More Thoughts On Dark Souls 3

After spending even more time with, “Dark Souls 3 (DS3),” I have more thoughts. Here they are, both the good and the bad.

On one hand, I like that the game offers quests. They provide more ways to interact with the world and customize a given character / playthrough, especially since completing some quests make others inaccessible.
On the other hand, quests can be difficult to find, let alone complete. I would’ve missed Siegward’s quest without help. Why? I visited a specific location in the game world before interacting with the NPC that starts said quest, thus despawning them. This required a work-around to spawn them elsewhere in the game world. (Minor spoiler: Patches never spawned in the Cathedral of the Deep because I visited the Cleansing Chapel before ever discovering Siegward in the well.) In short, I have no idea how I would’ve figured any of this out without outside help.
Just like the quests, I find the story inscrutable. This didn’t end up bothering me, however, because the moment-to-moment gameplay was so engaging and the voice acting was all well-done. In a way, the story being as opaque as it is meant I never felt regret for not playing Dark Souls 1 and 2 first. I’m sure there are call-backs and references; I’ve seen them in my brushes with various Dark Souls wikis. Again, this hasn’t hindered my enjoyment of the experience.
Minor spoiler, but the main game has approximately 4 different endings. To be completely honest, I wasn’t really moved by my ending because I didn’t feel invested in the story. What really got to me, though, was how the Firelink Shrine changed toward the end of my game. The place of warmth and comfort (or as warm and comfortable as places get in the world of Dark Souls) I had built up over the course of the game changed leading up to the ending (both with the firekeeper’s eyes and the departure of various NPCs). That, more than anything, was what pulled at my heartstrings.
I talk about this more during my boss breakdown, but I had the most fun in one-on-one fights. To me, they feel the most fair, and what the game is best suited for (due to the lock-on system, the very deliberate pace of weapons and items, and the number of attacks / options available to even “standard” enemies). I know previous entries in the series have been derided for all the, “fights with big dudes in armor,” but to me, that sounds quite appealing.
After putting almost 100 hours into the game, I’ve realized that I like the exploration element of this game best. Seeing new places and monsters was always a highlight; the Inception-inspired landscape of the Ringed City DLC was particularly jaw-dropping. The in-depth, punishing combat mechanics were my second favorite, but I wouldn’t call it a close second. (Minor exploration spoiler: I love the verticality of the Ringed City maps. After avoiding that axis of play for the majority of my playthrough, it adds to the feeling of danger and perversion for the level design to be so vertical.)

Notes On DS3’s Bosses

I hope this goes without saying, but consider this a spoiler warning. If you want to know my final thoughts on the game, you can skip to the “Too Long, Didn’t Read (TL/DR)” section below.

