For my tastes, bonfires are often way too numerous and not smartly placed. Shortcuts have the same issues. You rarely feel the relief of earning a new bonfire or shortcut.
Dark Souls III Review Thread
- Thread starter HoJu
- Start date
For my tastes, bonfires are often way too numerous and not smartly placed. Shortcuts have the same issues. You rarely feel the relief of earning a new bonfire or shortcut.
The feeling of being lost and not knowing if you should turn back to the next bonfire, use a homeward bone of keep going, is definitely, asbolutely still present in the game. The bonfires that are close together are usually at the beginning of zones and also include the bonfire that's in the previous boss room. Aka Demon's Souls style.
There's bonfires that are close, but the areas are huge (bigger than some of these reviews might have you think), and it was really easy for me to get lost
Bonefires can be ridiculous in DS3
literally there is a bonefire 10 seconds away from one of the boss's bonefire lol.
The worst is the
prison
That area is about half the size of Latria yet there is like what, 5 shortcuts in that place?
Lux R7
Member
5 seconds in DS2 Earthen Peak. 10 seconds in Dark Souls before the Centipede. Not really new, it happens.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Other than the very first area when I was still low level, I didn't get that feeling at all. Always felt like I had a handle on things and, in fact, I think I lost my corpse maybe once or twice? in the entire game.
Sanctuary
Member
Does the axe only buff itself, or does it buff what's in your right hand? I haven't seen most of the weapon arts, but what I have seen just makes them look more PvP focused than anything else.
Thanks for posting this. HLD would have completely slipped under my radar otherwise.
You mean that same team that created some of the best areas in all of the franchise; where Miyazaki wasn't involved? It's also kind of dumb to act like there's no overlap of people that worked on art design and level layout through all of the games. Same thing applies to the actual coding. Some of the people that worked on Dark Souls worked on Dark Souls 2, and some of the people that worked on Dark Souls 2 also worked on Bloodborne. If you want to blame anyone, blame the person who had the most creative control that wasn't being as strict as they should have been, or vice versa.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
UC4 would have to bomb in some spectacular fashion story wise for that to happen
Haven't played DS2 in ages so, I don't remember. I was actually wondering which one was worse in that regard and I guess I found the answer.
Gormenghast
Member
So, what I read summarized is:
It's a more competent game compared to DS2, taking the best mechanics and offering a more condensed and intense experience.
But at the same time it's the shorter Souls and certainly doesn't soar above as some people expected. It's not the "ultimate" Souls experience. Just a competent entry in the series that offers some incremental improvements but without any real ambition or innovation. And that goes hand in hand with the broader public and less risk: so frequent bonfires, gentler difficulty curve.
A good Souls, but far from HARDCORE Souls experience the core fans demand and wish for.
It's a more competent game compared to DS2, taking the best mechanics and offering a more condensed and intense experience.
But at the same time it's the shorter Souls and certainly doesn't soar above as some people expected. It's not the "ultimate" Souls experience. Just a competent entry in the series that offers some incremental improvements but without any real ambition or innovation. And that goes hand in hand with the broader public and less risk: so frequent bonfires, gentler difficulty curve.
A good Souls, but far from HARDCORE Souls experience the core fans demand and wish for.
Already Torn
Banned
Ben's review sums up my thoughts pretty well. You're left wanting more, but otherwise it's a nice combination between DS1 and Bloodborne.
If you go in expecting a better game than DS2, or a "true" sequel to DS1, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I wouldn't say it's shorter, but perhaps less infinitely replayable than DS1 in terms of sequence breaking. I'm getting good at these games and it took me a while before DLC. The "hardcore" souls fans who imported it also seem to be quite happy, as the general consensus is that it's either as good as or close in quality to DS1 in the import thread. I think if you had to convince someone to only play one Souls game, it should be this. I prefer DS1 but you could call it the "Ultimate" Souls game for that reason alone I think.
If you go in expecting a better game than DS2, or a "true" sequel to DS1, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I wonder if anyone reviewed this game from the perspective of a Magic or Faith-focused build. I didn't touch either in my first playthrough, but from what I'm hearing in the Japanese version thread, they are both complete dogshit right now and Pyromancy isn't even that good.
The Earthen Peak bonfire takes longer than the Centipede's one unless you despawn the enemies since there are 3 of them right in front of the fog door and they can knock you out of the traversing animation.
JudgmentJay
Member
As far as the amount of content is concerned, it's the second biggest game in the series behind Dark Souls 2. The problem here is that the "core fans" are getting better and better at the games with each iteration, thus it has the illusion of being shorter just because people finish it faster. If From wanted to maintain the "hardcore Souls experience" with each new game, they would have to make them harder and harder which would essentially make them impossible for newcomers.
