Dark Souls III

I feel like Dark Souls 3 was at its best when it wasn't clinging onto past glory.

Spoilers:

The final boss is probably the best example of what I'm talking about. Dark Souls 1 had you fight a tragic, burnt out old husk of a God who's been bigged up since the game's introduction. It was a poignant, powerful moment to face Gwyn, and it's one of the reasons that Dark Souls 1 is one of my favourite games.

Walk through the kiln again, it's higher res this time. Instead of having the balls to try something different, and to try again to make an encounter as brilliant and memorable as Gwyn as its final boss, in more content to give you it again, pointing inwards and backwards at how great that time you fought Gwyn was. However, the Soul of Cinder lacks personality of Gwyn, instead being an, ironically, soulless impersonation of a far better boss. The Soul of Cinder's boss music is revealed to be a lightly orchestrated version of the melancholy piano track that really made the Gwyn fight hit home for me, but with none of what actually made it hit home for me. Soul of Cinder, however, at least tries to do something different, with the boss's first phase going through some generic starting class's movesets, shifting between the sword of a warrior to the staff or a mage or the flips and fire of a falchion weilding pyromancer. And the more forms it takes to try and capture a past player character, the farther it gets from doing so.

Oh and when you're done, will you link the fire or walk away? Because if you plan on letting the fire fade I hope you did all the silly requisites that allow you to do so where in dark souls one you just walked away from the bonfire.

Don't get me wrong, Dark Souls 3 is enjoyable. The combat feels pretty good, even if r1 mashing with the fastest weapon did manage to seep in from Bloodborne, a game where it belonged, alongside a generally quickened pace of gameplay due to faster, cheaper rolling at higher equipment loads. Levels are well designed, and there's very few bullshit unavoidable deaths despite the atmosphere being tense as ever; mobs are tougher than ever. Perhaps the best moments, though, were the ones that felt the most fresh to me. I fell in love with the Pilgrim Butterflies that fly over Lothric castle late in the game. They left a taste of potential greatness in my mouth that made me wonder what kind've game we could've gotten if Dark Souls 3 didn't have to be Dark Souls 3.

But instead we see our old friends again, Andre greets us at, yes, firelink shrine. We find Ornstein's armour again, Smough's stuff, too, Gwyndolin hangs out of Aldritch's mouth regardless of what you did in Dark Souls 1. Here's a clone of onionbro because we know you guys loved him. Patches I can forgive, but still. One of the few enjoyable experiences I had with a recurring character was the expansion of the crestfallen warrior into a more fleshed out character. Dubious lore questions raised by this Dark Souls 1 fanservice aside, it just feels too easy, cheap and unfiulfilling.

I also need to say that for every toughened mob in the game there's a dissapointing boss, either for its sheer gimmicky nature or its easiness removing the tension and atmosphere of the encounter. Fighting against Vordt of the Boreal Valley and taking a grand total of one hit due to parking in his crotch area had me from tense and engaged to bored and dissapointed in record speeds. The dude seriously might not as well be in the game. He's got great design, but it's wasted. You can't feel it if he doesn't pound it into you with that mace of his. I don't mind easy bosses per se. I think the difficult of the Souls series is important in creating its atmosphere, but that doesn't mean every bossfight needs to be the hardest most gruelling experience yet. But Vordt and a couple of others that are clearly intended to be action packed one on one combat are just end up so flacid due to their easiness.

Meanwhile, stand idly by and wait for one of the gimmick bosses to expose its weak spots. One of the reasons I fell in love with Dark Souls one was that very few of the boss battles were the conventional 'wait for the attack that exposes his big red kick me sign' affairs. For the most part you were free to attack and do damage when you saw fit based on whether you thought you could get away with it. Fast forward to Dark Souls III and you're waiting for Egg Tree to expose his last egg sack and Wolonir to drag his magical bracelets of boss killing out of his fog all whilst avoiding absaloutely fuck all else. Just standing there without so much as a shield up. Yhorm, Giant King (and smallest giant in the game?) needs to be killed with this special weapon that you find in his boss room. No, no, don't just attack him with it, you need to use the weapon art. No, you have to charge it up fully, in case you didn't know that you needed to charge it. And then you need to use an l2 attack, not just a regular attack. And as soon as you figure out that riveting puzzle, yhorm is trivialised.

I read back all my ranting and complaining but I had a good amount of fun with the game. It's not like Dark Souls 2 where I disliked the thing. I liked Dark Souls III. It's a good game. It's just not great, and due to its unfortunate nature of being a game in a series which had previously approached perfection its flaws stand out all the more to me.

How do we break the cycle, Miyazaki?? Let the flame fade.