Curse-Rotted Greatwood: This boss was annoying at first, but manageable once I figured out the trick (to focus on the pustules for big damage).
Crystal Sage: I wandered into the boss arena by accident and nearly beat this boss. I chumped the sage on the next attempt.
Abyss Watchers: They beat me so bad I had to take a break from the game. I really struggled to deal with multiple enemies at once. Beating them almost felt like a fluke.
Deacons of the Deep: This may also be a crowd-control boss, but each individual enemy is much weaker than any of the Abyss Walkers. Like the Crystal Sage, I dunked this guy on my second try.
High Lord Wolnir: This boss reminded me of the Curse-Rotted Greatwood in that once I knew the trick (to break his bracelets), he was pretty trivial. The only thing that killed me was a combination of his rush into the play space and his insta-kill gas.
Old Demon King: a bit annoying, but I eventually got through it. Given that there are two other potential demon encounters before the demon king, this boss battle felt a bit less special than some of the others on this list.
Pontiff Sulyvahn: With two summons to help with this boss, the Pontiff is pretty trivial. Taking this guy on one-on-one, though? That’d be an entirely different set of worms. (If I’m honest, I never even tried it one-on-one.)
Yhorm the Giant: Yhorm, like the Pontiff, was made trivial by the presence of Siegward. The fact that there’s a “giant-slaying sword” in the room (near Yhorm’s throne) doesn’t hurt, either. The two of us steamrolled this guy (and though my bravado may be misplaced, he seems much more manageable solo than the Pontiff, especially considering the Pontiff’s second phase).
Aldrich, Devourer of Gods: Fuck the arrows. Without those, the fight was actually quite straight-forward. It was also nice to have a “preview” of the fight with Anri.
Dancer of the Boreal Valley: this boss was SO. FUCKING. HARD. The dancer does ridiculous amounts of damage, and her “swishy sword move,” was so hard to dodge. Oof. She was definitely another “take a break,” boss, like the Abyss Watchers. I ultimately ended up beating her only after: 1) practice, 2) a bit of luck, and 3) being level 85.
Oceriros, The Cursed King: I was underwhelmed by this boss. I don’t know if something was up with the hit detection or I just got really lucky, but I beat him on the first try. There’s also hints of a deeper story here; in typical Dark Souls fashion, though, it is as opaque as ever. (As an aside it felt like this boss was supposed to pull at my heartstrings. Just like the game’s ending, however, I got the impression I was meant to be sad rather than becoming so.)
Dragonslayer Armor: another one-on-one with a big dude in armor. I don’t mind that kind of battle, though; it seems that is what Dark Souls is best suited for. In any case, I beat the guy in 3 or 4 tries, and enjoyed how spiky and “extra” the armor’s design was.
Ancient Wyvern: on one hand, this was a great set-piece battle. Fighting through waves of enemies while avoiding the dragon’s breath was fun, at least at first. Once the boss went down in a single hit (with the “plunging attack”), though, I was a lot less impressed. Seriously, I struggled more with the enemies leading up to the boss than the boss itself.
Champion’s Gravetender and Gravetender Greatwolf (DLC): These guys also went down on the first try. To be honest, the fact that I am really over-leveled probably has something to do with it. It’s a valid way to play, though, so I’m just rolling with it. Also, the fact that there’s another greatwolf to “practice” on near the entrance of the DLC didn’t hurt.
Sister Friede and Father Ariandel (DLC): Slave Knight Gael made this fight much more manageable. Personally, I have no shame in using summons and “cheese” tactics to beat bosses; if the developer didn’t want the player to use them, why include them in the game? I don’t mind a hard game (I’ve gotten this far, after all), I just don’t feel the need to prostrate myself on the altar of Dark Souls 3.
The Twin Princes, Lothric and Lorian: just like Friede, having a summon (Orbeck) made this fight so much more manageable. In fact, I was able to take down this boss on my first attempt … once I had help. Beyond that, wow, this guy does an ass-load of damage and the teleporting is just annoying. It kind of reminds me of Aldrich’s arrows, in that the boss would be much more manageable if they’d just cut it out.
The Soul of Cinder: what a wild ride. The switching between different offensive styles in phase one really helped the Soul feel like a culminating challenge. I also had to run this boss solo (given that the steps to have summons in this boss are quite convoluted), which added to the finality (and the challenge). Ultimately, three things helped me overcome this boss: 1) practice (duh), 2) lowering my equip ratio (I had been “fat rolling” the entire game and not realized it), and 3) a few +3 rings from the “Ringed City,” DLC.
Halflight, Spear of the Church (DLC): I found this boss kind of “meh,” and chumped him on the second try. Apparently the fight is a lot harder if you have to fight against a human opponent. This makes sense, but I didn’t have to worry about it.
Slave Knight Gael (DLC): This didn’t frustrate me as much as some of the previous bosses, but boy it took a lot of tries. With that said, it was thrilling every time, especially because Gael became more aggressive as his health bar is whittled down. I actually came within one hit of beating him twice in my (many) attempts before finally finishing the job; I can’t say that happened with any of the other bosses in the game. Ultimately, actually beating Gael left me with feelings of both satisfaction and melancholy. I was satisfied I had beaten the boss and melancholy because I was left to ask, “now what?” I guess there’s still the Nameless King and Darkeater Midir, but they’re both listed as among the hardest “Soulsborne” bosses, so … we’ll see.
What about The Nameless King and Darkeater Midir? I’ll give them both a go and report back if I have anything cogent to add. I am expecting them both to be tough as nails. The Nameless King was consistently rated as the hardest Dark Souls boss before Elden Ring released, after all; Midir was regularly in the top three. Yikes. Ultimately, given that I’ve exhausted all my exploration options (a.k.a. what I love most about these games), I don’t feel the need to beat these bosses.

TL/DR, PLZ:

There is definitely a learning curve to this game; to succeed you need to play the game on it’s terms. That doesn’t mean there’s no flexibility in how you play. There are a myriad of offensive options (melee, ranged, magic, etc) available to the player, and combat is what the game was designed around. Really, what the game asks for is the player’s time and attention. It’ll take dedication to master DS3’s deliberate combat and to understand how the world of Dark Souls operates. “Souls” games have a reputation for being hard, and I think that reputation is well-earned. With that being said, I also think anyone with the time, patience, and willingness to learn (and/or cheese) can beat this game. Not only that, but I believe that those who do will make gaming memories to last a lifetime.

Check it out here.