A Japanese student has been livestreaming his time with Dark Souls 3, using it as a way to study for their university entrance exams by studying every time he dies.
The student, who streams under the name Matador on Niconico, would play Dark Souls 3- another storied entry of the notoriously punishing Soulsborne genre. Any time he died, however, he would have to put down the game and reportedly study for the next 10 hours.
Of course, this doesn’t mean just dying to Gundyr and ending the stream- the user reportedly streamed the studying session too, as he worked their hardest to get into Tokyo University.
Due to the removal of any footage of the stream, it’s unknown how long Matador kept at it- you die fairly often in Souls games, and two deaths easily means almost a full day’s worth of studying.
That being said, he must have been at this for a while considering comments quickly caught on to the joke, with red text comments reading YOU STUDY any time he died, a reference to the game’s now-iconic YOU DIED screen.
Some fans applauded the student’s ingenuity in finding motivation to study- using the pressures of livestreaming Dark Souls 3 as a way to hold him accountable to his promise.
“So basically, it was a guaranteed way for that student to study since you always die in Dark Souls. A smart way of using a video game as a motivator while live-streaming it so people can call you out and make sure you study. Have to say, quite impressive”, one tweet reads.
Souls games are notoriously popular for challenge-type runs- considering their inherent difficulty, many streamers will try to beat it with other rules for extra kick, such as beating it on a Guitar Hero controller or Donkey Kong bongos.