So like, I played this game a lot, I have fond memories of coping depression with it, and it influenced me a lot in my artistic pursuits.
It's not a perfect game but I guess I can write a few pros and cons from memory. They wont alter my final result of saying the game was overall a positive recommendable experience:

PROS:
-Its a rewarding experience if you stick with it, despite the challenging appearence and the marketing heavily implying its crushing difficulty, the game is designed to reward above all else patience and persistance.
-It "would" allow for the crafting of your own theories on how the story is thanks to the (at the time relatively unused) way which it delivers story bits, the so called "Lore" that exists seasoned throught various item descriptions and enviormental storytelling in the game.
(I say "would" because after extensive theory by the fans over the years its hard to come up with something someone hasnt come up with and the sharing of more fantastical or out there theories tends to be looked upon not so great by the community)
-The visuals and imagery are enjoyable, its not the most powerful graphics testing device but it has visually stunning moments.

Cons:
-To someone never having experienced the heaps of fan created media, this game would require actively going against how they teach you to play it to find it a more rewarding and less slow experience.
-It also may actively encourage you to exploit what are essentially flaws in the game design to your advantage, while this can be seen as a con, I am the kind of person that enjoying breaking games like that.
-While the idea of everything being hard but fair sounds cool in theory, in practice games will always have bugs, theres is always the possibility of something happening that is just kind of a ♥♥♥♥ move but its not even the developers fault, its just something no one could have predicted.

Extra info:
--It's story is suprisingly enough, if you peel the "lore" and enviormental story telling out of it, pretty meh:

1-Everything is gray dull and filled with dragons and zombies(?).
2-Flames pops up from nowhere and grants powers for reasons unknown.
3-Giants(?) from nowhere grab shards of the fire and gain magic powers.
4-A Dragon mad at the other Dragons helps the Giants(?) kill off the Dragons race.
5-The Giants(?) then have a golden age with some color to it (like literally things stop being grey).
6-Twist! turns out some of the zombies(?) grabbed the titular "Dark soul" from the fire too.
7-The Giants(?) and Zombies(?) arent friends cause the big boys want to be all powerful.
8-Giants(?) curse Zombies(?) into immortality so they can suffer, this hubris eventually comes back to them.
9-the Flames powers now fading (for reasons unexplained) the Giants(?) try everything to keep it running, they kinda fail and cause the closest thing to an apocalypse possible by mistake.
10-the Zombies(?) now go around killing the weak Giants(?) to end their good times and possibly start good times for themselves or just cause it go back to boring ol' grey.
Note: I say "Giants(?)" because later on there turns out there are even larger giants so like I dunno, and I also say "Zombies(?)" because while technically they are more like revenants they also were never really alive or dead to begin with they kinda just... were...

-Begining nothing is happening, then magic happens and some people profit from it, then the weaker people get a chance to strike back and do so... theres no real like moral dilemma, even though the game gives you the choice to just end everything and make everything go back to being boring and mindless, there is no real reason to do that, as the player character you are one of the Zombies(?), so like why would you not strive to better the world you live in?
-Now it is a bit nitpicky of me to say its a not so great story, but everything really cool or interesting that you could experience has kind of already happened, and that does make sense with the theme sure, but as a game it leaves you to read into cooler stuff that could be happening but that you cant really play through...
--This is not really a game you can play in short bursts so you kind of would have to make time to play it, and that to someone that has little time free is not the easiest.
--Finally, something to note, this game has 2 sequels, named accordingly, and while they are in base simillar games, they can become very different experiences, I played DS1 first and wasnt that into it, then played DS2 and enjoyed it enough to try and replay the first one, then ending up enjoying the first one too, later I got to try DS3 but never really finished it completely but I still enjoyed it. the 3 have gameplay diferences that change quite a bit and suprisingly enough the second game ends up kind of having the biggest impact in the story with its DLC... but anyways.

Overall I cant give this game like too hard a critisim in my mind because I do love this game, it was a pretty important part of my life and like I said helped me cope with something I still fight with to this day, it was overall a fun time.

PS:I am bound to have written a huge ammount of typos, it happens but I hope that even if this was a bit all over the place it was a fun read for those that read it, have a good day/night.

