In this massive critique, I look into what makes Dark Souls 3 so great years after it's release. I love this game. Email: EndymionYT@hotmail.com Twitter: @EndymionYT Instagram: endymionn Twitch: / endymion_yt Patreon: / endymiontv
Thanks for watching everyone, this video was a lot of fun to make. Consider subscribing & share if you think the video is good enough for that. And let me know what else you want in this kind of format. Thanks! I'm gonna go back to grinding Sunlight Medals in Ds3 now. 🤘🏼
Fun fact: Pontiff Sulyvahn was originally supposed to be the final boss of DS3, going under the title "Old King of the Eclipse". This was back when DS3's story was more about the eclipse and the rise of darkness across the lands (i.e. the lords of cinder were instead dark lords).
You can defeat Yhorm without storm ruler I've done it. I don't disagree I actually agree with you it's why I fought him with Siegward I will say I'm pretty I was on NG+ depending on your build your 100% correct you'll need storm ruler just saying if in New game plus take Yhorm on
DS3 is probably my favorite although I'm not sure its the best & I think a lot of what they call fan fare a lot of it is tying up loose ends. I also love DS2 because of the build variety & uniqueness people just hate to hate on DS2 there is so much there. Dark Souls speaks for itself its probably the best game in the series but its not my favorite the 2nd half of Dark really suffers not the DLC the main game but it probably is the best. Dark Souls 3 is definitely my favorite now I love Demons Souls remake also. I just don't compare Elden Ring in a " its part of Souls " way compare it yes but like it's part of Souls no. Bloodborne & DS3 my 2 favorites. Sekiro stand alone I love Sekiro
About the consumed king's lore. He got obsessed with dragons and so tried recreating a cross breed. His first born was a failure which he held during the fight. As dragons are shown to have ability to go invisible previously in ds, that baby too was invisible in his hands. We could hear him cry during the fight. In the second phase, he gets into a fit of rage and smashes his baby to death and starts rampaging on us. So, sadly we won't be fighting that baby as you hoped so....
Nuclear take: the fan service isn’t that bad. DS3 was my first Souls game, so Anor Londo was just some cathedral on top of Irithyll. (Although I found myself going “oh hey! This is where I fought Aldrich” when I finally encountered Ornstein and Smough in DS1.) This is all in sharp contrast to Disney Star Wars where the fan service often chokes out the narrative like an invasive species.
I will say alot of the fan service is in the armor. Alot of armor sets you can buy are from past games which is really cool. They have different names but like the Wolf set is actually Artorioas's armor set and he was a boss in Dark Souls 1
@@deftestaphid2026 Yeah it’s so badass. I love that even the Faraam set from DS2 is here. I personally love the Firelink set, I wore it for basically my entire NG+ playthrough this time Ahhhh I love this game ❤️
It's still extremely present : Anor londo, Gwyndolin being a part of Aldritch with some similar attacks to the ds1 boss, Abyss watchers being a reference to Artorias, Oceiros being a reference to Seath, the crystal sages to Big Hat Logan, Soul of Cinder with his Gwyn phase and music, the various armors from the first game, the Nameless king sacrificing his mount like Smough with Orstein, the Smouldering Lake and Demon's ruins being levels from ds1, the painted world of Ariandel being another version of the maintes world of ariamis with even a fraction of the level in it, Friede being a lady with a scythe who tells you to leave her world, champion gravetender and his wolf being like Artorias and Sif, Gael having the same intro as Artorias. This is a bit too much for my liking, even though some of it I can understand.
@@lahunica2726 dark souls 3 was designed to be a sequal to ds1 from start to finish. What people call fan service is literally just a part of the world as the game shows you the legacy of all that happened from ds1 to this point. The abyss watchers are not ment to simply be a "hey remember artorias and sif? ", they're ment show what the lie of artorias led to a radical faction of fanboys that ended up succumbing to the same fate as him. They would look down on hawkwood for using a sheild, oblivious to the fact artorias also used a sheild. Their fighting style inspired from the wolf knight didn't know he only fought like that cause his other arm was broken leading him to fight off balance. Ds3 also doesn't do what Ds2 did and hint towards artorias being left handed because he wasn't, it was just a dumb theory from ds1 that ds2 wanted to fan service on. Anor Londo now shows how the gods have not only fallen but have been enslaved by the humans (pontiff sulyvhan). In a way to serve for their crimes against humanity but they are just as cruel if not more sick than the old gods. Demons, a kind that was hunted in ds1, now is all but extinct and weak as even the chaos flame fades, their bodies loose flame and their flesh hardens to stone. Walk through demon ruins to find nothing but the corpses of enemies u knew before but never get to actually fight them cause they are all dead now. Most things in ds3 was designed to give closure atleast thematically to things we've seen before. Nameless king killing his dragon like ornstein and smough is just good continuity. That's not to say there isn't any fan service in some areas like gaels cinematic.
In regards to DS3’s linearity, another content creator in their recent review of the game made the point that DS3’s linearity is a strength in that it allows for the balancing to be incredibly refined. I 100% agree, especially after experiencing all of the balance issues that came with Elden Ring.
I can't stand when people call basic game design elements like linearity a "flaw". It's like saying a painting is flawed because it features the color yellow.
