Dark Souls III Review Thread

I'm so torn now. Love Demon's and Dark Souls (put hundreds of hours into both), and while I enjoyed Bloodborne (especially the combat) something was "off." Though even for that I probably played close to a hundred hours between 2 characters. For Dark Souls 2, I got a good way through it then stopped playing. Something just felt different. That was for PS3 and I actually bought the PS4 version last year on a Black Friday sale, but haven't played it.

So the issue is this, should I play through the PS4 version of DS2 or just say screw it and get DS3?
 
So, this seems like BB in terms of having no real weak areas ? Great. Because DeS, DS1 and DS2 had very weak areas which should've been cut from the game.
 
Neoweee said:
Linearity and difficulty and replay/covenants, namely.

It's the most linear Soulsborne game by fairly wide consensus, and balance is still kind of a mess. Covenants being a step down from DS2 is also cited.

(I'm not in the negative crowd. It's definitely in the cluster of my top 3. However, I do agree with the underlying substance of all of the core complaints).
Click to expand...

When you say difficulty do they mean it is too easy compared to the other soulsborne games?
 
Glad to see some of the reviews talk about how the level design is a bit more disjointed and less cohesive. My first souls game was DS1 and I was blown away by the super connected world more than anything else in the game cos I had never seen a game do it that well before. Bloodborne also kept this and felt incredibly consistent and well connected. Every other game in the franchise has always felt lacking in those regards and it kind of bummed me out to see DSIII have cutscene transitions between areas instead of just walking there. I also feel the aesthetic is lacking for my own personal tastes, a lot of muddy looking areas except for
the boreal valley
which is fucking gorgeous

Still love the game, I don't think it's as good as DS1 or Bloodborne but it's right after both for my favourite in the series. The combat has had some nice new additions and growth
 
jacksepticeye said:
Glad to see some of the reviews talk about how the level design is a bit more disjointed and less cohesive. My first souls game was DS1 and I was blown away by the super connected world more than anything else in the game cos I had never seen a game do it that well before. Bloodborne also kept this and felt incredibly consistent and well connected. Every other game in the franchise has always felt lacking in those regards and it kind of bummed me out to see DSIII have cutscene transitions between areas instead of just walking there.

Still love the game, I don't think it's as good as DS1 or Bloodborne but it's right after both for my favourite in the series. The combat has had some nice new additions and growth
Click to expand...

Thanks for the impressions! Could you specify how does the difficulty compare to other Souls games and Bloodborne and whether or not Weapon arts are useless in the game?
 
Looking very much forward to this but the confirmation of a more linear style of world/progression leaves me a bit cold, Lordran may forever be the peak in this regard.
 
jacksepticeye said:
Glad to see some of the reviews talk about how the level design is a bit more disjointed and less cohesive. My first souls game was DS1 and I was blown away by the super connected world more than anything else in the game cos I had never seen a game do it that well before. Bloodborne also kept this and felt incredibly consistent and well connected. Every other game in the franchise has always felt lacking in those regards and it kind of bummed me out to see DSIII have cutscene transitions between areas instead of just walking there.

Still love the game, I don't think it's as good as DS1 or Bloodborne but it's right after both for my favourite in the series. The combat has had some nice new additions and growth
Click to expand...

It's more connected than Bloodborne. You can walk (almost) everywhere. In the one exception you can see where you're going, but it's just a big gap.
 
generic_username said:
Thanks for the impressions! Could you specify how does the difficulty compare to other Souls games and Bloodborne and whether or not Weapon arts are useless in the game?
Click to expand...

I think it's a bit easier? probably just because we're all saturated with Souls games now and how they play. We know how they operate therefore we blow through them faster. It requires a lot more Bloodborne type of play though where you dodge more so than block with a shield, because some bosses will tear through your stamina bar.

I wouldn't say weapon arts are useless, although I've barely used them because I didn't feel like I needed to. Some weapons have very useful ones but most feel like extra attacks. They use FP though which I also use for pyromancy and that's probably why I've been reluctant to use them. Someone else would probably have a better understanding of them because I'm not an authority on them :P
 
Relaxed Muscle said:
The game is already at CoC by default lol
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No, it isn't. You're just bad at the game. You spend thread after thread after thread bitching about Dark Souls 2 and can't rest until every single thing about it is regarded as worse than every other Souls game.

Playing with a bad build isn't the same as the game actually being notably difficult. Not only were you using Dex builds, which are almost always worse than Strength builds, but you decided not to use a shield, which is a completely senseless tactical choice.

Don't intentionally play a game poorly and then try to convince everyone else that the game is harder because of it.
 
Joei said:
I'm so torn now. Love Demon's and Dark Souls (put hundreds of hours into both), and while I enjoyed Bloodborne (especially the combat) something was "off." Though even for that I probably played close to a hundred hours between 2 characters. For Dark Souls 2, I got a good way through it then stopped playing. Something just felt different. That was for PS3 and I actually bought the PS4 version last year on a Black Friday sale, but haven't played it.

