appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

The Washington Post

Dark Souls III
From Software
3.5/5 stars
Demon’s Souls was quite the anomaly when it came out. At a time when games were becoming more streamlined, it jettisoned such niceties as a pause button and grew harder the more you died. Furthermore, certain actions, never explicitly disclosed to the player, could shift the world between different “tendencies” altering the game’s possibilities. Without the extensive consultation of an online wiki, much of the game’s depths would be lost on all but the most zealous of players. It made most other role-playing games (RPGs) and action titles seem trite by comparison.


But what was once disarmingly new is now a known entity. 2011’s Dark Souls trimmed some of Demon’s Souls more esoteric elements – its world tendencies and its escalating difficulty tied to failure – while expanding the game’s scope and seamlessly unifying its environments. The game won rapturous praise for its world design and raised the fortunes of its director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, who went on to become president of From Software in 2014. Miyazaki relinquished his directorial role for Dark Souls II (2014), which received favourable reviews when it came out but has since been relegated to the least appreciated game in the canon. Miyazaki’s latest directorial effort, Dark Souls III, comes just one year after he shepherded the development of the Souls offshoot Bloodborne.

For a series that’s always cloaked itself in mystery, Dark Souls III comes with the weight of overexposure. Nowadays, the Souls series is milked for buzzwords and knock-offs. For example, last month the gaming world was atwitter over Salt and Sanctuary, a 2D-style version of a Souls game which aspired to be simply that. As for the series’ vaunted difficulty level, within two weeks of the release in Japan of Dark Souls III, a speed runner finished the game in less than two hours.
Souls games have always encouraged multiple play-throughs via their New Game+ feature, which allows a player to carry over his souped-up avatar from one game to another while at the same time increasing the difficulty of enemies and upping the value of the rewards. Forcing oneself to get better is the gift it gives to the player. Anyone who has weathered one of these long games will have a range of useful strategies committed to muscle memory. Over time, playing these games can move from being an exercise in masochism to a quasi-meditative practice.
One of the more interesting aspects of Dark Souls III (available for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) is how it toys with a Souls veteran’s vanity. After I felled the game’s first two bosses without much ado, I grew fairly complacent in my ability to read an opponent’s move sets and anticipate things like an ambush. Since Souls games are notorious for throwing players into the deep end early on, I imagined that I knew the ropes. My self-assurance was dashed after I encountered the Abyss Watchers, a boss fight that got me with the classic Soul trick of reanimating a vanquished foe into an exponentially more powerful enemy. I lost a day to that fight.

As it happens, Dark Souls III contains some of my favourite boss fights in the series. The Deacons of the Deep sees the player face off against an ecclesiastical order of skeletons arrayed in different vestments. The trick in the fight is to spot, amongst the rabble, a group of fiery-eyed skeletons that are vulnerable to attack. Kill them and a mist will rise up and descend on another group, imbuing them with a similar unholy light. The lapsed Catholic in me delighted in slaying those desiccated elders caught by the spirit.
At moments such as these, or when I turned a blind corner in an underground area to see a city that looked like a fairy-tale rendition of St Petersburg, I was reminded of the series’ ability to surprise, which was a good thing because many of the environments are reinterpretations of the stages of past games. While I didn’t mind seeing how Irithyll Dungeon recalls the Tower of Latria from Demon’s Souls, I couldn’t repress the idea that nostalgia has crept into the series – indeed, isn’t that what fan service is all about?
With its handsomely crafted labyrinths and rigorously paced combat, Dark Souls III hits all the notes that aficionados have come to expect. Still, I hope Miyazaki’s next creation finds a new way to cut against the grain.
The Washington Post


Game review: Dark Souls III hits all the notes Souls fans expect, but surprises too 

A still from Dark Souls III.

This handout image shows a stills from the game ' Dark Souls 3 '. PHOTO / HANDOUT [APRIL2016 THE REVIEW GAMING REVIEW ONLINE]

Culture

Lifestyle

Arts

Latest instalment in franchise lulls the Souls veteran into complacency with its mix of the nostalgically familiar and the new


Game review: Dark Souls III hits all the notes Souls fans expect, but surprises too

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Latest instalment in franchise lulls the Souls veteran into complacency with its mix of the nostalgically familiar and the new

Latest instalment in franchise lulls the Souls veteran into complacency with its mix of the nostalgically familiar and the new