Easily the best Dark Souls game. The combat is magnificent, the graphics are stunning, the music is incredible, the atmosphere is haunting; everything about it absolutely sings. Long review with lots of gushing ahead, I'm obsessed with this game.

Elden Ring being my first Souls game, and DS1 being my second, I wasn't ready for how unbelievably good the combat was. DS3 felt like the most balanced the combat has ever been in all the Souls games I've played; the fights had a rhythm to them that was distinctly missing in Elden Ring. I felt this as someone who was staunchly biased towards Elden Ring, fell in love with the series because of it, and always found people who insist that DS was better in every way annoying. But honestly, it's kind of true. DS3 combat felt like the absolute culmination of hard, but fair; bosses felt so much more doable than before, without being easy. It felt like for the first time I actually 'got' Souls combat, felt the satisfaction of solo'ing everything, learning moves, etc. It just felt way more intuitive; suddenly I had so much more appreciation for telegraphing and timing. In Elden Ring, basically every boss is designed to trip you up with delayed swings, catch your roll, etc, leaving you with no option but learning the timings and delaying your instincts. Which honestly isn't that fun. DS1 bosses were much easier due to the time it came out and relative simplicity. DS3 feels like it's the perfect medium and high point of both; with bosses that still occasionally trip you up, but not to the point that it's ridiculous, just enough to keep things interesting. For the first time I really looked forward to fighting bosses on my own, engaging with them, and feeling satisfaction when I beat them, rather than relief or exhaustion. I still love ER, but now I understand what people mean when they criticise the bosses. DS3's combat was just that good. Even bosses that were more of a gimmick than combat - Wolnir in particular - don't feel that much like low points to me, because the atmosphere and spectacle of these bosses was always fantastic. DS3's low points still feel like high points.

The art direction is always top-notch in Souls games, so this goes without saying, but the graphics are genuinely stunning. Seeing Irithyll for the first time after leaving the Catacombs was indescribable. DS3 did such a good job of building atmosphere in a way that I honestly don't think any other Souls game (that I've played) has achieved, especially when combined with its sound design - the ominous strings of Oceiros' theme combined with the unbelievably dark and horrifyingly tragic nature of his story that left me floored and a mess of emotion after I beat him, or the witchy-sounding, chant-like vocals that echo in the back of the Aldrich boss theme as he moves unnaturally and desperately around the room. The horror in the Undead Settlement area with the hanging, squelching corpses everywhere and disturbing human voices of the Nana enemies, the unsettling singing cage enemy; I could keep going. Everything about the atmosphere of this game was spot on. It really feels like a tragic, dying world fallen to ruin, and despite all this, there is so much beauty and detail. I was constantly stopping to admire the view and take screenshots, or clearing levels of enemies just so I could freely walk around and look at every corner. Every boss encounter had me reeling from the impact of it, visually, musically and narratively; there is such an incredible amount of depth to this game, and combined with the unbelievable quality of the combat and exploration it just feels unbeatable as the strongest entry in the series. Knowing about its somewhat troubled development astounds me even more, because honestly, I would never have guessed that there was a single hitch with this game from the finished product. It's a real testament to the quality of From's work. I have absolutely no complaints about this game; if I do, they're negligible.

A little more, because I can't shut up. Three of the most common complaints I see about DS3 are that 1), it has too much fan service, 2) that it didn't do enough original stuff/relied too much on previous games, and 3), that it wasn't interconnected enough. Fan-service complaints baffle me, because this is Souls; fanservice is borderline nonexistent. All lore hunters are scraping for crumbs and hanging on by their teeth. A previous location appearing again for the briefest part of a level is not fanservice. It's the same world, the same series, and the world has changed; showing how characters or environments have been affected is almost prerequisite to any good sequel, and makes perfect sense within the story. (And even if it was fanservice, why complain? Every moment I saw something I recognised, whether it was Farron Keep being Darkroot Garden, or the Darkmoon Tomb, or pieces of Firelink Shrine in ruins at the Demon Prince bonfire; it felt magical and emotional. It didn't negatively affect the quality of the game, it improved it. It felt like it was pulling everything together in a satisfying way, as befitting the final entry in the series. Andre still being the blacksmith is probably fanservice, but come on, who cares. It's Andre.) The lore of DS3 is rich and emotional; some of it expands and builds on previously established things, but it also adds a huge amount, both to the larger world with things like the Ringed City and in smaller, self-contained ways. There are so many little tragedies and intricacies in DS3; the horrifying and sad story of Oceiros and the Lothric royal line, the intrigue and overarching villainy of Sulyvahn and how his impact is felt in every corner of the world, the pilgrims of Londor on their silent journeys that parallel yours as you reach Lothric Castle, the tragic and strange relationship of Irina and Eygon, Everything About Gael; DS3 is absolutely full of original stories, many of them considerably more gripping and emotionally resonant (at least to me) than anything in DS1. They build on the world that DS1 created, for sure; such is the nature of a sequel, a continuation of an existing world. As for interconnected-map, this feels like such a tired complaint that it barely warrants a response any more, but DS3 is not a bad game because the map doesn't loop and weave over itself. The levels are well-defined, and within themselves, they are full of shortcuts and clever loops that are fun to discover and play through. Get over the Undead Parish lift get oooverrr it man, even DS1 couldn't maintain that level of interconnectedness, which is why it stops at Anor Londo. A game's progression can be linear and still be very, very good. I cannot think of any reason why walking along a clever shortcut to get back to Firelink is inherently better than just warping there. The world and the places in it still felt real, satisfying and beautiful to go through.

I have never been sadder to finish a game than I was with DS3. I played it to fill the void as I waited for Elden Ring DLC and left loving Dark Souls more than Elden Ring. Seriously, what a game.

The whole DLC was beautiful and incredibly vibrant (even if the enemies were brutal at times, looking at you, Staircase Street From Hell) and wrapped up all the narratives of the game and series perfectly. Gael was the best boss of any Souls game that I think I've ever played, no game combat has ever felt like that before. Something about the fight was so intuitive and real that I never wanted it to end; I genuinely didn't want to beat him and for it to be over. My jaw was on the floor the whole time. Seriously, no boss has ever reached that level, the design was just incredible and the absolute culmination of DS3's hard but fair and patently beatable bosses. Amazing crowning jewel to the series.