Beaten: Mar 15 2022
Time: 19 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X And thus ends my playthrough of the Dark Souls series (kinda… still gotta do all the dlc and DeS and BB). Still though, beating this one is a weird feeling for me. Three weeks ago I wasn’t even sure if I’d end up beating Elden Ring when it came out, and here I am, four games deep into FromSoft’s most influential series, and god damn do I love these games now.
Dark Souls 3 in particular feels like a refinement of the games that came before it, a nostalgic look back on the series. It’s filled to the brim with references, both overt and subtle, to DeS, DS1, and DS2, both mechanically and thematically.
As for how the game works, it feels obviously like a hybrid of DS1 and DS2, but with a lot of BB (I think) under the hood. More than any other Souls game, this one is tight, responsive, dare I say even “fast” at times. Coming from 1 and 2 this feels like a revelation, and coming from Elden Ring this feels like the ground that house was built on.
Like Elden Ring, there aren’t any areas in particular that stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to grind a bit for one boss, but all of the areas felt doable, approaching fair even lol. There’s no Blighttown, no Earthen Peak here. The bosses never really stopped me either, with the exception of one fairly early on (my first Lord of Cinder, the equivalent of the bosses that hold the Lord Souls in DS1/2). What gives these encounters texture in place of such frustration is the performative spectacle of it all. All the bosses are larger than life, visually striking, and fluid in ways the other games could only gesture towards.
I think I perceive this game as more of a step between the first “set” of souls games from FromSoft and the newer “set” of them (Sekiro and ER, who play with the formula to a much greater extent). Maybe it’s just a revisiting to Dark Souls’s style, but with the foundation of Bloodborne to hold it down? But its backwards-looking perspective mixed with its newfound kineticism makes it kind of poignant as a bridge, maybe even a last hurrah for this particular style of game from FromSoft. I doubt they’ll go back to the pure Dark Souls style anytime soon, especially with the next rumored game from them being based on Armored Core.
As it is, this feels like a fitting note to go out on. For the series it resides in, and particular style it seemingly marked the end of. Fittingly dark and romantic (in that 19th century sense of the word), I think I love it, though only time will tell how it sticks in my mind.
Time: 19 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X And thus ends my playthrough of the Dark Souls series (kinda… still gotta do all the dlc and DeS and BB). Still though, beating this one is a weird feeling for me. Three weeks ago I wasn’t even sure if I’d end up beating Elden Ring when it came out, and here I am, four games deep into FromSoft’s most influential series, and god damn do I love these games now.
Dark Souls 3 in particular feels like a refinement of the games that came before it, a nostalgic look back on the series. It’s filled to the brim with references, both overt and subtle, to DeS, DS1, and DS2, both mechanically and thematically.
As for how the game works, it feels obviously like a hybrid of DS1 and DS2, but with a lot of BB (I think) under the hood. More than any other Souls game, this one is tight, responsive, dare I say even “fast” at times. Coming from 1 and 2 this feels like a revelation, and coming from Elden Ring this feels like the ground that house was built on.
Like Elden Ring, there aren’t any areas in particular that stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to grind a bit for one boss, but all of the areas felt doable, approaching fair even lol. There’s no Blighttown, no Earthen Peak here. The bosses never really stopped me either, with the exception of one fairly early on (my first Lord of Cinder, the equivalent of the bosses that hold the Lord Souls in DS1/2). What gives these encounters texture in place of such frustration is the performative spectacle of it all. All the bosses are larger than life, visually striking, and fluid in ways the other games could only gesture towards.
I think I perceive this game as more of a step between the first “set” of souls games from FromSoft and the newer “set” of them (Sekiro and ER, who play with the formula to a much greater extent). Maybe it’s just a revisiting to Dark Souls’s style, but with the foundation of Bloodborne to hold it down? But its backwards-looking perspective mixed with its newfound kineticism makes it kind of poignant as a bridge, maybe even a last hurrah for this particular style of game from FromSoft. I doubt they’ll go back to the pure Dark Souls style anytime soon, especially with the next rumored game from them being based on Armored Core.
As it is, this feels like a fitting note to go out on. For the series it resides in, and particular style it seemingly marked the end of. Fittingly dark and romantic (in that 19th century sense of the word), I think I love it, though only time will tell how it sticks in my mind.