Dark Souls III (and DLC): A Trial to Draw Out Your True Strength

I hope you're comfortable with feeling like you were too late to save anyone, because that's literally who you are in this. The feeling doesn't hurt any less as the game goes on.

I finally sat down to play Dark Souls III again over my spring break, expecting my run to end in much the same way of my other attempts to play the series, but then the unexpected happened: I managed to complete it.  I didn't just complete the game, I also beat both of the DLC adventures (Ashes of Ariendel and The Ringed City) and actually had a good deal of fun while doing so.  I could not believe that after so many failed attempts and curses that I'd someday manage to beat it, but I suppose dreams and persistence pays off.  It was a truly unique experience for me, not just due to the intense satisfaction of surmounting such an obstacle, but also due to a genuinely compelling story, full of meaning and significance.  In hindsight if I had known that I'd finish a Dark Souls game in three days I'd have started with the first, but here I am, starting with the final journey first.  Dark Souls III at the end of the day is really everything a third and final outing should be, taking lessons learned from the first and second entries alongside the expected advances in order to send the franchise off with a strong note.

If you can't go through it and you can't go under and you can't knock it down, you should have used magic

To use a tired phrase, Dark Souls III, like other Souls titles, are not like other games, and while this is true about the difficulty, it also expands to both the story and narrative.  To now use a tired phrase of mine in reviews, the delivery of Dark Souls III's story is unlike other games I've played before.  Where others tell you a story, Dark Souls III puts the discovery of the story in your hands.  The only story you're forced to witness is the introductory cinematic, which reveals that you're "an accursed undead, unfit to even be cinder", and as the First Flame is fading and the situation is increasingly dire, is quite an insulting introduction of who you are.  Other than that aggressive introduction, it's up to you to piece together the story of Dark Souls III yourself through character dialogue, environments, enemies, and item descriptions.  It's actually not as arduous as it sounds, though it can be a tad underwhelming at the start if you're expecting a traditional method of story delivery.  In this aspect Dark Souls III shows unusual restraint, but after the start it's all in your hands.  The story "evolves" in a combination of two ways, the first is by progressing through the areas and overcoming the various bosses.  The second is by meeting with other characters on your lonely journey, either helping them or simply engaging with them in conversation.  Talking with or helping NPCs is by no means required (and their stories are very easily unresolved due to a lack of indication), but it can lead to quite a few rewards in the form of help, items, or the satisfaction of helping someone.  Quests are a tad more difficult and exacting than I'd like however, and you have to time things and visit people in the right order almost perfectly in order to complete every story (not counting the mutually exclusive ones).  It could have been done better, since these are genuinely interesting characters that make up the final surviving sane undead, but at the same time you could very well go through the game's story without meeting one.

Gael may have a screw loose, but at this point who doesn't?

However, the impact of the story is an entirely different beast than the plot of Dark Souls III itself, and man is it a rollercoaster of mixed emotions.  The tone is unwaveringly bleak, which is I suppose the only realistic tone for a game taking place literally after the apocalypse, when even the gods are little but husks and only ashen ones (undead humans who failed to link the fire, i.e. continue it) remain.  This isn't even supposed to be your task, the only reason it is because the lords who were supposed to shirked and forsook their duty.  Hell, practically every major figure in the game is guilty of doing this, and so it's up to you and the others you meet along the way to force your betters to do what they were supposed to do in the first place.  The only figure you meet who is unquestioningly innocent of this sin is the slave knight Gael, whom you encounter and aids you throughout the DLC.  His resolution is incomparable to any other character, even yourself.  He believes in his mission so much that he's able to live until the world is choked by ash just so that a new one can be made.  It's both inspiring and heartbreaking to see the extent of his commitment and desperation to build a new world, and what's worse is that he's missed after his death.  Your fellow ashen ones are definitely not altogether united in this goal either, with some seeking the opposite of what you intend, while others (like Patches) are indifferent.  Yet still some, like Sigmeyer, Greirat, and Anri, still stand for the goodness in people.  Even though no heart beats in them, they still show the enduring kindness and strength of people, even in the darkest times.  Signs of inner strength in dark times also permeate the game, with the most memorable (for me at least) being the description of the curse-ward greatshield:

"Greatshield given to those who resisted the curse [of undeath] long ago.

Far too heavy for an ordinary person, perhaps it signifies the foolishness of resisting the curse.

And yet, those who bear the weight of this shield will not find its protections against curses wanting."

It's an oddly comforting thing to see not only these memories of past triumphs, but also reminders that the heroes and saviors of eons ago achieved victory through the same qualities that will eventually lead you to victory in the present.  Speaking of dark times, there's not really any hope left in the world of Dark Souls III, for the fire has been forced to go on for so long that it's little but cinders, and the world reflects this.  There's only despair, exhaustion, and abandonment shown throughout, and even the prospect of continuing in this doomed world that your character has reawakened into seems like a no-win situation.  The endings (of which there are four) are of a similar vein, though what it all ultimately means is up to the player's interpretation.  I got a truly soul-sucking ending, where I allowed the flame to go out.  I ultimately stole the remnants from the one who would cherish the dying thing because for a being who could never possess fire, I could ensure that I can at least take the one fire that cannot be denied to me.  We all wish for what we cannot have (how absolutely creative of me I know).  You just have to find your own meaning to it, whether it be hopeful or hopeless, and that's essentially true to life, no matter if your journey is beginning or ending.  To me at least, the story of Dark Souls III is about the inevitability of the end and its unknowability, yet how our choices and impact last beyond us whether they be selfish or selfless, merciless or merciful.  It's about responsibility and how avoiding it can have disastrous consequences, and can make the responsibilities of others all the more difficult.  Finally, it's about how the sun, must eventually set, and though the dark is frightening, light will return again in time.

