PEAK
First soulslike game ever played, too grindy if going for 100% completion
Dark souls 3 é o meu Dark souls favorito. Antes de jogar Sekiro esse aqui era o meu jogo favorito a minha paixão no mundos dos soulslike.
Dark souls é maravilhoso em tudo, se tem um problema nele eu não sei qual é
Dark souls é maravilhoso em tudo, se tem um problema nele eu não sei qual é
Dont you dare go hollow.
I hate this game, I recommend it
everything except its level design is extremely solid. the areas at time feel enemy spammy and confusing but the bosses more than make up for it
tried to play multiple times, these games are hard
!! this review is for the Cinders mod but i also don't like Dark Souls III very much !!
this overhaul mod has been highly appraised and it is the pinnacle of mid. not even. it's a little bit actively offensive if you actually care about the series more than an influencer or the same level of engagement a Built by Gamers podcast has.
re-using assets again will surely make a game better, right, i mean they're good assets. unfortunately using things that get one-and-done'd with importance and weight to their appearance 4-5 times on a NG playthrough and you being extremely encouraged to re-fight bosses several times to get things from them actually hard detracts from the game in general despite a majority of it being technically ignoreable
some of the balance changes and changes to progression were good, but many made you overpowered or with an easy way to farm your way into a position that would otherwise take until endgame (which is both good and bad, because dark souls 3's intense linearity and overall snooze-inducing progression path make it so that doing anything with variety early is nigh-impossible and if it is possible it's heavily ineffective).
if you did like elden ring a lot, this is right up your alley, though. i don't think this game would've been worth me getting softbanned were i to use them on live servers, i don't think it was worth hosting a custom server for in order to play with a friend, and i definitely don't think it deserved the excitement i had for it early on. every "added boss" is an offensive-to-look-at asset re-use, all the additional added lore and even item descriptions are mid as fuck and sound like something i'd write when i was fourteen and wanted to wannabe write mod dialogue or other creative projects for the "souls" series when i was still an obnoxious teenager who said "git gud" and was generally unpleasant; very little of this content is worth installing at all for, and it genuinely detracts from a game i already am indifferent about at best overall.
play with a randomizer or something if you want a fresh experience.
this overhaul mod has been highly appraised and it is the pinnacle of mid. not even. it's a little bit actively offensive if you actually care about the series more than an influencer or the same level of engagement a Built by Gamers podcast has.
re-using assets again will surely make a game better, right, i mean they're good assets. unfortunately using things that get one-and-done'd with importance and weight to their appearance 4-5 times on a NG playthrough and you being extremely encouraged to re-fight bosses several times to get things from them actually hard detracts from the game in general despite a majority of it being technically ignoreable
some of the balance changes and changes to progression were good, but many made you overpowered or with an easy way to farm your way into a position that would otherwise take until endgame (which is both good and bad, because dark souls 3's intense linearity and overall snooze-inducing progression path make it so that doing anything with variety early is nigh-impossible and if it is possible it's heavily ineffective).
if you did like elden ring a lot, this is right up your alley, though. i don't think this game would've been worth me getting softbanned were i to use them on live servers, i don't think it was worth hosting a custom server for in order to play with a friend, and i definitely don't think it deserved the excitement i had for it early on. every "added boss" is an offensive-to-look-at asset re-use, all the additional added lore and even item descriptions are mid as fuck and sound like something i'd write when i was fourteen and wanted to wannabe write mod dialogue or other creative projects for the "souls" series when i was still an obnoxious teenager who said "git gud" and was generally unpleasant; very little of this content is worth installing at all for, and it genuinely detracts from a game i already am indifferent about at best overall.
play with a randomizer or something if you want a fresh experience.
Peak gaming exxperience but covenant for platinum is horrifying
this entire game's thesis is that one family guy scene about insisting upon itself. bad experience, fine gameplay, sorta like an ubisoft game but more polished.
GOOD GAME RAHHH
cool game, very frustrating and i like it
[+ DLCs]
Almost all complaints I had with the previous two entries are gone.
