Reviews from

in the past


With exception of maybe 2 or 3 bosses I think I could stick a whole wiimote in my ass.

The greatest Fromsoftware game. Anyone who argues with me will unfortunately be depicted as the crying wojak, while i have already drawn myself as the big muscular chad. Checkmate.

I honestly didn't expect any game in the Souls series to surpass Dark Souls for me in large part due to an awareness that the most compelling aspect of that game, its rich, deeply interwoven world that is so well realised that it sears every corner of its map into your memory, is something I wouldn't again find in quite that form in any of the other three Souls games.

Dark Souls III knows it can't really compete on those terms, so instead does something completely different. It accepts a more linear path, much more linear than any of the other three Souls games by a fair margin (though still with a great deal of exploration to engage in within each individual area, never sacrificing the sense of intrigue, mystery and discovery), and engages in this style with intent; Dark Souls III is the most narrative of the Souls games, taking you on various emotional and thematic arcs in your journey across this waning land, arcs that can only exist with as much potency as they do thanks to the game knowing the order everything will be seen in. Rather than trying to be what the other games are, Dark Souls III gets it is best to be something proudly distinct.

The obvious retort here is how can you say Dark Souls III is interested in being something distinct when it has such a deep attachment to the past, bringing back so many places and characters from former games, how can that be consistent with all these references that are littered everywhere. But again, just like with the game's more intense linearity, Dark Souls III ending up this way isn't due to being lazy or cashing in on the success of the Souls series, this is intentional. These references are serving a very particular effect. In its dying days this world is crashing in on itself, colliding with other worlds, time and space becoming unhinged as this age approaches its final moments, and these echoes of former games, so many of them off-putting or bizarrely, indescribably nonsensical, are the most unsettling way to make this felt. There are so many moments where these references put a smile on my face, only to be followed up with the feeling that it doesn't feel quite right, this sense of unease creeping up on me.

The feelings this game engenders are so intentional, and so powerful, and I think thematically it ends up being the richest, most fascinating entry in the series as a result.

Even beyond all of this, beyond all the ways the game's seeming weaknesses somehow act as marked strengths, and beyond the depth of emotion found within all of it, Dark Souls III is also just fun. It is the most refined of the four Souls games, learning a lot of lessons from what came before it. There's still some amount of arcane nonsense that is hard to ever really work out on your own, secrets within secrets, but importantly this stuff doesn't touch the actual mechanics of the game of the game so much anymore. In terms of understanding how to play the game Dark Souls III ends up being the most accessible of all the Souls games and is all the better for it, with a bunch of quality of life features present also that manage to make the game more pleasant to engage with without ever compromising the game's emotionality or sense of fascination.

Dark Souls III has easily the highest floor of the Souls games, with a level of consistency that is wildly unheard of in the series. Meanwhile the high-points for me rank as the very peak of the series partly due to the stellar art direction, partly due to the game taking Dark Souls' macro-world design and trying to apply it on a more micro-level to fit within this linear approach (everything about the design of the Cathedral's map is just a work of art), and partly because Dark Souls III's increased sense of narrative spreads to boss fights also making so many of the best fights into actual stories packed with emotion, awe and fascination, with the mechanics of these fights complimenting the stories being told so beautifully.

It's genuinely amazing to me how Dark Souls III manages to all at once iterate and develop on what came before it in a way that fully understands it could never exist without these earlier entries, whilst also keenly charging forth as something so different from these earlier entries, boldly and unapologetically.

(This review is specifically for playing this game in multiplayer/co-op)

Dark souls 3 is one of my favorite games of all time, and playing through it solo is a very engaging experince. Same cannot be said about its online mode.

I dont know why this game gets a lot of traffic for online specifically. I played through this run with my good friend Hilda and, while i did have a fantastic time playing with her, its very obvious that this game is not really meant to be played with anyone. Bosses feel unsatisfying most of the time, as its attention is split between you and the other player, and it never feels like the game handles 2 competent players together well. The areas outside that however are all fun and games, and i wish there were levels specifically made for playing with a friend in mind cause it was a blast.

Till you get invaded. Everyone already knows this but what is wrong with dark souls players? Why're they so mean and needlessly aggressive? Hilda makes everything entertaining but even her classic and iconic Frogger build couldnt get us out of some of these encounters. I think we met 3 whole players who were nice to us throughout the run but the rest had a stick up their ass for no reason. One guy was pretending to be Hitler and another guy, aptly named "you suck", invaded maybe 3000 times and proceeded to kill us with a glicthed gael crossbow. Even normal encounters take forever because i do shit damage and everyone else has rigged themselves out to kill anything that moves in one hit. Not my idea of fun when im playing with someone.

This is my first time playing ds3 online so i guess im just kind of confused why everyone loves the multiplayer so much, cause dueling is maybe the worst experince in the world and the game doesnt bend enough for it to be a seemless co-op experience.

Ill never forget Frogger's sacrifice.... killing Midir all by herself for me...naked, high heels, boobs OUT, greatsword in hand..... what would dark souls do without such an idol.

As a result of the brilliant level design, the loss of an interconnected world does no harm to the trilogy’s seminal conclusion. The sense of architectural aesthetics is more fascinating than ever before. Prevailing over colossal bosses while listening to the celestial soundtracks is one of the most hair-raising and fulfilling experiences in a video game. The lore of Dark Souls III is as deep as the deepest depths of the world sea and serves as a banquet for longtime devotees.


''It's Still Shitposting Even If You Are Being Ironic''

I heard this phrase many, many years ago in a YouTube video, and it would take me another many years to find out originated in 4chan. It's honestly a bit hard to admit it since I despise that foul site with every fiber of my being, but I think about that phrase a lot, I mean, not referring to shitposting itself, but what it implies as a whole. This dumb phrase from a dumb forum and the context I found it in taught me how if you are criticizing or calling out something, if in that process you do the exact same thing as the one you are poking fun of, you lose both meaning and credibility, a fault innate in mot of the parodies without substance, but this can affect also even the best of works.

Dark Souls III, if it's about one thing, it's about cycles; the same thing forced to repeat over and over until it's just ashes, but even like that it's forced to burn. The kingdom of Lothric has fallen victim of this cycle, it's clearly implied that this new kingdom stands were once there was a place called Lordran, where the events of the first game took place, and the monarchy that crowns the land has maintained its power over this single idea: Keep. The fire. Alive.

It's probably the most, for a lack of a better term, sad story in the franchise. There was a lot, and I mean A LOT of tragedy in past games, but in here, the desperation is truly palpable. Never in another game have things gone south this bad, and it's almost scary how the end seems inevitable... but this feeling doesn't take long until it begins to dissipate. Dark Souls III is based around the idea of how this cycle has damaged the world beyond repair, and it kinda puts us in the role of the villains, we are tasked with doing this labor, continuing this cycle, one that's now being rejected by the monarchy that imposed it, it's a perfect spin on the first games story, yet, I can't shake this feeling that in other areas this whole incredible idea kneels tho thing it's criticizing.