@Amabile John agree 100% but unfortunately not everyone is so open-minded. If you go to the DS2 forum on Reddit, it’s literally just a giant DS3-hating circlejerk where people endlessly bash DS3 for the stupidest reasons and endlessly complain about others hating DS2, even though you almost NEVER see that anymore. And anyone trying to defend or say anything good at all about DS3 gets downvoted to hell. God forbid you express your own opinion and say it’s your favorite. It’s really so toxic and full of bandwagoners. On literally any other FS game sub, the people are actually talking about how much they like the respective game, open-mindedly discussing what their favorite area or bossfight is, sharing lore, asking for/giving advice, etc. It seems like DS3 has become the new scapegoat of the community, not because there was really anything wrong with it at all, but because people needed to redirect all the unnecessary hate somewhere else, I guess. It’s too bad people can’t just enjoy their games and let others do the same anymore.
The sad part of Gael is,he didnt eat the pigmy lords to survive,he wanted to make the dark soul liquid with his own blood,so that it can be used as proper pigment for his lady to paint a new world.And he guides you through the dreg heap to the city,so probably he wanted you to find him and kill him,so that a new world may be painted.He KNEW,he would lose everything,but he took this risk in favor of others.
Why didn’t he just let you kill him then? I don’t think he KNEW you would kill him. I think he knew that if HE won, he could take the blood of the Dark Soul to his niece. He probably also knew that you would likely do the same. Simply, he knew that only one of you two could survive, and that it probably didn’t matter either way, because the result would be the same. However to counter my own point and support yours, Gael could’ve known he was going mad, and that you were sane, and would be able to accomplish the task.
No, he didn't wanted you to kill him, his guidance trough the ringed city was to leave marks for other survivors at the end of the world, we met him in a distant future, where all kingdoms have already collide in the ringed city, because of Filianore's power we can visit this future when Gael past eras finding/eating the pygmies, he wanted to gather more of the dark soul (as an ashen one we do not have part of the dark soul, so, if Gael sense the dark soul in us, then this is solid prove that the dark lord ending is canon in the ringed city story line) and for that, he wanted to kill us.
@@naveenlata2103 which it's interesting because the part when he gained more conscious it's his second and third phase, he maybe didn't go hollow but perhaps, became one with the dark soul
@@narommalagonmorales2663 thats entirely possible since that's also when he starts using its power it could be a mix of gael going hollow and the dark souls taking him over to desperately try to defend itself from the ashen one
Right? So I don’t need to save scum to fight Gael again just let me fight him! I don’t care if I don’t get souls or items from repeating the fights I just wanna do it!
Imagine if in a hypothetical 4th dark souls they made a sort of Smash ultimate “everyone is here” boss rush mode where they included the bosses from the last 3 games. They’d probably have to remake some of them to work with the modern mechanics but that would be incredible
Fillanore sleeps and keeps the Ringed City in a bubble, time doesn’t move forward because of her sacrifice, when you wake her the spell breaks and the illusion is lifted. You end up at the very end of time when nothing remains but ash and the only two warriors left. Also Gael isn’t consuming people to survive. He’s consuming them to rebuild the dark soul. All humans have dark souls when the furtive pygmy split it with the entirety of humanity. However in the end of time all the remaining humans have become dry up corpses and Gael needs the dark soul for the power and pigment of the painters painting, which requires a more liquid substance not dried up ash. So being that he isn’t a rotting corpse he consumes everyone so that his blood is lush with the dark soul and in turn power just like we’ve been doing throughout our entire journey to become stronger. Gael is us. Except Gael knew what this would do to him that he would lose himself in the process, which is why he originally tasks us in the chapel to go to Ariandel, we are his insurance policy and the final step of his plan.
To further this concept, I believe that OUR firelink shrine is also at the end of time, and every time we leave it we're travelling back in time to the same time that the ringed city starts in. That's why we find Champion Gundyr and an abandoned firelink when we're there. I never hear anybody talk about this though.
@@DRickAnderson This is 100% the case. You can literally go back up into Lothric Castle using mods from the Cemetery of Ash, and everything will function. So the two areas are connected contrary to what many DS3 haters like to critique about it, they just forced you to warp between them to drive home the point that our Firelink is separate in time. And they proved that with the Untended Graves. Same place, different time.
Ds3 has always been my favorite The boss design is masterful, the theme songs are epic and beautiful, the difficulty is the most balanced and unlike the other games it doesn't falter at the end like dark souls or bloodborne or elden ring did but rather end on a really high not from it's second half with pontiff ending on the series's best with sister friede midir and gael
i wouldnt say elden ring or bloodborne end on low notes, Farum Azula is a great area and Nightmare of Mensis is quite decent, both also have a great lineup of endgame bosses.
I don't understand the hate for Elden Ring's endgame. Haligtree/Elphael and Farum Azula are great and the endgame bosses are the best bosses in the game. The only kinda lackluster part is Mountaintops/Snowfield but it's just meant to be a dead mountaintop anyway and aesthetically it's good enough so who cares. When people talk about how great DS3 was, what they really mean is 'DS3's DLC was great and also Irithyll and Lothric Castle'. We haven't even seen Elden Ring's DLC yet. DS3 base game the good bosses were Nameless King, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers, Twin Princes, Dancer, Champ Gundyr, Dragonslayer Armour, and Soul of Cinder. In Elden Ring the good bosses are Margit/Morgott, Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, Loretta, Rykard, Astel, Malenia, Mohg, Maliketh, Godfrey, Radagon/Elden Beast, Placidusax, and Fortissax. Much stronger lineup of bosses imo.
