This Gamer Is Trying To Beat Dark Souls Upside-Down

Apparently games these days are so easy that people can't just set it to the hardest setting and have a tough time trying to beat it, they now have to add ridiculous gimmicks, over-the-top obstructions and self-inhibitory restrictions in order to put the “fun” back into “functionally difficult”. This rings true for one gamer who is attempting to beat Dark Souls while playing it upside-down.

Gamespot is reporting that Twitch streamer Lobos JR is attempting to beat the entirety of Dark Souls while playing it upside-down. Well, technically that's not true... technically he's playing it upside-down thanks to a mod that flips the screen; he's not actually playing while positioned on his head. Lobos Jr is posting a series of videos of his adventures in parts; he's putting each part up online on YouTube after recording it on Twitch. You can check out the first part of the adventure below.

As he explains, the controls stay the same in the game save for the up and down camera controls. The mod flips the screen during gameplay but there are some issues with the mod.

For instance, some of the special effects are not properly flipped and the fire still burns the right side up. Also the hair doesn't seem to flip properly... so the character is flipped upside down but the hair is also right side up.

Some people might be questioning why the entire game isn't just flipped and why the in-engine game is flipped. Well, it's so players can still see the text and read the subtitles. However, reading the subtitles and seeing the text right proper comes at the expense of a rather janky upside-down display in Dark Souls. It's one of the first mods I've seen of this kind and it looks really weird.

Some of the shadows and reflections are also not properly flipped, so it looks pretty messed up. In fact, I imagine it's harder to play Dark Souls with this faux upside-down mod than actually playing with the screen flipped.

With the video above you can fast forward to the five minute mark to finally see the game in action but it's far less impressive than you might be expecting.

Lobos Jr is also known for doing other gimmick run-throughs of Dark Souls, including attempting to play the game with no shield and no rolling, or trying to play blindfolded. One of his more interesting playthroughs was using the Limbo mod Dark Souls, which gives the game a black and white contrast filter. You can check out some of it below.

I have to admit that the Limbo mod actually looks really, really cool for Dark Souls. It actually looks kind of cool.

As for Lobos Jr, you can tell that this guy really loves testing new things with Dark Souls as well as punishing himself with some of these crazy mods.