Dark Souls 3: an Objective Look at the Newest Addition to the Souls Series

Dark Souls 3 is a great game overall: its combat system is simple, but using a different weapon or technique can spice things up.  Also, the diversity of the enemies keeps you thinking, the level of detail in every area is amazing, making you feel like you’re really exploring crumbling kingdoms. It's pretty cool actually because every single city has a unique story and society. Then there's the music, which doesn’t play usually, but when it does, the soundtrack will make your heart beat faster than ever before. And the best thing about the soundtrack is that it leaves you wanting more of it.  You see, they made it pretty epic, so when you do hear it, it's emphasizes the scene in which the music is played.

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<<So the overall experience was great, but I still felt like something was missing.>>

So the overall experience was great, but I still felt like something was missing.  You see, in the first Dark Souls game, you have to travel through the land and search for two bells to ring before you can get to Anor Londo, the city of the gods.  This is the halfway mark, and by that point you feel like you’ve already accomplished a lot.  In fact, the euphoria is such that you feel like you achieved something no one else has achieved before.  Then you get to the end of that area and discover there’s really a lot more to do and a lot more to explore. The same thing goes for Dark Souls 2 when you walk up to Drangleic Castle--another halfway mark. 

This is an image of the first boss in the game.

In Dark Souls 3, I never felt this sense of accomplishment, and I actually beat the game in about 30 hours, while the other souls games took about 60 hours each (about how long it usually takes for other people too). I felt the same sense of wonder in Dark Souls 3 as the other games, but the accomplishment I had experienced in the other two simply was not there because there was only one objective: kill the four lords of Cinder. This was instead of the two objective structure we get in the other games.  For example, you had to ring the Bells of Awakening in the first game, go through Anor Londo in the next and, in both the first games, you had to defeat four bosses in order to obtain their Lord Souls. In contrast to the first two games, the third one felt too short to me and left me slightly disappointed. But I still had fun playing this game and love nearly everything else about it. 

Other than that, here are some improvement that I thought made the third Dark Souls game good: 

"Praise the sun," baby!

First, there was the fact that the character creation is better than ever before due to more appearance options and more voices. The new generation of consoles (Xbox 1 and PS4) also made this the best looking Souls game I’ve ever seen.  And this was made even cooler with what I believe was the best Souls soundtrack yet. With all of these things going for the game, I can guarantee you that it will keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the duration of your gameplay. At the same time, leveling up in this game is confusing for beginners; if you make too many bad choices, you could end up with a pretty terrible character and have a slightly difficult time getting through an already tough game. However, if you mess up, you can change your stats in a hidden location 5 times. I don’t think such an important mechanic like this should be hidden so well though, so that is a drawback. Additionally, the Co-op and Player vs. Player (PVP) is funner than ever with more interesting covenants, and is definitely worth a try.  Then, we have the weapons, which I loved.  There are tons of weapon types in this game that will keep you interested like spears, straight swords, great hammers, and more. There’s even magic and bows, but I recommend sticking to a melee character--it’s a lot more fun in my opinion.

Impressive visuals, as you can see here.

Since I'm talking about the weapons here, I thought I'd make a quick reference to the addition of the "Weapon Arts," gameplay mechanic. Everybody has been talking about it, so how could I not mention it here? So, with this new mechanic, there is more depth to the combat, but this new addition can make the game a tad more complex and therefore less approachable for new comers. This is because you will have to learn the regular mechanics of combat for Dark Souls and then combine that knowledge with the skill needed for actually using "Weapon Arts."  Because of this, what ends up happening for most newcomers is they elect not to use Weapon Arts at all, and I think that's kind of unfortunate.

Love Firelink Shrine!  This is my favorite
armor, it's called "faraam armor."
Check it out!

Exploration in this game is heavily rewarded, but never to the point where it felt over-rewarding. There are some times when you leave a small part of an area empty handed. I love this about the game, as it encourages you to explore the beautiful world that is Dark Souls. You can interact with different NPCs in the world too, and if you make the right choices and actions, you can complete their quest lines and learn more about them. On the other hand, if you’re playing through for your first time, there’s a really big chance you’ll miss most or all of these additional quests. This happens because you’ll have no idea how to progress their quest line. Usually, you can use a wiki but I recommend not doing that on your first play through so you can fully enjoy the full experience. This is actually another thing that bothered me about Dark Souls 3: the characters are extremely interesting, so I feel like you should not have to miss out on their quests on your first go-through. Another reason why this is a pain is because you likely won’t understand the story as a whole if you’re a beginner, but most Souls series fans can't either because of the lack of detailed dialogue from NPCs and cutsences. Mostly everything you hear or read in the game will leave you guessing unless you look it up online and watch a 30 minute video on someone pretty much guessing what they think it means and you kinda sorta think you have a clue what’s going on. A lot of people praise this and I think it’s one of the reasons the Souls community is so large: because they have to come together and figure things out amongst themselves. I think this is done for a reason and it’s done right unlike in Destiny, but don’t get me started on that game--that’s a whole different story. In this game, like I said before, you feel like you're exploring crumbling kingdoms, and what usually happens to a kingdom that is falling or has fallen is they lose their history along with anything and everything else. I wish I knew more about the story, but you’re not supposed to, as this creates a sense of wonder and makes your imagination explode, while also setting the tone for the whole game world. 

So here's the final recommendation:

If you have never played a Souls game, I suggest you play all three starting with whatever one looks the coolest to you. For souls veterans out there, you might be slightly disappointed with only one objective in Dark Souls 3, but the updated graphics, stunning soundtrack, and a whole new world to explore in the series you love makes every dollar worth it.

Andrew Cherrington

(Pragmus Pi)

Video Game Reviewer

*Edited by Sigma