Dark Souls III Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, now its time for the final part of the Dark Souls trilogy, Dark Souls III.

And I will say a bit about the plot below, so the usual warning is coming...

STORY

So, I will quote a bit of the story line from Wikipedia just to save myself a bit of time...

"Set in the Kingdom of Lothric, a bell has rung to signal that the First Flame, responsible for maintaining the Age of Fire, is dying out. As has happened many times before, the coming of the Age of Dark produces the undead: cursed beings that rise up after death. The Age of Fire can be prolonged with the linking of the fire, a ritual in which great lords and heroes sacrifice their souls to rekindle the First Flame. However, Prince Lothric, the chosen linker for this age, has abandoned his duty and instead chooses to watch the flame die from afar.

The Ashen One (your playable character) an Undead who failed to become a Lord of Cinder and thus called an Unkindled, rises and must link the fire by returning Prince Lothric and the defiant Lords of Cinder to their thrones in Firelink Shrine..."

THOUGHTS

As a sequel and what is a conclusion to the series, Dark Souls III is an excellent and highly enjoyable game similar to its predecessors and it is arguably a better game than Dark Souls II as it is tighter one with fewer bosses, which are of a higher quality than the previous game. I also felt in Dark Souls III, they raised the bar on the level of challenge too, albeit in a more consistent manner than in Dark Souls II, which is a good thing given DS2's difficulty was very inconsistent.

It also makes quite a few references to the previous games throughout and brings back a few things that were missing from Dark Souls II, so it stays more faithful in a way to the original Dark Souls and also makes references to Demon's Souls.  So, you could argue that the game is lacking in innovatie new ideas as it appears to borrow so much but it still does have some new features and challenges to work through, which I will get to as the review goes on.

GAMEPLAY BASICS

The gameplay mechanics here are very similar to the first two games with the usual third person perspective in use here and your character do the usual running, jumping, attacking etc but I will mention more about that later. Your character has a similar inventory system as before in Dark Souls II where you can access your equipment and items. The HUD (heads-up display) is also similar with a red bar for health and green bar for stamina but this time round there is a blue bar, which is for what's known as "Focus Points" which are reserved for casting spells and carrying out special moves with your weapons. Focus points or "FP" also featured in the first game in the series, Demon Souls (the predecessor to Dark Souls).

Throughout the game you will also be able to upgrade your various stats such as your vigor (health), endurance, strength, intelligence and faith. These stats can be upgraded with the number of souls that you claim from fallen enemies and the requirement becomes higher each time you level up. However not all the choices of character have the same starting stats as they will be based on their different skill sets, e.g. a warrior's main stats will fall under strength and endurance whereas a sorcerer would rely more on intelligence and a cleric could be a mixture of faith and intelligence.

Similar to the previous games, the player will also rest at bonfires, which act as checkpoints throughout the game and through the main bonfire at Firelink Shrine, the player can also upgrade their health recovery items, Estus Flasks at the bonfire with the help of additional items (known as Estus Flask Shards). The shards are spread throughout the game and can be obtained as the player progresses, which will see them end up with 15 Estus flasks in total. Estus flasks this time around are a little different as with the introduction of the FP system, you also get blue coloured flasks called Ashen Estus Flasks, which will restore your Focus Points for casting spells and using specific weapon skill moves. The player can also through Andri, allot their estus flasks between using one for restoring health and another for your focus points.

WEAPONS

The game also has a very similar number of weapons to the first two DS games with a large selection available such as swords, bows, axes, halberds, spears, throwing knives and firebombs in addition to shields and armour. All the weapons and shields can be upgraded through the game's blacksmith, Andri of Astora (who also appeared in the first Dark Souls) at Firelink Shrine (also from DS1!) which he will do via the use of different types of material known as titanite, which come in different shapes and sizes. The player will also have to meet certain strength and dexterity requirements to successfully wield these weapons, which they can. However this time around you can no longer get your armour upgraded unlike in the previous DS games and this is similarly the case in Bloodborne where you can't upgrade armour.

Of course the game also features options as before for sorcery, pyromancy and clerics all of whom can cast spells via the use of specific items, such a staff for the sorcerer, a pyro glove for the pyromancer and a chime for the clerics. The spells for sorcery generally require intelligence to use and the miracles require faith, which you will need to upgrade as you go on in the game. Again these items can be upgraded by the blacksmith Andri with the use of titanite or if not some other materials, so they can increase their power and damage output.

COMBAT

The combat system is pretty much the same as before but with some slight changes with the main one relating to the FP system, where a player can perform a skill move with their weapon, which could be a weapon buff or a specific enhanced type of attack. The player can as before also lock onto their enemies to keep track of them in combat although this isn't always 100 percent reliable as you can tend to lose sight of them at times, which automatically cancels out the lock-on! Another big addition this time around is the inclusion of liberal amounts of blood gushing from your enemies as you hit and kill them, however if you don't like that you can turn the blood settings off.

ENEMIES

The enemies in the game are very much varied and can range from being a minor nuisance to being downright brutally difficult! As usual there are a mix of enemies from the previous games such as the standard hollows, skeletons, basilisks (who can curse you, which ends up killing you!) as well as the return of the black and silver knights. However there are of course plenty of new enemies as well some of which can be very challenging while others more straight forward but you always tend to fight the enemies will get tougher as the game progresses and DS III is no different here.

So, this time around we get new enemies such as the really annoying Ghru, who come in different varieties and can cast a poisonous mist at you aswell as smother you to near death. There are also other enemies such as the loudmouthed fat female Evangelists, who cast spells at you and can cause heavy damage with their large spiked clubs. And later there far more challenging enemies such as Pontiff Knights, who can hit hard and fast with curved swords. Then there are stranger enemies that include the Jailers, who can attack you with soldering irons and use lanterns that when lit red can reduce your health bar down to near zero! So, these new enemies can be quite annoying and challenging all at once for sure.

RINGS

Another key aspect of the game similar to the previous ones is the use of rings, which all give the player different abilities throughout and like Dark Souls II, you can now equipment four rings at once. Some rings will give you the ability to boost your attacks, especially for pyromancy and sorcery whereas others will allow you boost your overall health or discover more items or increase your resistance to hazardous things such as poison, toxicity, frostbite (new to this game) and curse.