WickedLaharl
Member
It's much more prevalent in dark souls 3 tho.
Lux R7
Member
never had a single problem, you jump, you run, you enter the fog gate years before they can reach you.
DS2 bonfires seemed like they stuck bonfires in a machine gun and just haphazardly shot them all over the place for no rhyme or reason.
Lux R7
Member
this.
Lux R7
Member
I'd say it's the most consistent experience.
Like if there was a game in the series I'd have to recommend over any of the others if one person just really wanted to play a game in the series, but could only do one of them I'd recommend this one.
DS2 is the game I'd rather /play/
DS1 is the game I'd rather /experience/
DS3 is kind of in between the two of those somewhere. Unless patches really revolutionize the game then I can never see it having anywhere near the depth that DS2 did in its utterly breathtaking variety of play that it can offer, nor do I think it really succeeds in setting itself apart from DS1 enough to have its own unique identity.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
The placement can be reminiscent of Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons in some places.
I feel the same way as you. I do want to wait to see what the DLC has to offer, though.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Meh, not really.
There's also that one in Black Gulch that takes literally 5 seconds, of you're lucky you aren't even hit by the spitting statues.
lol
Oh boy.
This game has the hardest bosses in the series.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
DP
Gormenghast
Member
First playthrough, from reported hours, is sensibly shorter than ANY Souls.
On average BB was 34 hours, Demon's was 32, DS1 and 2 both where 50, with DS2 having sensibly longer completion time when checking all boxes. This one averages from 25 to 35, so it's somewhere on the same line but slightly shorter.
The "overall" content including optional areas and replayability MIGHT be higher. But simply counting just the time variable it's a shorter game on first playthrough. Unless the reviewers somehow are sensibly faster than all other players.
Already Torn
Banned
Game took me 35 and I never had any real road blocks. It's comparable to Bloodborne at the very least, and I skipped a lot of areas in Bloodborne.
JudgmentJay
Member
Yes, I was speaking to the "overall" amount of content including optional areas. I mean if you're not counting optional areas, Bloodborne is like 15 hours long tops. FWIW, my first playthrough of Bloodborne was 25 hours and Dark Souls III took me 40. All optional areas done in both (minus Chalice Dungeons). Probably considerably more deaths in Bloodborne. No real roadblocks in Dark Souls III, just very thorough exploration.
Sanctuary
Member
Yet somehow a lot of people in the import thread claim the opposite. Then again, they probably weren't going shieldless DEX for their initial playthrough either.
You also have some people claiming that this is the easiest of the Souls games (not talking about the unpatched Xbone version either), while some supposed veterans claim it's the hardest.
Unless the areas you skipped were Chalice Dungeons, 35 hours is kind of slow for Bloodborne. It took me that long to finish the entire game, including all of the optional bosses, and I also did three Chalice Dungeons.
Everyone will have a different experience, but there were several times where I was lost on some side path and didn't know how to get back to the last bonfire. Starting with a small amount of estus also heightened this in the first area, but I think I got more lost in the second area and then after that
took me a while to realize there were two places I could go from Road of Sacrifice
There was also one area late game where I had almost no HP left and I was dashing around madly looking for the next bonfire and managed to light it just in time.
The game is definitely more forgiving with bonfires but there were still moments of tension like that for me. Plus there were no really annoying runs to a boss from a bonfire.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Stop it, you didn't played the game.
And you're clearly extra`politing info without clearly understanding it.
Is that really an impossibility? It's their job; reviewers have other games to play, they speed through games as fast as possible to dump out the review by the embargo date. They're not really representative of the average experience.
Robot Pants
Member
Yea me too
Disagree with this assessment pretty hard. It's the second largest SoulsBorne game (not counting DLC not chalices), the regular enemies are vastly smarter and get very difficult, there are several top tier bosses in both design and difficulty, and it blends the best of the previous games into one package. I'm not finished yet but I'm into the endgame and mechanically this is my favorite of the series by far.
Story wise, I have to replay in English to really get a sense, but I'm thoroughly enjoying everything I've played so far. A couple of the earlier bosses could have had 2x hp IMHO but then again I'm pretty decent at these games. Later ones have had my heart pounding.
