Dark Souls III Review - A Glimpse into the Past

Preface

So I actually wrote this review right after the Elden Ring review, since I really wanted to get my thoughts down on paper. Or well, on a document I guess since my handwriting is actual ass. This one’s probably going to be a bit of a short one since it does touch on a relatively old game. I’m hoping that this review will help convince people who come into the Souls series through Elden Ring to give Dark Souls III a shot. From the newcomers I’ve talked to, it just doesn’t feel viable to really introduce them to the first Dark Souls despite how much I genuinely think it was amazing, due to the clunkiness of the controls compared to what it has become in the newer games. So I guess this is my sales pitch for whoever is interested in joining us in the series that cemented the genre in the wider gaming space.

Introduction

Dark Souls III is the third and final installment of the Dark Souls series, and my second favorite game by From Software (the first being Sekiro). The game takes a lot of inspiration from the aggressive and fast playstyle of Bloodborne, while retaining the build diversity and more deliberate gameplay of its predecessors. I’ve completed the game many many times (I would give a number but I’ve lost count, let’s say 15 or so?), and I have a lot to say in both positive and negative regard for this game. I definitely think it leans more towards the positive side though.

This review was actually written a while back so the DLCS are  part of the main review, and I’m not going to separate them like I did with my more recently written reviews. As this review has been written after the release of Elden Ring, I may make comparisons to it to give a clearer picture for players who have played Elden Ring and are looking for more similar games. 

Story and Presentation

In terms of story, it’s a continuation of Dark Souls 1’s story with a lot of references to the previously established lore. Of course, while it is a continuation, so much time has passed that very few characters have survived up until the current day. 

To summarize: The First Flame from Dark Souls 1 has been relinked an endless number of times since the events of Dark Souls 1, and with each rekindling the fire fades more quickly. In this current cycle, the only person who even could link the flames has refused to do so, and thus the dead lords who have linked the flames previously were resurrected to rekindle the First Flame. However, they all also refused the call, and in desperation, the Unkindled Ash were resurrected to get the job done. You, the player, are one of these Unkindled Ash, and are the people who have tried to rekindle the First Flame but were simply not powerful enough and burnt away into ash.

The story is quite simple, and your objectives are clear from the start. There are a lot of subplots in the game that add a lot of nuance and details to what happened, but I believe those are best experienced by the player themselves so I won’t talk too much about it. In terms of presentation, I think it was done extremely well. It’s a simple story that hones down on the concepts brought up in Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, and dials down on it even harder. Like the previous games, most of the story’s basic premise can be understood simply from playing the game, but a large majority of the details and lore are hidden in item descriptions. If you, like most people, are not reading these item descriptions, then you will not have the context for a lot of what happens in the story. If you’d like to get an understanding of the context without combing through a bunch of item descriptions, I would recommend watching one of the many many many youtubers who have talked about the lore of the Souls series. VaatiVidya is the most well known and easiest to listen to for this, though I definitely have other people I would recommend such as Hawkshaw or Smoughtown as well. There’s many more but I’m several years removed from listening to lore videos for the older Souls games and simply do not remember the names of every channel I listened to, so I apologize for that.

In terms of questlines, as with Elden Ring, the NPC locations are not always easy to discern and it’s easy to miss out on a questline due to it. This is not an issue for me, as I always replay these games and listen to lore videos later as well, but it could be an issue for you if you are a completionist who wants to do everything in one run, which is actually physically impossible due to branching questlines. 

Visual and Sound

The game is relatively old now, having been released in 2016. Visually the game isn’t ugly by any means, but it absolutely doesn’t compare to the newer games that have come out since. However, I do think that in terms of art direction and framing, the game is still very remarkably pretty. I’m not someone who spends too much time thinking about the graphics though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt if it is something you care for!

In terms of visual designs, there are a lot of bosses and enemies that are very memorable such as the Nameless King, the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, the four main lords, and most of the DLC bosses. Of course, on the other end, there are some misses in there such as the Curse Rotted Greatwood (WHO IS A LITERAL TREE WITH PUS COMING OUT), the Deacons of the Deep (who are a group of fanatics), High Lord Wolnir (a giant skeleton), the Ancient Dragon (a generic wyvern) among others. There are a lot of designs that invoke the feeling that Bloodborne gave me, and with how fantastic Bloodborne was, I have absolutely no complaints about it. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but I believe it leans towards great design more so than bad.