Story, art, gameplay, music, everything is so so much better.
One or two bosses were too gimmicky, no other complaints.
Almost all complaints I had with the previous two entries are gone.
Story, art, gameplay, music, everything is so so much better.
One or two bosses were too gimmicky, no other complaints.
Me parece que tiene el mejor combate de la saga, bosses muy buenos, tremendo ost, quizá el mejor de los souls.
Pero no lo disfrute como tenía pensado, creo que fue por pasarmelo en stream.
Pero no lo disfrute como tenía pensado, creo que fue por pasarmelo en stream.
Before the magnificent Elden Ring this was my favorite Souls game, but now it just feels obsolete because Elden Ring took everything about it and made it better.
Still i enjoy playing it once in a while because of its amazing bosses, the best bosses in the series.
Still i enjoy playing it once in a while because of its amazing bosses, the best bosses in the series.
perdi meu save com mais de 20 horas💀
It's a good game, but it's also the best litmus test for good taste in video games. If someone think it's better than 1, you can safely disregard any other opinions they might have.
This review contains spoilers
First off, whoever thought of tying in Covenant awards to the Sorceries, Miracles, Pyromancies, and Rings achievements, I will have your spine on a dinner plate! In minecraft.
To keep it as short as I can, the game is extraordinary. The developers at FromSoftware clearly learn from their past, as each game they make improves on what the last game did. Most notably their bosses, both from a design perspective and a gameplay one. Certain people will look at the gameplay and say that it's just a game of dodge, attack, dodge, and maybe heal. Personally, I don't see it that way. The best fights will feel like a dance of sorts, meaning they will have a rhythm you can follow. Which is why Pontiff Sulyvahn is, at least in my opinion, a terrible boss compared to everyone else. His attacks are poorly telegraphed, which results in there being no flow. Also, simplifying any game to its core makes it sound stupid. "Yeah, Mario Odyssey is kinda mid; all you do is run and jump, and maybe throw your hat around." The main point is that, sure, the mechanics don't sound that special; it is how you use them that creates the interesting scenarios.
FromSoft has always been competent in enviermental storytelling; as a matter of fact, that is your best way to distinguish what has happened. Although the main premise is explained to you at the start: the world is on its dying breath, and the Lords of Cinders have been brought back, only to reject Linking the First Flame. Meaning you have to step in and bring back the Lords as what they are: you have to bring them back as Cinders. However, this is a FromSoft game, so you have to have critical thinking skills and be analytical about the game. If you are, you will, presumably, think that saving the world is not worth it. After all, it does not look like a dying world; it looks like it is already dead—a corpse masquerading as something else. So the question becomes: Is it worth saving a world in pain or letting it die? That is the main question, and I believe the answer is obvious. Which is why Linking the First Flame ending is actually my favorite. The game makes an effort to tell you not to link it, and if you do, you are greeted with an intentionally bathetic ending. In a weird way, it treats you like a fool for believing this to be the right answer. And before anyone criticizes the game for being too similar to the first Dark Souls game, remember that the other themes involve cycles and/or repetition. You are not the first to be the valorous hero who has come to save the day. Many have tried, and in reality, you aren't that special. You just got farther than everyone else. This makes the game sound nihilistic, and that is a valid reading of the game. And so is existentialism; it is not as simple as "nothing matters; therefore, the world needs to die." It is more intricate than that. Death does not always mean the end; for example, in tarot cards, death does not literally mean the ending of existence; rather, it means an end to a phase of your life, so it can blossom into something new. In simpler terms, it means change, which is what the world is scared of—it is what you are scared of. It is true that change is indeed scary; it can be bizarre, but it would certainly be better than living in a world of ash and cinders.
Music is pretty peak when used, as the game will only play it at certain areas or during a boss fight. Outside of that, your ears will only pick up the ambient noise of the area. The Soulsborne games soundtrack usually carries that bombastic grandiose feel to it, and Yuka Kitamura nails that in this game. The second phase of Twin Princes is always baller.