It also recycles one or two rings from the original game such as the Dusk ring (increases spell use) and of course the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring (I think!) that cancels out any noise you make when you move, which is very useful sneaking up on enemies. It also brings back the Silvercat ring, which appeared in DS2 and is one of the best rings in the game, which negates fall damage very well. 

NPCs & SUMMONS

As before, in Dark Souls III, there are plenty of non-playable characters (NPCs) for you to interact with as the game progreses and some of which become merchants who will sell and trade items with you. However some of the NPC merchants require you to save them from capture in order for them to make it back to Firelink Shrine to trade with you. As for the summons, similar to the previous games, you can summon certain NPCs to help you in the boss fights but in order to do this your character must use an ember so that the summon sign will appear. 

HOLLOWING

The hollowing process (which always happened when you died in Souls 1 and 2 and it left you looking more zombie-esque with emaciated skin) is different this time around to the previous games in the series because in this game when you die, you will not go hollow, so their appearance will not change. However you can still become hollow in this game by gaining an item called a dark sigil, which is supposed to increase your "inner strength". Hollowing can also be reversed with the use of an item called a purging stone (which was used to remove curse in the first Dark Souls). Your hollowing level increases with every time you die and will max out at 99 and being hollow can also benefit some weapons as you can infuse them with hollow gems for additional damage. 

BOSSES

Again just like the previous Souls games, DS III has its share of bosses to fight although they had reduced the number that appear after the excessive amount that appeared in Dark Souls II. So, this time round there are only 19 bosses in the official game but there are an additional six more in the two DLCs for the game.  As usual as in the previous games, the player will take on these bosses by stepping through a fog gate into an area where they will fight and they cannot leave until the fight is over.

The bosses themselves are for the most part very high in quality and range in difficulty level from easy to extremely difficult. There are also plenty of memorable boss encounters to be found here also that include the Abyss Watchers, which are a legion of undead knights who keep resurrecting and fight you. Pontiff Sulyvahn is another boss, who can be pretty tough to deal with as he uses two swords with a giant range and he can also spawn a clone of himself that deals hefty damage. Then there is of course the notorious Nameless King, who I struggled BIG TIME against on my first playthrough and took almost 200 goes to beat him! 

And lastly there are a couple of DLC bosses worth of note, Sister Friede, who is hands down one of the hardest bosses in the game as she has a 3 phase fiight, which is incredibly difficult to get through and to this day still haven't beaten her solo! And last of all is Slave Knight Gael, who is the final DLC boss in the Ringed City and he is unquestionably a difficult boss but is easily the best DLC boss in the entire game. 

So, DS3 definitely isn't short on challenge when it comes to its bosses.  

GRAPHICS 

As for the graphics, I was initially disappointed in the game's visuals as I played it on the base PS4, which is locked at 30 fps but when I got the PC version, I saw a big upgrade in terms of visual quality as well as a steady 60 fps, which makes the game a lot more enjoyable. And on the PC, Dark Souls III looks terrific as it has arguably the best visuals of any Souls game up to this point as the environments are nicely detailed throughout with plenty of rich textures and details to the buildings and surrounding areas. 

Character models for the most part are quite good although the shading and lighting on their faces in darkened areas doesn't look as good and does lack fine contrast it has to be said and their hair lacks the vivid colours of the previous games. In fact I would say that out of the Fromsoft games so far, Bloodborne has the best character models with DS3 a close second. 

Your character also unlike the previous can also get all messy as they go through areas such as poison swamps or indeed just water, they're clothes will get all muddy and wet, so its a nice touch that they added this in. However, it has to be said that the blood in this game looks a bit silly as it looks like your character is covered in black tar! 

MUSIC

As for the music score it is primarily scored by Yuka Kitamura with some contributions by Motoi Sakuraba who composed in the first two Souls game and overall this is an outstanding score with plenty of highlights contributed by both composers. And the score has a real epic and emotional feel to it on a greater scale than the previous games with the tracks all primarily for the boss fights.

The standout tracks for me are Pontiff Sulyvhan, The Abyss Watchers, Twin Princes, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Sister Friede to name a few but the very best two tracks for me are The Nameless King and Slave Knight Gael themes, which are both outstanding in different ways but both are undeniably brilliant pieces.

If there was one criticism I could level at the score maybe is that it does have a somewhat repetitive feel to it with its extensive usage of choral singers and operatic singing and the score itself can be a bit of a downer at times. However, none of this really detracts from what is largely a terrific soundtrack with superb contributions by both Kitamura and Sakuraba. 


FLAWS

As for flaws...yes Dark Souls III isn't perfect.

For starters there are some frustrating omissions from the game such as the ability to upgrade your armour, which is pretty daft if you ask me as you could upgrade it in the previous so why take that option in this one??? It makes little sense to me as upgrading armour was a key aspect in Dark Souls I and II but here they just followed Bloodborne mandate of having armour with a base level of defense only the settings for Bloodborne I feel were better optimized than they are here. Further to this, in DS3 you can upgrade your torch but not your armour but how often will you use a torch in the playthrough compared to armour?! Not as much that's for sure, so yeah it doesn't make sense why they changed this. 

Another thing that bugged me was to do with the whole idea of Andri, the blacksmith being the go-to guy to upgrade your estus flasks and NOT the bonfire keeper! I mean what is all that about??? However you can upgrade your Estus flask's strength at the Firelink bonfire yourself, so it makes little sense as to why you would need Andri to do the rest.

In fact it would have been much easier to have you upgrade your stats, allot your estus flasks between health and FP ones at the bonfire yourself without even relying on Andri to all that in the first place! It just makes things less convenient for the player and involves a lot of tedious back and forth between areas.

I also felt that the game's progression is just a bit too linear as you don't have the same freedom as you did in Dark Souls I and II to branch off to different areas, so instead you need to logically make your way from A to B. This might not be a problem for everyone but I have to say it does kind of bug me a bit although there are a couple of exceptions to this in the game as you can enter inside Lothric castle earlier on if you kill an NPC but you need to fight a pretty tough boss first (the Dancer). Also the DLC for Ariandel provides a break from the linear path of the game, which is a good thing. However, those two aside, you are pretty much forced to play the game in a linear order.  