Past areas and enemies, instead of being treated as this forgotten thing as they were in DS2, are vividly remembered and even celebrated, the Abyss Watchers and Oceiros for example, while incredibly characters in its own, end up being just big fans of pas bosses, which could work in this context, but I think it defeats the purpose od the initial narrative. Cycles are a thing that have consumed this world and as it was already was seen in DS2, is practically impossible to escape from, but when names from past games are directly mentioned by almost everybody and in a ton of items, it doesn't seem anymore like the is invisible yet omnipresent and it has lost all of its meaning, it feels like it HAS meaning, like there are things to be remembered, which I think defeats a lot of the strength the original message had. It feels wrong to called it ''fanservice'' 'cause it just isn't, it just feels like it fails in the delivery of its marvelous story in some places, and it ignores a surprising amount of things that its younger brother, as flawed as it is, did very, very right.

Maybe a lot of these things sound like ramblings but you gotta understand that I love this game: It's beautiful, it's very well designed, it has the best action in the series, its encounters and boss fights are jaw dropping; it does a lot of minor mistakes, but otherwise is incredible in its presentation and gameplay. But Dark Souls was never entirely about those things, for some people it may be and I do respect it, but not for me.

It's in this last battle when the games message finally hits its hardest, even more than in the fight against Prince Lothric and Lorian, the Soul of Cinder feels like the culmination of everyhting the game tried to be and teach, a battle against everyone responsible in continuing this cycle of pain: a final dance against the players and Gwyn, and as the music sets in the second phase, it was one of the times I didn't feel the game was calling back or celebrating a past thing, it truly end this moment, and it's saddening the rest of the game didn't.

It's true conclusion wouldn't come after almost a year later, and I'll talk about in the future, believe me, but Dark Souls III, as it was given to us, is the definition of a shattered masterpiece... yet at the same time, that feels so right for this world and these games... makes you wonder if that was the point... maybe not, but, the hell do I may know?

Simply the best the Dark Souls series has to offer.

The best bosses, Gael, best soundtrack, Gael, best areas, Gael, Midir, Gael, Good story, amazing themes, anything that does the theme "it's okay to let things go" is automatically 5/5 for me.

Though somewhat limited in playstyles due to magic being not so good.

(update):
The story is about what you'd expect from a souls game. Fallen kingdom, lots of lore and names about things you never see, kill four dudes to collect their souls and then bring them to the final boss area to fight the final boss. It does what it says on the tin but with a lot of references and characters from Dark Souls 1 (and some of 2).

It's very rote and I'd almost have a problem with that if it weren't for the meta-narrative and themes presented in the game.

With the degradation and corruption of old characters and locations from the other games, it embodies series fatigue. Its setting, its characters, its bosses, are all tired, exhausted, in pain. They beg for the end, but it always continues (This is literally the plot of the Ashes of Ariandel dlc so it's not exactly subtle). There's always someone to light the First Flame and extend the Age of Fire despite no one wanting it to continue.

The Ringed City dlc takes place where the lore starts, where the first undead are but it also shows the very last things to ever happen in the Dark Souls universe, the very end, and the absolute ruins of everything.

Gwyn couldn't let go of the golden age and we can see the consequences of his actions. And that's what the series, especially Dark Souls 3, is about. It's about letting go and moving on and doing other things in your life. It's about how everything no matter how good or bad, must come to an end and how scary that process is, but most importantly, how hopeful that can be. (You can see this with the painting girl using the literal Dark Soul to paint a new world at the very very end of the game.)

Dark Souls 3 is the last Dark Souls game we'll ever get, and that's okay.

I feel it's important to note that a combination of two things finally got me to play my first real Souls: playing Sekiro and later growing to miss it dearly, and attempting to play a much worse Soulslike and getting so fed up I took solace in the real thing. For all their fearsome reputation, FromSoft games function like eductational tools: they take your hand and gently guide you from a novice to a player who can confidently defeat even the nastiest boss. They want you to succeed and they speak a consistent and thoughtful language to teach you how. If other games truly want to grab a piece of From's shining star, they don't need to learn a combat system or checkpoint-based level design, they need to learn how to teach.

Been struggling for hours to write something of note about this, having just finished it earlier today, and now just laying awake at 4:a.m torn between several essayistic topics to choose from, but they will have to wait (for never, that is). The short thing I will say is that I don't think Miyazaki's intention of meta-reflective nostalgia-baiting really sticks here, as the story (or whatever the hell the russian formalists would call whatever the spines in these games are) are held up here by gameplay fundamentals that are of shocking craft by his/their standards. Totally understandable how the general sentiment around this game on here, and among the community at large, is that this is the natural step from the previous entries, since the surface of this game is so souls-y, but peel back barely half a layer and this'll feel like the most transparent studio-mandated rush-job since FromSoft's rebrand as a certified video game couture brand. From plain (or worse) level-design, to flaccid weapons, this just falls flat for me. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't fancy FromSoftware making easily-digestable content whose intended audience are people who undulates between words like "mid" or "epic". By absolutely astronomical proportions my least favorite FromSoft so far.


I had a lot of fun with this game! The combat is incredibly involved, challenging and very fair, you learn the enemies patterns with a roll, find an opening, hit and rinse and repeat. It's simple on paper but very hectic and exciting when you finally master a boss' attack patterns. Boss fights are definitely my favorite thing about this game for sure.

The world is beautiful, visually stunning, unique and has a lot of varied locations. It's pretty gorgeous this game. The music is pretty great aswell.

Imma be honest though, I had completely zero clue on what the story was, like at all. To me the bosses didn't mean anything to me story wise, just a bad guy I needed to kill, and the dialogue went over my head. I'm sure the lore is fire if you watch dozens of videos on it which I will. But going through the game casually I didn't understand anything, which I am fine with honestly as I mainly played this for the gameplay.

Overall, this game isn't as intimidating as I thought it'd be, I thought I'd never be able to beat any Dark Souls game yet here I am. Probably a really good place to start as someone getting into FromSoft games imo. Fire game

I don't think I've ever been more conflicted after having finished a video game than I have been with Dark Souls III.

I'm going to get my praise out of the way, since you've likely heard similar things said by many others by now: The story and new lore, while nowhere near as thematically interesting to me, is still a good addition to existing canon. This game has many of the best fights in the entire series (although it also has a fair number that I don't particularly care for), and the series' combat is at its' peak here. General gameplay has been polished as well; the game looks and feels great to play as a result. When the game is firing on all cylinders, it is a sight to behold.

It's good enough to briefly make me forget all the issues I have with the game up to those points. Because, for as good as Dark Souls III plays, it also comes across as a very scared game. Dark Souls III is scared to take risks, scared to step on anyone's toes, maybe even scared of being a Dark Souls game.