After writing all of this, the main reason it is not a 5/5 is because I really dislike areas like the Catacombs of Carthus and Irithyll dungeon, and Pontiff Sulyvahn, out of all of the bosses, sticks out like a sore thumb because of how bad he is compared to them. The runbacks to the bosses can be atrocious, and there are times when the "difficulty" was the developers spamming a bunch of enemies. And the level of design ranges from great to eh, although that ties back to the areas I disliked. The environment and vistas suffer from being analogous in that the general color scheme of the entire game is gray and yellow (not the piss color filter). Of course, that ties back to the overarching theme, and it makes areas like Irithyll of the Boreal Valley stand out a bit more visually from the rest. Either way, it is still a criticism worth bringing up. Aside from that and minor nitpicks, this game is truly great and, in my opinion, the best in the trilogy. Honestly, I believe what I have written does not do the game justice. Also, the best boss is the final one, Soul of Cinder, as he represents the entire game in one boss fight. It is in the name: SOUL of CINDER.
To keep it as short as I can, the game is extraordinary. The developers at FromSoftware clearly learn from their past, as each game they make improves on what the last game did. Most notably their bosses, both from a design perspective and a gameplay one. Certain people will look at the gameplay and say that it's just a game of dodge, attack, dodge, and maybe heal. Personally, I don't see it that way. The best fights will feel like a dance of sorts, meaning they will have a rhythm you can follow. Which is why Pontiff Sulyvahn is, at least in my opinion, a terrible boss compared to everyone else. His attacks are poorly telegraphed, which results in there being no flow. Also, simplifying any game to its core makes it sound stupid. "Yeah, Mario Odyssey is kinda mid; all you do is run and jump, and maybe throw your hat around." The main point is that, sure, the mechanics don't sound that special; it is how you use them that creates the interesting scenarios.
FromSoft has always been competent in enviermental storytelling; as a matter of fact, that is your best way to distinguish what has happened. Although the main premise is explained to you at the start: the world is on its dying breath, and the Lords of Cinders have been brought back, only to reject Linking the First Flame. Meaning you have to step in and bring back the Lords as what they are: you have to bring them back as Cinders. However, this is a FromSoft game, so you have to have critical thinking skills and be analytical about the game. If you are, you will, presumably, think that saving the world is not worth it. After all, it does not look like a dying world; it looks like it is already dead—a corpse masquerading as something else. So the question becomes: Is it worth saving a world in pain or letting it die? That is the main question, and I believe the answer is obvious. Which is why Linking the First Flame ending is actually my favorite. The game makes an effort to tell you not to link it, and if you do, you are greeted with an intentionally bathetic ending. In a weird way, it treats you like a fool for believing this to be the right answer. And before anyone criticizes the game for being too similar to the first Dark Souls game, remember that the other themes involve cycles and/or repetition. You are not the first to be the valorous hero who has come to save the day. Many have tried, and in reality, you aren't that special. You just got farther than everyone else. This makes the game sound nihilistic, and that is a valid reading of the game. And so is existentialism; it is not as simple as "nothing matters; therefore, the world needs to die." It is more intricate than that. Death does not always mean the end; for example, in tarot cards, death does not literally mean the ending of existence; rather, it means an end to a phase of your life, so it can blossom into something new. In simpler terms, it means change, which is what the world is scared of—it is what you are scared of. It is true that change is indeed scary; it can be bizarre, but it would certainly be better than living in a world of ash and cinders.
Music is pretty peak when used, as the game will only play it at certain areas or during a boss fight. Outside of that, your ears will only pick up the ambient noise of the area. The Soulsborne games soundtrack usually carries that bombastic grandiose feel to it, and Yuka Kitamura nails that in this game. The second phase of Twin Princes is always baller.