Another issue is to do with how the game makes farming for titanite shards difficult early on as they are pretty sparse in the game until a bit later and you of course need 2 to upgrade weapons to +1, 4 for +2 and 6 for +3. After this again you are forced to wait until you can upgrade your weapon using large titanite shard (which upgrades your weapons to +6) until later on in the game. And of course don't get me started on the wait you have before you can upgrade your weapons up to +9 as you need titanite chunks for that and that is also pretty sparse in the game until much later on! So, the whole titanite upgrade process does get quite frustrating but again no doubt it was deliberate on the part of the makers to make life tricky.

And this brings me onto another area of frustration about the game, which is to do with the limited amount of alternative items to estus flasks that can replenish your health and while there are some they are always available in a limited capacity. So, as an example in the game you have an alternate health restoring item called divine blessing, which will restore your health completely and cure any poision/toxic effects but they are available only in limited amounts. You can however use miracles to heal if your faith is high enough and have a cleric build. So, if you are going into a big boss fight and find you are burning through your estus flasks too quickly you are left with little or no viable alternative most of the time, which does suck.

And then of course we get to the NPC summons for the boss fights, which are a bit of a mixed bag in their effectiveness in the fights themselves as some are clearly better than others. As an example both Sirris and Orbeck are summonable into the Twin Princes fight but they generally don't last beyond the start of the 2nd phase and then they are clobbered to death by sword wielding prince, Lorian, which makes them pretty useless at lasting the whole fight. 

Its also a bit annoying that you can only click on a single summon sign at a time and you need to wait for the first summon to come in before you can click on the second summon sign. This feels like a backward step from DS2 where you could easily click on summon signs one after the other and didn't have to wait ages for them appear either.  

I also wish there would have been more options to top up your focus points for casting spells as there will be times in boss fights or indeed enemy areas where you will run out of FP until you get back to a bonfire. However there is one item that can do this in the game called hidden blessing but they are available in limited quantity, which kind of sucks it has to be said. Another alternative is to equip a weapon infused with a simple gem, which will slowly regen your FP but I mean SLOWLY as it takes forever to do it!

Then there is of course the issue with the game's blood options, which I am OK with to an extent as you see the animation of blood flying from your enemies when you attack them and vice versa (a la Bloodborne style). However my main grip here is with the blood option turned on, your character ends up with a bloodied face but instead of the blood being red its black! So, instead the character looks like they are covered in tar or soot and it looks silly!

Another problem I have with the game is to do with volume of the enemies as there are some enemies in the game that are way TOO NOISY!!! Yep, there are quite a few enemies that screech like hyenas such as the female hollows who carry lanterns, the tree enemies in the Painted World DLC area and of course the Ghru, who screech loudly when you kill them (OK they are pretty funny the way they screech I admit!). So, I do wish that they turned down the volume just a little bit on these enemies as the previous games were never like this and it can be annoying and it was clear that DS3 borrowed its soundscape from Bloodborne, which was also a noisy game.   

I also felt that with this game, the director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, took the idea of bringing back mimics (i.e. the monsters that disguise themselves as a treasure chest) just a little too far as virtually every second chest you come across is a mimic! Now, it is common practice to hit chests to make sure they aren't a mimic in disguise in the Souls games but they did not feature as half as much as they do in this game! So, yeah I think they went a bit too far with the mimics in this game.

And last of all is to do with cursing (not swearing!) in the game, which appears to do nothing in this game other than kill you and that's it with no other after effects! Now in the previous games when you were cursed it actually did something to you when you were resurrected at the bonfire as in the original game, cursing halved your life and in the second game it increase your level of hollowing by one each time. However here apart from death, the curse has no other effect so to me I think it was just a pointless inclusion in the 3rd game, which I think was just added for the sake of consistency with the other games.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Dark Souls III is an excellent conclusion to the Souls series and it is packed with plenty of gripping and exciting combat and stern boss fights that will keep you thrilled and frustrated in equal measure. The game does still have some faults but overall would say its still the second best of the Souls trilogy with the original Dark Souls being the best of the three and Dark Souls II the slightly weaker overall. So, suffice to say Dark Souls III is a game that is still as addictive and long lasting as the previous ones with near endless replay value and is well worth checking out.

So, I will give Dark Souls III a rating of:

9.2 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back again soon with another post.

Till the next one, its bye for now!

Dark Souls II Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, continuing my Dark Souls reviews, here is the sequel to the original the much divided Dark Souls II, which is the marmite of the trilogy as you either love or hate it. 

So, what do I think of Dark Souls II? Well, let's take a look...

STORY 

So, the story is fairly similar to the original Dark Souls, where the playable character is a human who is undead and cursed to never die and eventually become hollow, a zombie like being with no memories or purpose. So, in order to break the curse, the undead travels to the kingdom of Drangleic and is tasked by the Emerald Herald to obtain four Great Souls from powerful Old Ones whose names are forgotten and forbidden. 

And its from here that the chosen undead starts their long and incredibly dangerous journey in their battle to claim the four Great Souls to end the undead curse.

THOUGHTS

As a sequel to the original, Dark Souls II had a lot to live up to but thankfully the game makers, Fromsoftware were more than up to the task this time round as DSII while it doesn't quite scale the heights of the original, its still an excellent, entertaining and gripping sequel with plenty of new features and enemies to deal with.  

The game itself also sees many different changes over the original but it does still follow pretty much the same forumla but it definitely has its own look and unique feel all the same. The game also appears to rack up the difficulty level from the original as it is filled with more bosses and even more enemies! 

It is however worth mentioning that it is available in two editions, the vanilla original Dark Souls II and the remastered updated version, Scholar of the First Sin, which features plenty more content some of which very contentious among fans of the series as there are so many more enemies and NPC invaders!

The game was also made by a different team at Fromsoft this time around as the Souls creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki was working on Bloodborne at the time, so he was not available to direct the game (even though he was given supervisor credit). And this does of course account for the change in tone from the other Souls games with much different lore and references to its predecessor and even in its successor. 