Both of the prior Dark Souls games have had parts that people have since looked unfavorably towards. Blighttown, The Gutter, and so on. You could honestly google any area in Dark Souls II and find someone that swears up and down that it's the worst area (or game, if you're stupid) Fromsoft has ever created. It's something I've always found funny, because some of the previously mentioned areas have been some of my favorites in the series for how well they're able to force the player to respect their environment and really tread cautiously. They're a brutal reminder to the player that you are outside of your depth but have no choice but press on. Finding Blighttown feels like you're walking into a place that you are not supposed to find, it's immediately so openly hostile and dangerous to you that at times it can be genuinely scary. Dark Souls III doesn't really have a clean analog besides a veeery brief segment of Ringed City where you run through an active war zone, and that's because Dark Souls III feels like it doesn't want people to possibly dislike anything about it. It's supposed to be the climax of the series and everything it represents, it can't risk anything the way Dark Souls I could risk everything to cement an entirely new genre of game into the cultural landscape.

(Yes, I know Farron Keep is the new poison swamp area analogy, but it feels so sanitized and unthreatening compared to the nightmare that was trying to go through The Gutter fearing for my torch timer and scrambling for a bonfire.)

It frustrates me seeing this game fully commit to being a 'hard game where you fight hard boss fights' instead of what I really appreciated about the first two games: Dangerous forays into fallen civilizations, complete with now-mad inhabitants and crumbling architecture. Dark Souls III feels so less inclined to be another example of virtual archeology and more than happy to lean into the popular cultural idea of what Dark Souls was at a surface level. It takes the convenience of Dark Souls II's bonfire system with none of the interesting metroidvania trappings of its predecessor and willingly abandons any attempts to play with cohesion, whether to the degree of incredible density found in Dark Souls I or the nonsensical map of Dark Souls II. Dark Souls III just wants to be an action game, it wants you to take a single road throughout the journey, only pulling over briefly to go beat something's head in before getting back on that road, pushing ever closer to your goal. I want to be clear that I am not trying to paint embracing linearity as a de facto negative when it comes to game design; you can see a very similar trajectory taken within the design of the Devil May Cry games that ultimately helped fine-tune those games to perfection. What I take issue with is the cultural cost that embracing linearity has done for Dark Souls, and how that has affected the way people have interacted and viewed the series ever since. It's sad, thinking I'll never play a game as tightly designed as Dark Souls I ever again, or play a sequel as divisive and willing to break everything that came before it the way Dark Souls II did. Dark Souls III feels content to find some decisively less interesting middle-ground between both games in favor of ensuring the series can finally stick the landing.

Maybe it's fitting then, that in a game about the fading of an era that Dark Souls III itself has faded from much of what I loved about the first two games. Just as Lordran, Drangleic, and now Lothric have reinterpreted their predecessors and sought to alter the status quo, Dark Souls III marks a departure from previous Dark Souls ideology, doing away with the genius world structure of it's forefathers in favor of a land that feels dispassionately conventional. When the game wants to come out of its' shell, it's out. It shows you it can be dramatic, somber, explosive, because at the end of the day, it IS Dark Souls.

It's just buried under a mountain of ash.

It may be controversial, but this is the best of the trilogy and has the best bosses of any From Software game.
The fights have just the right speed and the bosses are just perfectly balanced.
What it lacks in level design is compensated in just the best Dark Souls experience.

Pretty good conclusion to the series, with a nice gauntlet of bosses to kill, retreads stuff a bit too much for my taste and honestly this has been my least favourite so far other than bloodborne, I guess I just like the slower, more methodical ones.

Here like in Elden Ring it just feels like they gave you increased agility but inmediately regretted having done so, with enemies with really quick long combos that lunge forward with odd timings to rollcatch you and track you. Maybe Ill feel better about it on replay but honestly Im kind of glad to be done with it.

Never give in, never surrender.

Dark Souls III is in fact From Software's fifth game in this particular style (Demon's Souls and Bloodborne being the odd two out) and they really have pretty much perfected the design of these games at this point. Dark Souls III doesn't add much new to the formula, but feels like a tribute to everything they have done in the series as a send off for the final game of the series and it's simply brilliant.

For those unfamiliar with the games, Dark Souls III is an action RPG with a heavy focus on exploration and tactical combat. That's not to say there is a lack of story, in fact, there is plenty, however it's through lore found throughout the game from talking to characters, examining item descriptions and essentially piecing the bits together rather than presented to you on a plate. The exploration isn't just in the physical levels but feels like you're really exploring a whole world. The level design to Dark Souls III is superb, after picking your appearance and class and being dropped in the game you will travel through castles, undead villages, swamps, unlocking various shortcuts and hidden items as you explore.

Combat in the Dark Souls games isn't your normal game, if you just try and hack your way through the game you will die. Dark Souls is a game that rewards patience, looking for gaps in an enemies attack to counter attack, luring them away from the pack, hitting them with traps etc. I have heard a lot of people describe these games as hard, they aren't that bad, punishing for mistakes yes and not very forgiving, but I have always found them fair. Normally when I died it's because I over extended at a time I knew it was dangerous to do so rather than roll away or hide behind my shield and suffered the (painful and often efficient) consequences. Despite being a Souls veteran I still died a decent amount and sometimes had to re-evaluate my tactics or equipment to pass certain enemies, it's one of the things I love so much about the series.

The great combat, lore and excellent level designs aren't actually my favorite part of the series however, it's the unique online component. There are three ways to interact with other players in Dark Souls III. The first is to leave messages on the floor using a mixture of word and phrase options such as "danger ahead" or "hidden item". These messages are not always helpful as people will constantly try to get you to jump off cliffs and look for hidden rooms where there aren't any but messages can be rated for their quality and are genuinely helpful and sometimes funny.

The second way is to summon other people to your game to help you fight in an area up to and including the next boss. I quite often joined other peoples games and helped them beat the next boss as a way of scouting ahead in my world. For the most part when playing co-op there is no headset communication just gestures like waving and bowing which has led to a surprisingly polite community even in the last way of playing.

The third option is that you can invade or be invaded by other players who will try and kill you. This will often happen at the worst times, when playing as an invader enemies will ignore you so the invaders will often use them to their advantage. It can lead to some big battles including yourself, summoned co-op partners etc. I remember being in a brawl with four characters versus two invaders and a load of tough enemies, it was tremendous fun.

(There is an option to play offline if none of this appeals to you however.)

Presentation wise Dark Souls III has an epic soundtrack, very dark orchestral pieces that work extremely well with the action, they are largely played during boss fights making them feel pretty epic. On the performance side it's pretty solid. Load times are quick (unlike Bloodborne) and it looks great if not the most detailed or impressive textures on PS4. It does however suffer from frame drops here and there especially if you sprint through an area or there is a lot happening at once. It's perfectly playable in every way, just not 100% smooth. Where From Software really excel though is in their art design. The environments, characters, armour, and enemy designs are all amazing and stand out.

My first playthrough beating every boss and seeing as much as I could lasted just over 60 hours, this is a surprisingly long game and it's easy to miss characters little story scenarios as well as weapons, spells and even some areas and bosses are completely missable. Throw in the multiple endings it has pretty good replay value, especially playing through on new game+ keeping your weapons and current level while going through again.

I can't recommend this game enough. It isn't going to be for everyone, I can appreciate some people will get frustrated by it or find it too hard but if you can invest in the game and learn it's systems it is an amazingly designed and engrossing experience I have yet to find anywhere else.

