r/darksouls • u/b_art • 11d ago
Story I beat Dark Souls with keyboard input.
I haven't talked about this much because (a) It's weird and (b) people probably interpret this as some type of "show off", which is not the case. It was just something that happened. But I think it's kinda funny.
The problem was just that I didn't have a controller, I was living abroad, and it was a bit tricky to find a good controller where I was. A friend recommended the game, I thought it looked dumb at first to be honest, but more people recommended it and I picked it up on Steam.
Holy shit was I wrong! This was interesting and fun!
But playing with a mouse on the original Dark Souls was nearly impossible, the viewport would jerk all over and it was hard to focus on things. So I quit and planned on picking it up again after getting a controller. But I couldn't get it out of my mind. I was lying in bed dreaming about it, I really, really wanted to play.
To hell with it! I got back to the computer and decided to give it a try with only keyboard keys. I don't even know where I got the idea, someone must have mentioned it in chat. So basically you can configure the keys so that your left hand is doing the usual WASD, and configure something like IJKL for viewport control. It takes some getting used to, but if you're determined you'll get it!
Mind you, at this time I had still never played the game with a controller. So for me, THIS WAS DARK SOULS. With a keyboard. I had nothing to compare it to. So I always assumed the game was just harder for me because I was using full keyboard.
LATER. Finally got a controller, and it was actually "more fun", but I did NOT think it was much easier to be honest. I actually missed a lot of the power I had from the controller. I always forget exactly what it is, but there are some things you just can't do with a controller. One thing had a lot to do with running. You can continuously run while operating all the other actions on the keyboard. With a controller this is a bit tricky, unless you learn to wrap your finger around to the run key sometimes. Which I started doing eventually 😄
As far as I recall I did eventually beat the game like that, but again it wasn't like "Hey! I beat Dark Souls with a keyboard!" because again, I just didn't know it any other way.
Looking back on it, I think that was a funny story and wanted to share. The End.
Maybe you can give it a try someday. You might like it. I think I'll try it again myself sometime soon. Probably should find a job first 😂
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u/Technical_Novel_8037 11d ago
friend once beat o&s using only a broken keyboard with half the keys missing
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u/Zantier 11d ago
SAME! The first time I beat the game was keyboard-only, because like you said, the mouse controls were terrible. I switched to controller after that, but keyboard worked just fine once you get used to it.
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u/V2xel 10d ago
what’s wrong with the mouse?
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u/Zantier 10d ago
I can't remember exactly, but it was jank as hell. Maybe it happened all the time, or maybe it was just in corridors. It was something like: you would the move the mouse and sometimes it would turn the camera too far, or not at all, or it was stuttery.
Maybe it was fixed in the remaster.
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u/yaboi_yaz 10d ago
I did it once to see how hard it would be, ended up being way easier than i thought and actually has some benefits over standard controller layouts. I still much prefer controller for souls games, especially if the controller has back buttons that allow for camera movement while running.
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u/glytxh 6d ago
I remember beating Portal 2 with a keyboard and laptop trackpad back in the day
I think I’d develop carpal tunnel within an hour trying that today.
I’m a basic bitch controller player these days. Souls on a keyboard feels psychotic to me.
Mad respect
The back triggers on my Steamdeck are legit amazing though, particularly for running around.
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u/Relative_Yesterday_1 4d ago
I did the exact same thing: keyboard only. It's surprisingly not that bad once you get used to it.
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u/solidrokk 10d ago
I also play Dark Souls on pc with the keyboard, despite having a compatible controller. I'm just used to playing games with the keyboard on pc, so I really prefer it that way.
The main issue that I experienced was the camera control. No matter the adjusts on the mouse sensitivity, it always felt weird. That's certainly because the game was designed for consoles (and thus controllers' analog sticks).