Dark Souls is a deliberately clunky and frustrating fighting game. It is mostly linear aside from a few branches and tangents, so the player is usually provided with a clear sense of direction from the game's start to finish. The aesthetic of the game is very dark, gritty, and ugly; while this is sufficient to make an artistic point which is at the core of Dark Souls's appeal, the game's egregious length makes this a touch overbearing. The main issue with Dark Souls is how its un-intuitive, poorly organized stats and progression are so lazily thrown together so as to be nigh incoherent. Keeping track of which stats correspond to what on items is tedious and pointless, coupled with the arbitrary and frustrating of repairs and upgrades. All manner of mechanics like this make Dark Souls feel like a bad RPG not artfully difficult. Overall, Dark Souls presents an interesting artistic concept executed in a mediocre fashion.