Probably gonna delete this review soon lol

Dark Souls 3 was a big letdown for me, even though I can't deny it was quite fun to play (had to be -- I finished it in less than 10 days).

By far the best thing about the game is the level design: most of the levels are huge, with many optional paths, great shortcuts and hidden collectibles. Talking about the last ones: illusory walls are fantastic this time around (way better than in DS2), with basically every single one having some kind of tell. My only wish was that there would be more environment interaction: the game rarely allows us to do anything other than opening doors, kicking down ladders and riding elevators (the in-game justification for a lot of which is as mysterious as ever).

The bosses are almost more of a mixed bag than in the first game. Some, like Aldrich or the Twin Princes, are fantastic. Others, like Yhorm or Wolnir, are almost as bad as The Bed of Chaos. Talking about fighting, its faster rhythm compared to the predecessors is unfortunately mostly a downgrade. With what felt like unlimited health and stamina, I was attack- and roll-spamming my way through most of the game, with my victories often not feeling very earned. Especially in the case of bosses, most of which I beat on my first try, without really knowing what I was doing or why (and once, in the case of Wolnir, not even seeing a single offensive boss move before his death). But perhaps it's just that, somehow, the previous games have made me a god gamer that Dark Souls 3 was not prepared for, despite being a direct sequel.

Still, although I preferred the more slow and tactical approach of the previous games, I would ultimately consider the above flaws minor. What I always loved the most about the series was not the fighting (certainly not with the bosses, oftentimes simply a hindrance), but the atmosphere and the lore/story. And this is where Dark Souls 3 disappointed me the most. The surreal, weirdly empty hallways and fields, the washed but wide colour palette, the characteristically "off" lighting system of the previous titles were replaced by a generic, realistic graphics style, with lots of clutter, little colour (how else could it be Dark Souls, right?) and just as little personality. Story-wise, the personal themes (hollowing as a metaphor for depression, loss of memories, purpose and identity), that the original famously introduced and its sequel doubled down upon (almost feeling like a Lynchian dream at times) were also seemingly forgotten about. In general, the melancholic tone that I absolutely adored about the first two games is gone. Now, it is just another epic, apocalyptic dark fantasy, only a bit darker than everywhere else (both figuratively and literally).

The lore, by the way, is a mess this time around, at the same time heavily based upon, and completely contradicting the second game. Even assuming that you simply ignore that game's existence (after all, it is the fashionable thing to do and Miyazaki is surely just trying to be a good sport when praising it), it does not seem to be very consistent even with itself. But much worse, it does not ultimately add too much of value to what was already established or could be easily inferred from the first game, despite the fact that (or maybe precisely because) it relies on it to quite a ridiculous degree.

Should you play Dark Souls 3? Yes. It is a fun game. I will not be coming back to it.

O terceiro e último capítulo da franquia de video game mais importante da década passada é ao mesmo tempo a culminação de tudo o que a equipe da From Software aprendeu até aquele ponto e o momento em que a série demonstrou certo cansaço.

Primeiro, os pontos positivos: Dark Souls 3 é, de longe, o jogo mais prazeroso da trilogia. O combate é muito bem equilibrado sem as limitações do primeiro, de forma a deixar o jogador se expressar com as armas de perfis distintos. A variedade de inimigos, chefes e subchefes exige atenção constante e a jogabilidade nunca fica excessivamente repetitiva. O design dos cenários - embora não tão interconectados quanto no primeiro jogo - é interessante de modo geral e convida à exploração.

Em suma, tudo o que tange o gameplay beira a perfeição em Dark Souls 3. Os problemas começam e terminam na narrativa, muito dependente da mitologia criada no primeiro jogo da série, lotada de referências vazias que gritam fan-service e mais nada. É aí que a From Software deixou claro que precisava tirar essa IP do caminho e focar em novas ideias.

Playing Dark Souls 3 was my introduction to the entire Souls genre, and it was a bad first impression. Overall I had a fairly negative experience, which is a shame because there's a lot that I can appreciate about this game. First and foremost: the exploration. The branching paths, the shortcuts, the sense that there are items and enemies around every corner—it's all quite nice and rewards the player's spacial reasoning skills. The exploration is great for another reason besides gameplay aspects, which is the visuals. The environments are detailed and atmospheric, and items and enemies are placed deliberately to tell you about the world without any exposition. In between long stretches of grueling difficulty, you are sometimes rewarded with peaceful moments overlooking gorgeous views.