So the issue is this, should I play through the PS4 version of DS2 or just say screw it and get DS3?
Click to expand...

If you're not enjoying DkS2, just skip it.
 
ogbg said:
It's more connected than Bloodborne. You can walk (almost) everywhere. In the one exception you can see where you're going, but it's just a big gap.
Click to expand...

but.... in bloodborne there is only one area not connected:
Castle Cainhurst
.

oh, and of course the DLC, but that's another different story.

what I mean is, BB is quite connected.
 
ogbg said:
It's more connected than Bloodborne. You can walk (almost) everywhere. In the one exception you can see where you're going, but it's just a big gap.
Click to expand...

Can't say I can agree on that. Bloodborne felt incredibly connected, especially the first few areas. you could see most of the other areas from higher vantage points and then walk directly to them. Later areas I'll agree were more disjointed when you went to the
nightmare frontier, cainhurst etc.

Dark Souls III forces you to use a bonfire fast travel and cutscene fast travel travel in the first two areas. I don't want to poke more at it without spoilers though. It also litters bonfires everywhere negating the need to walk very far when you can just fast travel to them, on PC the load times are far less than the walking time
 
Neoweee said:
Playing with a bad build isn't the same as the game actually being notably difficult. Not only were you using Dex builds, which are almost always worse than Strength builds, but you decided not to use a shield, which is a completely senseless tactical choice.
Click to expand...

It's actually not. I thought so after my first playthrough but went shieldless in my second and the extra roll distance you get at like 28% equip load is super useful. As is the bleeding damage you get from many fast weapons. I can't work out if there's a second break point in equip load or if the linear scaling just becomes more noticeable at such a low level.
 
jacksepticeye said:
I think it's a bit easier? probably just because we're all saturated with Souls games now and how they play. We know how they operate therefore we blow through them faster. It requires a lot more Bloodborne type of play though where you dodge more so than block with a shield, because some bosses will tear through your stamina bar.

I wouldn't say weapon arts are useless, although I've barely used them because I didn't feel like I needed to. Some weapons have very useful ones but most feel like extra attacks. They use FP though which I also use for pyromancy and that's probably why I've been reluctant to use them. Someone else would probably have a better understanding of them because I'm not an authority on them :P
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Thanks for the impressions!
 
wiibomb said:
but.... in bloodborne there is only one area not connected:
Castle Cainhurst
.

oh, and of course the DLC, but that's another different story.

what I mean is, BB is quite connected.
Click to expand...

You seem to have forgotten about the 2 nightmare levels, one of which is not optional
 
ogbg said:
It's actually not. I thought so after my first playthrough but went shieldless in my second and the extra roll distance you get at like 28% equip load is super useful. As is the bleeding damage you get from many fast weapons. I can't work out if there's a second break point in equip load or if the linear scaling just becomes more noticeable at such a low level.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's a second break point. That set of 5.0 weight shields is ridiculously good for the weight, and that's in the ballpark of like an extra 8% to encumbrance.

There are some circimstances where you know you won't be using it so you can just put it away, but having the option to just toggle to it is invaluable.
 
jacksepticeye said:
Can't say I can agree on that. Bloodborne felt incredibly connected, especially the first few areas. you could see most of the other areas from higher vantage points and then walk directly to them. Later areas I'll agree were more disjointed when you went to the
nightmare frontier, cainhurst etc.

Dark Souls III forces you to use a bonfire fast travel and cutscene fast travel travel in the first two areas. I don't want to poke more at it without spoilers though. It also litters bonfires everywhere negating the need to walk very far when you can just fast travel to them, on PC the load times are far less than the walking time
Click to expand...

I won't spoil anything for you but that is a tiny portion of the game you have seen
 
Joei said:
I'm so torn now. Love Demon's and Dark Souls (put hundreds of hours into both), and while I enjoyed Bloodborne (especially the combat) something was "off." Though even for that I probably played close to a hundred hours between 2 characters. For Dark Souls 2, I got a good way through it then stopped playing. Something just felt different. That was for PS3 and I actually bought the PS4 version last year on a Black Friday sale, but haven't played it.

So the issue is this, should I play through the PS4 version of DS2 or just say screw it and get DS3?
Click to expand...

I don't think the storylines are ever so integrated such that it matters if you've missed any of the games. They mostly just feel like callouts to other games in the series anyway.