@@GuytFromWayBack I don't hate the endgame mainly because it has the best bosses in the game but the mountain tops which a pretty huge area the first half of hailgtree and mohgwyn palace are boring, the second half of hailgtree and farum are the only excellent section as far as areas are considered I'd say ds3 have slightly better main game bosses than elden ring, the presentation in elden ring is next level but things like the theme songs, fairness and originality I think ds3 got better, I would rather fight champion gundyr over Godfrey for example simply because he doesn't have a billion grab attacks and I can doge him after he input reads my healing with good enough timing while I can't with Godfrey
Correct in the ds3 concept art and game files the ulcerated tree spirit is just straight up there, it was reworked into the pus of man and the ai was imported into elden ring
@@whatthewhatthe9117 Right on. Looking back at the huge shadow, it is night and day. I wonder what's the lore around it if they managed to pull it off for DS3. Maybe part of the Undead Settlement and rotted Great Tree
This makes me think that Malenia in Elden Ring is like what Tomoe would have been had they done a Sekiro dlc. I mean waterfowl dance is literally the spiral cloud passage combat art and that combat art in lord was developed by Tomoe
@@brycekrispiez714 I swear I'm still not bitter at all about that. Totally not bitter that Dark Souls 2 got a literal dump truck of DLC, but Sekiro wins Game Of The Year and got none. Definitely not bitter.
So about the lightning in Gael's fight. I never really thought it was his. Notice how the lightning is blue, not yellow like the normal divine lightning we find in dark souls. I think this is supposed to represent the lack of divinity in the lands, no gods, so nature is no longer controlled by them, so I think the lightning is like an outside interference
yeah it's sort of like nature itself gathering at the end of the world to witness a climactic fight. kind of as if the stakes and power of you and gael created a storm
I feel like ds3 is a finale but also a love letter to fans. The fan service just feels like a performer at an air show, gratefully saying goodbye to a great audience
Agree. You even get some callbacks to classic from games. Like the moonlight sword with king's field(granted ya know it's in every game) and patches not only as a demon soul's callback but a callback to shadow tower abyss a game i feel directly inspired souls and bloodborne specifically with the character patches he isn't just an armored core character unnamed but still patches but in shadow tower abyss.
I loved DS3. Played it the first time right before Elden Ring and as fun as Elden Ring was for the first half I just had to think about DS3 all the time and how much more I enjoyed all the Bossfights, balancing and meaningful exploration. The linearity gave it a focus on great and interesting environments where you're out before it gets boring and repetitive. I still don't like the Quest System in DS though where it's extremely easy to miss stuff and ruin Questlines if you don't talk to all the NPC's every few hours.
Fun fact: Pontiff Sulyvahn was at first created to serve as the final boss (which became Soul of Cinder). Repurposed as the Pontiff they still gave him a central role in DS3, not only lorewise but also gameplay wise. Probably because he would have been (almost) completely developed when they decided to change things. He serves as a mid-game difficulty spike, being by far the hardest boss up to that point. Personally the Pontiff left much stronger of an impression on me than Aldrich, of whom he serves as a sort of gatekeeper. Which makes sense if you consider this. Maybe even more interesting is that he wasn't even the first "prototype" for the final boss which was developed enough to be repurposed in the game; the Fire Witches that appear in Irithyll before Pontiff Sulyvahn were actually an even earlier design for the final boss. If you pay close attention to their moveset you'll see that their animations are unusually smooth for a normal mob.
This video nails it. For a long time DS1 was my favorite game in the series, but I found myself replaying DS3 over and over again. The DLCs are incredible. The list of amazing bosses AND levels in this game is bonkers.
I adore Dark Souls 3. I went Demon's Souls, DS1, and DS3. I enjoyed both Demon's Souls and DS1 but it wasn't until DS3 that it clicked for me. This is my favorite game of all time.
With Yhorm I didn't loot Storm Ruler till I beat him the first time around, I also didn't get the onion knight to help (because I struggled with the fight and didnt't keep his quest until I died to Yhorm alot of times), as I got better through trail and error, I think I used the divine blessings eventually aswell as my estus and the stamina plant, I barely beat Yhorm after god knows how many attempts and it was probably my favourite fight. In my next play through I did it the easy way and it was cool seeing the onion knight and having storm ruler, but Yhorm just got bullied and the thrill was no where near as high as beating him the hard way!
I dunno, DS3's depiction of marriage seems pretty spot on to me. Also, seeing my favorite onion knight in jolly cooperation always makes me happy. Seriously, though, DS3 is a beautiful game. Some of my favorite bosses happen to be in DS3.
@@EndymionTv have extremely high standards for behavior. I took a while to propose because I wanted to make sure my wife was genuinely a good person and could think outside of herself. When dating: walk away if you see childish/selfish behavior. Sunk cost fallacy is our enemy : )
Dude, you're meant to fight Midir from the front and hit his head (it takes double damage, and like the King of Storms, it will eventually be knocked down for a riposte), not go under him and go for the tail. I mean, you can do it that way, but it doesn't seem particularly fun. Staying in front of him and dodging all his attacks, witnessing the spectacle in all its glory, and wailing on his head is pure ecstasy. And, no. Saying "it didn't seem worth it" is not a good excuse.
This guy doesn't even know how to fight curse rotted greatwood lmao what do you expect? Dude probably made this video right after his first playthrough.
@@GatsuRage Sure but if you're gonna make a video about it you should at least consider every posibility or else you're gonna sound either dumb or extremely biased.
the fact that you get to dark firelink shrine/champion gundyr from an area that ultimately connects to a lot of other places in the world implies to me that it's the real version, since you can only get to the normal firelink hub through teleportation (implying that one is the parallel universe)
Great video, and you’ve captured a lot of what makes DS3 my favourite video game ever. Just hit the spot on every level for me. Favourite boss by far was Gael… beating him for the first time was an incredible experience. Kinda wish I could erase the memory of it and have that experience for the first time all over again.