That's about where the unaccompanied praise ends though, so let's move to one of my biggest problems with Dark Souls 3: The obtusity and deliberate obfuscation of the mechanics. If you're a return player to the Souls genre or series and you've already immersed yourself in guides and videos and wikis, you may be blind to this issue, but this game makes it so hard to grasp core, necessary mechanics for no reason. Take poise for example. Even after experiencing the mechanic in game, reading the game’s explanation for the mechanic, digging through the game’s code, and receiving comments from Miyazaki himself, people dedicated enough to this game to make an account on the Dark Souls 3 fan wiki can’t agree on what poise does. The reason I know this and the reason it’s such a sore spot for me is that I found the poise mechanic really cool and game changing based on the game’s description and decided to build my character around it. Of course I eventually hit a wall (Dragonslayer Armor if you’re curious), did some digging, and found out that poise doesn’t do anything unless you’re using a “great” type weapon, which I wasn’t. Nowhere does the game communicate this, as is the case with many other game mechanics. This refusal to communicate did not build an interesting atmosphere or give me a sense of mystery or whatever the fuck, it made me frustrated bashing my head into a wall trying to engage with the game's core systems.

Speaking of bashing my head into a wall, that's quite what running back to a boss from the nearest bonfire feels like. Why do I have to run past the same enemies that I've killed 20 times already to get the chance to get demolished again by a difficult boss? And no, the excuses that people give (for some reason) are not valid. It doesn't foster a soul crushing environment or whatever the hell, I felt that plenty getting my shit kicked in over and over by the boss. It doesn't give you a reprieve from the boss; I have a brain and if I want a reprieve I can simply walk away from the game for a bit. What it truly does is waste your time. And speaking of wasting time, let me speak about my most hated aspect of Dark Souls 3: The fucking elevators. Let me recount what happens when you die. Mimics, if they killed you the first time, crawl back into their chest as if they could fool you again. Broken furniture reassembles and places itself back where it was initially. Slain enemies respawn and use their second chance at life to hide behind the same corner they got you from the first time. But elevators, fucking elevators, STAY in the same position instead of returning to their original position. This means that if the path to a boss involves using an elevator, you must pull the lever, wait for the elevator to slowly come down, get on, and wait for it to slowly go back up. So anyway, I would have much preferred if they just put a bonfire before each boss or some such. If a boss kills you particularly quickly or the path to it is particularly long, you could spend more total time backtracking to it than actually fighting it. And if most of your deaths are due to this game's bosses, that backtracking could make up a majority of your entire time playing. It's especially silly that for bosses like the Soul of Cinder and the Nameless King, there are no enemies or interesting gameplay of any kind between you and the boss, but you are forced to play hallway running simulator for 30 seconds before each of those fights anyway. So yes, the fact that this game wastes so much of your time proved to have a very negative impact on my experience.

As for the other aspects of the game, they were hit and miss. This is probably another thing I could bolster with YouTube videos and wiki pages, but the main story as presented in game is more or less gibberish and left no impact on me. The bosses had highs and lows, with some being engaging and interesting challenges (Abyss Watchers and Lorian and Lothric for me) and others being gimmicky romps (e.g. Wolnir and Yhorm). Another thing that would be nice if bosses were their own separate checkpoints is that you could then make them replayable, which I would enjoy for certain bosses. I started journey 2 seeking this experience and quickly realized the game had not done enough scaling for my character to not be incredibly overpowered, so I'm off the game for now. I wish I had enjoyed this game more given its incredible popularity and acclaim, but no, except in small moments, I just didn't see it.

Should've been amazing but it's just too tedious. Do you know how many stair knights I killed up in the skies of this world? Many many many. And that boss, FFFFFFF that boss.

Another Souls game that doesn't live up or introduce anything new.

Soooooooo many knights to beat Aldrich. Don't get me started on F--ing Dancer my God, leave me alone.

Good. Bye. F DSIII and FromSoft for Dancer.

(It's a good game but seriously F you FromSoft, I'm not an eighth-level comic book store owner, leave me alone and stop r@ping my soul, JC!

Sooooooo many knights like you don't even understand, SO MANY! Aldrich is impossible! Really needed to tone those fights down, son.

Nameless King...oh My GOD! You have to be a triorigami master to defeat that guy! Can't even properly tank him! You have to PERFECTLY tank him AND borrow the powers of the origami master. It's f-ed up!

You know what? People say this is good and all but F you! I ain't got time for this, sometimes a combat system is simply turned up too high, I can't be dodging every little thing. Really gotta' tone it down.

My introduction to Soul-like was Elden Ring which I fell in love with. But going back to play Dark Souls 1 and 3... I may actually prefer these more streamlined games. The exploration is more immediately rewarding and the combat is just so fun. Trying to get from bonfire to bonfire is a blast.