GAMEPLAY BASICS
 
As for the gameplay it follows pretty much the same patterns of the original Dark Souls with the third person perspective approach and similar move set such as running, jumping, walking the usual stuff however there are one or two changes still in terms of the controls than before. However one addition to the game is that there are certain areas where the character can use rope zip lines to traverse between different high up areas. 

The player's HUD is similar also with their health bar and endurance bar on the top left although the inventory has been given a bit of an overhaul with items positioned in a more boxed grid, which makes selecting items a bit easier. Then there is the stats screen that shows attributes such as your strength, endurance, vigor (which has replaced vitality to upgrade your health points, or HP) and what level your character is at. This is also where you can level up these stats, which now has to be done through one of non-playable characters (NPC) in the game, Emerald Herald, who is based at the central hub of the game, Majula.

In Majula, the character can come back to rest and upgrade their stats, equipment via the local blacksmith (Lenigrast) and deal with other merchants. It also leads off to other nearby areas, which again shows how the game is quite well connected similarly to the original Dark Souls.   

The player can also make the choice of character like before and select the character's gender, build and class of character e.g. warrior, knight, sorcerer, cleric or pyromancer and similar to the first game each character has their own different characteristics but more on that soon.

HEALTH AND WEAPONS RISKS

Dark Souls II also sees it set the difficulty level a bit higher when it comes to your player's weapons and health this time round because weapons can break much easier than in the previous game where most weapons didn't break at all! Your weapons however can be repaired by one of the blacksmiths in the game or if your weapon is almost broken you can return to the bonfire and it will automatically restore your weapon for you. 

Also if the player dies then their health bar will reduce a little each time they do, which can be reverse but only if the player uses certain items in the game. The player again though can replenish their health by drinking Estus flasks (same as the other Souls games) and additionally they can use a new item called life gems to do the same, which they can do when you are on the move.

HOLLOW VS HUMAN 
 
In terms of the hollowing and humanity process, things are also a little different this time because when you go hollow, as I said above you will lose a little of your health every time you die, however the game uses a new item called a human effigy to restore your player's humanity. The advantage here is that when your player's humanity is restored you can completely restore their health bar but you need to be wary that the process will repeat of them losing their health bar fractionally when they die and become hollow.  However there are also other items in the game that can reduce the amount of health you lose.

RINGS

This brings me onto the rings in the game, which feature a large variety that are spread throughout the game that can be bought via merchants or discovered in wooden boxes or treasure chests during their travels. The rings will have various abilities such as increasing your stamina, your life bar, defenses and resistances to certain things and later on enhanced versions of these rings can be found also that are +1, +2 and +3 in strength. Another improvement in the game sees the player now being able to use four rings at once rather than just the two in the original game, however the rings can also be broken during combat. 

TORCHES

A new addition to the game this time is the use of torches, which come in hand frequently as there are a number of dark or dimly lit areas to be found here. The player can either light their torch at a bonfire or light it from one another flamed source and it can also act as a key gameplay mechanic when fighting certain bosses. You do however need to find a fire source to relight your torch, so you can't equip it and un-equip it at will but the more torches you pick up it will increase the torch time you can keep them lit. 

WEAPONS

Not surprisingly in the game there is a huge selection of weapons to choose from which can be picked up either from the fallen dead or enemies or can be purchased from merchants and blacksmiths.

So, the game features all sorts of melee weapons such as swords, knives, maces, axes, spears, bows and crossbows that can be upgraded throughout the game by blacksmiths who enhance them with the use of different materials. The materials used are the same as in DS1, which are titanite shards, chunks, slabs and specific types of stone that create various effects such as magic, fire or lightning or just increase the overall power of the weapons attacks. There is also a big selection of shields that the player can access that range in all different sizes from small, medium to large shields (or great shields as they are known).

There are also other weapons in the game such as firebombs, which you can toss at enemies from a short distance that will explode on impact, throwing knives, which can be well...thrown at enemies! One thing about the throwing knives is that you can purchase ones that are covered with poision that can kill enemies quicker. In fact this reminds me that poison has a more potent effect this time round in the game as you die quicker if you are poisoned but it can be cured through poison moss. 

As for sorcerers they will have access to their own abilities that involve using a staff (or catalyst) to unleash their magic attacks and pyromancers can use a flame to launch their fire attacks and all of these attacks have various effects. Miracles on the other hand are cast using chimes and these can also be upgraded up to +10 to increase their power (just like the staffs) and effect of the miracles. 

GAME STATS, MELEE, MAGIC, PYROMANCY & FAITH 

Moving onto the game stats, this is where the game's depth really come into play as this is where it really depends on your choice of character and what characteristics they have and again things are very similar here in Dark Souls II. And as an example a melee character, who wields powerful swords and shields will upgrade their strength, endurance and their vigor (which is a new stat, which essentially increases your health bar) and adaptability (helps to maintain their poise in combat situations) to improve their performance throughout the game.

However when it comes to other characters such as a sorcerer, you may depend less on strength and endurance and more on intelligence and attunement where intelligence is used to cast spells and attunement to gain more slots to use different spells at once. As for pyromancy, intelligence wouldn't be a factor to use this but they use attunement that will improve their ability to cast faster. Clerics can probably have similar stats to melee characters with the exception of their key stat which is Faith that is used to cast their spells, which are known in the game as "miracles".

So basically in the game the stats remain much the same with the exception of two new stats of vigor (raises your health bar) and adaptability (increases your poise ability in combat i.e. so you won't stagger when attacked as well as your agility in combat). Vitality however undergoes the main change here in the game, which no longer governs the player's health but more their equipment load and defense.    

COMBAT

The combat system again is pretty similar to the original game where the player takes on enemies either in free flow or they can lock on to a single enemy.  The combat mechanics feature similar attacks such as the typical forward combo attacks but you can also parry your enemies (involves shield bashing them as they are about to strike and counter-attacking them). The backstab however that featured in the original game is now replaced with a critical attack but you can still backstab with certain weapons such as spears. You also have the option to perform a strong attack that inflicts more damage on enemies and there is options for a running attack, which has a similar potent effect.  

As for sorcery and pyromancy the attacks are very similar to the first Dark Souls only the casting speed for sorcerers is much faster than before although pyromancy appears to have only moderately been improved (I think!). You can also upgrade your casting speed via your stats as you progress with your intelligence and attunement but there are also rings that you can acquire than shorten the casting time. The same should go for pyromancers here I think but having not played as a pyro character yet I'm not sure of this myself nor of the clerics abilities in this regard as I haven't played as those characters myself.  

