EuroGamer - Editorial on how to become The Dark Soul

One of Dark Souls' defining characteristics is what is known as New Game Plus (NG+). After completion the game restarts from the beginning, except you keep almost all of your equipment and the enemies become tougher. This Groundhog Day structure is the key to Dark Souls' longevity, its narrative threads and endless depths of incidental detail. You are literally playing the same game - and yet, in practice, doing anything but. The most important thing of all has changed. You. The game's crowning Achievement plays on this, and has the description 'The Dark Soul'. It doesn't just demonstrate the depths of Dark Souls' branching paths and many hidden secrets, but also how these odd little prizes should be used.

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Which brings us back to that personal quest, becoming the Dark Soul. This is the reason why, on PC, I have killed Sif three times. I had to. The act may have made me feel bad, but the simple fact is I needed her soul to craft three different weapons. Sure, she got tougher every time. But I'm a killing machine, and got a LOT tougher. There was no contest. And that's not all I did. I've Gravelorded for hour after hour, sending huge NPC phantoms into the worlds of other players, and slaying those who dared to come face me. I've invaded the worlds of so many people I couldn't count, struck them down with Sunlight Blade and returned with their sweet humanity....... I have sworn fealty to everything, and been loyal to nothing. I have become the Dark Soul, and to do that you must be everyman.

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