On their own, both Ring Fit Adventure and Dark Souls are workouts of their own kind. But what happens if you take an actual physical workout and make it the means by which you interact with the world of a mental workout? You get Super Louis 64’s mod that makes Ring Fit Adventure’s movement-based controller work with FromSoftware’s action RPG.
Looking at Super Louis 64’s YouTube page, the modder has been using Ring Fit to make multiple games exercise-friendly, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart, but this is the first game that hasn’t already been on the Nintendo Switch. With Dark Souls III, the mod maps certain abilities and movement to inputs like jogging in place to run, squatting to use healing items, and squeezing the Ring Fit ring con controller to attack.
Hey happy Sunday y'all!
Here's a project I've been working on a #RingFitAdventure mod for @DarkSoulsGame. Squat to heal? Jog to move in-game? Prepare to Exercise!
⬇️ Explanation in the thread below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/OVHtsSnmAw
— Super Louis 64 (@SuperLouis_64) April 5, 2020
While there will be a full video on the Super Louis 64 YouTube channel in the future, right now we have a Twitter thread breaking down how the ring con was used to make Dark Souls III an exercise game, as well as what issues he hopes to improve on as development continues. Most notably, the current setup doesn’t allow for a ton of flexibility on running speed, which means you can wear yourself out fairly quickly.
“Of course this runs into a few issues, like getting tired,” he said on Twitter. “In the future I plan to make the leg strap joycon’s D-Pad allow the user to control the intensity they want to run from “a good job” to “no jog” just in-case they are tired. Dark Souls will do that to you.”
In a final tweet on the thread, Super Louis 64 said he plans to do some more work on the mod to make it more user friendly, and hopes to move on to Animal Crossing after he’s done with Dark Souls III.
In other news:
- Animal Crossing’s Bunny Day Begins to Die its Slow Death After Patch
- ESA Announces the Dates for a “Reimagined” E3 2021, But There’s No Reimagining Its Troubled History
- Hot Dang Y’all, Rogue Legacy 2 Is Happening
While it might not be practical for binging Dark Souls III like you would with a standard controller (the game is anywhere from 30 to 90 hours depending on how thorough you are), it at least means you can get a Ring Fit style workout playing something other than Ring Fit Adventure, which can get stale after a while, if my experience is anything to go by. But it’s become a regular part of my weekly routine, and I’ve noticed tangible results since I started playing it back in October.
Dark Souls III mod or not, Ring Fit Adventure is a pretty solid way to get a workout in while we’re all holed up at home in self-quarantine. While it has been frustrating at times and it’s absolutely going to hurt in the beginning, it’s the perfect way to get some high-intensity exercise from the comfort of your own home. And the new rhythm game mode that launched at the end of last month is pretty fun, as well.