+ Combat is excellent.
+ Exploring the world is marvelous.
+ Stand out online components.
+ Great soundtrack.
+ Gorgeous art design.

- Occasional frame drops here and there.

The least enthusiastic masterpiece on the market.

one of the most depressing things i've ever seen. in videogames it takes less than a decade for an "auteur" to turn his fairly unique creation into the equivalent of a marvel movie.

Despite all of the love people seem to have for it, I didn't really fall for Dark Souls 3. To begin with, the Clownmaster Orgville fight was dissapointing, and not at all what I was expecting given the leadup in the Hallowed Bastion area. Pretty much none of the levels I explored--not even the Forest of Unkempt Fires--really had that DaS vibe that is so important. Demon Stalker was a fun boss, as was the Moss Valkyrie. And I guess filling the Essence Urn with the spirits of the Big Five was a satisfying goal--still, the final fight against Oversoul Snindermight just lacked something. I wished I was back in Lordran, fighting the first iteration of "cool old timey monster bosses," rather than this later take on it. Something was lost, a spark; the game is hollow and the characters fungible.

A fantastic entry and easily the best game in the franchise when it comes to bosses (and they're the main draw of the Souls games). Many cool designs and movesets with a good soundtrack make for some memorable fights.

Unfortunately Irithyll Dungeon exists. The person who made this ten-minute-long 'experience' is probably still laughing, knowing they've made the most unfair level in the game.

But overall an easy recommendation from my side, awesome game. If you've liked ANY other Souls game before, you'll very likely love this one too.

Whenever I play Dark Souls 3, I can't shake the feeling that I'm just running down a very long hallway. The entire game feels like a straight line from beginning to end in a way that's sort of unsettling once you notice it. And I could see myself maybe appreciating that experience... if I liked the areas, enemies, or combat in this game. Unfortunately, I don't.

The movesets on every enemy in this game are so fast and combo oriented that it makes progressing a slog. In the previous two games, basic enemies are threatening in numbers but rarely one-on-one, especially for an experienced player. This keeps early areas and fights from being too overwhelming for newer, more cautious players. Crucially, though, it also makes repeated trips through an area frustration-free on the combat side once you do understand what's there and how to respond.

This is not the case in Dark Souls 3. No matter how many times I play it, I live in constant fear of stun-lock combos and enemies chasing me faster than I can sprint even in early areas. I never feel like I reach that point where I can use my experience to confidently cut my way through an area that I do in the first two games. Every fight potentially being a near death experience is not what I want from Souls games, yet that's what FromSoft seems to want from them now if this and portions of Elden Ring are anything to go by. And don't get me started on how much they ruined magic with this one.

The story here is also the flimsiest of the trilogy, content to just shrug and say, "Idk, all that old stuff you liked is back because the world is ending, I guess". But in a nearly Rise of Skywalker-tier display of pettiness, the "old stuff you liked" is apparently all from the first Dark Souls. Hardly a hint of 2 anywhere to be found. The NPC stories are also a step back from 2, as following most characters' quests without a guide is now hilariously obtuse. How this happened when the game is the most linear of the three is beyond me.

This is the only one of the trilogy I haven't even gotten close to finishing, my motivation always petering out somewhere around the Smouldering Lake/Irithyll section of the game at the latest. It just isn't for me, and I'm okay with that. Even if it is disappointing.

omg firelink shrine again? that's so cool!
oh also undead burg..?
and darkroot?
demon asylum? ash lake and lost izalith?
anor londo?
even kiln?
am i even playing a sequel?

The legacy of mediocrity reaches its grand finale.

Before I begin I need to address some things in case they are brought up in the comments, as I have had genuine idiots start fights with me on my previous souls-borne reviews over the dumbest capital G gamer shit. I will number these points and I have taken care to truncate them to be as concise and brief as possible, if you wish to skip on down to the review proper, control+F to “Dark Souls 3 was one of the most bland”. I understand that my reviews on this site are incredibly long as is, but I have to bring these up.

1. I have been accused by Souls fans on here of “Not explaining things” because the explanations I give are not to their personal satisfaction, just because someone’s point isn’t something you would like to digest, does not mean they did not explain something. When I say things like “Ranged Magic and Co-op break bosses cause they only focus one player cause their AI is only built for one player”, that is an explanation. I do not need to do animation by animation break downs of every single boss or regular enemy. That would make this hundreds of paragraphs long and that is ridiculous to expect.

2. I do not care about your personal play style or about how you played the game. This is a review. I have to take a different approach when playing the game for that reason. I have to test what mechanics are well made and which ones are poorly balanced and broken. I can not “just ignore it”, a flaw in a product does not vanish by just not paying attention to it, it is fair game to criticize it for existing as that is what a review does. I am giving the game an EXAM, this is not an ADVERTISEMENT.

3.Reviews and advertisements ARE NOT the same thing, a review tells you the pros and cons of a product, from a THIRD PARTY. An advertisement only tells you what the company trying to get you to buy the product wants you to think the selling points are. I am not here to validate your preconceived opinions of a game you already like (or dislike). If you like these games, that’s fine, but if you come at me, I will defend my position. If I have already debunked something, I am not going to waste my time (or yours) arguing against it again. Think before you respond.

4. If you want to play these games a certain way, have at it! But I am not here to validate said challenge runs or play styles, when I say a mechanic is pointless cause there is an objectively better option, I, and let me be CLEAR, AM NOT SAYING THAT YOU HAVE TO STOP PLAYING THAT WAY. I can not believe I have to clarify this to grown men and women on a video game website but Souls fans for what ever reason really struggle to comprehend this.

5. While in the last year and a half I have reviewed DLC packs and expansions as their own games, to remain consistent with my previous Souls reviews, I will integrate the DLC into the entire review proper. I will do this by using examples from both DLC packs when talking about the game play, graphics, music etc.

Dark Souls 3 was one of the most bland, designed by committee, boring jrpgs I have played in years. From soft has learned almost absolutely nothing from their previous four mediocre jrpgs in this mediocre franchise.

Now lets address the “almost” first. It took them five whole games, but they finally fixed the estus mechanic that was always some form of fucked in the previous games and ruined any kind of intended tension (Grasses, Humanities and Crystals in DeS, DS1 and 2, needing to grind for vials in BB). You can not use other recovery items this time, and you must choose between health and magic estus depending on your equipment load out. You are given a little more than enough estus to get through an area and your estus restores a good third of your health, making it actually feel important this time, rather than just another healing option that previous entries were plagued with.

This however comes at the expense of the level design. BloodBorne’s big rooms of nothing and long hallways with item nooks return with a vengeance here, you will never get lost as you just have to explore a big room’s nooks then go straight, or a narrow hallway’s nooks and go straight. It’s honestly pathetic at how under designed every area feels. There is very little if any genuine traps, with the only area in the game feeling genuinely designed being the catacombs with its arrow flinging button traps and massive bone spheres. But those aren’t even common enough in that area to feel threatening, only appearing once and twice respectively. Shortcuts also feel less like shortcuts more like regular elevators at this point, there isn’t a rewarding feeling in finding them, because the areas don’t take that long to navigate in the first place, given how much ground you cover while running back and forth.