I can't say I agree that there was something "off" about Bloodborne (I loved the hell out of that game. #2 on my list with Dark Souls being #1), but I can absolutely understand having issues with Dark Souls 2. I played through it most of the way with multiple characters, putting in probably over 100 hours with that game, and it never really felt right to me. Characters and animation felt a bit disconnected from the environments, hit boxes felt inconsistent, enemy attacks had a weird magnetism, etc. There was just a lot that mechanically felt wrong. The game definitely had its moments, but mechanically, I felt it to be the most off-putting of the series (Even if it runs really well). I finally beat it about a month ago with one of my characters, and the whole thing felt pretty flat even if I appreciated that it has probably the most narrative of any of the games.

I'd say if you aren't feel DS2, you're not alone, and forcing yourself through it may ultimately just burn you out on the series for now. Probably best just to take a look at a story summary and move on to DS3. You'll find ardent defenders of DS2, but I think they're in the minority.
 
wiibomb said:
but.... in bloodborne there is only one area not connected:
Castle Cainhurst
.

oh, and of course the DLC, but that's another different story.

what I mean is, BB is quite connected.
Click to expand...

BB is certainly more connected than DS3 by mile

DS3 is much closer to DS2 in that regard except it doesn't have that Earthen Peak to Iron Keep transition nonsense.
 
Neoweee said:
There are some circimstances where you know you won't be using it so you can just put it away, but having the option to just toggle to it is invaluable.
Click to expand...

Like I said, I found that not to be the case on my second playthrough. I preferred not even using
grass crest
because the extra agility was worth it.
 
I see some good and some okay scores. I mean, a large majority of us actually played it without knowing any of these scores. I highly recommend it if you're a Souls fan period, you know, just saying...that because someone's score might make you feel uneasy.
 
Rozart said:
One of the things that I'm actually really excited for is meeting/finding all the NPCs. Hoping DS3's got a bunch of memorable crazies in the game.
Click to expand...

I loved some of them but didn't feel they were as interesting as past titles.
 
ogbg said:
I won't spoil anything for you but that is a tiny portion of the game you have seen
Click to expand...

I'm over 26 hours into the game. I've seen quite a huge chunk of it by now, I still don't think the level design feels as good as DS1 or BB. Maybe it's because it throws that fast traveling stuff at you near the start but eh, agree to disagree I guess.

I still really like the game at the end of the day, it was just the first thing that jumped out at me and seeing reviewers mention it made me talk about it
 
Northeastmonk said:
I see some good and some okay scores. I mean, a large majority of us actually played it without knowing any of these scores. I highly recommend it if you're a Souls fan period, you know, just saying...that because someone's score might make you feel uneasy.
Click to expand...

the metacritic is at 90, how could someone complain? I mean, those who haven't played it yet
 
ogbg said:
Like I said, I found that not to be the case on my second playthrough. I preferred not even using
grass crest
because the extra agility was worth it.
Click to expand...

I think my opinion on shield is mostly tilted towards that set of shields with full physical reduction, high stability, and a high elemental resistance. Those things are nuts compared to the stat and weight requirements.

If you know what you're doing, then you know the enemy attack patterns and how to dodge well. But for anyone playing the game for their first time, I am absolutely all-in on recommending a shields.

Karak said:
I loved some of them but didn't feel they were as interesting as past titles.
Click to expand...

I thought they were the best set of NPCs.
 
Intheflorsh said:
I doubt they would implement that. It's very easy to use a DS4 with windows though, so who cares?
Click to expand...

I guess. Just kind of done using all these 3rd party programs. Hyper Light Drifter I can just plug it in and play, hassle free. I am going to play the game one way or another any way so yeah.
 
jacksepticeye said:
I'm over 26 hours into the game. I've seen quite a huge chunk of it by now, I still don't think the level design feels as good as DS1 or BB. Maybe it's because it throws that fast traveling things at you near the start but eh, agree to disagree I guess.

I still really like the game at the end of the day, it was just the first thing that jumped out at me and seeing reviewers mention it made me talk about it
Click to expand...

It's fair enough that you prefer BB's design but just on the point of connectedness you can walk everywhere in this game apart from that one transition (where the destination is even visible, it's just a big gap) whereas in BB you can't.
 
wiibomb said:
the metacritic is at 90, how could someone complain? I mean, those who haven't played it yet
Click to expand...

Meticulous points of view can discourage anyone. If I said, oh the frame drops suck so don't play this yet, you might reconsider just because of that or if someone said, "the lackluster bosses" or "items are garbage", you might get down on yourself. Flaws, if any, always shine through like a diamond in the rough, so I'm just encouraging people to enjoy it without small criticisms.

You can also run into the whole "I haven't pointed things out before, but this is an issue here" and I'd rather deter people away from using that as a final judgment.
 
Neoweee said:
I think my opinion on shield is mostly tilted towards that set of shields with full physical reduction, high stability, and a high elemental resistance. Those things are nuts compared to the stat and weight requirements.

If you know what you're doing, then you know the enemy attack patterns and how to dodge well. But for anyone playing the game for their first time, I am absolutely all-in on recommending a shields.
.
Click to expand...