As much as I love Dark Souls, I kinda hope there won't be a Dark Souls 4. DS3 had the perfect ending. Especially with Soul of Cinder being the main game's last boss. It just fits as a goodbye to the series. Of couse Gael's ending is great too.
Yeah I would like Dark Souls to be done since DS3 was made to be the definitive ending both in story but especially thematically with all the callbacks and farewells. Would like From to do more with Elden Ring and non-Souls formula games like Sekiro.
Absolutely exceptional work here Endymion. This video is new to me, but it is wonderfully put together with succint and honestly the most on the money opinions of the game I have seen yet (at least in how I view the game). Gushing here, but wow what a fantastic video. Love it!
Agree - love this game so much! Also re: weapon durability, I believe it resets to full durability every time you rest at a bonfire. One time I did co-op for a few hours (getting summoned over and over without resting) and my weapon actually broke during a fight. I didn't know that could happen lol.
I would be the best one if diverse builds actually matters for PVE. Whats the point of using Havel´s armor and only getting like 15% damage reduction from a ligth armor. I just hated that since I enjoy finishing the game with every build possible such as cleric, dexterity, pyro, mage... bow only. DS3 is just soooo meta focused game.. and the it depends almost exclusively on rolling.
The upside is that almost all the weapons were really viable, whereas in DS1 for example some weren’t really worth using due to clunky movesets, like the axes for example handle much better in DS3 I think.
Dude, I literally discovered your channel yesterday because your video of Soul of Cinder showed up in my feed and after seeing that one and your review of DS2 I subscribed immediately, and coincidentally you upload a video today. I hope you keep growing and specially that you keeo talking about FromSoft games.
The best part is like you said all of us players didn’t want it to end even tho we knew it should and then fact the game would let you try to keep it going but it was futile cuz it was ending either way so it was perfect closure what a genius move Miyazaki is a master what a genius that guy is
The fan service in the game never really bothered me. While I did miss the interconnected level design in DS1 I also didn't dislike the game for being more linear and it definitely made the game feel better balanced in its difficulty, especially during boss fights. Also the bosses alone make this game my favorite in the trilogy because they're some of the best in the series. Replaying DS1 makes me realize the bosses in that game haven't aged as well apart from Ornstein and Smough and the dlc bosses.
One the best details of the Ringed City DLC is that the arena you fight the Demon Prince is the ruins of Firelink Shrine from DS1. The entrance to The Ringed City was below it all along.
Not all along. As the fire fades, the lands converge and collapse on themselves causing the geography to drastically change, so the ringed city is only below fire link shrine at that point in time. By that logic earthen peak would have always been right by fire link shrine then.
Amazing video man keep it up ; but i do have one question does the linearity for you personally affect the games rising quality throughout or should it have more pathways
Problem with Ds3 isn’t linear design. It’s the fact that you can run past everything in each “level” and you aren’t punished for it. There few spots where a level forces you to adjust (which is good), but most of the time you can hold forward and B/Circle and you’ll find yourself at the end of the game in no time. (2 - 3 hours) Honestly, the clunkiness of DS1 and DS2 are part of the challenge and dictate your strategy. DS3 gives so much power to the player in movement it makes things too easy. The enemies are not well balanced around how well the player can control their character. From Soft tried and their answer was a game centered around reaction rather than strategy. And that’s not fun. You can prove it to yourself as well. Play Ds1 and play through undead burg until you get to undead parish. Then play Ds3 and play to Vordt. I guarantee you’ll see what I’m talking about. You will be strategizing more in DS1 than you will be in DS3. Play catacombs in Ds1 then play Catacombs in Ds3. Again, the evidence to my point is all there. Perhaps I should make a video explaining this.
I loved elden ring but it is daunting to build a new caracter from scartch. The game is so big that you need a guide to get the specific items for a specific build. i just found myself replaying Ds3 making 3 new caracters , a faith/strengh, a Int and and Pyro build without any guide, just by exploring, in a not boring way, all the corners. And now i feel more compeled to start in new caracter in ds1 or 3 then in elden ring
@@EndymionTv it’s amazing how a little bit of rng could change that fight. I watched a first playthrough and the person didn’t grab the storm ruler until after and the bumbling sir onion basically solo’d yhorm for them. A true warrior right there
It was my first souls game technically. I bought it off the heels of playing Bloodborne for the first time. So there was no fan service for me. I immediately liked it more than BB. The slower pace and ability to use shields was really nice. And it felt way more refined than DS1 in all ways except map design. I have more hours in DS3 than any other From game and I've played them all now.
I had finished 1 and 2 multiple times before 3 and I didn't really have an issues with fanservice. DS3 did fanservice right, it didn't rely on it but instead included to enhance the experience. Seeing Anor Londo again and fighting Soul of Cinder are some of the most memorable moments in gaming for me. Being able to use armour and weapons of characters from past games was amazing too since Artorias is my favourite Souls character.
Dark soul 3 was my entry into the series, it was amazing! I have played all of the Fromsoft games since then. Such great worlds and games, I can’t wait to see what they do next.
