This game... Is a true marvel, and honestly it deserves the greatest reverence and praise that a soulsborne game can get, of every soulsborne I've played (all beside ER) I can say it is my favourite of them all. and here is why.
Gameplay - Challenging and rewarding, most of these games have gotten progressively easier as I played, the more I played but this maintained its challenge, through its invigorating and creative boss design with incredible flowing combos and delays that I haven't seen in a soulsborne game, closest to accomplish was Sekiro, which to me is at its core is what makes these games. However, this game had the helping of 2 prior souls games to improve upon and it did, flowing combos as players, smooth animations, QoL changes (Like moving when using estus) and generally more creativity into how you want to play. This game is a major step up by learning and adapting. All in an absolutely crisp 60fps
World - While being vastly more linear than any souls game prior and without the awesome shortcuts that made DS1's level design so impeccable, this stands out as being something separate to that design. It's use of beautiful scenic vistas and incredible guidance to help avoid being lost was pivotal to this design. The game flowed in this way unlike any other souls game did it. It was a stunning game with marvellous graphics that feel incredible even now 8 years later. Boss Arenas felt perfect and I feel as though I never saw a singular bad arena and the memorable ones absolutely stick out in a way no others have done. the enemy placement was perfect, not many replaced bosses in the regular gameplay and generally feels again like it refined all it learnt. However, the use of poison swamps in this game and the short length of the first DLC weigh slightly against it in this regard, I don't know why Miyazaki enjoys poison swamps they are annoying as all hell. Further, irithryll dungeon may be one of the worst areas I've seen in a souls game and deserves heavy criticism thanks t its awful enemies and feel like a boring roadblock on the way to Yhorm which could genuinely be missing from the game and would make it eb much better
Story - this is a game that weighs heavily in its narrative laurels to its 2 prior games stories, which makes sense as it is the final game of the trilogy, if it didn't tie in the way it does to these stories, seeing what we see from the older games, it may as well just be another story in another game. I believe this story was much more coherent and deep in its lore compared to the priors, and builds strongly thanks to this. it takes a lot more from the first rather than the second which, is a shame, I would have loved to see more of that despite not liking the seconds story. The main games story in its "Darkness" ending is a perfect way to cap off the main story, and lead into the overall best narrative told through its story of Gael in its next 2 DLC's with them being the most perfect post story additions. The story of Gael and the Paintings, the Dark Soul creates a truly brilliant and beautiful cap to the trilogy and the story and I hope they never release a fourth.
Bosses - Impeccable generally. A wide step up from DS2 and 1 and slightly better than Bloodborne bosses and on par with Sekiro. A few generally meh bosses sprinkled but when you have bosses like The Nameless King, The Final Boss, Pontiff, Abyss watchers, Friede, Midir and the Final DLC boss and MORE of just impeccable quality the game is just wiping the loor, they are all a challenge through every level no matter what, no matter how levelled you are. You NEED to learn these bosses through trial and effort, and thanks to this they are marvellous.
All in all however, I must give my final thoughts on this true masterpiece, and If it wasn't clear enough, my thoughts are that it is just a few missteps away from being perfect but is the best Soulsborne game I've played to this point and deserves a HUGE 9.75!!! incredible and slides comfortably into my favourites ever.
A definite must play
Gameplay - Challenging and rewarding, most of these games have gotten progressively easier as I played, the more I played but this maintained its challenge, through its invigorating and creative boss design with incredible flowing combos and delays that I haven't seen in a soulsborne game, closest to accomplish was Sekiro, which to me is at its core is what makes these games. However, this game had the helping of 2 prior souls games to improve upon and it did, flowing combos as players, smooth animations, QoL changes (Like moving when using estus) and generally more creativity into how you want to play. This game is a major step up by learning and adapting. All in an absolutely crisp 60fps
World - While being vastly more linear than any souls game prior and without the awesome shortcuts that made DS1's level design so impeccable, this stands out as being something separate to that design. It's use of beautiful scenic vistas and incredible guidance to help avoid being lost was pivotal to this design. The game flowed in this way unlike any other souls game did it. It was a stunning game with marvellous graphics that feel incredible even now 8 years later. Boss Arenas felt perfect and I feel as though I never saw a singular bad arena and the memorable ones absolutely stick out in a way no others have done. the enemy placement was perfect, not many replaced bosses in the regular gameplay and generally feels again like it refined all it learnt. However, the use of poison swamps in this game and the short length of the first DLC weigh slightly against it in this regard, I don't know why Miyazaki enjoys poison swamps they are annoying as all hell. Further, irithryll dungeon may be one of the worst areas I've seen in a souls game and deserves heavy criticism thanks t its awful enemies and feel like a boring roadblock on the way to Yhorm which could genuinely be missing from the game and would make it eb much better
Story - this is a game that weighs heavily in its narrative laurels to its 2 prior games stories, which makes sense as it is the final game of the trilogy, if it didn't tie in the way it does to these stories, seeing what we see from the older games, it may as well just be another story in another game. I believe this story was much more coherent and deep in its lore compared to the priors, and builds strongly thanks to this. it takes a lot more from the first rather than the second which, is a shame, I would have loved to see more of that despite not liking the seconds story. The main games story in its "Darkness" ending is a perfect way to cap off the main story, and lead into the overall best narrative told through its story of Gael in its next 2 DLC's with them being the most perfect post story additions. The story of Gael and the Paintings, the Dark Soul creates a truly brilliant and beautiful cap to the trilogy and the story and I hope they never release a fourth.
Bosses - Impeccable generally. A wide step up from DS2 and 1 and slightly better than Bloodborne bosses and on par with Sekiro. A few generally meh bosses sprinkled but when you have bosses like The Nameless King, The Final Boss, Pontiff, Abyss watchers, Friede, Midir and the Final DLC boss and MORE of just impeccable quality the game is just wiping the loor, they are all a challenge through every level no matter what, no matter how levelled you are. You NEED to learn these bosses through trial and effort, and thanks to this they are marvellous.
All in all however, I must give my final thoughts on this true masterpiece, and If it wasn't clear enough, my thoughts are that it is just a few missteps away from being perfect but is the best Soulsborne game I've played to this point and deserves a HUGE 9.75!!! incredible and slides comfortably into my favourites ever.
A definite must play