I'm talking about those too. Anyway, I agree that I would recommend that for a first playthrough (I did the same myself) but in no way is going shieldless a tactical mistake as you said. There are advantages which I described
 
Neoweee said:
No, it isn't. You're just bad at the game. You spend thread after thread after thread bitching about Dark Souls 2 and can't rest until every single thing about it is regarded as worse than every other Souls game.

Playing with a bad build isn't the same as the game actually being notably difficult. Not only were you using Dex builds, which are almost always worse than Strength builds, but you decided not to use a shield, which is a completely senseless tactical choice.

Don't intentionally play a game poorly and then try to convince everyone else that the game is harder because of it.
Click to expand...

Touched a nerve?

I thought DS was about freedom of builds, specially DS2 lol

I played DS2 and DS3 with the same build, one was a joke after ADP was a decent level and the other was a real challenge.

I wasn't even discussing quality here. Lol
 
ogbg said:
It's fair enough that you prefer BB's design but just on the point of connectedness you can walk everywhere in this game apart from that one transition (where the destination is even visible, it's just a big gap) whereas in BB you can't.
Click to expand...

I guess so, still don't know why my opinion of the level design is tainted in such a way to make me think that though. Maybe it's all the bonfires littered closer together than I'd like? I have no idea. The more I think about it the more I do realise that you can walk to a great deal of the later areas. Guess I just don't like how a lot of areas look and feel like they're more disjointed than they are, who knows.
 
Northeastmonk said:
Meticulous points of view can discourage anyone. If I said, oh the frame drops suck so don't play this yet, you might reconsider just because of that or if someone said, "the lackluster bosses" or "items are garbage", you might get down on yourself. Flaws, if any, always shine through like a diamond in the rough, so I'm just encouraging people to enjoy it without small criticisms.

You can also run into the whole "I haven't pointed things out before, but this is an issue here" and I'd rather deter people away from using that as a final judgment.
Click to expand...

that is very true, although I would like to appeal to anyone thinking this that no one will ever agree on a score never and there are always criticism made to anything, what's really important is to look at the bigger picture, the game is well framed as a good one.

anyone is free to think whatever about the game, but at least playing it before giving it to the critics.

btw, this is not to you, just a general thinking to all who are discouraged by one or two reviews.
 
ogbg said:
It's fair enough that you prefer BB's design but just on the point of connectedness you can walk everywhere in this game apart from that one transition (where the destination is even visible, it's just a big gap) whereas in BB you can't.
Click to expand...

Technically 2 points. One where the huge gap is and one with DS3 equivalent of the Hunter's Dream. Other than that you can go anywhere by foot with no interruption.
 
ogbg said:
I'm talking about those too. Anyway, I agree that I would recommend that for a first playthrough (I did the same myself) but in no way is going shieldless a tactical mistake as you said. There are advantages which I described
Click to expand...

are there really? In bloodborne they shield could totally feel like a hindrance and I didn't want any shield on it, but I'm playing DkS1 and DkS2 and I die in seconds without a shield, the evading doesn't work as good.

How good is a shieldless play in DkS3?
 
wiibomb said:
are there really? In bloodborne they shield could totally feel like a hindrance and I didn't want any shield on it, but I'm playing DkS1 and DkS2 and I die in seconds without a shield, the evading doesn't work as good.

How good is a shieldless play in DkS3?
Click to expand...

The lighter you are the better your roll is
 
wiibomb said:
are there really? In bloodborne they shield could totally feel like a hindrance and I didn't want any shield on it, but I'm playing DkS1 and DkS2 and I die in seconds without a shield, the evading doesn't work as good.

How good is a shieldless play in DkS3?
Click to expand...

Harder than in any other dark souls game, but really fun because of that. Even if it's wrong to play like that and makes you a bad player, like some people says.
 
SO FUCKING HYPED.

Luckily I have Dirt Rally coming tomorrow Wednesday if bestbuy gets their shit together to tide me over but this is the real deal until Uncharted 4.

What a great year.
 
Intheflorsh said:
I doubt they would implement that. It's very easy to use a DS4 with windows though, so who cares?
Click to expand...

Zackat said:
I guess. Just kind of done using all these 3rd party programs. Hyper Light Drifter I can just plug it in and play, hassle free. I am going to play the game one way or another any way so yeah.
Click to expand...

Psychological or not, I'm with you. I love my DS4 and used it to play through several games (hundreds of hours) on PC with DS4Windows, but at the end of the day, I hate seeing the wrong button prompts. (I definitely screw up the "x" input as well given the difference. It's the only one my brain seems to struggle with on the transition.) I just want native support. Switching out the button prompts with mods (Though I did do this with MGSV) is often a pain. As such, I'll play it with an Xbox controller just to make it match. I wish it didn't bother me, but it does.
 
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