The fan service imo actually makes a lot of sense when you look at what the point of the story of DS3 was: to end the cycle. What going back to those places taught us was that this has all happened before, every single thing we did as the chosen undead did not matter. Everything repeated and eventually got worse and worse. The world we thought we saved in DS1 was never really saved. We just prolonged it’s pain, and we can either do exactly what has happened thousands of times or we can finally put an end to it, let the world heal as it was meant to.
what an awesome review, personally DS3 is my favorite soulsborn game and slave knight gael is my favorite boss fight ever, love how you described everything in this video, thank you algorythm for putting this master piece of a video and the DS2 one on my recomendations, you just earn a new suscrbier.
I don't know if anyone has pointed this out. However when you get to the untended graves, it seems to be a moment in time before the ashen one is brought back. If you speak to the shrine handmaiden after visiting the one in untended graves (I beleive it has to be the first time you speak with her in firelink but I could be misremembering) she'll say something about you being familiar. Not to completly destroy the idea that the untended graves is in an alternate dimention, as time is convoluted when the fire fades, and is the in lore reason for invasions and co-op.
ngl, you made me appreciate ds3 a lot more than I did. it was my first fromsoft plat, and I absolutely loved it - but I often don't give it enough credit. after watching this and seeing that it's 60fps on ps5, I think it's time to enjoy it it all again. appreciate it.
Loved the video, I feel like I'm reliving the game without having to put down Elden Ring, lol Just some positive critique, you can (hehe) in my opinion remove most of the "In my opinion " from your script, since most of the audience is aware of this fact already, watching a critique video, and in some case I noticed that it was already mentioned in the sentence that it was your deduction/thinking, but otherwise it was a very interesting look on one of the best games I've played. Missing DS3 bosses now...
Dark Souls 3 was my first Souls Game and it is my favourite. What I love the most in this game is the well paced gameplay and the bosses. Man, i fucking love this game's bosses. Gundyr, Dancer, Sulyvahn, Aldrich, Twin Princes, Soul of Cinder, Oceiros, Nameless King, Friede, Gael, Demon Prince and Midir. So many good bosses that I don't forget anything about them. About the dark shrine: It has do to with Gundyr's lore. You are in the past where Gundyr was supposed to awake after tolling the bell, but the fire was off when he awoke. As the world keeps in this cycle, he stayed in front of the doors that roads into firelink shrine as a Judge for those unkindled in future. That's why the name "Iudex", wich means Judge in latin.
Love the video man great job. Quick lore thing: Filianor didn’t teleport us the world was basically always like that and her dream kept the world as we knew it intact
Yeah I thought DS3 world had some pretty views and was overall decent but kind of underwhelimg and derivative compared to the other From souls games. The big exception was Ringed city and the dreg heap which are my favorite parts of DS3 and redeem it a lot.
ds3 is indeed my favorite beside sekiro The bossfights are the most fun and memorable The music is top tier ( especially pontiff and midir ) The weapons are really cool not basic like the other games Areas are fun not frustrating and cheap This is my ideal dark souls
It did bring back the verticality though, which was a welcome return. Areas like Lothric, Irithyll/Anor Londo, Ariandel and Ringed City all have a ton of verticality to them. Especially Lothric.
Nice video. Man, I love DS3. I remember the first time I fought Iudex Gundyr and when he transformed I just stared at him forgetting about playing :) Abyss Watchers are great spectacle, and you didn't mention this mechanic that third watcher on the arena is consumed by the Abyss and attacks other two (or you if you are unlucky :) ). I agree that Pontiff would deserve Lord of Cinder spot, and while Yhorm is little disappointing with Storm Ruler usage it is still very cool fight. About twin princes... I HATE... boss run to this fight (even though I love the return of vertical nature of the Grand Archives and one bonfire design), but yeah, fight is amazing. Plus I just adore DLC. Well, maybe not this guy without pants and his wolf in Ashes of Ariandel, but Friede fight... wonderful. I also like that first time you beat Friede and Ariandel duo (before Blackflame Friede) you get Tytanite Slab :) After I beat her third phase for the first time I wondered "will there be fourth?" About Midir fight. Attacking his tail is... inefficient. He has counter to this tactic, so you still need to watch out, and beating him on the head not only deals more damage, but can even stagger him allowing for rather devastating riposte. The popular theory of Filianore and egg is that breaking it either release time and allow it to revert to the point it should be, or speed time and transport us into the future. The place is the same. Gael on the other hand is not devouring pygmies to survive but to acquire their dark souls. The fight is one of the best if not the best in the game. Visuals, music, difficulty it adds up to magnificent spectacle and fitting ending of the trilogy. And I believe Gael actually have 3 phases, only second and third is not so distinctive as in Friede's case.
Somethings you said made me see things in a new light, but mostly Gundyr, the description days he arrived too late, but did he? Or he meant to let the fire fade? When Cinder summons the powers of Gwyn, he still fights you, maybe even Gwyn doesn't want you to link the flame
You can fight Yhorm on your terms, it’s just not particularly easy lol. I beat him w/o Stormruler and it took me 15 minutes, exhausted all my healing estus and had to heal myself with spells, exhausted all of those too 😆
31:18 she did not teleport us to a different location, its the same spot but different time, this egg this basically halted time or something and when you accidently break it, it fast-forward time to this time zone. something like that
I have hard time raising DS3 above DS1. Sometimes I feel like I'm keeping DS1 above it only because what the game means to me personally and how replayable it is and how fast it is to replay(having less freetime nowadays :( ) DS3 would be as replayable if it wasnt for the boredom swamps. Everything before and after is fun but crab waters and farron bore me to death on repeated playthroughs so badly I think like more than half of my replay attempts die somewhere between.
Boredom swamps? As if DS1 doesnt have blight town, demon ruins and lost izilith, catacombas and tomb of the giants...new londo ruins lol. Ds1 actually kinda sucks, and nostalgia blinds sooooo many people.