There are some occasional stage hazards like giants and archers, but aside from a conjuring giant in the ringed city, killing these hazards eliminates them permanently and removes any further tension, the aformentioned giant isn’t even that much of a threat, as a few charged R2s from a high level weapon kill him in a few hits.

The game has completely given up any psychological aspect to the world and navigation. While DS2 and BB let you warp anywhere you have been from the start, they at the very least gave each of the bonfires in an area plenty of space to at least TRY and add some sort of tension, despite how easy those games were. DS3 has zero tension.

Bonfires are constant, take for example the undead settlement. The placement of the second bonfire in the undead settlement is laugh out loud worthy. Being right behind the first gate you stroll up to from when you arrive in 60 seconds. This is a problem all the way to the late game, after killing the Dragon slayer armour and lighting his bonfire, there is another bonfire right next to it at the entrance to the grand archives, for example.

The reason there are so many bonfires so close to each other can only mean one thing. It’s no secret that Sony and Namco use these games false perception of being “difficult” for marketing purposes, and with so many plentiful bonfires for checkpoints, you can just feel the cynicism in the design here as this is clearly made to help streamers and youtubers make quick and cheap “rage compilations” for free advertisement. If you actually play these games like the JRPGs they are however, that intended cynical design falls flat on its ass.

I will say this however, Dark Souls 3 is very good at conveying a sense of scale, due to how close the camera is to you this time and how tall the geometry is, the world feels massive. And the draw distance and landmarks of where you have been and will get too are a nice touch when at a high elevation.

On the surface it seems that from soft has tried to make ranged magic less useful and more balanced than previous games. The MP bar from Demons souls makes a return and the only way to restore it is with blue estus, and unless you start as a pyromancer or sorcerer, the bar is much smaller to compensate and try to make you use your melee weapon more. The stamina bar is also made small at the start to try and convince you to invest in endurance early to roll more often. Of course the gains to FP are quite high if you invest early on, I boosted all the way to 30 FP and had more than enough FP for boss fights so long as I took along two magic estus. And with as little as 30 endurance you’ll have more than enough stamina to block and roll your way to easy kills. With around 40 strength and 20 dex, 35 intelligence and 35 faith 100% of enemies and all but one boss in the game is a matter of when you will kill them than if.

A heavy investment in Vitality is also obviously needed to wear some pieces of heavy armour and for holding great shields that can fully absorb or mitigate attacks. And as long as you keep your preferred weapon upgraded (any weapon in the game will serve you well till the end game pretty much with few exceptions, I used an early game dark sword infused with a heavy gem for my entire run) you’ll find that the RPG mechanics of the game once again break the action parts of the advertised “tough” game play wide open once again.

You may be wondering why I listed my stats two paragraphs ago that high, and that’s due to the fact that exp gain in DS3 is very high, most likely to help along streamers so they can quickly power up and power through more of the game to make more cheap rage compilation content. A good 20 or so hours grinding in the high wall will make you more than strong enough for the endgame (most regular play throughs of this I studied had normal, everyday people, beating this in the mid 60s), hammering home just how easy these games have always been.

I said earlier that the attempt to balance out magic was only on the surface, and here’s why, enemy AI from the dregs outside the fire link shrine to the soul of cinder have no way of countering magic and pyromancies as their AI is entirely focused on on melee fighting, again, even if they don’t get stun locked when hit with ranged magic, they still zerg rush you like morons and by the time they reach you, if a regular enemy, you’ll be able to finish them off easily with your melee weapon. Even enemies that do cast magic make the effort to get close enough to you so can dash towards them, which makes them revert to melee mode, and ruins any potential solution to this classic flaw of the franchise.

Pyromanices are incredibly overpowered in the game, this seems intentional, given the massive circle jerk of fire related imagery and themes being drilled into you to drive the plot forward and establish the lore of the game. It’s not going to be an uncommon strategy to summon a helper for a boss and snipe them from afar with great fire ball and watch their HP melt. Some bosses are even more flammable solo, like aldritch, as simply having the grass crest shield, the chloranthony ring and a quick r1 finger is more than enough to kill him in less than 90 seconds with great fire ball.

The bosses haven’t improved from Bloodborne (or any of the previous four games really). They are still completely lost when you summon and snipe them with magic. And the DPS of either AI or especially a human partner is so high that the extra health they get from summons matters little. The bigger bosses are still camera devouring monstrosities that are genuinely laughable given how bad your visibility is when they get close, as the camera is not, and has never been, designed around enemies that large and it makes fighting them more a battle with the camera than the intended eldritch gods they want you to think you are fighting.


The game is also strangely obsessed with giving many of the bosses multiple phases. While this is common in JRPGs, these are more meant for skill checks to make sure the player isn’t mindlessly brute forcing their way through the game and in general are used sparingly. DS3 of course has dozens of multi phase bosses starting with the Abyss watchers all the way to the Soul of Cinder. To balance these fights out these bosses have less health than usual ones, but this makes the laughable action part of the combat even more so, because when you actually play these games as the RPGs they are instead of the circle button youtube rage compilations they aren’t. You see how poorly thought out so many aspects of them really are. As the lower health pools mean fuck all when you actually level up and equip properly.

There is one boss that is an exception to most of these criticisms. Dark eater Midir is an optional boss you fight in the ringed city, and the way you need to fight him is via casting poison magic. Since he has the most HP of any boss in the game, this means the poison will do 1K damage to him each time due to its scaling effect, which is critical to wear him down quickly, otherwise, you will most likely run out of estus due to how strong his attacks are. Co-op is a non factor for this fight as it will just bloat his health and fuck you over, and he resists magic and pyromancies. If he wasn’t huge and devoured the camera, the series could have had its first genuinely good boss fight, but alas, you should never underestimate souls games for underachieving.

The combat in general feels like it was retroactively changed to be more like bloodborne at the last minute. Enemies and bosses are much more aggressive and are more prone to use combo attacks, it’s clear that From soft has gone all in on the R1+circle button simulator jokes, as the hit boxes on boss and regular mook attacks are less about blocking and whacking R1 at the right time, and more rolling and then hitting R1. This becomes less and less of an issue the more you invest in stamina and upgrade your shields, but it’s still hilarious that from soft turned the combat into what even their own fans jokingly refer to it as.

Invasions are still annoying and immersion breaking. They’ve never added anything to enhance these games and have always been a tacked on multiplayer feature that should have died along with the 7th generation when that plagued damn near every game. Thankfully I always leveled high enough to mitigate this annoyance, but still had my fair share of them, which forced me to use the broken Alt F4 build before carrying on with the session. What’s especially funny is that the game has a separate PVP mode which isn’t available until very late in the game. Why invasions are even here anymore is baffling considering it was given its own dedicated mode that could prevent any of these annoyances from occurring in the first place.

