The Gist of Dark Souls 3
That’s about it, plus multiple death happenings.
Hello all, time for another Gist comic!
This time it’s Dark Souls 3, obviously. I’m not going to go into length about this game, despite my adoration of the series, as I’ve already banged on about it previously. But I will tell you what’s cool about it.
Suffice to say that I enjoyed it- this is a game for my hall of fame. It isn’t the best of the series- objectively I’d say it’s second best, with DS2 taking third place, but subjectively I have a soft spot for DS2. That aside, this instalment captures a lot of what made DS1 great and makes it way prettier.
It also captures much of the frustration- the NPC plotlines really bug me, because to me they don’t represent challenge or the way that Souls encourages you to find out things yourself. They feel more like random events that you have no control over. I mean, who first went back to the well and found this git inside? After already doing most of the Cathedral? Then found Patches, at the right time and place? Good Lord. And yeah, I drove my miracle vendor insane. Oops.
Gameplay is still classic Souls. The whole thing has the gloomy, dingy vibe that we love, only occasionally spoiled by the Japanese predilection for enormous cartoon weaponry. Souls is like traversing a nightmare, where things don’t always make sense, so I can forgive a lot. The difficulty isn’t as bad as some say, once you get the hang of things and remember that you can often try something different when stuck. Once you get used to an area, things get a loooot easier. In fact, I think what I enjoyed most about DS3 was getting back to that feeling you get on your first playthrough, where you don’t know what’s around the corner or how far the next bonfire is. It’s a shame when that tension goes away, but it’s a fantastic dynamic and atmosphere generator.
Long story short, it’s a good game and Souls veterans will like all the nods and winks to Dark Souls 1 locations. I’m hoping to see some of those nods aimed at Dark Souls 2 locations in the future DLC.