@@OrphanCrippler1 blight town is actually pretty fun area if you count the climb down without the master key and it's fast to run by with said key so it doesn't have much time to bore. Catacombs and Tomb I like as well. Catacombs for the necromancer hunt and the layout and Tomb for the darkness gimmick. Lost Izalith is just plain bad. There is so saving that one. Even if you hate these areas they are fast to go through other than Izalith unless you got 30 humanity to spare and in prepare to die edition that too is slow since you need to spend them 1 by 1. New Londo is a mixed bag but I like the haunted theme of it. Problem I have with DS3 swamps is that you have to spend time in the later one at the very least due to braiziers and the mudd that slows you down(altough quickstep helps). Not to forget that neither area has too much going for them other than some enemy variety. And if you compare the swamps to the areas surrounding them it gets even worse. Settlement is pretty fun area, catacombs have some fun gimmicks in form of skeleton balls and traps, cathedral of the deep is possibly my favorite area in the game due to it's layout and secrets with only downside being the boss. Abyss watchers are at least fun reward for crawling through the swamps. I'm strictly talking about repeated playthroughs here. I quite liked both swamps on first playthrough due to said enemy variety and some lore findings. Ruins/tower portions of these areas are still fine but due to farron tower not leading anywhere it's a place I rarely visit unless I want some specific item. It's the wide open areas of just swamp that I'm not big fan of.
Yeah I think DS3's biggest weakness is the earlygame. High Wall is definitely not bad, but undead settlement feels like a ton of fluff and Road of Sacrifices + Farron Keep are AWFUL. Cathedral is also pretty cool but the path kinda ends there so no matter what you still have to deal with Farron Keep. The game really starts at Abyss Watchers, that fight is a 10/10 and the game rarely drops from that high afterwards
@@OrphanCrippler1 It really doesn't. It's world design is still unmatched. The first half, Lore, characters, the DLC is all perfect. The combat has been improved upon in later games but DS1s combat is still great. The later half has noticeable dip in quality mostly due to the underground areas but saying the game sucks is plain wrong.
@@-Nihilus- @StrawHatCrow I love DS1 as much as the next person, but the simple facts are the game was an unfinished mess that was saved by good overall design. Nothing about it holds up compared to todays standards outside of the first half of the game. ONLY the first half of the game is even decent. Its clunky, doesnt even have omnidirectional rolling (remaster doesnt count here), blatantly unfinished areas and bosses, bad graphics, even for the time outside of Anor Londo. I will never forget the game due to my personal experiences, and I definitely acknowledge its impact, but the game is pretty bad lol. The remaster fixes a lot of the issues, but we are talking about the OG here. Forgot to mention the game running at 10 fps the entire second half of the game outside of New Londo
I'm extremely happy to see that the unending hype of Elden Ring is settling and Dark Souls 3 is finally getting the appreciation it deserves. Quality bossfights, a well-thought out and well executed PvP system, lots of build possibilities, fast combat with responsive controls, extremely creative ideas, beautiful music, a great apocaliptyc setting and probably the best polish and least amount of glitches out of any FromSoftware games (can't speak of Bloodborne and DeS though, never played those). DS3 was the first to achieve that real AAA polish in every single area.
the egg she was holding was keeping the time loop together she transported you from back in time to the future which is actually the present just before the fire fades rhen geal fight ensues you then fight soul of cinder and let the fire fade and enter the painted world you help recreate with the fire keeper the end
I'm late but what i like the most about the ds3 bosses are the details like midir getting extra dmg form the abysswatcher and the wolf knightgreatsword or the demon prince from the black knight wapons also that gale turn into a hollow in his 2. Phase and than the hollowslayer dealing more dmg not to mention that he is technicly not teleporting he summon himself with a summon sign and so on
And if that's not good enough, Nameless king and Gael. checkmate Elden ring! You ain't got nothing on the determined homeless knight and lost son of literal god...
I have my own take on Dark Souls III which is, it is the best Dark Souls III action RPG but it is the weakest Dark Souls game in terms of narrative because it rehashes so many stories from Dark Souls I. Like take the Abyss Watchers as the biggest example, they continue a story which is basically finished, the Story of Artorias of the Abyss. Fromsoft can be completely original with their lore and Dark Souls II actually was interesting in that context. I would also disagree that the world is the best designed, I think Dark Souls I holds that title especially the first half of the game. I just think that Dark Souls III isn't the best Dark Souls game. Because what drew me to Dark Souls is the atmosphere and melancholy tone, Dark Souls III lost a little bit of that but I will openly admit the Dark Souls III has the best bosses in the Souls series and for people that like Action RPG's it is the better game because the gameplay is a lot more solid and hitboxes have less problems. But for me I like the more Old School RPG elements of Dark Souls I and II.
I agree with some of your points, but it’s cool that we disagree. If we agreed on everything that would be boring as hell. I just re-beat Dark Souls this January, now I gotta replay it it seems 😂🥳🤷🏻♂️
7:14 I straight up do not think Darks Souls 3's linearity serves it very well, and I believe it is LESS repayable because of that. It's a straight line of what content you play when with no meaningful variance. Poor sequence breaking options mean the types of weapons, spells, and gear you can get is locked at exactly when you supposed to arrive, and massively reduces build variety.