ENEMIES, BOSSES AND NPC's

This time round the game features a lot more enemies per area, which can range from the weaker enemies up to stronger ones. Of course a lot of the enemies that featured in the original reappear here such as hollows in various forms, skeletons, rats, mimics (the creatures that disguise themselves as a treasure chest) basilisks (the big frog-like creatures that can "curse" you with their gas). However there are of course plenty of new enemies that range from the weakest type such as infantry hollow soldiers to armoured knights (the dreaded Alonne knights!) but there are a vast array of enemies here for sure that will not leave stuck for a challenge as they can become very challenging as the game progresses! 

The game also features a much larger selection of bosses than in the previous game where this time round there are 41 bosses in total (which includes the bosses from the DLC content for the game). This is way more than any other Souls game and the bosses are in different forms such as giants, knights, sentinels, dragons, hybrid creatures and of course demons!  

Again the bosses vary in difficulty with some of them being quite easy whereas others are infuriatingly difficult but hey it is of course Dark Souls, so you have to expect that.  There are very few bosses however that can regenerate their health in the game (with the exception of the DLC boss, the Fume Knight, often considered the hardest in the game!).

Then we have the NPCs in the game who you can either interact with for trading and selling items or in the case of Emerald Herald, upgrade your stats with. There are other NPCs that you can also summon to help you fight in most boss fights (but not always!) who often prove very useful in battle and at times you can summon two of them for one fight but you need to be in human form before you can do this. However there also other NPCs that are enemies and invade you throughout the game, who are after your souls or humanity. In the first Souls game you were only invaded when you were in human form but here they can invade you in either a hollow or human state.

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics, well the original version of Dark Souls II was released in 2014 but it was given a remastered update in 2015 when they released Scholar of the First Sin, which featured revamped graphics, some additional enemies and also all the DLC content. As for the graphics, going by the Scholar version, they look terrific and the game's environments look stunning and rich with detail. 

The character models also look pretty good albeit there are more sophisticated looking ones by today's standards and the character's mouths don't appear to move when they talk! But overall the graphics for the game are very impressive and Scholar of the First Sin saw a big upgrade in Dark Souls II's visuals from their original release. 

MUSIC

As for the music, well its another fine score, which is again composed by Motoi Sakuraba with contributions by Yuka Kitmura and its filled with some great passages of music, which can be dramatic, suspenseful and even at times with poignant, such as the "Majula" theme which is the main hub of the game where the character rests.

In fact I think Dark Souls II's score while it might not hit the epic emotional heights of Dark Souls III, it is a more diverse sounding one and there plenty of highlights in there. And such examples include Fume Knight, Skeleton Lords, Vendrick, Old Dragonslayer, Ancient Dragon and the best of all is Sir Alonne's theme, which is easily one of the best tracks in the entire Souls series.   

So, Dark Souls 2's soundtrack is a very strong one for sure and to this day I often give it a listen independent of the game via Amazon.

FLAWS

As for flaws...yeah Dark Souls II does have some.

For starters the game insists on continuing its increase in difficulty over its predecessor but it does it more by bombarding the player with more enemies. Now in itself this could be seen as part of the challenge where but there are many enemies who are actually way tougher than the actual boss they are protecting that you go on to fight! So, there is a quite a bit of inconsistency in the difficulty level here as you get really tough standard enemies and at times dead easy bosses! However sometimes you do get both but the difficulty of the game certainly isn't always that balanced.

In fact further to this point, one of the game's major drawbacks is there are simply way too many bosses and DS2 would definitely have benefited from cutting out about half of the bosses, especially as lot of them are quite easy and not that memorable. And if they had cut down on the naff bosses in the game and concentrated on quality over quantity then I'm sure the game would be better received by the Souls community.   

Another issue is to do with the NPC invaders, who to put it bluntly are a major pain in the ass! Now there are some invaders in the game that are tougher than others but when you are trying to simply work your way through an area and you get invaded AND get killed in the process, it becomes VERY annoying pretty quickly! I mean you get the Forlorn invaders popping up at numerous times when you are trying to get from A to B and even in areas like the Iron Keep (my most HATED area in the main game of DS2!) there are two in-game invaders that appear and then you can get one of these Forlorn a-holes spawning in on top of them as well! So, yeah the invaders are a bit much although most of them were actually added into the Scholar version as the vanilla version of DS2 didn't have half as many.

Another problem is to do with how your weapons, shields and weapons can break much easier than in the original Dark Souls after so much fighting. Now the bonfire does reset your weapon's damage but if it breaks you then have to pay a blacksmith to fix them. Now, this does make things a little more realistic I guess but it can also be a pest when you are trying to fight your way past a big number enemies but to be fair you do have a large amount of weapons at your disposal, so you can always select another one but if its your most trusted weapon then its still a nuisance. You can however get a ring that reduces weapon degradation, so that does help out a bit.

I also cannot forget to mention the problem that existed in the original Dark Souls with the action of drinking from your Estus flask to recover your health being too rigid as you were rooted to the spot when drinking Estus, which hindered you in combat. Well, in DS2 that problem is replaced by the fact that your estus drinking action is even SLOWER than it was before, although the action of it doesn't feel as rigid as in DS1.

So, this means you end up getting murdered more times than not in a fight as a result! In fact for this I have coined my own phrase (which I should try and patent!) which is "Estus Murder" where drinking from your flask too slowly gets you killed!  However, perhaps they kind of addressed this issue by introducing life gems into the game, which the player can also use to restore their health and can do it on the move, which is an improvement over your pathetically slow Estus flask drinking. 

However to be fair the animation of Estus drinking can be sped up by raising your adaptability stat, which also improves your ability to roll through enemy attacks without taking damage (aka as invincibility frames). It is however worth noting that the adaptability stat itself is a pain in that exists and has to be upgraded in the first place as it would be best left out of the game if you ask me to allow for a standard roll and drink speed as in DS1 and DS3. 