Visually Dark souls 3 is as strong as you would expect from the series now. Stunning lighting and impressively huge level geometry are paired with detailed textures like scratches and gashes in your shields and armour, chips in your melee weapons sharp ends, and lovely cloth physics that flow elegantly and realistically. This is topped of with some amazing particle effects. Attacks feel like they have a strong effect when you see an explosion of sparks or magic dust.

Unfortunately due to the fire themed circle jerking in the story, your character pulsates an ugly and gaudy ember effect. This just bizarre to see as almost none of the enemies have this effect and look stunning regardless. We already know the player character is fire themed due to being called the ashen one, an ugly ember effect is not needed.

The animations are the best in the series so far, for as bland and mediocre as the boss fights are, the gorgeous and over exaggerated animations of the Abyss watchers unorthodox great sword swings, the animalistic claw swipes of the wyverns and midir, and many others are a sight to behold. Regular mook attacks are on the same level. With some like the tar demons pulsating pustules changing depending on the attack being an outstanding detail.

Menu UI has been fixed again, with BloodBorne's awful and unintuitive vertical menus gone. DS2’s horizontal menus return and the layouts do an excellent job of showing you where everything is, you even have dented tabs at the top this time to eliminate any possible confusion.

Musically, Dark Souls 3 is mostly quite bland.

While legendary video game composer Motoi Saukraba does return, he only does a handful of tracks this time. Said tracks are the best in the game, as Sakuraba is a master of his craft. Vordt of the Boreal Valley’s powerful horn section and thundering percussion set a strong first impression when you encounter the game’s first real boss. Then there’s Curse Rotted Greatwoods ominous strings and haunted chants, the foreboding violins of Crystal Sages, the scatter shot booming horns of Wolnir and the Bombastic fast paced tempo of Nameless King that sounds like it was ripped straight out of the Tales games. These will be the highlight of the game musically for you and don’t disappoint.

Most of the tracks are composed by Yuka Kitamura, and while she does a generally competent job, it’s very easy to notice she’s more or less just trying to copy Sakuraba’s style but rely more heavily on violins. The majority of her tracks start off the same way, with a big booming hook, followed by heavy use of violins. There is talent here and from what I have sampled of her Sekiro score (I have not played that one yet), she really comes into her own in that game. In the case of DS3, it seems more that she’s composing in a style that doesn’t suit her and it falls flat due to that.

I’ve saved talking about the story till last cause it’s nothing special.

In my Dark Souls 2 review I touched upon that the conclusive, makes you wonder what may happen but good enough endings to Dark Souls 1 was made completely pointless by the existence of Dark souls 2, the choices you can make in that game are also nullified by the existence of Dark souls 3, as both protagonists chose to link the flame and continue the world as is. Dark Souls 3, to its credit, does try and work with this buy having the linking of the flame become a tradition of sorts, which each successive linker becoming a lord of cinder. And toys with this tradition by having the linking of the flame not happen for what seems like hundreds or even thousands of years. The previous Lords of Cinder have gone mad during this time and it is up to the Ashen one to link the flame yet again before it is to late.

A solid premise on paper, but the execution is as expected, quite poor and under cooked. The story in typical souls fashion is presented in a very bare bones way and you are expected to get more from the lore of the world than the actual plot proper. You collect your lords of cinders ashes, and then make one of three choices that do nothing interesting with the souls formula. You become a god and subjugate the masses, link the flame and preserve the world, or let it die. All of these choices transpire in very brief cut scenes before fading to black. Given the series hasn’t continued at the time I post this, it seems that the choices are actual weighty choices now, but ring hollow with how bare bones the story is, being nothing but a quick premise, uninteresting macguffin hunt, and then rushed choices.

The side quests don’t feel fulfilling but this is to be expected, as they’ve always felt more like tacked on framing devices to get rings and spells rather than genuine side stories in a (on paper) rich world seemingly brimming with information. You will know that people like Greirat and Sirrius will die as that’s just how these games go at this point, and you’ll roll your eyes and power through to get the good equipment their quest will bring you in spite of their half assed implementation.

The lore this time isn’t even a modicum of interesting due to Lothric being Lordran several centuries in the future. DS3 is filled to the brim with lazy pandering towards DS1, like Oscars corpse being right in front of you at the start to give you your estus, Anor Londo briefly returning for cheap nostalgia claps, and the final boss fight taking place in the Kiln of the first flame which also plays Gywnn’s theme in the second phase, just to name a few of many eye rolling homages you will encounter.

The original characters for this game don’t feel interesting at all due the fact that they just contribute to the theme of cycles that the trilogy is built around. The lords of cinder for example are just people who did the same thing DS1 and 2 hero did and they’re nothing more than obstacles in your path due to how underwritten everything is.

Both DLC packs like the base game share the premise of a solid idea of a plot on paper but like the base game suffer from extremely skeletal, bare minimum execution to even forgetting the premise near the end in Ringed City’s case.

Arriendel’s premise of a magical world found inside a painting fading away due to the painting in the real world starting to rot due to not being preserved well is a very interesting idea. But aside from a few houses full of pus and fleshy walls, and anthropomorphic birds with huge rotten penises (yeah I don’t know how to parse that either), that premise is barely touched upon, and when you do finish the DLC, your entire journey feels like it was meaningless because you just accelerated what was already happening in the first place.

That leaves us with the Ringed City. Another interesting premise, the Ringed City which takes place in the same sort of dimension the Kiln is in, presents it’s self as a “Landfill of realms” so to speak. But this “Landfill of realms” is really just window dressing. Sure you’ll see buildings from Dark Souls 1 and 2 along the way, but the actual plot, if you can call it that, is about you confronting Gael at the end of the world to get a hold of the Dark soul, which he has been devouring pieces of before he returns to his niece in the painted world to save it. You then kill Gael and the hyped up “Grand finale of the soulsborne franchise” just kind of ends with him falling over, you don’t even get a cut scene for this. It makes the Ringed City feel incredibly unfinished, and given how I just described it in the entire paragraph, it probably was unfinished and rushed out.


Dark Souls 3 is a mediocre cap off to a mediocre franchise. Filled with both cynical design choices like plentiful bonfires to help along the uninformed twitch streamer rage compilation audience, to continued poorly designed boss fights, ok at best combat, under designed levels, bland music and a bare bones, by the numbers soulsborne plot that does nothing interesting with the formula. It was one of the blandest, most low effort JRPGs I have ever played and in this franchise that is saying something.

There has never been anything special about this series, its reputation as “difficult”, that comes from deceptive advertisements deliberately targeted at people who have never played a JRPG in their life, is far more anger inducing than any of the games could ever hope to be. Its mechanics it apes and takes from other series are also done much better in those inspirations. The only remarkable thing about these games has been an incredible talent at underachieving with their potential. From soft can not make action JRPGs with Zelda combat, but they can make interesting on paper worlds. A narrower, non RPG focus is something I feel would lead to a much better output from this developer, and the existence of Sekiro and Armoured core 6 at a glance feel like a breath of fresh air. Hopefully, those are better than the mediocrity this franchise has plagued the entire medium with since 2009.

4/10.

