Watch Dark Souls Defeated in a Record 49 Minutes

Few games have captured the hearts and minds of players in the same way as Dark Souls; legions of fans embrace its outrageous difficulty spikes and unbearably cruel twists as though they were suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

So it's perhaps only natural that speedrunners have taken to the acclaimed action slasher, testing the absolute limits of their concentration and thumb gymnastics.

Though Dark Souls usually takes more than 40 hours to complete, one speedrunner has managed to break the 50-minute mark, having finished the game in a remarkable 49 minutes and 55 seconds. You can see the balletic run-through in the video above.

The speedrunner, going by the online handle Kahmul78, adds however that this new record speedrun was far from perfect. He says he only managed to beat his previous personal best--of 50:09--after discovering a new strategy that shaves off a precious 35 seconds.

"This record will be beaten very soon," he adds.