And this brings me onto another issue in the game to do with the Estus flask upgrades as here you need to try and locate what is called Estus shards in order to increase the number of Estus flasks you have at your disposal. So, this means you need to locate these shards throughout the game as they are hidden in different areas, which can also be a pain and early on if you only have a couple of Estus flasks its a pain in the ass but to be fair the life gems also help with your health are more accessible.

Update: Again however, on reflection, the estus shards aren't a bad idea because at least once you find them all, you have a set number of estus, which can be refilled at the bonfire not unlike the first DS where you had to continually kindle each bonfire to boost your use to 10 or more. 

Another fairly big problem with the game is the fall damage, which is absolutely RIDICULOUS compared to the other Souls games, it is unreal how much damage you can take falling from heights that not that high up! And in the other games you might take a bit of fall damage when falling a fair height but here it outright kills you! 

The one way you can mitigate this however is to use the Silvercat ring, which is pretty decent at cancelling out a lot of fall damage from higher falls although it isn't a perfect solution. You can also use the fall control spell to reduce fall damage as well but you would need to meet the intelligence requirement to use it. So, yeah the fall damage sucks in DS2. 

Last of all is an issue to do with how enemies progressively stop re-spawning unlike in the original Dark Souls where all enemies respawned in all areas when you rest at your bonfire. Now, this is something of a blessing but also a problem as it makes life easier when you want to get through certain areas and the enemies stop respawning so much but it can also limit the amount of souls you can "farm" in order to upgrade or purchase items. 

So, its kind of double-edged sword that the game has handed you, its good you have to deal with lesser enemies the more times you redo an area but its also annoying you cannot farm for souls as much when they stop respawning. However, this again can be resolved by using the bonfire ascetic item, which allows you to reset all enemies in the area and items but on the flipside they now have more strength and damage output.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Dark Souls II is an excellent sequel to the original and it offers plenty of new features, weapons and upgrades that are all welcome additions as well as challenging enemies that can provide for a satisfying experience when you have finally defeated them. It also continues the non-linear nature of the DS1 and allows you to full explore a lot of different areas freely, which is a bonus that can allow you access to better items earlier on if you are adept enough at the game's difficulty.

However it has to be said that it doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of its predecessor due to some frustrating issues with gameplay. Also the game makers blatant attempts to make things more difficult at times by bombarding you with extra enemies is also an issue not to mention the level of difficulty can be a bit inconsistent. And it really has to be said there are too many bosses in the game and not only that but too many of them are mediocre and forgettable.

But if you can forgive its faults and try and not let yourself be too biased by the split opinions of the game, you might just enjoy DS2 whether it be the original or the Scholar version as it is very addictive and can be great fun and its easily one of the most under appreciated games out there. Basically, its a game you need to try with an open mind and not let the reputation given to it by players and audiences get in the way of you possibly enjoying what is a game that is quite different from the others in the Souls series. However, I think is one of its strengths and I still really enjoy it myself regardless of the criticisms leveled at it. 

So, I will finish and rate Dark Souls II:

9 out of 10

That's it for now and I will be back soon with possibly a revisited look at my Dark Souls III review.

Till then, its bye for now!  

 

Dark Souls Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey folks, well I recently decided to create a new blog specifically for gaming reviews and I finally got around to doing it. 

So, my first review for the blog will be one of my favourite games, which is Dark Souls (or Dark Souls 1) and I figured I would upload my other Dark Souls videos from that series too on here but I will add on my other gaming reviews from my main blog here too also. There will also of course be new game reviews on this blog, so you can keep an eye out for them.

So, with that all said let's take another look at the classic action role play game that is Dark Souls.

And the usual is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! 

STORY

Well, the story itself is fairly minimal and I will for a change quote the plot from Wikipedia (just to save a bit of time!).

"The world was once shrouded by grey fog and ruled by dragons. In this time period, Gwyn happens upon the First Flame and finds a Lord Soul. He and his allies use their power to defeat the dragons, beginning the Age of Fire. Over time, the flames begin to fade with the rise of humans, and Gwyn sacrifices himself and his soul to prolong the Age of Fire. With the flame artificially rekindled, the undead curse begins to plague humanity, causing certain humans to continually resurrect upon death.

The player character is a cursed undead, locked away in an undead asylum. After escaping the asylum, the player travels to Lordran to ring the Bells of Awakening. The bells awaken Kingseeker Frampt, who tells the player to ascend to Anor Londo. In Anor Londo, Gwynevere instructs the player to succeed Lord Gwyn and fulfill the prophecy. To accomplish this, the Lord Souls must be acquired from Gwyn's primordial allies and returned to the flame".

THOUGHTS

So having played this game over and over many times (no kidding!) I cna safely say that Dark Souls remains a true classic as it is a gripping, intense and enjoyable experience. It is also a pretty difficult game aswell and on first coming to the Souls series, it was a real eye opener for me having played so many games where there is an "easy" mode or tutorials onscreen to guide your hand, well not here! No, Dark Souls doesn't so much hold your hand through the game it kind of more chops it off and throws you in at the deep end!

However, despite the difficulty level of the game being at times very frustrating, its also part of what makes the game feel quite rewarding as once you pass the tests of one boss, you feel have really accomplished something with the game. And that is certainly one of the things that Dark Souls has going for it, its a challenge but its one that's worth taking on.

GAMEPLAY 
 
The gameplay section will be split into sub-sections below just so you know as there is quite alot to cover!

GAME FORMAT 
 
As for the actual gameplay, it takes on a very non-linear open world format with the playable character being one of the cursed undead (not a zombie however!) who does not have a name and you can basically traverse from area to area without any loading screens (well until later on that is!). The character you play is also shown in a third person perspective so you can see them and before you begin the game you can customise how your character will look and what class of character they will be.   

HUMANITY, HOLLOW AND NPCs

The character can take on two different forms, human and hollow and in order to become human, the character has to collect items called "humanity" which will restore them, however if the character is killed, then they will revert to hollow form.

And being human in the game gives the playable character some advantages such as they can receive help form other NPC's (non-playable characters) when taking on boss fights, however it has its downside too as you can encounter other hostile NPC's called invaders, who want to kill you and take your humanity for themselves. There are also certain NPC's throughout the game that will turn hollow themselves and lose their minds and attack you on sight. 