After writing all of this, the main reason it is not a 5/5 is because I really dislike areas like the Catacombs of Carthus and Irithyll dungeon, and Pontiff Sulyvahn, out of all of the bosses, sticks out like a sore thumb because of how bad he is compared to them. The runbacks to the bosses can be atrocious, and there are times when the "difficulty" was the developers spamming a bunch of enemies. And the level of design ranges from great to eh, although that ties back to the areas I disliked. The environment and vistas suffer from being analogous in that the general color scheme of the entire game is gray and yellow (not the piss color filter). Of course, that ties back to the overarching theme, and it makes areas like Irithyll of the Boreal Valley stand out a bit more visually from the rest. Either way, it is still a criticism worth bringing up. Aside from that and minor nitpicks, this game is truly great and, in my opinion, the best in the trilogy. Honestly, I believe what I have written does not do the game justice. Also, the best boss is the final one, Soul of Cinder, as he represents the entire game in one boss fight. It is in the name: SOUL of CINDER.
Best bosses in all of souls
Tecnicamente o melhor da série souls, lore incrível, bosses absurdos e uma gameplay praticamente perfeita.
i pooed my pans
M1D1R..
Platinado
Boa história, porém muito linear e lotado de fanservice. as boss fights valem mt a pena entretanto
Boa história, porém muito linear e lotado de fanservice. as boss fights valem mt a pena entretanto
Best Dark Souls Game
Plin Plin Plon v2
Can they please make this game more accessible to me- I mean the people this is way to hard
Un vrai chef d'œuvre.
perfeiçao
peak game
It's hysterical that this game has been canonized as a return to form / 'true sequel' to the original Dark Souls since it's so clearly Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne stacked on top of each other in a DS1-shaped trench coat. Even more hysterical, it works!
After playing so many of From's Soulslikes (we need a new word for these) in such short proximity, I've devised an internal list of 'things I care about when it comes to these games.' In ascending order of importance; Story, Visuals, Level Design, Combat System and Boss Fights. Keen-eyed readers will notice these are extremely vague categories containing millions of sub-elements, unignorable amounts of overlap and important factors unaccounted for, contributing to a poor summary overall. So what? What are you a cop?
DS3's story is intensely weird and can be read from so many directions for what is, on its surface, the least obfuscated Miyazaki had written to this point. DS2's narrative was a direct commentary on the inevitable failure to live up to its predecessor, presenting a marred hollow imitation of the first game's world. 3 is seemingly a commentary on the decision to give the fans exactly what they want. It's the exact narrative of the first two games again, just making the implicit themes of 2 direct. Everything has happened before, not now in a spiritual sense, but in a literal one. The re-interpretation of various areas is the most prevalent example, and the re-emergence of that one (you know the one) leitmotif in the final boss is the most obvious. It's tempting to dismiss this as cravenly self-referential, and maybe it is, but it's oddly compelling nonetheless. I kind of like that this is an expository midquel, showing a world evolved from DS1's but just recognisable enough that we can tell it must take place somewhere before 2's far-flung imitation. It deepens the fanservice-y 'OMG it's literally Anor Londo' moments to know they don't matter. The cycle will continue, and this iconography will be gone far before it ends (I think Ringed City hammers this home but I'll get to that another day). I don't know, that's just how I took it, the narratives have never been the draw to these games for me. I just like that Miyazaki decided that his grand self-commentary on the one story he tells over and over again would also be a more accessible version of that story.
FromSoftware makes gorgeous video games, and I'd be hard-pressed to call this an exception. Some areas here are high watermarks for the whole of 2010s gaming. I'd probably first point to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley or Archdragon Peak as the most stunning examples of such (and the DLC hits even higher highs). I've only two real problems, both showing the difficulty of discussing this game in 2024. One is the colour grading. I don't know whose idea it was to slap the Bloodborne colour correction filter onto this thing, but they should be sacked. The washed-out grey aesthetic here is a major bummer for far too many areas of this game, and it renders certain sections visual mush. Compare Farron Keep to ER's Caelid, it's not even close. If you're going to drop me in a poison swamp for an hour (by all means do, I seem to enjoy it), I'd prefer it didn't look like a Russo Brothers film. I can see arguments for the value of the oppressive atmosphere it provides (and I agree with them regarding Bloodborne) but here the trade-off is not worth it. This contributes heavily to Issue Two: every game they've made since looks even better. Sekiro and Elden Ring embrace much brighter colour palettes that make everything pop so much more, and Armored Core 6 wipes its robot ass with everything else the studio has ever made. I'm a sucker for picturesque sights, and this game has a damn nice few, but not one moment of it made my jaw drop the way it did the first time I dropped into Limgrave or Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro. In short, my only struggle with this game's aesthetic is that I know they can do much better (or at the very least they've trended in a direction I far prefer). Take a shot every time I unfavourably compare this game to a game that wasn't out when it was released. You'll die! I just cannot help but feel they've improved in certain areas since. Tis my cross to bear.