Repetición y decadencia, de un ciclo y de una saga. La premisa es que los grandes señores pasan de repetir lo mismo por enésima vez y nosotros, the ashen one, una cascara vacía y requemada de tanta hoguera, vamos en su búsqueda porque nunca se tiene suficiente. Así como los primeros Souls adaptaban el combate de Castlevania al 3D, con ataques que implicaban un compromiso ineludible de tiempo y exposición antes de devolver daño efectivo al final de cada animación, aquí se opta por homenajear a Sonic el erizo y sus volteretas. Como viene siendo tradición, recorreremos palacios vacíos y en ruinas, reflejos de lo que solían ser, y nos cruzaremos con personajes vacíos y en ruinas, reflejos de lo que solían ser. El escenario termina por colapsar en un amalgama de arquitectura gótica que dejó de tener sentido hace tiempo y en un campo de flores nos enfrentamos al cosplayer de Gwyn. El jefe final de la saga, como no podía ser de otra manera, son los propios jugadores.

This review contains spoilers

My first Fromsoftware game, I bounced off hard my first time, taking many tries to beat Iudex Gundyr, and gave up on the game before ever finding Vordt. In my defense, I was on m&kb, which didn't help any. Eventually I watched the DeModcracy's speedrun guide and decided to give the game a second chance. Armed with a build from the speedrun guide, map knowledge from the Polygon guide, and a controller (thank god), I was determined to beat it this time. The learning curve was still rough, but I didn't get completely stuck until the Abyss Watchers, and even then I eventually got gud enough to beat them. From there, the game went pretty smoothly until Sister Friede, where I got stuck for a full day. What an incredible experience. The Ringed City DLC was tough, but I was fine until I met Midir. I got seriously stuck again and eventually gave up and fought Gael first. Slave Knight Gael was my favorite boss in the whole game. He only took a few tries to beat, but it was definitely hard and felt truly climactic. Having a three phase boss with only one healthbar is incredible, and I hope to see it again in Shadow of the Erdtree. I did eventually go back and grind Midir until I beat him, which took hours, but I grew to appreciate him as the godlike adversary a great dragon should be. When I finally fought Soul of Cinder, I was probably a bit overlevelled and beat him first try, but it was a satisfying fight. Even after playing most of the other Fromsoft games, DS3 stands as one of the best.

It pissed me off so much but I had so much fun with it as well

I think a lot of the reception to this game is from the sheer weight of expectations - many fans came in expecting more of the same mechanics and story beats that FromSoft clearly isn’t interested in anymore, and others still came in expecting something new and fresh that would justify its existence as a whole new game in the Dark Souls series. FromSoft seems to have done a lot more for the first group than they did for the second, but they’re still close enough to straddling the line for both to have some significant complaints. Compared to DS1, the path to a boss feels much more like a gauntlet that you just have to get through, instead of needing to respect each room for providing its own threat. The bosses definitely got more attention - they still feel like Dark Souls bosses, but the (over)abundance of multi-phase bosses makes it feel like this is really where the challenge was supposed to lie this time around.

The combat is definitely faster than previous entries and while I know a lot of those who played Bloodborne felt the speed wasn’t suited to this game, I never really felt that there was a problem with it. The increased speed of the bosses makes me actually feel like I have to pay constant attention to the bosses since they’re able to keep the pressure on at all times, instead of getting little reprieves here and there as you get some space between you. This seems to mostly come down to personal preference, but there’s a lot here that works in favor of the increased speed, including the decision to actually let you move around (at a much faster speed) while using your Estus Flasks - that teensy bit of movement rarely makes a difference between life and death, but it does factor a little bit into your calculus of when healing feels safe.

What I respect DS3 the most for is its world. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about hollow fanservice and while some callbacks fit better than others, I think From has done a good job of integrating the old items, locations, etc into the story. Dark Souls 3, better than any other entry, really sells that the world is crumbling. Part of it is the callbacks, showing you things you’ve seen before and realizing that I just walked right through old Firelink and I didn’t even recognize it. Part of it is that the story feels tired right off the bat - not in that it’s trite, but in that from the second your character stands up at the beginning of the game, there’s a sense that everything around you has already been there for uncountable years, and that if it were to blink out of existence tomorrow it would only make sense. While this sensation of the game “playing the hits” seems to have turned many off from the game, it feels like the perfect encapsulation of the games themes about unnaturally prolonging a natural cycle - the hollow imitations of characters, institutions, and ideas from previous games feel like the world and its inhabitants holding it all together the only way they know how - by grasping at the past, taking these legendary figures and concepts and only being able to produce a shallow facsimile.

It makes me feel as if I’m seeing a different game from the others. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to enjoy this game just because I enjoy it. But I wonder if people who suggest the game doesn’t know what it’s doing with these callbacks were so blinded by this recognition of previous locations that they missed obvious markers all over the game. Linking the fire produces a pathetic, withering flame instead of the overwhelming explosion that we saw in DS1. The game retreading a location you already saw in the same game by bringing out a version of the Cemetery of Ash where everything is just...wrong. Showing you a half-eaten Gwyndolin, dodging modified versions of his own abilities, playing a corrupted version of his theme. While it’s all an excellent continuation of themes present in the games, it feels like the game itself is showing you what happens to everything with time, including the games you’re playing - do you unnaturally prolong the series against its will until it’s just a parody of its old self, or do you let it die with dignity and be replaced by new, unknown things?

I don’t want another Dark Souls game. I like that the game chose to play us a few of the songs we already knew on the way out, that it still managed to give us a new-ish take on the same formula, and that it’s bowing out before becoming a mangled mess, exhausting anything interesting the IP had to offer. It is, to me, the perfect way to cap off this particular series, and I respect FromSoft immensely for doing it with dignity - before they had dispelled the mysteries of the world, before becoming a no-rough-edges yearly fixture, before anyone can figure out how multiplayer really works.

For my first few sessions of Dark Souls III I was under the impression that it was just fine. I liked it! It was Souls! But that was exactly it - it was incredibly safe and re-hashes a lot of ideas and content from Dark Souls I in a way that felt a bit cynical and pandery. As time went on however, I started seeing how these callbacks to DS1 are both intentional, and very contextually justified - in fact they're a very part of the game's lore and world. (Although I still don't get why fuckin' Andre is here, lmao.) That's one thing - but then the game also just hit its stride about halfway through (after you've done Irythill Dungeon, basically) and turns into this conveyer belt of banger boss fights and areas that, quite boldly for Dark Souls - don't make me want to set myself on fire.

It IS safe, and it's less ambitious and interesting than the likes of Dark Souls 2, a game I appreciate a lot in spite of its flaws because I respect how different it feels and how much new stuff it tries. It's also a lot more linear and a lot less interesting design-wise than Souls 1, which frequently branches out in multiple directions and invites a sense of wonder that Souls 3 never even touches. But it's fun. It's the most fun Souls game by a country mile. It's not as important or ambitious or inspired, but fuck man if I'm gonna replay any Souls game again anytime soon it's gonna be this one. You mean I can get the thrill of sick combat and Souls boss fights without having to deal with Tomb Of The Giants, Blighttown, Iron Keep, Shrine Of Amana or Bed Of Chaos and the like? Bro, sign me the fuck up.

