Yes, I’m doing one more post about my favorite Dark Souls game–the third one. Third Dark Souls, I mean. This is the millionth post I’ve written on the subject. Here’s the lastest post I wrote on it (from yesterday).
Many people thought the third game was not as hard as the first one. I would disagree. While, yes, the mechanics were similar so combat was very familiar, the bosess were so much harder in general. In the first game, I can now get almost all the base game bosses on my own in less than five tries each. Many times, it’s just one try. That’s not the case in Dark Souls III. When I play the third game, I always summon now. The few times I couldn’t summon a human, it was sad times. This was in the second DLC, by the way. The last boss in that DLC. Man. So bad and terrible. I don’t mean terrible as in a terrible boss, but so fucking hard. One of the hardest bosses in the series. I could not find a human to summon, so I did the poison cheese. It took forever, but it worked.
Here’s the thing. I don’t play these games for the difficulty–I truly do not. They are secondary to why I play them–indeed, they often get in my way. I know many people who love that about the games, but it’s a cross for me to bear to get to the good stuff.
Yes, I did solo the bosses when I first started playing. I felt I had to do it because that’s what ‘the community’ told me. Even when people stressed that it was not necessary, there was still an undercurrent of “but you’re a pussy if you don’t.”.
This is one of my least-favorite parts about the community, by the way. How toxic masculinity seeps through every pore. All the ways you’re “not a real gamer” if you don’t do this, that, or the other thing. No matter how much I roll my eyes at the notion, it’s hard not to let it get under my skin.
This game looks great. There aren’t as many shortcuts as there were in the first game beacuse you can fast-travel from the beginning, but the ones that are there are terrific. It definitely has Miyazaki’s handprint everywhere. In the Cathedral of the Deep, there are two doors you can unlock–and you can also go up to go yet another way. That was a very elegant design.
You really can tell when Miyazaki does the design and when he doesn’t. As much as I defind the second game, I have to admit the level design is not as elegant as the other two games. I didn’t find it as egregious as other people did, but it definitely isn’t as intricate as the first or third game are.
I am solidly in the camp of this is the most polished of the Souls games (and I’m speaking strictly of the trilogy). It’s the greatest hits, and while it wasn’t the most innovative of the trio, it still did bring a few new things to the table. I mentioned some of them in the last post, and while they may seem like little things, they really made a difference. The new Ashen Flask was such a game-changer. And the weapon arts/skills were interesting, even though I didn’t use them. The graphics were very polished, and there was plenty to see and do.
It was funny. A content creator I watched periodically (who did FromSoft content) was really down on the game. She said she finished it in thirty hours or so, and she was adamant she explored everything. I knew she was incorrect about that because even if you one-shot all the bosses (which I doubted she did), you cannot do all the content in thirty hours. You just cannot. Unless you run by everything, which most people don’t do on a first playthrough. There are several optional areas that are easy to miss, and I only found them through the forums. My first playthrough of the base game was seventy-five hours or so, I think. And I was pretty thorough about exploring.
I will say that it always take me longer to play these games than most people, so I take that into account. Still. I would say fifty hours for the base game is probably what most people took on it. And I think that is a fine amount of hours
Side note: I am not a person who cares about hours played, but you have to admit that FromSoft games give you so much bang for your buck. Me, especially, but everyone in general. Also, you cannot trust FromSoft when they tell you how long a game is going to be. They said that the main story of Elden Ring would take thirty hours. That’s such a laugh. I mean, yes, once you’ve played the game, you can beeline through the main story very quickly. I did it in a dozen hours, and I know people who did it in less than two (to get the third ending for the plat). But the first time around? Hell, no. I put over two-hundred hours into my first playthrough, and I think I have past a thousand hours in total. So, yeah. I get my money’s worth from every FromSoft game that I can actually play.
Even Sekiro, the one I’ve played the least, I’ve put in over a hundred-and-fifty hours.
Shadow of the Erdtree–Miyazaki said it was roughly the size of Limgrave. Uh, yeah, if you don’t count the depths of the DLC. There are so many layers to it. Almost every content creator mentioned verticality without a shred of irony. It took me roughly fifty hours to finish, and I missed a few things. It cost thirty bucks, but it was well-worth it. I still play it on the daily, and it gives me just as much joy now as it did when it first came out.
Back to Dark Souls III. I have played it a few timse since Elden Ring came out, and it still holds up. I still enjoy it as much as I did before Elden Ring came out. In fact, maybe I’ll play it yet again. I always have at least one From game on the go. Currently, I would put it at number two, juuuuust behind Elden Ring. But, as I’ve said before, that could change at any moment.