| Dark Souls III | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | FromSoftware |
| Publisher | Bandai Namco Entertainment
|
| Directors |
|
| Designers |
|
| Programmer | Takeshi Suzuki |
| Writer | Hidetaka Miyazaki |
| Composers |
|
| Series | Dark Souls |
| Platforms | |
| Release | PlayStation 4,Xbox OneWindows
|
| Genre | Action role-playing |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Dark Souls III[a] is a 2016action role-playing game developed byFromSoftware and published byBandai Namco Entertainment. Released for thePlayStation 4,Xbox One, andWindows, the game is the third and final entry in theDark Souls series and follows an unkindled warrior on a quest to prevent the end of the world. It is played in athird-person perspective, and players have access to various weapons, armour, magic, andconsumables that they can use to fight their enemies.Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the series, returned to direct the game after handing the development duties ofDark Souls II to others.
Dark Souls III was critically and commercially successful, with critics calling it a worthy and fitting conclusion to the series. It shipped over three million copies within its first two months and over 10 million by 2020. Twodownloadable content (DLC) expansions,Ashes of Ariandel andThe Ringed City, were also made.Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition, containing the base game and both expansions, was released in April 2017.
Dark Souls III is anaction role-playing game played in a third-person perspective. According to lead director and series creatorHidetaka Miyazaki, the game's gameplay design followed "closely fromDark Souls II".[1] Players are equipped with various weapons to fight against enemies, such as bows, throwable projectiles, magic catalysts, and swords. Shields can act as secondary weapons, but they are mainly used to deflect enemies' attacks and protect the player from suffering damage.[2] Each weapon has two basic types of attack, one being a standard attack and the other being slightly more powerful that can be charged up, similar to FromSoftware's previous game,Bloodborne. In addition, attacks can be evaded through dodge-rolling.[3]Bonfires, which serve as checkpoints, return from previous installments.[4] Ashes, according to Miyazaki, play an important role in the game.[5]Magic is featured in the game, with a returning magic system fromDemon's Souls, now known as "focus points" (FP). When performing spells and weapon skills, the player's focus points are consumed. There are two types of Estus Flasks in the game, which can be allotted to fit a player's particular play style. One refillshit points like previous games in the series, while the other refills focus points, a feature new to the game.[6] Combat and movements were made faster and more fluid than inDark Souls II.[7][8] Several player movements are performed more rapidly, allowing more damage to be done in a shorter period.[9][3]
New combat features are introduced inDark Souls III, including weapon and shield "Skills", which are special abilities that vary from weapon to weapon and enable special attacks and features at the cost of focus points.[2] The game focuses more on role-playing; the expanded character builder and improved weapons provide more tactical options.[10] The game features fewer overall maps than its predecessorDark Souls II, but they are larger and more detailed, encouraging exploration.[4] The adaptability stat fromDark Souls II was removed inDark Souls III, with other stats being adjusted alongside the introduction of the luck stat.[4] The game features multiplayer elements like the previous games in the series.[11]
In Lothric, a bell tolls 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 after death. The Age of Fire can be prolonged by linking 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, abandoned his duty and chose to watch the flame die from afar. The bell is the last hope for the Age of Fire, resurrecting previous Lords of Cinder (heroes who linked the flame in past ages) to attempt to link the fire again; however, all but one Lord shirk their duty. Meanwhile, Sulyvahn, a sorcerer from the Painted World of Ariandel, wrongfully proclaims himself Pontiff and seizes power over Irithyll of the Boreal Valley andAnor Londo as a tyrant.
The Ashen One, 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. The Lords include the Abyss Watchers, a restless infighting legion of warriors sworn to the Old Wolf's Blood which linked their souls into one to protect the land from the Abyss; Yhorm the Giant, who sacrificed his life for a nation conquered by his ancestor; and Aldrich, who became a Lord of Cinder through sheer strength despite his ravenous appetite for both men and gods. Lothric himself was raised to link the First Flame but shirked his duties and chose instead to watch the fire fade.
Once the Ashen One succeeds in returning Lothric and the Lords of Cinder to their thrones by slaying them and forcibly seating their cinders, they travel to the ruins of the Kiln of the First Flame. There, they encounter the Soul of Cinder, an amalgamation of all the former Lords of Cinder, the manifestation and final protector of the First Flame. Upon its defeat, the fate of the First Flame is decided by the player, based on their actions and choices throughout the story.
