While most Souls-like gamers have been keeping themselves busy with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, one dedicated player has somehow managed to get themselves through Dark Souls 2 without using their left control stick at all, stopping fully walking up the stairs and back. themselves around freely.
If you don’t believe it, YouTuber Ymfah has shown the entire shoot and all of its rehearsals in a new video, in which they demonstrate all the clever ways to move using the left stick. Not being able to walk doesn’t mean you’re unable to move – in its most basic form, the challenge essentially replaces walking with attacking or retreating. When you attack, your character moves forward, so you can traverse the map by swinging endlessly until you reach your destination, or by going backwards and jumping back.
Except, it’s not that simple. As Ymfah discovered at the start of the run, you still have to figure out how to turn yourself around so you don’t get stuck throwing your hands against the wall for the rest of the time. Thankfully, this can be achieved in a few different ways – closing with an enemy will cause you to turn towards them and you can very, LOT turn slowly by moving back and forth (attacking and then reversing) in a tilt. The latter was absolutely essential for the YouTuber at the start of the challenge, as there simply aren’t enough enemies to lock onto in the opening area to successfully reach the door to start creating your character.
After this point, the return becomes easier, as Ymfah chooses the Bandit class which has access to a bow, allowing them to rotate using it whenever they want (assuming they aren’t already carrying another weapon and a shield, that is). Binoculars acquired a little later also do the same. As you’d expect though, the trials aren’t over – beating tougher enemies is a massive effort when your character isn’t able to be as nimble as usual. Mercifully, there are sometimes Phantoms (NPC summons) to help, but each area requires a well-thought-out strategy, and even later, on the run after grinding levels to become a powerful mage, Ymfah hit a number of walls with bricks. the bosses.
However, bosses aside, one of the biggest setbacks was the inability to use stairs. On many occasions, Ymfah had to chart entirely new routes after encountering self-imposed dead ends. This was such a big problem that right after fighting the Dragonriders boss duo in Drangleic Castle, Ymfah had to call a real player to climb a ladder for them and fight a bunch of enemies in order to activate a elevator so they can get up and go on. hey, someone they might have had to walk, but it wasn’t them.
Admittedly, Ymfah had to do some slightly dodgy savefile swearing towards the end of the lap, as another ladder seemed to present a dead end. By loading another save file and activating the Bonfire checkpoint behind the ladder they were holding back from, then overwriting their challenge run file and exiting the game after entering a boss arena, they were in able to use an old feather to turn. to ‘the last fire ceased in.’ At this point, the game determined that this was Bonfire accessing the next save file, allowing them to continue the run without going on the current run course at all. It’s very complicated, but it kind of falls into the same category as having another player climb a ladder to take an elevator down, only with more obstacles.
In general, it is one incredibly tedious challenge that I can’t imagine anyone would want to try at home. So much so, you can assume that Ymfah was the first to think of taking it, but it’s worth noting that a smaller YouTuber, Qui, actually beat them to it about three years ago, so shout out to her.
While you’re here, be sure to check out the top 10 games like Dark Souls that will test your survival.