but the shape of the thing has been copied ever since and rarely bettered.

It borrows a great deal from better games and doesn't always understand why those parts worked. There's enough personality of its own to carry it, mostly.

I came to it years after launch and found a generous, sprawling game about wandering. It rarely surprises after the first dozen planets, and I kept going back anyway.