Ashes of Ariandel introduces a new area, the Painted World of Ariandel. On arriving at the Cathedral of the Deep in the base game, the Ashen One meets Gael, a wandering knight who implores them to enter the Painted World and fulfill a prophecy to bring "Fire for Ariandel." Inhabitants of this world variously beg the Ashen One to burn the Painted World per the prophecy, or leave it to its slow rot. A painter girl tells the Ashen One of "Uncle" Gael's promise to find her dyes to paint a new world. The player's decision to proceed elicits coldness from Sister Friede, the world's self-appointed guardian. When the player attempts to access the inner sanctum, she and Father Ariandel fight them as a boss. Upon their defeat, the Painted World is set ablaze. The painter thanks the player for showing her flame and awaits the end of Gael's duty, which will supply her with something she can use to paint a new world for humanity.
In keeping with previous franchise DLC,Ashes of Ariandel introduces a substantial new area, two boss fights and several new weapons, spells, and armor pieces.
InThe Ringed City, the Ashen One begins their journey to an area known as "The Dreg Heap", where ruined kingdoms of different eras are piled upon each other as the world draws to a close. From the Dreg Heap, after battling through the ruins of Lothric Castle, the Ashen One encounters the amnesiac knight Lapp, who cannot remember his past. Throughout the Dreg Heap, messages from Gael fromAshes of Ariandel guide the player. The Ashen One traverses the remnants of Earthen Peak, an area encountered inDark Souls II, before fighting the last remnant of the demon race, the Demon Prince, in the base of an Archtree that contains the ruins of Firelink Shrine fromDark Souls. Victorious, the player travels to the Ringed City, an ancient city of Pygmies, the ancestors of humanity, which has fallen into the Abyss. After defeating the Guardian of the Church of Filianore, the player awakens Princess Filianore, the daughter of Lord Gwyn, who was entrusted to the Ringed City as a token of peace between Gwyn and the Pygmy Lords. This transports them to a ruined wasteland of ash. There, the Ashen One meets a disheveled Gael, who has begun killing and eating the Pygmy Lords in order to gain the blood of the Dark Soul for the painter girl in Ariandel to use as paint. After consuming the Dark Soul, Gael becomes fully corrupted by its power and demands the Ashen One surrender their portion of it. He is finally struck down, allowing the Ashen One to obtain his blood, which yet contains the Dark Soul. The Ashen One then gives the Blood of the Dark Soul to the painter in Ariandel, who uses it to paint a new world for humanity - which she calls a "cold, dark, and very gentle place."
The Ringed City introduces two large new areas to explore, four major boss battles, new enemies, items, magic spells, weapons, and armor. It also adds a new player-versus-player mode and a corresponding player covenant.
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The game's development began in mid-2013 before the release ofDark Souls II, whose development was handled by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura instead of the series creator,Hidetaka Miyazaki.[12] The game was developed alongsideBloodborne but was handled by two mainly separate teams. Miyazaki also returned to directDark Souls III. Isamu Okano and Tanimura, the directors ofSteel Battalion: Heavy Armor andDark Souls II, respectively, served as sub-directors for the game.[13] Despite Miyazaki initially believing that the series would not have many sequels,[14] Miyazaki later added that the game would not be the last in the series. Instead, it would serve as a "turning point" for both the franchise and the studio, as it was the last project by FromSoftware before Miyazaki became the company's president.[15] The game's gameplay was then first shown atGamescom 2015 in August.[16]
Miyazaki said thatBloodborne's limitations made him want to return to theDark Souls series.[17] The game's level design was created to become more of another "enemy" the player must face.[18][19] However, just as the formerSouls games narrate their stories,Dark Souls III unfolds the plot with strong vagueness: players can learn the storyline merely through the conversation withnon-player characters (NPCs), art design, and itemflavour text.[20] Due to this, Miyazaki states that there is no official and unique story. His intention in designing this game was to not impose his viewpoint, with him stating that any attempts to discover and understand the plot and that world are encouraged.[20] The improvement to archery, specifically draw speed, was inspired byLegolas fromThe Lord of the Rings franchise.[5] The game's visual design focuses on "withered beauty", with ember and ash scattered throughout the game's world.[11] The game's original score was primarily written byDark Souls II andBloodborne composer Yuka Kitamura. Additional music was written byDark Souls composerMotoi Sakuraba, with a single boss theme each by Tsukasa Saitoh and Nobuyoshi Suzuki.[21]
Dark Souls III was released in Japan forPlayStation 4 andXbox One on March 24, 2016,[22] and released worldwide, along with theWindows version, on April 12, 2016.[23] A stress test for the game, which allowed players selected by Bandai Namco to test the game's network functionality before release, was available for three days in October 2015.[24] The game has three special editions for players to purchase, which cost more than the base game. Players who pre-ordered the game had their game automatically upgraded to theApocalypse Edition, which has a special case and the game's original soundtrack.The Collector's Edition contains physical items such as the Red Knight figurine, an artbook, a new map, and special packaging.The Prestige Edition features all the content inThe Collector's Edition but has an additional Lord of Cinder resin figurine, which can form a pair with the Red Knight figurine.[25]