I think the number one problem with this game for most DS1 die-hards is, for all its posturing to fans of the first game, the much-loved interconnectivity from said game is non-existent. I get it, I do, it's one of my favourite things about that game as well. But for what we have here, a more segmented series of 'levels' with a lot of linear offshoots to explore that wrap around within themselves, I like it a lot. In a way, it's that interconnectivity done on a much smaller scale. Sure, it's only slightly more involved than the linearity of 2, but I liked 2's levels as well! I'm not going to get on my linear-level high horse yet again, much as I love to, but I'm always ready to bat for well-constructed straightforwardness and that's what I see here. I will concede it does occasionally feel like the levels are just trying to lose you in their many dead ends. For example, I'd love to see someone unfamiliar with these games try to navigate the High Wall of Lothric. The amount of little offshoots would have freaked me out if this were my first one. But at the end of the day, I thoroughly enjoy traversing these levels, and I like that I'm already seeing sparks of what would become the level design philosophy of Sekiro. Few games are as fun to move through as that one, and there are high points here not far behind, even if they are slightly over-reliant on the fast travel system to work. A joy in this capacity, if not as mind-blowing as other instalments.
The combat system is probably the most difficult part to judge fairly in 2024. At release, this was the best any FromSoft game controlled. They reverted most of what I didn't like about the BloodBorne system (the vials, the dash instead of the roll, rally [I know I'm just not a fan, love you BB-heads]) while retaining the faster pace and smoother movement. Sure, maybe the game doesn't work hard enough to stop you from just R1-ing everything to oblivion but hey, that's what I was doing anyway! On the whole, unilaterally a good thing. The only problem is, they've gotten even better since (take a shot)! Putting aside AC6 (just not a reasonable comparison) and Sekiro (not a Soulslike but far more gratifying for me), Elden Ring, for all its flaws, basically nabs this game's combat and one-ups it on every front. In the ways 3's is tighter, smoother and faster than 2, ER's is to 3, while more closely resembling it. So, a great feeling system, but one we now have a direct improvement on. This puts DS3 in a weird place. The other games, in their slow and janky glory, are very distinct in combat, ultimately making 3's feel less special. Perhaps I'd leverage this complaint at ER too, for not doing enough to make its combat distinct and ultimately making its predecessor feel a little redundant. This is probably just a me thing. Despite all the needless philosophising, DS3's combat feels great. But if you've played Elden Ring you might have a nagging feeling it's a straight downgrade.
Which is more than made up for in the boss fights! I've learnt to love the jagged difficulty spikes of this series, but a part of me has wanted to see how one of these would play with a more natural difficulty curve. I now have my answer, incredibly well! It makes Elden Ring's unreasonable peaks all the more infuriating. 3 is an act of constant rising tension, each boss requiring slightly more work, memorisation and execution to get past. Early-game bosses are delightful and unique encounters, late-game bosses like Twin Princes or Nameless King are electrifying (har har) spectacles that will stretch the abilities you have had time to develop throughout the game. Better yet, not one arbitrary instakill grab in sight! I get the sense the back end of this game (and the final DLC) informed a lot of Elden Ring's boss design, but they got the wrong idea. The fun of Nameless King isn't just his cool delays and roll catches that test your execution, the fun of it is him doing that after a game's worth of slow burn difficulty increases readying you for it. Nameless King is tough, he does fuck with your muscle memory, but he is a culmination of an entire game's worth of tough, and you'll be ready for him by the time you find him. That's the best kind of difficulty to me, and as much fun as I had facing something like Margit, his moveset isn't as gratifying an act of subversion if the game hasn't had a chance to build something to subvert yet. Enough rambling, the base game of DS3 has an exceptional sense of rising action in its boss design, climaxing expertly with Nameless King, and borrowing the classic Dark Souls trick of poetically underwhelming you with the final boss. Too easy, but in a way that feels right. These guys know how to end a game.
