If we are to believe the words of Hidetaka Miyazaki, producer of From Software, Dark Souls III is the conclusion to the cycle that began in 2009 with the release ofDemon’s Souls, a masterpiece that changed the genre dungeon dimensional crawler and put it back to games high difficulty in the first row of gaming. Is Dark Souls III the conclusion that deserves a saga that has given us true modern classics? In many ways yes. The game remains at the height level design, enemies and the visuals and sound, as well as presenting improvements welcome your gaming system, but is not without its weaknesses and its duration, bosses with little life, a lore a bit dull and constant framerate drops across all platforms.
Dark Souls III takes place in the same world as its strict predecessors (the first and second games, excluding Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne),but in a different realm, in this case, Lothric. It is a place with many affinities with the Lordran of Dark Souls, but seems to occur either after thousands of years or thousands of kilometers away. Lorthric is the land of the lords of the ashes, who managed to extend the life of the first flame. This has obvious affinities with the theme of the first Souls. You belong to unkindled, the no-fire, and your awakening occurs in a world that is almost extinct in the last breath of life. The way this is reflected in the game is the constant ash that covers the world: your own character burns very slowly, dropping a few embers from time to time as you slowly filled with soot. Your destiny is to seek out the lords of the first call and end their lives to give up their souls: what will be the future of this world declining? Will know the purpose of your trip.
As for its broader aspects, Dark Souls III differs very little from their counterparts. It is a crawler dungeon high difficulty in which you explore a closed but non-linear world, challenging a number of tough bosses and ruthless scenarios that do not care about the narcissism of contemporary gamer who wants to applaud and give rewards all the time . Here it is: turn thee better or dies, and fortunately the saga has never left this aspect aside. Like its predecessors, the game features a class system that lets you build your character to specialize in physical damage, skill or magic; various stats allow you to customize your character and turn it into warrior, mage, Pyromancer or remain a savage with a club (deprived); weapons and items help build characters completely different dynamics. However, there are some innovations. The main thing is that each weapon has a knack own activated with a button. For example, the club has the WarCry, with which temporarily increases your attack; the uchigatana has a deadly blow samurai, weapons like whips and swords have multiple punches that can kill several enemies at once, etc. Each time you activate this ability FP will spend a system similar to mana spent with skills and spells, and can be recharged with a new type of bottle Estus, the ashen Estus. This is more intuitive than it sounds, and allows us to make interesting changes to our game and expand our capabilities attack and defense.
As for the level design, Dark Souls III follows the tradition of the franchise but is a bit more direct than his predecessors. You will not see as troll as Blightown or The Gutter areas, and the distance between fires is much more bearable than in, say, Bloodborne or expansions Dark Souls II. However, even more direct, the game is not casual as normal enemies and encounters are concerned, and in fact this is perhaps the hardest part of the game. There are many rare and difficult, besides the unique encounters with a rival that can lower your life with a single sequence enemies. The game definitely offers something to veterans, but it is, in a way that is difficult to explain, more accessible. Perhaps it has to do with the pool of health of enemies in general: are rare enemies do not die of a complete sequence of your bar stamina, even the toughest enemies are not eternal as certain troll characters from other games, as AI-controlled invaders. In any case, the game is as challenging as ever … except for the bosses.
The heads of Dark Souls III are certainly well designed. Do considerable damage, they are difficult movements to predict. They are stunning. But God, they lack life to your energy bars. Almost all have two phases: the first do their normal attacks, and the second, usually to reach half of his life, suffering a dramatic transformation. A warrior is devoured by a mass of twisted darkness; a giant tree stands up; a magician multiplies its illusions; mighty dragons take flight. But what constantly saw is that could kill them in say 5, 6, maybe 10 attempts at most, rather than the centuries that one can take to kill the knight oven Crown of the Iron King or classical Ornstein and Smough of Dark Souls. The reason is that the leaders now have far less life and are much more focused. This is good in general, because the battles are less tired, but a veteran feel to the game, though not easy, nor is the desperate challenge the addict to these games need. In short: difficult scenarios, not so difficult bosses.
