Dark Souls Undead Asylum

Undead Asylum is the first level in Dark Souls and serves as the games tutorial section. 

Overall its a fantastic tutorial but I think it has one flaw that both can scare new players away and teaches the wrong lesson. 

I will explain what that is soon but first I want to point out the good stuff from the level.

The combat onboarding may seem basic but it does alot of stuff right.

1. It starts off in a corridor. Which narrows the players attention to focus on this enemy only and wont stray off doing other things.

2. The text promt is clearly visible and placed before the enemy. Which makes it impossible to miss and it is a quality of life improvement for returning players. Who doesnt need to read alot of text about stuff they aleady know.

3. The enemy doesnt fight back. This gives the player all the time they need to read the sign and learn how to attack the enemy without being punished.

This is in my opinion the most brilliant part of the tutorial.

Here the player is facing an enemy that shoots projectiles. At this moment the player doesnt have anything to block these attacks BUT

Right in front to the left of the player there is an clearly visible item.

Without a safe way to approach the enemy the player will most likely go for this item.

Next to the item there is a empty room where the player gets a safe place to equip the shield and learn how to use it before they will approach the enemy.

When the player approaches the enemy it will flee but the player can now pick up the first real weapon of the game. This happens right after the player learns how to euip items so it serves as a good repetition for the player which will improve the chance of the player rememberring how to do it.

With a new shield and weapon the player now get its chance of revenge against this enemy. Which will most certanly feel satisfying and have a bigger chance to stick in the players mind.

What could be improved?

I think most of the players that have played Dark Souls remember this room. It does contain the most memorable moment of the tutorial. The bossfight.

It is possible but not likely to win this fight at this moment. So what the designers intend is to get the player to flee through the door to the left

But this have some flaws

1. Most players will try and fight this boss totally missing that they should flee. This can make the player stop playing because of frustration.

2. This is the only time in the whole game where the player can flee from bossfights. So it teaches the player false information

3. Even if the player wants to flee it is hard to notice the opening with the boss attacking

The reason why it is done this way is to teach the player the Plunging Attack

When the player returns well equiped and with the plunging attack taking away a good chunk of the boss HP. The boss is now manageable.

How would I do this different?

For the first thing I would take away the first encounter with the boss and instead place some thougher enemies here instead. It still gives the player a feeling of being underleveled and the player can still flee from the enemies the same way they could flee from the boss.

When the player returns they would still get their plunge attack tutorial but against the regular enemies. This will still teach the player the strength of plunging attacks and better equipment since the enemies were much harder to beat the last time.

And when the player has beaten the enemies and feels safe approaching the big door. The boss plunges through the ceiling creating a equally memorable moment

Why these changes?

• This will in my opinion lead to less player quiting the game because they misunderstand what they needs to do.
• This gives the player a more accurate understanding of the games mechanics
• The win over the boss will be more satisfying without any cheapshots like the plunging attack  

Remember this is just my opinions and this is after all my favorite game.

Thanks for reading!