On a final note, it's awesome that a game so deeply weird, completely singular and narratively unapproachable to newcomers (at least on any below-the-surface level) can read as something of a crowd-pleasing swing at fan service. The bar really is that high. Suffering from success and all that.
After playing so many of From's Soulslikes (we need a new word for these) in such short proximity, I've devised an internal list of 'things I care about when it comes to these games.' In ascending order of importance; Story, Visuals, Level Design, Combat System and Boss Fights. Keen-eyed readers will notice these are extremely vague categories containing millions of sub-elements, unignorable amounts of overlap and important factors unaccounted for, contributing to a poor summary overall. So what? What are you a cop?
DS3's story is intensely weird and can be read from so many directions for what is, on its surface, the least obfuscated Miyazaki had written to this point. DS2's narrative was a direct commentary on the inevitable failure to live up to its predecessor, presenting a marred hollow imitation of the first game's world. 3 is seemingly a commentary on the decision to give the fans exactly what they want. It's the exact narrative of the first two games again, just making the implicit themes of 2 direct. Everything has happened before, not now in a spiritual sense, but in a literal one. The re-interpretation of various areas is the most prevalent example, and the re-emergence of that one (you know the one) leitmotif in the final boss is the most obvious. It's tempting to dismiss this as cravenly self-referential, and maybe it is, but it's oddly compelling nonetheless. I kind of like that this is an expository midquel, showing a world evolved from DS1's but just recognisable enough that we can tell it must take place somewhere before 2's far-flung imitation. It deepens the fanservice-y 'OMG it's literally Anor Londo' moments to know they don't matter. The cycle will continue, and this iconography will be gone far before it ends (I think Ringed City hammers this home but I'll get to that another day). I don't know, that's just how I took it, the narratives have never been the draw to these games for me. I just like that Miyazaki decided that his grand self-commentary on the one story he tells over and over again would also be a more accessible version of that story.
FromSoftware makes gorgeous video games, and I'd be hard-pressed to call this an exception. Some areas here are high watermarks for the whole of 2010s gaming. I'd probably first point to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley or Archdragon Peak as the most stunning examples of such (and the DLC hits even higher highs). I've only two real problems, both showing the difficulty of discussing this game in 2024. One is the colour grading. I don't know whose idea it was to slap the Bloodborne colour correction filter onto this thing, but they should be sacked. The washed-out grey aesthetic here is a major bummer for far too many areas of this game, and it renders certain sections visual mush. Compare Farron Keep to ER's Caelid, it's not even close. If you're going to drop me in a poison swamp for an hour (by all means do, I seem to enjoy it), I'd prefer it didn't look like a Russo Brothers film. I can see arguments for the value of the oppressive atmosphere it provides (and I agree with them regarding Bloodborne) but here the trade-off is not worth it. This contributes heavily to Issue Two: every game they've made since looks even better. Sekiro and Elden Ring embrace much brighter colour palettes that make everything pop so much more, and Armored Core 6 wipes its robot ass with everything else the studio has ever made. I'm a sucker for picturesque sights, and this game has a damn nice few, but not one moment of it made my jaw drop the way it did the first time I dropped into Limgrave or Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro. In short, my only struggle with this game's aesthetic is that I know they can do much better (or at the very least they've trended in a direction I far prefer). Take a shot every time I unfavourably compare this game to a game that wasn't out when it was released. You'll die! I just cannot help but feel they've improved in certain areas since. Tis my cross to bear.
