Dark Souls III is the best From game.
Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk, and….
I’m just kidding. I don’t think it’s the best FromSoft game, I don’t think it’s even the second-best From game. It’s my favorite, though, which is vastly different. Elden Ring is second by a hair, and I don’t thnk that’s the best From game, either. I will say that I think it’s innovative and will redefine a genre (open world games) in a way DS III isn’t and won’t, but again, I’m talking favorites here.
It’s funny. Last night in Ian’s chat (he was playing Mon Hun Rise by CAPCOM), I mentioned that I tapped out at Iceborne, the DLC for MHW. I said that it was above my paygrade, meaning it was too hard for me. The person in the chat said that he thought MHW was too easy and Iceborne is when he really got interested. He (I’m assuming he, and I would bet money on it) said that I was the only person he knew who did not like Iceborne. Or maybe he meant Ian because Ian voiced similar feelings.
In the same chat, he said that he never finished Elden Ring because he was a squishy mage and everyone was mean to him. WHat I did not say, but could have, was exactly what he said to me. That I did not know anyone who could not finish Elden Ring (though it would not be true) and that it was easy compared to, say the DLC of DS III. I wouldn’t, of course, because that would be rude, But he thought nothing of laughing at me and saying he didn’t know anyone who didn’t like Iceborne.
I wasn’t mad at him, mind. I just marveled at how insular his thinking was. again, I know it’s human nature to use yourself as the metric of normality, but most people can nominally understand that other people may not feel theh same way they do. I will say, though, that the more you hew to the ‘norm’ (white cis het middle-class man), the less you have to think about how other people view things.
I will say it was really cool how everyone in Ian’s chat mained a different weapon. I use the swax, though I do not love it in MHR. I loved it in MHW, but it’s different in this game. Ian uses the bugstick, but he is not happy with it. Again, he used it in MHW and loved it. They always tweak the weapons in the new game so they never feel the same, though. There was someone who used a bow; someone who used the hammer, and Ian’s brother who mained the longsword, but used several weapons.
In MHW, I mained the swax with the charge blade as my backup. The insect glaive was my third. I do not like any of them in MHR. I tried all the weapons, as is my wont. I like the actual monster hunting better in Rise because it’s quicker and feels brisker. But I like most things better in World.
Anyway, Dark Souls III. Why is it my favorite when it’s not the best From game? Because. Good chat, good chat.
Seriously, though. Here’s the reason. It’s the Best of album by your favorite band, and that’s pretty fucking good. It’s not the best album by them. It’s not innovative (that would be the debut album) and it’s not a huge disappointment (the sophomore effort). It’s the band getting back together and doing a reunion tour. Mixing in the best of the old with a soupcon of new.
It smoothed off the rough edges and improved on several things that were janky before (fast travel being seamless, collecting Estus Shards, streangthening the Estus Flask with Undead Bone Shards made easier) while cutting out some of the faff. Yet, it kept some of the idiosyncrasies that made it unique, such as the bad platforming and the dificult bosses. It returned some of the favorite aspects that were missing from the sequel, such as the intricate layouts of the levels.
It’s meaty. You can sink your teeth into it and find the optional areas that are easy to miss. There is one especially that is so elaborate to find, I can’t believe people found it without a guide. You have to go to an optional area and kill an optional boss. Then, you have to pick up a gesture with an esoteric name. Then you have to go to a different area where there are dragons lying about the place. Oh, the gesture is called Path of the Dragon, by the way. So you go to this other place with dragons looking far off and use the gesture. Fro many seconds. Then, you are taken to the optional area called Archdragon Peak. Which, as you may guess, is all about the dragons. This is where the hardest boss in the vanilla game is located. The Nameless King. That is a hallmark of From games, too, by the way. Making the hardest boss of the game optional.
Dark Souls: Black Dragon Kalameet.
Dark Souls II: This one isn’t as clear-cut, but there’s the Smelter Demon. In hte DLC, there’s Sir Alonne. I’m not counting the gank run bosses.
Dark Souls III: Nameless King.
Bloodborne: Laurence. Ok, he’s not the hardest, but he’s pretty dang hard.
Sekiro: Demon of Hatred. For me, it’s Owl (Father), and he is only needed for one ending.
Elden Ring: Malenia.
Anyway. Dark Souls III is the prettiest of the trilogy and it runs the best. It takes all the best ideas of the previous games and incorporates them seamlessly. Yes, it still has poison swamps (which Miyazaki has said that he can’t stop desiging), and, yes, there is still shitty platforming, and, yes, there is the irritating thing when bosses have one last pixel of health left before killing you because you got greedy. But, in a weird way, that is all part of the charm. It’s what makes the games the way they are.
One thing I appreciate about Elden Ring is that they made so many little QOL changes that really didn’t get much pub. They include the map, well, that got talked about quite a bit, not needing to level up Attunement to get more spell slots, getting flasks back when you kill a whole mob, and the Stakes of Marika that pretty much eliminated boss runs–but at the cost of not being able to change your loadout.
I know that many people were upset about the addition of Spirit Summons because it made it much harder to truly solo bosses. I would argue, though, that From has the right to do something different with this game. Yes, the whole soloing bosses schtick has become a thing with the games, but that doesn’t mean that FromSoft needs to be beholden to that mentality.
It’s hard. They want to make a game that their fans will love, obviously, but they also want the game to appeal to the masses as well. Plus, they don’t want to stagnate. It would not do to have their game in 2022 be the same as it was in 2011. It’s over a decade since their first big game, so why the hell would it be exactly the same?
Here’s the thing. No one is owed a game to be exactly as they want it. The fact that so many people like to solo the Soulsborne games does not mean FromSoft is obligated to make the games solo-able. I love the Spirit Summons, and I’m glad they were added.