Is Darkest Dungeon as Hard as Dark Souls? A Veteran‘s Perspective
As an avid gamer and content creator focused on turn-based tactics and hardcore RPGs, I‘ve sunk countless hours of my life into punishing titles many players wouldn‘t dare touch. The Souls series and Darkest Dungeon in particular have consumed entire months in pursuit of their grim rewards. After this marathon of masochism, I‘m prepared to definitively declare: Darkest Dungeon stands as the more difficult and frustrating challenge of the two.
Legacies of High Difficulty
Both franchises undoubtedly deserve notoriety for their infamously high barriers to success. Since 2011‘s Demon Souls, FromSoftware has cemented its Soulsborne brand as a badge of honor for those possessing the reflexes and resilience to push through excruciating journeys filled with brutal enemies and bosses. Darkest Dungeon arrived in 2016 to establish Red Hook Games as a new purveyor of seemingly unfair punishment, demanding players perfectly balance party composition, precarious dungeon runs, and sanity-breaking stress mechanics.
Surviving either requires tremendous patience under pressure, strategic mastery, and an acceptance of temporary setbacks that might break other players entirely. Let‘s closely analyze where Darkest Dungeon goes several steps further.
By the Numbers: Player Completion Rates
According to Steam achievements, since 2016 only 28.4% of Dark Souls III players have ever defeated the base game‘s final boss (and only 9.3% completed both DLC episodes). Its precedessors on PC have similar numbers. Demon‘s Souls and Bloodborne exclusives likely have comparable completion percentages in the sub-30% range.
However, these figures tower above Darkest Dungeon‘s disheartening stats: a mere 3% all-time achievement rate for completing a single complete playthrough. Accounting for gameplay length, these journeys easily require 80-120+ hours with a single party. And if just one essential hero dies permanently, you must start completely over.
I can personally confirm witnessing many Twitch streamers and Discord friends lose entire campaigns 60+ hours in from a few critical mistakes in a late-game dungeon run. Utterly demoralizing.
Slaughtering Newcomers and Veterans Alike
Now you might argue Souls fans determined to finish would eventually grind enough levels to brute force past obstacles. But what fully halted their progress? Talk to any player and you‘ll likely hear stories of hitting brick walls with certain early- and mid-game bosses requiring true mastery of combat mechanics. Tower Knight, Capra Demon, Ornstein & Smough, Sister Friede. Their names live in infamy.
With Darkest Dungeon‘s turn-based system lacking the gradual skill progression of live action battles, no amount of grinding can help if your team composition and ability choices are fundamentally flawed against certain dungeon bosses. Even veterans using optimal strategies can suddenly lose multiple high-level heroes to a few rounds of terrible luck. I painfully learned this facing veteran-difficulty Necromancer Lord and Prophet bosses after a 60 hour campaign. Heroes at full health wiped out by dual critical hits from hard-hitting AoE attacks before I had a chance to respond. A combat encounter lasting mere seconds, undoing dozens of hours of careful planning and upgrades.
By Design: Stacked Against the Player
Both games proudly claim roots in "tough but fair" challenge design, but in practice, Darkest Dungeon subtlely distinguishes itself as outright not fair (and some might argue purposefully imbalanced). The odds feel overwhelmingly stacked against the player. Observe some key examples:
Stress Mechanics: The stress dealer enemies focus fire and stack debilitating afflictions onto targets rather than attacking health. Rare "virtues" offer the only counter. Compared to Dark Souls status effects easily remedied by consumable items or resting at bonfires.
Accuracy & Dodge: Monsters often have 10-15% higher base hit chances than player heroes. Some late-game enemies and bosses boast staggering 140%+ accuracy to guarantee landing attacks. Heavily discourages "dodgetanking" strategies viable in Souls.
Crits: Darkest Dungeon shows damage point values allowing you witness just how disproportionate incoming crits deal easily 2-3x higher damage relative to your own capabilities. RNG regularly creates unwinnable situations.
Deaths Door: Once heroes drop below 20% vitality they rapidly sustain further damage penalties and risk fatal heart attacks from strain. Touch of death scenarios practically non-existent in Souls.
Inventory: Strictly limited consumable stacks prevent sustainable long-term healing/buffing strategies. You simply don‘t have the resources to last.
Embracing the Sadism
Now I don‘t claim FromSoftware titles as easy affairs, but through immense patience learning patterns and tens of attempts per encounter, victory typically seems within reasonable reach thanks to consistent underlying gameplay rules. Darkest Dungeon often feels governed by artificial difficulty and arbitrary chaos instead, laughing as it gleefully steals well-deserved triumphs away purely by whim.
And strangely, this potential for hopeless tragedy makes finally conquering its challenges so much more gratifying (or intensely frustrating, depending who you ask). Darkest Dungeon revels in gambling with your feelings, heightening the dramatic emotional stakes of every dice roll or critical hit/miss as you plead for just one more round of decent luck. When it pays off, the euphoria somehow feels more rewarding than a hard fought Souls boss victory. But its equally likely the house always wins, devastating unsuspecting players resignation, or salty rage quitting.
Final Verdict
So for those asking themselves – "Which game should be my next ultimate gaming challenge?" – the numbers don‘t lie. If you desire a tough but potentially manageable task demanding dedicated practice and gradual personal improvement session after session, Dark Souls awaits. But if you crave a Sadistic game master dispassionately destroying your best laid plans with a cruel RNG flick of its wrist and cackling as you cry out in despair…Darkest Dungeon welcomes fresh victims. Enter at your own peril, and may the Light have mercy on your souls!
