Welcome to amra's comment-as-you-read, where I have too much free time on my hands.
-Everything does respawn when you die and when you use your checkpoints/bonfires, yes, but the reviewer is mistaken about saving. The game autosaves every second and you can quit to menu anywhere you want; everything will remain as is when you come back unless you die or bonfire, again.
-thank you, even someone who didn't actually play the game realizes that human form is an agreement to multiplayer.
-I disagree heavily with there being no narrative myself. The reviewer didn't note that much of the backstory and foreshadowing lies within item descriptions, which add to the background and motivation for lots of characters and areas. For example, should you kill Solaire and take his gear, you'll learn that all his gear is absolutely mundane, which makes you suspicious of his origin seeing that the major fan theory is that he was the First Son of Gwyn, stripped of all his divinity.
Or all the pyromancies and occult weapons sealed away in the Painted World of Ariamis
. The Souls obtained from bosses and the weapons you can make from them, and especially the Keys also have very compelling tidbits of info.
In the the end I do agree with most of the points made, though. Really nice review for someone who just watched it being played.
-I disagree heavily with there being no narrative myself. The reviewer didn't note that much of the backstory and foreshadowing lies within item descriptions, which add to the background and motivation for lots of characters and areas. For example, should you kill Solaire and take his gear, you'll learn that all his gear is absolutely mundane, which makes you suspicious of his origin seeing that the major fan theory is that he was the First Son of Gwyn, stripped of all his divinity.
Or all the pyromancies and occult weapons sealed away in the Painted World of Ariamis
. The Souls obtained from bosses and the weapons you can make from them, and especially the Keys also have very compelling tidbits of info.
this sounds similar to when people say the metroid prime trilogy had no narrative or story
which is extremely frustrating
If I recall, Metroid Prime had that whole deal about scanning everything for descriptions correct? If so, it's very similar to that. The amount of information you can find just from the location of an item and its description is staggering. There's for example a secret room in Anor Londo that contains Havel's armor and weapon, and a mimic that drops a club upgraded for the Occult path. Occult weapons are especially effective against the gods that populate Anor Londo, and Havel was said to have hated magic in the description of Great Magic barrier. So why was Havel hiding one of those in his secret stash behind so many levels of protection? A planned coup? And is this the reason he was locked away at the bottom of the tower by a 'dear friend', as written on the key's description that allows you to find the hollowed out Havel in person?
As the reviewer said, Dark Souls was meticulously crafted. It certainly has its fair share of flaws, but it's amazing how much you can imply in the way they chose.