Death is different in Dark Souls. Echoing the advice Dave gave me when I first started playing, that death is not a failure state, I mean, sure, you did fail, either by being utterly outclassed and over-powered by a massive demon, by being over-confident in your abilities at taking on all three of those bad-dudes at once, or simply falling off a ledge, but it’s not the failure state. It’s not game over. You get another shot.
It’s not like Galaga, in that when you die so many times, no matter how many extra lives you have earned, that’s it, your game is over. Dark Souls is a modern game in that long-term progress is saved which allows you to become attached to your character. It’s not like Halo, in that the last failed attempt at killing all the enemies in the area and getting a checkpoint doesn’t count and you’ve essentially rewound time to have another crack at it. You died, and you have a chance to reclaim what was yours. Your souls. Your humanity. Sure, the flip-side is that all your enemies have respawned too, but if they didn’t then how would you ever level up more than three times? You can’t have the reward without the risk. Find what you lost in your previous attempt and you are most certainly more powerful than you were before. Die again, and you have lost it all – but you most certainly have gained knowledge, such as don’t try to take on all three of those bad-dudes at once, or that there is a fatal drop just there.
You can die over and over and over, and keep coming back, but the last time you ever play the game – that’s when the character you play as in Dark Souls finally goes insane and becomes a hollow.
Not playing Dark Souls is the real failure state.
Please note that at this point I still have not finished Dark Souls, so I have no idea if you go hollow at the end or what…