When Dark Souls was originally released, it was a rarity among games. Aside from its inspiration, Demon's Souls, few games outside of the NES era were so unabashedly brutal. Players were punished for every tiny mistake, which made it entirely possible to lose hours of progress. A game like that may sound awful, but it resonated with those looking for a challenge. Other games may have been easier to complete, but Dark Souls wasn't going to give players such easy satisfaction.
The game's bosses were a main proponent of this philosophy. In Dark Souls, there was some monstrosity waiting around seemingly every corner: giant flying gargoyles, a morbidly obese demon, a flame-spewing sentient tree, a giant lava-filled centipede and a dragon with a ribcage for a face were all waiting to tear players to pieces. These fights quickly became a hallmark for the series, and the true test of a Souls player's moxie.
While felling each of these beasts is extremely rewarding, there's something especially satisfying about turning the tables on them. A new mod, courtesy of DaTeHaCKs, turns what was a game of survival against impossible odds into something out of a Godzilla movie — and it's amazing.
Basically, the mod replaces the player-character with one of the game's boss monsters — but it does a lot more than simply swapping out the models. The Boss Arena mod also tweaks the controls so that players can access all of the bosses' attacks (the default setup wouldn't have enough different inputs), as well as adjusting the camera for each specific monster.
Don't worry — you won't have to try to fight as Ornstein with a camera adjusted for the Gaping Demon.
Of course, as with all mods, there are some imperfections. Due to the character-swapping, collision detection isn't perfect, and you'll have to be as close as possible to hit your target. There are also some movement glitches — the game wasn't exactly designed for these monsters to go up against each other, so getting around the arenas may be a bit glitchy from time to time.
Honestly, though, that's just nitpicking. All things considered, the Arena Boss mod is great. It's the complete opposite of anything else in Dark Souls, and yet, it's so much fun to play... and it's extremely satisfying to give these monsters a taste of their own medicine.
You'll need a specialized version of Dark Souls to download and play the mod. You can find out how to do that (as well as install the mod itself) over at the Boss Arena's official Reddit page.
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