DS3 was my favorite of the series, and the last one that I played. I love everything about it. The areas are so richly designed and stunning to look at with some of the most beautiful and epic views I’ve ever seen in a video game, the bosses are imo probably the best of any game I’ve ever played. The areas are bursting with detail and feel alive, like how you can tell there must have been a huge battle in Lothric by looking at the armor and weapons left behind. You can even tell the Lothric Knights were fighting the Winged Knights without even reading the lore. Areas like Lothric, Irithyll, Archdragon Peak, Ariandel, the Ringed City, Cathedral of the Deep, Dreg Heap and so on are some of the best-designed and most visually impressive locales I’ve ever seen in fiction. All of FromSoftware’s games feature awesome areas, but imo they really cranked up the epicness for DS3. And the combat was massively refined, making different weapon types more viable and balanced and making animations smoother. Also a big change to the combat was the greatly improved enemy AI. The enemies close distance, punish turtling, can break your guards easier, and can better dodge and counter your attacks. The bosses rely more on using technical skills such as precisely-timed dodges and attacks to beat more so than most bosses from previous games. The enemy diversity was the best too, by far. What I mean by that is not only did each area have its own unique enemies, but they all fought and moved differently too. Take the “knight” type enemies, for example. DS2 has lots of knight type enemies that moved and fought really similarly to another, but in DS3, the Lothric knights, winged knights, cathedral knights, pontiff knights, Millwood knights, ringed knights, corvian knights and so on look and fight vastly different from one another. Furthermore, each area has a wide variety of different enemies, rather than just being full with a few kinds that are all really similar, one of the weaknesses of DS2 and Elden Ring, in my opinion. Also, the callbacks to previous games were totally justified and lore-appropriate, and served more as meaningful tie-ins rather than cheap “fan service.” The story itself is further along than we’ve ever seen it before, and I think they end it perfectly with DS3. Gael’s story arc in particular is very good and imo the best they’ve ever made. Overall, I thought it was a masterpiece and the crowning achievement of one of the best game franchises ever made, incorporating everything the developers learned over the years and refining it into one magnum opus.
Saying that Elden ring has 1 or 2 enemy types in its areas is absolute nonsense. There's more than 6 enemy types in each of the legacy dungeons, and there's a wide variety of enemies in each region. You may have seen most of them by the endgame, but there's not such a thing as fighting only one enemy type across a region or a legacy dungeon, even the side dungeons have a reasonable amount of different enemies. DS2 have a lot of different enemies and cool designs until the endgame and can't really think of area with less than 3 or 4 different enemies, specially in the dlc areas. If you like DS3 more than the other games, that's okay, it's an amazing game, but there's no need to trash the others, much less with inaccurate statements.
@@warcoder Part of the point I was trying to make is that many of the soldier or knight type enemies in Elden Ring are incredibly similar to each other. Many of the legacy dungeons rely mainly on standard "hollow" type enemies that are already abundantly found in the overworld for the humanoid enemies, more so than previous games. and the actual unique knight-type enemies in Limgrave, Liurnia, and Altus Plateau, those being the Godrick, Cuckoo, and Leyendell knights respectively, are literally the same exact enemy but with different colors and a couple differing attacks. Not only that, but with the Liurnia and Limgrave variants, you very rarely ever encounter them at all; again it's mainly just footsoldier enemies instead. I'm not sure why you would get offended by that statement. It's not like I ever said Elden Ring or DS2 were bad games. Honestly, with some of the stuff I see people say about FromSoftware's games in debates on videos like this, I'm honestly really surprised that my comment was the one that upset you for "trashing" other games. Pointing out a flaw is the same as trashing now? There are some more unique knight-type enemies here and there, such as the Crucible, Banished and Cleanrot knights, but that doesn't change the fact that Elden Ring re-uses the same exact enemies a lot compared to the other games in the franchise, which is a well-known and documented fact. That's not to say that any of these enemies are bad. Quite the opposite. They are just reused a lot. In DS3, the Lothric, winged, cathedral, millwood, ringed, corvian, outrider, pontiff and harald legion knights all have entirely unique movesets and armor designs. That's quite a bit more diversity than Elden Ring when it comes to such enemy types. Many only exist in their respective areas as well. The only non-boss enemy type that is solely found in Leyendell that I can think of are the trumpet enemies. DS3 also has more diversity when it comes to non-human enemies in its dungeons as well, with things like the sulyvahn beasts, pus of man, monstrosity of sin, deep accursed, etc. I'm not even trying to bring down Elden Ring. I'm just stating that DS3 has better enemy diversity area-per-area.
Then you should probably try the Cinders Mod for Dark Souls 3. It has some of the things you asked for, such as a bosh rush. The guy who made it made a lot of changes to the game code, added weapons and spells from previous games, even weapon arts. Its a lot of fund, especially for someone who was already played through the entirety of Dark Souls 3. If you want to get a bit of a preview I would suggest checking out Prod, he is a Souls player and he plays a lot of these mods, just search Cinders on his channel. I think you would enjoy the mod, I certainly did.
It would have to be the entire Cathedral of the Deep that became my favorite area in the series. Series presents an area and the name pops up, theres usually nothing to really unpack. Really remember just going through it and seeing the walking corpses outside, the prestine look inside, filthy water, then realizing through item descriptions that it refers to the lowest point a soul can sink to.
If only yorhm was made like rykard where you do need the weapon you can use it's move set and fight the boss like normal, but i think they'd have to make his room bigger and have more moves since he wouldn't be getting stunned constantly like he does when you spam the special move on him.