There are also other NPCs that will trade with you for different items such as weapons, armour, consumables or accessories as well as two blacksmiths that will upgrade your armour and weapons for you. In addition to this there is another NPC, Oswald of Carim, who can absolve you of your sins (by paying a large number of souls to him) should you kill off any NPC characters or intentionally or unintentionally aggro NPCs that you have met and would like to later trade or deal with. 

SOULS, SOUL FARMING & BONFIRES 

And one of the key aspects of the game itself are the souls you collect from foes you have killed, as the smaller enemies give you a smaller amount whereas the bosses will give you a larger amount of souls. The souls can then be used to upgrade your stats such as vitality, endurance and strength among other attributes that are key to the game. If however you are killed at any point in the game, your soul count will go back to zero but you can still retrieve your lost souls from the point where you died last, which will be marked by a bloodstain. However if you are unable to retrieve your souls a second time and are killed again then you lose those souls forever (unless you have a special ring that will negate this).

And this brings me onto one of the most important aspects of the game, which are the bonfires that you use throughout as checkpoints to save your progress but they allow you to do much more than just that alone. The bonfires also allow a player to rest, level up their stats by using the amount of souls they have gained from fallen enemies and even also repair and reinforce their weapons and armour if they have the proper tools aswell as store items. Resting at the bonfire will also allow you to replenish your estus flask amount, your health and cure any poison or toxic effects you may encounter. The one big caveat however about the bonfires is that they also respawn all the enemies in any area you are at when you rest at one, so that's the only downside to using them.

WEAPONS & COMBAT 

As for the game's combat system is pretty straightforward with the character having access to a large variety of melee weapons such as swords, axes, daggers, spears, halberds aswell as bows and arrows all of which can be upgraded as you progress. The character will also have access to armour and helmets of which these can also be upgraded as the game progresses via the use of materials known as titanite shards, which you can get in different varieties and will upgrade your items up to different levels starting with +1 all the way up to +15. However different weapons and armour will have their own set limit on the upgrade level they can reach so only some weapons, sheilds and armour can go to +5 and +10 whereas there are specific weapons that can be full upgraded all the way to +15. These weapons can also infused with different elements such as magic, fire and lightning, which can all have varying effectiveness on different enemies.

The character can carry out a number of moves such as typical forward attacks or backstabs aswell as dodge manoeveurs to avoid enemy attacks. There is also another special attack, a parry which requires careful timing where your character will deflect an enemy's weapon with their shield and follow it up with a riposte (or stab attack) to finish them off or deal out heavy damage. 

CHARACTER CLASSES AND STATS

In the game you will also have the choice of choosing between different starting classes of characters that include a warrior, sorcerer, pyromancer and a cleric and all these classes will have varying attributes and different strengths aswell as abilities.

As an example if you are a playing as a warrior you will play through the game primarily by using weapons such as swords, clubs, spears or axes and take on primarily a melee approach to the game. If you are playing as a sorcerer then you may use a mixture of magic spells and melee weapons to help you fight through the game and you can also buff your weapons with certain spells to add on magic damage. Or if you are playing as a pyromancer you will have access to some powerful pyromancy spells that can do considerable fire damage but also using melee weapons for this class is recommended. And if you are a cleric again you will require a mixture of elemental spells known as miracles that can offer healing abilities aswell as perform attacks that involve lightning. These are just some of the options available of course as there are more playable characters to choose from.  

As for your characters stats there are set number of attributes that can be upgraded throughout and each class with start with different levels for each stat and these stats include vitality, strength, endurance, intelligence, dexterity and faith.  However I would say overall that vitality and endurance are important to every class as vitality boosts your character's health and endurance their stamina.

So as an example of the other stats, intelligence may apply primarily to sorcerers as it is a stat that can be upgraded throughout the game so they can perform more powerful spells.  As for other examples, a cleric will want to upgrade their faith, which is used to perform miracles and the powerful miracles will require higher faith that can either offer healing or offensive capabilities. And lastly, a warrior may focus more primarily on their strength and endurance as strength will allow them to hold more powerful weapons and endurance will also help them to boost their equipment load and what they can carry aswell their stamina when running and during combat.

RINGS 

The game also makes use of various different rings that will enable the player to gain different abilities aswell as offer levels of protection and resistance to physical or elemental damage. As an example there are rings such as the Cloranthy Ring, which will allow your player's endurance bar to regenerate quicker. Other rings also include the Havel's Ring, which boosts your equipment load to allow you to carry a heavier items such as weapons or armour. Then there are rings that boost your resistance to elemental damage such as lightning, fire (the lightning and red stoneplate rings) aswell as reducing bleed and poison damage and even resistance to curse effects. The player however can only wear two rings at one time and there are certain rings that will break and become unusable if they are removed, so you do need to be careful about which rings you select to use.   

ENEMIES 

Moving onto the enemies, this is where Dark Souls is at its most diverse as there are a huge number of enemies for the player to take on all of which vary in terms of their challenge and difficulty. The standard enemies feature hollows, who come with and without armour and can carry a number of weapons such as knives, spears, swords and even use torches and while they are easy to kill, in numbers they can be a threat. There are also other enemies such as numerous skeletons, demons and giants all of which can be made of stone, flesh or indeed bone and have varying levels of difficulty of which plenty of them can leave you chucking your console controller out the window! 

BOSSES

And of the key aspects of the game is of course the bosses as they themselves can tend to provide a big challenge for players to overcome although they can vary in difficulty throughout the game and believe me there are some pretty tough bosses to be found here! And this game has some of the most memorable boss fights in gaming history that include the legendary duo of Ornstein (a knight in dragon slayer armour) and Smough (an exceutioner who is a big fat guy with a small head and also carries a huge hammer!).

Most of the bosses for the most part are actually quite manageable but O&S are definitely one of the hardest battles however the game's DLC does provide three pretty hard bosses such as Knight Artorius, a tortured knight corrupted by the abyss, a brutal demon named Manus and a ferocious dragon named Kalameet. These guys are pretty much the main challenge of the game and will take some effort to overcome but they are also pretty rewarding to defeat. So the games's bosses are definitely the game's main highlights. 