Edit: as for length, of course the average is trending low at the moment, people who've cleared it fast have had time to finish but people like myself who are still going at 45 hours haven't had enough days since release to finish.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
You can never get that experience back when you first played Dark Souls and had no idea what the game was. The first time you were ambushed, or a Mimic chest got you, or losing all your souls on a failed attempt back to your corspe, or figuring out a shortcut, or just figuring out how to even play this game
It will never be obscure again, never be new and mysterious and scary again. The best and only thing this game could be was a really polished consistent version of a series you put Over a hundred hours into already.
It will never be obscure again, never be new and mysterious and scary again. The best and only thing this game could be was a really polished consistent version of a series you put Over a hundred hours into already.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I agree with this, but maybe I just kind of suck.
The bosses in this game are easily the least forgiving of even the slightest mistakes of any game in the franchise. So many attacks just do insane damage and will one-shot a lot of people unless you've got well over 1,000 HP remaining.
With that said, I'm not sure they are as fun to fight as some of the more memorable boss fights in the franchise. Just a lot of "got rekt, fuck" moments over and over again until you manage to pull off a near perfect run.
I'm going to wait until I can do a full solo run in 60 FPS on PC, though.
Wait what? UC writing is kinda cutesy and ok in a videogame sense but it's nothing amazing. I respect their effort in what kind of char they want to achieve with Drake but they simply don't have the talent to write him. Maybe I should stop comparing it to other mediums and I'd enjoy it more but idk. Sorry for the offtopic.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
I went DEX shieldless in all 3 DS games.
One particular boss beats most of them in difficulty terms and is easily on the top 3. (and in everything else really).
There's some high and lows, but several bosses are quite hard.
25 to 35 hours is what many of us reported in the import thread. My time was about 35 hours to get everything. However, I agree with an above comment that these times are lower because we're all getting better at these games.
Gormenghast
Member
I'm strictly speaking of "amount of time it takes an average player on first playthrough". So without "completism".
What I'm saying is, the average for BB hovers around 30 hours for first playthrough. Some players will be faster and be in the 20s some players slower and be in the 40s, but on average it hovers around 30. Demon's Souls, I completed for example in 40 hours. But the overall average is again similar to BB and around 30 hours for first playthrough. Again, I'm not counting how big are the areas or the amount of content, just *time*.
Dark Souls 1 for the majority of players was 50 hours on first playthrough. Most of the players I personally know hover around 60 hours. And again there will be case-limit that complete it in 40, as others will complete in 70+. I don't know if it's a matter of LOTS OF BACKTRACKING. It might even be that the *content* volume is similar, but due to the backtracking DS1 forces, it also EXTENDS the playtime of the game.
But if DS3 is, on first playthrough, on average around 30 hours, then it's very far from DS1.
Again, it can be because of longer load times, a lot more backtracking, less stalling. But it seems a fact, looking at the numbers, that DS3 first playthrough time is the shortest in the whole series.
Have I explained myself?
It's a fact that being able to teleport around the would instead of walking across it WILL shorten the playtime. So content may as well be similar to DS1, and more than BB, where playtime was extended by having to port back and forth to the hub and wait minutes just at the loading screen. So DS3 might have more CONTENT, but still take sensibly less to complete?
JudgmentJay
Member
You've explained yourself, but I'm not sure what your point is. Who cares how long it takes people for a first playthrough (especially people who miss the optional areas)? Actual amount of content is what's important.
Well, shit, that's how I feel with every boss I get stuck on. That's how I feel with the BEST bosses, actually. The hand-sweaty-heart-pumping-keep-calm bosses.
But okay, DS3 is scoring a 90 on metacritic, even though it's the FOURTH game with the same formula. People are focussing on the negatives?
It's the fourth game with the same formula! If the critics scored it 7-8's, saying 'we know what to expect, but fans will love it nonetheless' we shouldn't have to be surprised. But it's scoring solid 9s all over the place.
We can't have our first magical virgin experience back guys, and like the other guy said. It would be cool if Dark Souls could grow with us, but the majority of normal gamers don't even finish the Soulsborne series because they're too difficult. Neogaf is the minority.
Savinowned
Member
Gormenghast
Member
JudgmentJay
Member
I said it in another thread, but I've never seen a fanbase as concerned about the next game in a series as Soulsborne's. The nitpicking and fear mongering over the most inane details is pretty silly.
Basketball
Member
Yes some of them are quite hard but not impossible.
Unlike DS2 where you can just strafe around lots of bosses in this game they will punish you hard for a panic dodge or greed, or rekt your shield stamina. One boss in particular felt like a damn fighting game or something out of dbz with the back and forth. You really got to learn the enemy movements in this game. Some builds will have a harder and easier time on certain bosses vice/versa but that's the beauty of the game.