Dark Souls III

After the previous games I played, I had high hopes that Dark Souls III would be the masterpiece that the others were. I was right.

Dark Souls III came out in March 2016. Before ever starting up this game, I had extremely high expectations for the experience that this game would give me. I played Dark Souls III after beating Dark Souls Remastered, Dark Souls II, Sekiro, and Bloodborne. And just like all those games, I streamed my experience live to my friend that I met through Boy Scouts, and he provided tips and commentary to give me the best experience possible.

After playing through the game over a two month period, I looked back and questioned where I would be without playing Dark Souls III and the entire From Software collection. And my conclusion was that Dark Souls III is a perfect end to a trilogy of games, and an amazing showcase of the pinnacle of challenging game design. Here’s why.

As I mentioned earlier, I had extremely high expectations from Dark Souls III. My senior scout friend, who is the one who got me to play any Dark Souls games at all, has the most hours racked up on Dark Souls III, out of all the From Software games. It’s the favorite From Software game of most people I talk to. It’s the finale of the Dark Souls trilogy. Before ever pressing the play button on Steam, I knew Dark Souls III would be something extremely special to me. Booting up the game, getting my introduction to Lothric, and crawling out of that coffin and entering the Cemetery of Ash, I could feel the weight of the adventure I was about to embark on looming around me. It was an exhilarating feeling of anticipation and anxiety, so dense that I was nervous to even take my first step. Once I got started, I couldn’t stop.

In the first and second Dark Souls games, the story and lore of the kingdoms you traverse are always in the back of your mind, but for me, in Dark Souls III, it was always right at the front. Lordran and Drangleic were mostly separate from each other, with the stories’ connections not being very apparent until the end of the game. In Dark Souls III, the connections to the previous games are clear as soon as you pass the tutorial. That introduction moved the story to the front of my mind, and it never left for the rest of my playthrough. From Software’s games’ lore has always had a layer of mystery and uncertainty covering everything; very few things are explicitly stated. Part of the fun in these games’ stories is theorizing and inferring things from in-game hints, and I was constantly pausing to discuss my understanding of the lore of Dark Souls III with my spectators.

One of the most memorable instances of this was when I finally reached the Ringed City after persevering through the perilous Dreg Heap. The pygmy that is near the first bonfire of the area provided some vague lore, and my brain instantly started going wild with theories. I stood there, staring at the end of the bridge in the distance, with the judicator looming over everything, talking about how every mystery about the dark soul itself was solved just by the mere existence of this city. It was an incredibly memorable moment for me. All the times something connected back to a previous game were memorable moments for me, and it only adds to the perfection of this game as the end of a trilogy.

I could talk about how this game is the height of the challenging game design philosophy that From Software is famous for perfecting, how it fixes every flaw from Dark Souls I and II, and adds new mechanics to boot, but I already talked all about that in my review of Dark Souls Remastered, so I think I can get away with just mentioning it.

If each Dark Souls game has one thing that I would choose to be the best part, Dark Souls I would be the layout of the geography of Lordran, Dark Souls II would be the story of Aldia and the fall of Drangleic, and Dark Souls III would be the bosses you find across Lothric. The Abyss Watchers, the Nameless King, Slave Knight Gael, Champion Gundyr, Dragonslayer Armor, Soul of Cinder, and my favorite, the twin princes Lorian and Lothric are some of the best bossfights in any game I’ve ever played.

It’s hard to talk about how amazingly Dark Souls III ended the Dark Souls trilogy without spoiling a lot of the story. The kiln of the first flame, the Dreg Heap, the existence of the Soul of Cinder, and the collapsing of time to bring together the lands of the Lords of Cinder is one of the most unique and interesting takes on a game’s world I’ve ever seen, and the creativity and uniqueness of the concept blends beautifully with the gloomy tone of the trilogy. Without spoiling too much, the second part of the Soul of Cinder bossfight absolutely floored me. It was one of the most incredible, amazing moments I’ve ever been in. When the player inevitably figures out the nature of the Soul of Cinder’s existence, it’s a fantastic mystery to end the series.

Dark Souls III is an excellent end to an excellent trilogy. All three games were masterpieces in their own right, but the way that Dark Souls III connects and closes out the mysteries of the series makes it an amazing final game in one of the best game series of all time.