So like, I played this game a lot, I have fond memories of coping depression with it, and it influenced me a lot in my artistic pursuits. It's not a perfect game but I guess I can write a few pros and cons from memory. They wont alter my final result of saying the game was overall a positive recommendable experience: PROS: -Its a rewarding experience if you stick with it, despite the challenging appearence and the marketing heavily implying its crushing difficulty, the game is designed to reward above all else patience and persistance. -It "would" allow for the crafting of your own theories on how the story is thanks to the (at the time relatively unused) way which it delivers story bits, the so called "Lore" that exists seasoned throught various item descriptions and enviormental storytelling in the game. (I say "would" because after extensive theory by the fans over the years its hard to come up with something someone hasnt come up with and the sharing of more fantastical or out there theories tends to be looked upon not so great by the community) -The visuals and imagery are enjoyable, its not the most powerful graphics testing device but it has visually stunning moments. Cons: -To someone never having experienced the heaps of fan created media, this game would require actively going against how they teach you to play it to find it a more rewarding and less slow experience. -It also may actively encourage you to exploit what are essentially flaws in the game design to your advantage, while this can be seen as a con, I am the kind of person that enjoying breaking games like that. -While the idea of everything being hard but fair sounds cool in theory, in practice games will always have bugs, theres is always the possibility of something happening that is just kind of a dick move but its not even the developers fault, its just something no one could have predicted. Extra info: --It's story is suprisingly enough, if you peel the "lore" and enviormental story telling out of it, pretty meh: [SPOILER WARNING] 1-Everything is gray dull and filled with dragons and zombies(?). 2-Flames pops up from nowhere and grants powers for reasons unknown. 3-Giants(?) from nowhere grab shards of the fire and gain magic powers. 4-A Dragon mad at the other Dragons helps the Giants(?) kill off the Dragons race. 5-The Giants(?) then have a golden age with some color to it (like literally things stop being grey). 6-Twist! turns out some of the zombies(?) grabbed the titular "Dark soul" from the fire too. 7-The Giants(?) and Zombies(?) arent friends cause the big boys want to be all powerful. 8-Giants(?) curse Zombies(?) into immortality so they can suffer, this hubris eventually comes back to them. 9-the Flames powers now fading (for reasons unexplained) the Giants(?) try everything to keep it running, they kinda fail and cause the closest thing to an apocalypse possible by mistake. 10-the Zombies(?) now go around killing the weak Giants(?) to end their good times and possibly start good times for themselves or just cause it go back to boring ol' grey. Note: I say "Giants(?)" because later on there turns out there are even larger giants so like I dunno, and I also say "Zombies(?)" because while technically they are more like revenants they also were never really alive or dead to begin with they kinda just... were... [SPOILER WARNING/] -Begining nothing is happening, then magic happens and some people profit from it, then the weaker people get a chance to strike back and do so... theres no real like moral dilemma, even though the game gives you the choice to just end everything and make everything go back to being boring and mindless, there is no real reason to do that, as the player character you are one of the Zombies(?), so like why would you not strive to better the world you live in? -Now it is a bit nitpicky of me to say its a not so great story, but everything really cool or interesting that you could experience has kind of already happened, and that does make sense with the theme sure, but as a game it leaves you to read into cooler stuff that could be happening but that you cant really play through... --This is not really a game you can play in short bursts so you kind of would have to make time to play it, and that to someone that has little time free is not the easiest. --Finally, something to note, this game has 2 sequels, named accordingly, and while they are in base simillar games, they can become very different experiences, I played DS1 first and wasnt that into it, then played DS2 and enjoyed it enough to try and replay the first one, then ending up enjoying the first one too, later I got to try DS3 but never really finished it completely but I still enjoyed it. the 3 have gameplay diferences that change quite a bit and suprisingly enough the second game ends up kind of having the biggest impact in the story with its DLC... but anyways. Overall I cant give this game like too hard a critisim in my mind because I do love this game, it was a pretty important part of my life and like I said helped me cope with something I still fight with to this day, it was overall a fun time. PS:I am bound to have written a huge ammount of typos, it happens but I hope that even if this was a bit all over the place it was a fun read for those that read it, have a good day/night.