I think the number one problem with this game for most DS1 die-hards is, for all its posturing to fans of the first game, the much-loved interconnectivity from said game is non-existent. I get it, I do, it's one of my favourite things about that game as well. But for what we have here, a more segmented series of 'levels' with a lot of linear offshoots to explore that wrap around within themselves, I like it a lot. In a way, it's that interconnectivity done on a much smaller scale. Sure, it's only slightly more involved than the linearity of 2, but I liked 2's levels as well! I'm not going to get on my linear-level high horse yet again, much as I love to, but I'm always ready to bat for well-constructed straightforwardness and that's what I see here. I will concede it does occasionally feel like the levels are just trying to lose you in their many dead ends. For example, I'd love to see someone unfamiliar with these games try to navigate the High Wall of Lothric. The amount of little offshoots would have freaked me out if this were my first one. But at the end of the day, I thoroughly enjoy traversing these levels, and I like that I'm already seeing sparks of what would become the level design philosophy of Sekiro. Few games are as fun to move through as that one, and there are high points here not far behind, even if they are slightly over-reliant on the fast travel system to work. A joy in this capacity, if not as mind-blowing as other instalments.
The combat system is probably the most difficult part to judge fairly in 2024. At release, this was the best any FromSoft game controlled. They reverted most of what I didn't like about the BloodBorne system (the vials, the dash instead of the roll, rally [I know I'm just not a fan, love you BB-heads]) while retaining the faster pace and smoother movement. Sure, maybe the game doesn't work hard enough to stop you from just R1-ing everything to oblivion but hey, that's what I was doing anyway! On the whole, unilaterally a good thing. The only problem is, they've gotten even better since (take a shot)! Putting aside AC6 (just not a reasonable comparison) and Sekiro (not a Soulslike but far more gratifying for me), Elden Ring, for all its flaws, basically nabs this game's combat and one-ups it on every front. In the ways 3's is tighter, smoother and faster than 2, ER's is to 3, while more closely resembling it. So, a great feeling system, but one we now have a direct improvement on. This puts DS3 in a weird place. The other games, in their slow and janky glory, are very distinct in combat, ultimately making 3's feel less special. Perhaps I'd leverage this complaint at ER too, for not doing enough to make its combat distinct and ultimately making its predecessor feel a little redundant. This is probably just a me thing. Despite all the needless philosophising, DS3's combat feels great. But if you've played Elden Ring you might have a nagging feeling it's a straight downgrade.
Which is more than made up for in the boss fights! I've learnt to love the jagged difficulty spikes of this series, but a part of me has wanted to see how one of these would play with a more natural difficulty curve. I now have my answer, incredibly well! It makes Elden Ring's unreasonable peaks all the more infuriating. 3 is an act of constant rising tension, each boss requiring slightly more work, memorisation and execution to get past. Early-game bosses are delightful and unique encounters, late-game bosses like Twin Princes or Nameless King are electrifying (har har) spectacles that will stretch the abilities you have had time to develop throughout the game. Better yet, not one arbitrary instakill grab in sight! I get the sense the back end of this game (and the final DLC) informed a lot of Elden Ring's boss design, but they got the wrong idea. The fun of Nameless King isn't just his cool delays and roll catches that test your execution, the fun of it is him doing that after a game's worth of slow burn difficulty increases readying you for it. Nameless King is tough, he does fuck with your muscle memory, but he is a culmination of an entire game's worth of tough, and you'll be ready for him by the time you find him. That's the best kind of difficulty to me, and as much fun as I had facing something like Margit, his moveset isn't as gratifying an act of subversion if the game hasn't had a chance to build something to subvert yet. Enough rambling, the base game of DS3 has an exceptional sense of rising action in its boss design, climaxing expertly with Nameless King, and borrowing the classic Dark Souls trick of poetically underwhelming you with the final boss. Too easy, but in a way that feels right. These guys know how to end a game.
On a final note, it's awesome that a game so deeply weird, completely singular and narratively unapproachable to newcomers (at least on any below-the-surface level) can read as something of a crowd-pleasing swing at fan service. The bar really is that high. Suffering from success and all that.