Become better or die
As the flow of combat, Dark Souls III is an intermediate point between Bloodborne speed and strength of the Souls saga. Your character can be as slow as you want, but many enemies simply not going to wait. Even some leaders, like Mr. Ice, is a beast like what you might find in the last installment of From Software, with lightning fast movements. Many bosses and enemies have complex sequences of fast attack that can only be overcome with great speed and reflexes: this is positive, gives a pacing himself to the game but you can tackle it with many different builds (unlike Bloodborne, which will It lacking much in the RPG aspect). In short: From Software has sought to integrate everything you’ve learned in this game and has done so for the most successful part.
As for visual and stage design, Dark Souls III is also quite close to Bloodborne, at least for its graphics engine and visual effects. Abound multiple light sources, the scenes with candles, beasts consumed by darkness with zombies, etc. However, the tone of the Souls series is present, and crafting elements have disappeared in favor of Dark Fantasy. The more typical and original design element in this game is, however, the spectacular scenery. The environments are much more open (in size, not in design philosophy) and the views are stunning. Huge cathedrals, infinite spaces, larger than life itself castles. The game looks pretty good and gives a sense of fantasy more complete than Dark Souls II and gray gloomy and claustrophobic dungeons. In this, the game also takes a step forward.
The environments are much more open
Where the game does not step forward it is on the technical side. I do not know if it is just to have the same engine asBloodborne, but the game has unexplained falls framerate on all platforms, including PC. According to information provided, the minimum is a GTX 465; It recommended a GTX 750; optimal, a GTX 950. I played in an old something GTX 660. The game runs at 60 frames (thank god this is not Bloodborne), but there are excessive unexplained framerate drops that occur if you play like Highest or Low, and I suspect have to do with problems with multiple lighting effects. These falls are annoying and not mitigated even if you change the specs as you like; They have been reported across all platforms and even by other reviewers with better equipment than mine, so I suspect that is a general problem of the game and its graphics engine. Probably my team is not so good, but neither saw Witcher 3 falls as pronounced; this graphic standard today being last, encounter these problems less acceptable performance.
Another problem with the game is the same as in Dark Souls II. The little personality of lore Bloodborne innovated with issues Lovecraft, while the original Dark Souls is a masterpiece of unconventional narrative. But here … there is very little to remember. Maybe it’s a little less heavy and gray Dark Souls II, but not much memorable, and ultimately no longer feel your trip means a lot. Moreover, the section that Dark Souls III highlights the content is less. The game is more direct, more linear and also has fewer areas and bosses. Of course, the areas are larger, but overall their bosses do not compete with after twenty forties Dark Souls II. It is relatively easy to soon finish the adventure, and more linear and less secret character is a bit disappointing.
For this writer, the Souls series has been a unique journey in the sea of contemporary gaming casual: after years of cinematic titles without challenge, a game dared to resume the formulas most ruthless dungeon crawling to bring players the mixture between frustration and desire to move forward that always characterized the classic gaming. I remember Demon’s Souls was a true urban legend, a game that made you a legend if you finished. I also remember how you got Dark Souls, and how he became the best title in the series, expanding its popularity and creating an unforgettable lore. Thereafter, the Souls saga reached the mainstream in a way, but the problem was that although much was done to expand and improve with Dark Souls II and Bloodborne, my feeling is that was never overcome Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls. Bloodborne was certainly the best bid in terms of originality and gameplay … Dark Souls II, despite his lack of charisma, has the honor of being the most difficult in the series and a worthy lore. Dark Souls III it is a little flying in the air in this regard. It has its improvements but also several errors and does not stand out too much in anything. Not that failures have too strong, in fact it is an attractive and very accessible game, but at the same time nothing in it is strong.
Demon’s Souls had the spirit, Dark Souls had the lore, Dark Souls II difficulty, Bloodborne combat … Dark Souls III is a bit of a mix of everything but a little less strong and powerful than their predecessors. It is a high quality game and a worthy end of trilogy and even pentalogy. But do not you feel bad that From Software stop, which is a bit sad. I feel like From Software should have other aims. The era of large linear adventures happened, and open worlds cry good mechanical and combat. It’s time to do something else. Dark Souls III is the end of an era but also the chance that the virtues that From Software has grown in the dungeon crawler from King’s Field ambitious transcend genres.