There's quite a strong presence of chivalric to be found throughout the game, but where they are normally comforting, here they're unsettling. Yes, that is a statue of a knight slitting his throat.

The gameplay of Dark Souls III is best described as some sort of action-adventure with an emphasis on exploration and learning.  True to the reputation, it's a hard game, being quite old-school in the single difficulty setting available.  However, the difficulty isn't just tough and dangerous enemies combined with ambushes and other dangerous situations, it's also in how the game is designed.  Apart from rewards for multiplayer, there's only a single currency: the souls of your defeated enemies.  There's ways to get large amounts at once without doing combat, but for all intents and purposes you'll be hacking your way to each level.  Souls also act as experience, and they all drop on player death, giving you a single chance to retrieve them before being lost forever.  It's definitely a hard lesson to learn, but it's a fantastic incentive to get better.  Speaking of getting better, despite there being a quite frankly overwhelming leveling system, it's both remarkably simple (with some time to get used to it) and far less important that you would think.  Yes, it affects your character's various faculties in numerous ways, but it pales next to your own experience as you progress through the levels, learning what enemies are weak to what, how they attack, how to skip portions of the level while on the way to the boss.  In my opinion it's partially this that makes Dark Souls III one of the best self-improvement exercises out there.  As long as you focus on doing just a bit better each time, the game is actually pretty fun and immensely satisfying.  There's something incredibly fulfilling with the basic knowledge that for your current character there's nothing they can't overcome with persistence (especially matched with demonstrated success), and I guess that's the meta message of the gameplay.  When I mentioned exploration earlier, it's not just limited to the traditional idea of traversing environments, but also to exploring the game's systems themselves.  There's admittedly very little explanation regarding how things work in Dark Souls III's systems, with the tutorial only teaching you the basics of movement, combat, and some of the most basic systems like bonfires, healing items, and leveling.  Unlocking more toys and people to talk to is done through finding items in each level, talking and helping people, or by doing their quests.  This sounds like these very helpful things would be very easy to miss and you would be right, however, you have others helping you on your lonely journey.  By leaving messages and summon signs, you and other players are able to guide each other to secrets, shortcuts, and safety (optimally).  Simply having another person fighting a boss with you suddenly evens the balance, and having two quickly flips the score.  In a moment you (alongside your allies) are the ones on the offensive, and barring screw-ups victory is easily within your grasp.  It's one of the more overtly enjoyable ways to play through the game, and to anyone who's intimidated by the (honestly over-mentioned) difficulty I'd strongly recommend playing through it with a friend.  A final note on the gameplay though, for the love of god, play this with an Xbox or Playstation game controller.  Playing with a mouse and keyboard (or god forbid a potato) is possible, but I cannot discourage it enough.

"Eat fire you goddamn animals" was a familiar refrain throughout my playthrough as I found my way into deeper and darker places.

In terms of presentation Dark Souls III offers few things more in spades than Gothic, Anime, and Lovecraftian motifs.  The several locations look pulled straight from Europe, except in an exaggerated and scaled-up format with little regards to making logical sense.  This contributes to the by and large storybook/dreamlike atmosphere that permeates nearly every location.  In short, they feel like you stepped into a childhood story of knights faithfully guarding a snowy church, except the knights want to kill you.  Irithyll of the Boreal Valley was probably my favorite location. Yes, it's cold and dark, but think of how cozy it would be as a place to celebrate Christmas?  The boss music (essentially the only music in the game) also inflates the gothic atmosphere, with The Abyss Watchers being an excellent example.  If you like anime fights with giant dudes and monsters, you'll love pretty much every enemy in this game, especially the bosses, all of which are visually distinct and easily memorable.  There's also a lot of fucking weird creatures and things to see here, which are unfailingly unsettling.  Armor definitely makes a noticeable difference in combat, but you can easily make your character look the way you'd like with the large amount of armor in the game.  Particle effects and animations are quite impressive, especially compared to Dark Souls.  Throwing a fireball that looked like a sun as if it were a frisbee into enemies' faces never got old.  If you're a fan of cinder effects then this game is for you.  Voice acting is also really good, especially given how much personality they give to otherwise quite unexpressive models.  They also manage to be very enjoyable to talk to despite laughing ominously at the end of each conversation (my absolute favorite thing about them, I mean if you can't find some dry humor in the end times then why bother?).  I mean it's a difficult game that also is quite attractive in terms of sound and setting, what more can I say?

The vistas of Dark Souls III are generally some of the prettiest things to see in-game, and it's even better because there's a 90% chance you'll visit whatever you see at some point.

I used to think that Dark Souls III wasn't really for me, because while I loved everything about the game, the difficulty chased me away for the longest time, but now that I've completed it's probably the aspect that I would recommend most to people.  It's an object lesson in the concepts of pereverence and acceptance that is undeniably unique and impossible to mistake.  When the going got rough, gritting my teeth helped a bit, but accepting that I was still learning even at the twenty hour mark was what really stuck.  As you can see, it made a huge impact on me, and even besides that, it's very much a quality game that lacks in really no meaningful area (except for quests being unclear).  This is another strong recommendation from me, and Dark Souls III is a great way to learn valuable life lessons on top of the satisfaction of surmounting the insurmountable.

Taking this item seems like an absolutely great idea.

Next up is a movie that I regret watching for the sake of preserving my brother's and my mental stability, it's Babe Pig in the City.  Hooray.