Dark Souls 3 was the first FromSoft title I had ever beaten. My first character had about 175 hours on it when I stopped playing it, and I had several others started and aborted about ten hours in.

While I recognize that DS3 has a weaker story than the original I feel as if this is made up for in a much more stunning experience, with it being more fluid and cinematic with fewer boss fights that were repetitive. It is art in the form of one or the hardest games I’ve beaten and I still crave going back to the days relearn all of the patterns.

The fights never felt boring, even in their most tedious versions, despite the fact that Dark Souls as a whole is much more a pattern recognition franchise than anything else in my opinion. While not wholly predictable on a first playthrough, if one is capable of recognizing certain patterns wnd utilizes prior information as they traverse the world, it is a much less frustrating experience.

The difficulty of the game is entirely dependent on your ability to recognize patterns and process previous experiences, in addition to the rather tedious (and sometimes frustrating) trial and error.

The lore, as well, for a franchise beaten like a dead horse is incredible. Whether you watch it via a third party or read it yourself, you can tell there was a lot of thought and effort put into it.

That being said nothing makes me angrier than the backstab and parry animations for Scythes.