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics, the game looks stunning in its remastered version on the PS4, as the environments are rich and detailed, not to mention very varied in their design as your character can traverse to castles, fortresses, sewers, aswell as open lands.  The character models however remain a weakness in the visuals here as they do look dated by today's standards and the models features actually look a bit too soft and undefined. However that aside, the graphics look mightily impressive in their PS4 remaster and its definitely for the most part a treat to look at.


MUSIC 

And regarding the music, it was composed by Motoi Sakuraba and it is a very good score overall with some very impressive orchestrations and its a rich mixture of drama and suspense. And the game's score has quite a few highlights that include the theme for Artorius, Ornstein & Smough. However the main highlight here is the theme for the final boss, Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, which is a very poignant beautiful piece played solely on piano that has got to rank as one of the most memorable themes in video game history that also really packs an emotional punch.

So overall the music score is pretty impressive here however its a testament to the quality of the music in the Souls series that the music in the sequels would be even better.   


FLAWS

As for flaws...yes...Dark Souls does have some worth mentioning.

And to kick off there is the whole thing with the bonfires, which are a pretty good concept and act as  a decent checkpoint, but at the same time they often are few and far between different areas and it can be frustrating that you can't save your progress as you go.  This is especially a real pain if you are nearing a boss fight, you can just save the point before you are about to face them. However, if you are having to trek from one point to another and get killed enroute, you are forced to go back to square one, which can become a pain in the ass real quick!

Another is to do with alot of big enemies in the game having MASSIVE weapons that have unreal reach that can cause them to put the smackdown on your character with great ease! This also becomes mega frustrating very quickly, especially as there are times where you try to roll to avoid them but you still end up getting caught in the line of their weapon. However this is something is pretty rife throughout the Souls series, so in the end you just have to accept it and to be fair as you progress, you will have access to some bigger weapons too.   

I also find it quite bizarre the large number of pick-ups that the player can pick up during the game, don't ever overload their inventory, as they end up with a massive amount of items and weapons, that would realistically be impossible to carry! Its also a pity that you can't sell these items aswell to any of the traders in the game for souls although you can later "feed" items to the serpent, Frampt who will give you a small number of souls for each one. However you do get access to an endless box, which let's you store as many items as you like, so you can lighten your inventory, which is a good idea and makes it easier for weapon/armour selection. 

There are also some other aspects of the game that can be annoying to deal with also such as when a player becomes cursed and they lose half of their health in the process and they then need to find a way to break that curse. This can be achieved usually by either purchasing a purging stone, which will break the curse, or by obtaining a cursebite ring, which will provide the player with a stronger resistance to curses. The second method would of course be the most effective one but its one that is not easy to get a hold of, as it involves the player having to go into another area (New Londo Ruins) where you need to fight off some ghosts and to do this you need another item called a transient curse, so you can attack them.  So, basically you have to yet again do one tough thing to resolve another one but hey that's how it is in Dark Souls!

Then there is an issue to do with the Estus flasks where if you accidentally press the square button (on your PS4 or PS3 that is) and you are already at full health, you will still use up another flask, yet in most other games if you are at full health, the game stops you from wasting another health item, but not here!  And this can especially annoying as you might end up doing it with only a couple of flasks left, while at full health and you might be in dire need of what you have left! This could however be a deliberate choice on the game creators behalf as they may want you to use your items carefully and sparingly. 

Another gripe I have with the game is the action of the player drinking from their Estus flasks, which is a bit on the slow side. And this is particularly the case when you are fighting against a standard enemy or boss, as their reactions tend to be pretty fast. So, by the time you have finished swigging from your Estus flask, the boss may already have beat you down and then will close in for the kill, so it would be better if the action of this was quicker, so it didn't disrupt the flow to the combat of the game, plus you just might not end up getting killed so often!!! 

However, further to this point and on re-playing the game to be entirely fair to the original Dark Souls, the Estus flask drinking speed in this game really isn't that bad and is fairly quick in comparison to Dark Souls II where the action speed is just RIDICULOUSLY SLOW!!! So, I have to be a bit fairer here to the original game as its really not too bad in comparison to the piss poor speed of the Estus flask drinking in Dark Souls II.  

I also found the upgrading process for your weapons and armour in this game to be a bit complicated in comparison to the sequels as you had to keep getting different types of shards to do this which you still had to do of course in the sequels but they did a better job to simplify the process in Dark Souls II and III. Also if you wanted to infuse your weapons with different elements such as fire, lightning or magic you would need special titanite shards, which would mean downgrading a weapon to a specific level (usually its +5 I think!) before you can infuse and upgrade it again. However in the sequels all you needed was the proper stone or gem to infuse with the weapon and that weapon could keep its current upgrade level whether it be +2 or +8 but in the original Dark Souls this whole process is a real pain.

And last of all is the issue to do with having to rekindle every new bonfire you go to take max out your Estus Flask amount whether it be to 10 (or later 15 or 20) and this is done by using humanities and you have to be in human form to kindle the flame in the first place. Now, this really does become quite time consuming and tiresome after a while especially considering in the sequels you had to locate Estus Shards to maximise the usage of your flask but once you got them, you're flask was at a consistent number for the rest of the game and this is something I much prefered in the sequels.

And further to this point I think the amount of bonfires you can travel to once you have the ability warp between them is also a bit too limited as there is usually more than just one bonfire to be found in certain areas but you tend to just warp to a single one in a bigger area, which can be a pain. Again in the sequels they afforded players more freedom by allowing you to travel between every available bonfire in the game rather than just selective ones like you do here. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws (for now!).

SUM UP

So to sum it all up, Dark Souls is without a doubt one of the greatest action role play video games of all time, which is truly epic with its open world environments, which are vast and expansive. The game is also packed with a large variety of enemies, who become MUCH tougher as the game progresses and its certainly one of the toughest and most challenging games I have played. However, its challenge is also part of its reward in that it is great to get a game that does push and challenge your abilities as a gamer, rather than hand hold you like alot of games tend to do in this day and age.

And if you haven't tried Dark Souls yet, then I would certainly recommend giving it a go, as it really is an extremely challenging, engrossing, gripping, tense and at times creepy experience that is well worth any gamer's time.

So, I will give Dark Souls a rating of:

10 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back with my review of Dark Souls II soon.

Till then, praise the sun!