In terms of sound design, the game has a fantastic lineup of boss themes and the general gameplay sounds are fantastic. There isn’t much to say here, I believe From Software have had a great record of sound design and Dark Souls III is no different. I do want to note, that I don’t think any of the tracks invoke quite as much feeling for me as Dark Souls 1’s soundtrack did, though I do prefer Dark Souls III’s soundtrack over Elden Ring’s soundtrack.

Gameplay

Dark Souls III is a typical Souls game, wherein you are let loose into a world and allowed to explore. It’s not a completely wide open world, as there are gates that you need to get through in order to access some areas, whether they are key items you need to get, or tough bosses to overcome. Dark Souls III’s main difference from previous Souls games is that the bonfire placements are much more frequent than previous games. This makes it much more forgiving than previous games, though in terms of combat, the game does feel much more mechanically intensive than previous games.

Combat wise, Dark Souls III feels like a very consistently difficult game without feeling unfair. The enemy hitboxes are relatively good with some outliers that are kind of yikes and the player character feel is good without feeling too powerful. Enemy movesets are very readable and consistent, without the awkward delays of Elden Ring. 

In terms of the player, Dark Souls III has a pretty strong player character feel. It isn’t as clunky as in Dark Souls or Dark Souls II, but also doesn’t feel as speedy and powerful as Bloodborne. It’s a middle ground that works quite well for me, though I definitely lean more towards the Bloodborne playstyle over the slower Souls gameplay. In terms of the player character, it feels like a step up from the previous Souls games by a significant margin. The Weapon Arts are also a system that was added in this game, which also laid the groundwork for Elden Ring’s fantastic Ashes of War. In the state they’re in in Dark Souls III however, they can range from very powerful (spin slash, quickstep, some boss weapon arts, etc), to situational (stomp, perseverance and the majority of weapon arts) to why does this exist. Expanding the moveset and giving physical only players a reason to use mana is a smart move, but it wasn’t quite there mechanically yet.

I believe the strongest point of Dark Souls III’s gameplay is the enemy design, which I believe is fantastic across the board. I believe the best bosses in Dark Souls III are the best bosses in the series (including Elden Ring!). The list of great bosses is too long for me to touch on every single one, so I will just move on or else I’ll be here for half the script. In terms of bosses, most of them feel very targeted design wise for a specific experience, and I feel they succeeded for the most part.

On the other hand however there’s a few bosses that I would consider bad bosses in Dark Souls III as well. The Curse Rotted Greatwood and the Deacons of the Deep (literally so boring I had to be reminded by a friend that they exist) were the first to come to mind, but High Lord Wolnir with his annoying gimmick and Yhorm could be considered quite annoying as well. 

For context, Wolnir is a boss who’s a giant skeleton with two bracelets that kills him if you break them. Personally with Wolnir his gimmick isn’t too intrusive so I had no issues with him, though I didn’t particularly like him due to how unclear his attacks can be. Yhorm is a boss who you have to use a specific weapon to break or else he’s far too spongy and tanky. Yhorm was a cool implementation that they didn’t refine too well, with an absolutely fantastic version being implemented in Elden Ring as the Rykard boss fight.

In terms of non-boss enemies, most feel quite good to fight, though like with previous games the game shines most when there is a single enemy against you. Not much else to say about non boss enemies, they are generally just something I have to get through to get to the cool bosses, and them being generally fair is good enough for me.

Conclusion

You may have noticed by now, but I’m quite biased towards Dark Souls III. I like the game a lot, and I think it’s definitely a game that everyone who likes the style should check out. I don't think I can do the usual "Recommended for story, but not for gameplay" thing with this review, so I think this is all I can provide! Overall, it is easier than Elden Ring by a large margin in my opinion, though the initial difficulty starts off quite a bit higher than Elden Ring, with Iudex Gundyr being a decently powerful first boss that you have to kill. Regardless, I would like to fully recommend this game for anyone who likes the style of game. It is also the closest game to Elden Ring, so for anyone who just completed Elden Ring and would like more, Dark Souls III is the logical next option and with how similar their gameplay are, very easy to recommend. If you have not played either and have to pick one, Dark Souls III is a much more focused game while Elden Ring has far more options for you as a player, both in terms of equipment and gear.