Yeah, it grew on me a lot. It has the sickest boss fights of the trilogy by far - Pontiff Sulyvahn, Slave Knight Gael, Champion Gundyr all among my favourites in the series now. It's a pain in the ass to go back to Firelink Shrine every time you wanna level up, I have absolutely no idea how they thought it was a good idea to map the kick to the same button as your standard attack, giving you far more unintentional kicks than an action RPG should ever have but the fact that stuff like this were my biggest gripes should say a lot. (Irythill Dungeon can also eat my ass but w/e.) It's like Dark Souls I but with all the rough edges polished up. Some might say that's a bad thing, or a good thing, but it means that it is quite a different experience from DS1 after all, because the thought of a replay doesn't intimidate me, and it actually just sounds like an uncomplicated good time.

Not particularly revolutionary or bold, but fun!

There are 4 poison swamps in this game.


Now, If hypothetically Speaking, Dark souls 3, was a real humanoid that was female and had Voluptuous bouncing breasts, Hyopthetically of course. I would suck those tits, I would suck Dark Souls 3 Hyopthetically Gigantic jiggling Bongos.

Dark Souls III is all killer, all filler, and I'm dead and stuffed.

Regardless of one's opinion on this or any of the other more recent From Software games, I think it somewhat uncontroversial to say that the somewhat polarized reception of its sequels and successors only serve to highlight the strength of the original Dark Souls. Despite whatever imperfections it may have had, Dark Souls was a game that did so many things right that a lot of people found wildly different reasons to love it. Dark Souls is in so many facets so close to the absolute essential core of what makes video games great that even if another game could get even closer in even one aspect, it would always come at the cost of something else.

Dark Souls III's core gameplay is most similar to the original Dark Souls, but with its animations and character control fine-tuned to perfection; this is the first From Software game where it feels good to simply move around. The game has all of the quality of life improvements that began as band-aid fixes in Dark Souls II. Every level in the game is as detailed, sprawling, and multi-layered as one of Bloodborne's best, yet their arrangement within the world as a whole is as transparent as in the first game. Speaking on gameplay specifically, calling Dark Souls III a "greatest hits" of the series is still selling it short. It's not just borrowing the most memorable situations and set-pieces from previous games, it's picking and choosing elements of the games' systems and structures themselves, and still building upon them yet.

One of my favorite moments in Dark Souls was on my second playthrough, reaching the tower before the Taurus Demon boss fight, and realizing just how much of the world I could see. Picking out landmarks and realizing how (despite being rendered in much lower detail than it would be up close) decidedly congruous the world was, and more importantly how intentional it all felt. The popular phrase when showing a game's scale is to point at something in the distance and say "you can go there", but "there" is often not a place of any import, and the "go"-ing process is rarely anything all that special. One of Dark Souls III's earliest moments is the game giving the player a similar view of virtually every above-ground area of the game, with only a couple of places barely obscured (though one should not assume that the game has nothing to hide, as it in fact has some of the most obtuse secrets in the series). At virtually any point in the game the player can look around, see where they've been, where their goal lies, and think of all the challenges they overcame to get to where they are. While Dark Souls may have had a more interconnected world and the potential for more diverse routes, I genuinely believe that Dark Souls III surpasses it in both level design and in its believability as a space.

While the player's quest is ultimately to defeat all of the Lords of Cinder and link the first flame once more, the bulk of the journey through the aforementioned spaces is spent hunting down one in particular: Aldrich. A web of interconnected side-quests eventually narrows into this encounter, chasing him from the Cathedral of the Deep to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley. A trek that lasts the better part of the entire game ends in Anor Londo, perhaps the most hallowed location from the original game, its cathedral now stripped from its original context, a sort of museum artifact for some invading heretic. The player finds within an avatar of pure consumption, puppeting around one of surprisingly few named returning fan-favorite characters. The message could not be more clear, the anti-climax could perhaps only barely be more intentional, this is an absolutely naked indictment. Dark Souls has to end, because if it continues it will turn to sludge and cannibalize everything you love about it.

The heart of Dark Souls III's narrative is, like Dark Souls II before it, ultimately about the futility of this whole sequel project. Dark Souls II did do the roar, but it also smashed the cake, all the while yelling "Ya like that!? Huh?!"

As Dark Souls III plays its hand it feels more like the game has sat you down to sternly say "listen, we know you like this, and we'll give it to you one more time, but this is it." I personally think that video games' status as commercial entertainment products has been pretty much a disaster for their ability to tell stories, and a side effect of this is that some of the most potent stories they can tell are often bittersweet metanarrative musings on this predicament. Dark Souls III may not be the absolute strongest example of this, but you absolutely could do so, so much worse, and its real triumph is in delivering a compelling version of this story in balance with just being a plain fantastic gameplay experience.

The DLC only makes it more clear, with its principle locations being another world, plagued with rot and its denizens begging for death, and the entire Dark Souls universe compacted like trash. Dark Souls III's world, the "converging lands", was already a kind of new Pangaea, the different continents of the Lords of Cinder merging together into a tangled mess of ravines and canyons. By the end of the Ringed City DLC, everything has compressed together to the point where all that's left is an endless desert of ash. The final goal of these DLC areas, the finale of the entire series, is to help a certain NPC paint a new world. What is this world? It doesn't matter. Giving some clear-cut explanation, like "It's Bloodborne! Or Demon's Souls!" would completely undermine the entire conclusion.

The only thing that matters is that it's new, that it's something else.

One NPC in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC says, specifically, that the player must "make the tales true, and burn this world away."

This is the real curse of a zombie franchise, the lack of any real finality will always give every element of its story a kind of impermanence. Without an absolute true ending, anything in the narrative is up for debate, can be rewritten and ret-conned to suit a new installment. Dark Souls II was itself an admission that its own existence meant that there could be no true tale of the original game, and while it initially tries not to let the cat out of the bag, Dark Souls III's grand anti-climax also invalidates a particular player decision in the original game by canonizing only one particular option.

Dark Souls had to end, absolutely end, so that it could be anything at all.

From Software are undeniably the masters of this genre. Everytime I start a soulsborne game, I quickly relive the horrors of previous titles and question my urge to start yet another iteration of this. But playing Dark Souls III showed me again, that even though the game wants you to die a lot, doesn't explain a lot and doesn't forgive you any mistakes, it still is such a rewarding and satisfying experience. Exploring the areas is always thrilling and beasting enemies is fulfilling for many reasons. The weapons pack a punch and the variety of possible builds keeps you invested and learning. But more than anything else, this game offers a unique sense of progression. Because the steps you take seem so small at times, reaching the milestones is all the more exhilarating. Bloodborne and this are definitely among my all-time favorite games.

Not a fan. The story is mostly an uninteresting retread that fails to say much of anything the first game didn't already say, and the combat is far more high intensity without any of the supporting mechanical depth something like Bloodborne has to make it interesting. It's not a terrible game but like 2 it pales in comparison to just playing 1 again lol.