The game's firstdownloadable content (DLC) expansion, titledAshes of Ariandel, was released on October 24, 2016.[26][27] The second and final DLC,The Ringed City, was released on March 28, 2017.[28] Both DLCs added new locations, bosses, armours, and weapons to the game. A complete version containing the base game and both DLCs, titledDark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition, was released on April 21, 2017.[29]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 89/100[43] PS4: 89/100[44] XONE: 87/100[45] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Destructoid | 8.5/10[30] |
| Edge | 9/10[31] |
| Famitsu | 38/40[32] |
| Game Informer | 9.25/10[33] |
| GameRevolution |   [34] |
| GameSpot | 8/10[35] |
| GamesRadar+ | [36] |
| IGN | 9.5/10[37] |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 94/100[38] |
| Polygon | 7/10[39] |
| VideoGamer.com | 8/10[42] |
| The Daily Telegraph | [40] |
| The Guardian | [41] |
Dark Souls III received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregatorMetacritic, with praise given to the game's visuals and combat mechanics, reminding reviewers of its faster-paced similarity toBloodborne.[30][33][34][37][46]
Chloi Rad ofIGN awarded the game a 9.5 out of 10, stating she thought that "IfDark Souls 3 truly is the last in the series as we know it, then it's a worthy send-off."[37] Rich Stanton ofEurogamer rated the game as "essential", calling it "fabulous" and that it was "a fitting conclusion" to theDark Souls series.[46] Steven Strom ofArs Technica wrote that he thought the title still had the "smooth and impressive rendering of the series' signature style" and some of "the best boss fights in anySouls game".[47] Simon Parkin ofThe Guardian gave the game 5 out of 5 stars and wrote that whileDark Souls III "may not have the novelty of the firstDark Souls", it was "the more pristine and rounded work" of the series.[41]
However, criticism was directed at issues with the game's technical performance,[39] linear map design,[34][47] and Bandai Namco's handling of the Western launch.[48][49]Polygon rated the game a 7 out of 10, bluntly stating disappointment at the lack of surprises and the arbitrary nature of the game's design, writing that "in so many important ways -- its world design, its pacing, the technology powering it -Dark Souls III falls short of the mark."[39] A later patch, released on April 9, fixed some of the technical issues reviewers had with the game.[50]
Reception toAshes of Ariandel, the game's firstdownloadable content (DLC) expansion, was generally positive. Brendan Graeber ofIGN enjoyed what the DLC offered, enjoying the introduction of a dedicatedplayer versus player (PvP) arena, as well as the new enemies and bosses, but criticised the length, stating thatAshes of Ariandel served more as "an appetizer than a full course meal".[51] Kollar ofPolygon considered the content of the DLC to be "great" but agreed with Graeber's criticism of the length, saying that there was not much of it.[52]
The 2022 release ofElden Ring brought renewed interest inDark Souls III.[53][54][55] In a retrospective,Eurogamer comparedDark Souls III to other similar games as an "exercise in refinement" that FromSoftware accomplished with "craftsmanship and invention",[56] but remarked it was reaching the limit of what the "Soulsborne formula" could accomplish.
In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold over 200,000 copies in its first two weeks of release.[57] It became the fastest-selling video game published by Bandai Namco Entertainment America, becoming its most successful day-one launch.[58] It held the record for the fastest-sellingBandai Namco game up until it was surpassed byElden Ring in 2022.[59]
On May 10, 2016, Bandai Namco announced thatDark Souls III had reached three million copies shipped worldwide, with 500,000 in Japan and Asia, 1.5 million in North America, and one million in Europe.[60] It was also reported thatDark Souls III was the best-selling software in North America in the month of release.[61] By May 2020, the game had sold over 10 million copies.[62]
| Year | Award event | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Golden Joystick Awards 2016 | Ultimate Game of the Year | Won | [63][64] |
| Best Gaming Moment | Nominated | |||
| Best Multiplayer Game | Nominated | |||
| Best Visual Design | Nominated | |||
| The Game Awards 2016 | Best Role Playing Game | Nominated | [65] | |
| 2017 | 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards | Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year | Won | [66] |
| 21st Satellite Awards | Outstanding Action/Adventure Game | Won | [67] |
| Video games | |||||
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| Other | |||||
| Universe |
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Games directed byHidetaka Miyazaki | |
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| King's Field |
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| Armored Core | |
| Shadow Tower | |
| Echo Night | |
| EverGrace | |
| Lost Kingdoms | |
| Otogi | |
| Another Century's Episode | |
| Dark Souls | |
| Elden Ring | |
| Other games |
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| People | |
| Related | |
