Dark Souls III - Ringed City Review
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sakichop
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Played about an hour and am pretty disappointed. they reverted to dark souls 2 mob tactics to create difficulty. Didn't like it in Dark souls 2 and don't like it here. also the pacing seems off. Dark souls has always been about slowly and careful exploring the environment. This DLC pushes you through with enemy mobs and ranged attackers.
I'll finish it at some point but probably not anytime soon. Sad the series goes out like this. I was hoping for one more bit of vintage Dark souls. Epic 1 on 1 encounters, secret areas and loot, a mysterious NPC or 2 and a couple of what the f*** just happened moments, but alas it's not to be.
I'll finish it at some point but probably not anytime soon. Sad the series goes out like this. I was hoping for one more bit of vintage Dark souls. Epic 1 on 1 encounters, secret areas and loot, a mysterious NPC or 2 and a couple of what the f*** just happened moments, but alas it's not to be.
I'm finding I'm not a big fan of this dlc myself
I thought it was pretty good! Some of the best boss fights in the series and a few crazy new weapons to mess about with.
Dark Souls biggest problem has always been that the content runs out so any extra areas are most welcome. However, if they spent the time turning old tilesets into a random dungeon generator rather than doing yet another "dragon burning the path", or, better yet, added a map editor for some user generated dungeons, it would have allowed the game to continue to live and grow. It's a bit dark to kill Dark Souls for the fans and leave them to play the same maps forever. I guess FromSoftware is still thinking like a console developer. Either that or they haven't played enough Neverwinter Nights mods!
Dark Souls biggest problem has always been that the content runs out so any extra areas are most welcome. However, if they spent the time turning old tilesets into a random dungeon generator rather than doing yet another "dragon burning the path", or, better yet, added a map editor for some user generated dungeons, it would have allowed the game to continue to live and grow. It's a bit dark to kill Dark Souls for the fans and leave them to play the same maps forever. I guess FromSoftware is still thinking like a console developer. Either that or they haven't played enough Neverwinter Nights mods!
Don't you think it's a little premature to be writing it all off if you've not completed it and obtained the full picture? Not saying your judgement is wrong (it may well be spot on) but still…maybe there's a compensatory surprise lurking around the corner for you yet.
I like the idea at least in theory as expressed in the PC Gamer review of experiencing elements represented from previous instalments as you're making progress through the early parts of the DLC; kind of like a melancholy roll-call to memory of sorts.
How long does this last for all those that have played further? (DeepO & other veterans of the series - your views would be valued here…)
That said, I've admittedly lost some faith that this DLC will do justice to the series; it's simply asking too much. From the "rushy" combat, mutilation of poise in the third game, general lack of imagination, safe conservatism in design approach and less memorable boss fights have disagreed with me throughout my overall DSIII experience.
The whole mob factor lurching the player forward without being able to stop and soak up details in classic plodding DS1 fashion is also not great to hear. I had much more fun with Scholar of the First Sin to be honest.
Some more questions to players:
1) How is the bonfire spread? (Degree of endurance required between stops…)
2) How are the new weapons/high strength weapon arts as described in the review? (My first character in DS3 was my first ever "str/mauler" build…)
3) Any boss fights that stand out from what has come before with the third game?
(Aldrich was my hardest boss in the main game incidentally…but not necessarily my favourite!)
4) Personal rating of this DLC as compared with all previous releases? Your ranking order?
5) What was your chosen build and general playing style for the DLC?
Cheers!
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The bonfire spread felt like DS1. What I mean by that is when I played DS1 (my first souls game), it seemed so difficult to find and get to the next bonfire. But in subsequent play throughs, since you know where they are, you could get to them by running their and avoiding enemies fairly easily. I always felt the spread of bonfires in the main DS3 game was a bit weird... so many of them too close together and every now and then, some very far apart... just seemed off balance to me. There are some long tough stretches in-between bonfires in this expansion, but once you know where they are, it's not too hard to just run to them.
This expansion is really my least favorite and I've played all the souls games to this point. I liked the expansions of DS2 the best, then DS1, Then Ashes of Andarial, and then this one.
My first play through with this expansion I played with my DEX build. Eventually I'll likely play through again with my other builds which include STR, Sorcery, and Pyro builds. It's a funny order because I'm so BAD at intense melee... I just cannot get dodging down and I doubt I ever will. At the same time, I just love it... but I'm sooooo bad at it.
I started with my main guy who was level 210 with a quality build (60/60), ended up level 223. I'm not sure, exactly, but I think that was on NG+7. Played the whole thing co-op with a friend and the bosses gave us a good run for our money. Especially the dragon! Friend commented that it was the best dragon fight in the series. Personally, I was more satisfied after beating Slave Knight Gale because it was a more intimate and tense fight. The dragon had a sort of "run in, run out" flow about it with its downward fire similar to the Ancient Dragon in DS2 but the knight was right on top of you doing crazy hard to read moves. Both those fights took multiple attempts to beat (both of us have to survive for xp!) while the fight against the demons we beat first try but thought it was very fun. You can make them stumble which lets you walk up and do a "riposte" of sorts and send them flying. Makes you feel like a badass!
Oh, and there's also that PvP boss which was super easy but you can actually reset it and do it again with 100k souls making 200k souls for the win. To reset it is pretty tricky
you have to use camoflage spell or a white branch in the swamp water until you turn into a humanity, then slowly walk back to the bonfire (city streets, i think?) and in the next room there's a sign on the wall that reads "show your humanity". Finding this Purging Stone is also part of Lapp NPC questline!
What is it called… The Old Wolf Greatsword with the flip weaponart does bonus damage vs Abyssal enemies which is most of them!
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S
sakichop
Guest
Don't you think it's a little premature to be writing it all off if you've not completed it and obtained the full picture? Not saying your judgement is wrong (it may well be spot on) but still…maybe there's a compensatory surprise lurking around the corner for you yet.
Yes, it is. My brother completed it and told me some things though. I think my expectations are probably too high because its the last bit of content for the game so I was hoping they'd do something extra special.
As I said though I wont give it up and will play it eveentually. I've played the whole series and will be sure to finish it out. I'm in the middle of a witcher 3 and nioh play through right now anyway.