I've just gotten 100% of the achievements for this game and got to play a ton with my two best friends recently, and of course played the heck out of all DLCs and their respective bosses. It was definitely amazing. I had a few moments where I seriously had to take a break due to the difficulty (Midir was definitely one of those). But there is seriously nothing that feels better than figuring out the movesets and mastering dodges in each boss. Wish me luck with DS2, I've already 100%ed DS1 and am ready to take on Scholar.
I’m playing it right now. It’s a great game. However it doesn’t have the same fun factor I’ve experienced in other souls games including ER. DS1 is way more clunky and inferior in many ways. But I still had far more fun with it. There’s some unexplained X factors which make a game good.
Ds1 is feeling its age a little but not all of it is clunky. I enjoy the slower feel of that combat but I guess it's just a preference. And lordran is one of my favorite worlds from any video game ever
DS3 definitely has the best bosses amd combat. I think I liked DS2 more overall though and I am still halfway through DS1 so the verdict is still out on it.
@@melissazadrozny1279 I haven't fought Ornstien and Smough yet so maybe I'm not halfway but how I got into Souls was in reverse order that's why I'm not finished with DS1. Remnant From the Ashes and Elden Ring had my time back to back so DS1 has just been on the back burner
ER has better bosses and combat. Most of DS3’s bosses are easily handled by rolling and strafing. The combat doesn’t ask you to use weapon arts or R2’s or jumping attacks.
@@leadfaun Dark Souls 3 for me had way more challenging boss design without the difficulty feeling unfair like Melanias combos. Aside from her and Elden Beast and the rot dragon not a single boss gave me difficulty. I was able to easily beat most first if not second try and probably 95% of them in under 5 tries. I just missed how difficult but fair DS3 felt and all the difficulty in ER just felt unfair. Since it's open world I think they should of had the bosses scale up to your level to keep some of the difficulty. Elden Ring is definitely the best open world game ever made I just think the boss difficulty/fairness could be a little better.
So for the end when you touch Fillianore’s egg it teleports you to the literal end of time. Where the world was used up to sustain the age of fire so many times it has literally turned everything to ash. Everything has been used as kindling, and has been turned to ash. And you have a lot wrong on Gael. He is a slave knight but it’s to the painter. He eats the Pygmy lords in order to obtain the Dark Soul in order to give it to the painter to use as a pigment for the next painting.
totally agree. ds3 is absolute perfection. elden ring is pretty close to that but my main issue is balance, being open world i found so hard not to be op, but kind of failed, it felt hard but ok in the beginning, then easy then hard again in the end.
Is this why Elden Ring’s bosses feels underwhelming? Because DS3 have such a high quality lineup of awesome bosses? Dont get me wrong i love Margit, Rykard, Radagon, Maliketh and Godrick. But thats a few out of many bosses. I think DS3 have more great bosses overall
@@EndymionTv Yeah most of the bosses are almost impossible alone without spending 4 hrs to learn their attacks. I think FromSoftware are trying to force the players to use spirit summons 🤔 And then we have the cave bosses which can be a walk in the park
@@EndymionTv Yeah, perhaps because its an open world and player explore differently. My biggest issue is Malenia and Hoarah Loux. I feel they are insanely difficult just for the sake of it. With Hoarah Loux its mostly thosr grabs you cant avoid unless you hit the 0.1 sec mark. Malenia have that stupid water dance you definetly cant avoid unless you are a speedrunner.
@@DainHunter you can avoid most of Hoarah Loux’s grabs by simply running away. His grabs also rarely linger, so there’s not .1 windows to dodge. Please don’t call bosses near unavoidable if you don’t understand the fight. The only legit unavoidable attacks are Waterfowl and a couple of gank fights.
As for your point in ludyx Gundyr’s arena, I feel it’s a reminder of the creeping inevitability of darkness and the desperation people have to keep the flame going, that they most likely made multiple fire link shrines in order to gather more potential warriors to keep it lit, and as the flame is nothing more than a sputtering thing darkness is beginning to consume parts of the land and people are just trying to pretend it’s not going to happen, hiding away the painful reminders
"Gael and the ashen one, the two last survivors fighting at the end of the world" Meanwhile, the random ringed city knight hanging out at the end of the arena: "Wow, that's a dope fight happening down there"
5:20 I heavily disagree with this notion. I'd say DS3's level design is no less nonsensical than DS2's, just in a different way. DS2's geography often made no sense at all (sky elevators ftw) and often felt disconnected, but it definitely felt like you were exploring different parts of a world. DS3's geography does fit together, but only because *there is no world*. DS3's main game is just a bunch of areas slapped together, and there's no interconnectivity between them whatsoever. The game is easily the most linear in the whole series, with next to no choice in what order you tackle the areas. As a result the game feels more restrictive and "video gamey" than either of its predecessors.
Definitely think Elden Ring and Bloodborne are superior games with story, lore, main bosses, game mechanics, etc. Let's not pretend how many truly junk fights are in Dark Souls 3. Deacons, crystal sage, vordt, greatwood, champions grave, Church in ringed city, demon king,. wolnir, Yhorm, consumed king, ancient wyvern. Just far too many junk bosses for having the fewest bosses in any of their games. Also having the same stagger with poise regardless of armor is an immersion breaker. Had way more fun replaying bloodborne than Dark Souls 3 for sure because the vast majority of the main bosses are fun to play, all unique and contribute to the main story more effectively. Elden Ring also has better main fights compared to dark souls 3 and makes sense in an open world to have easier areas than others due to how big the game is. Also reusing levels for bosses and NPCs is refreshing and takes the linear taste out of my mouth. Dark Souls 3 has the best tutorial and end game boss going for it but not much better than Bloodborne. Just my opinion.
