If At First You Don’t Succeed: Hands On With Dark Souls III

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise at this point, but Dark Souls III is a rather difficult game. It demands exacting precision and timing in order to survive and succeed within its dark, muted and foreboding world.

And yet while this situation held a lot of familiarity for me, it was also very unfamiliar. My first and only experience with Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware’s particular brand of action RPG came with last year’s PlayStation exclusive Bloodborne.

While clearly related, that game diverged from the Dark Souls series in a number of ways, which long term players needed to adapt to. With no shield, it was a more fluid and evasive form of combat, while the regain system let you regain health from your aggressors. As I played the opening of Dark Souls III, I discovered and struggled with some of these changes in the reverse direction. At least, that’s my excuse for dying time and again.

Others would lead you to believe that the first two bosses in the game are easy, and in some ways they are, but only once you recognise how to defeat them. Personally, I found myself torn between the need to get close and the defensive urge to stay away and protect myself. The latter instinct was my undoing time and again, and yet it feels obvious in retrospect.

Particularly so when having to deal with the fearsome and horrifying transformations that some enemies can now go through. As the boss Iudex Gundyr wakes up, having had a sword pulled from his chest, he seems like an ordinary big boss with a halberd, who comes at you with a variety of stabs, sweeps and leaping attacks.

However, get his health low enough and a black liquid flows out of him, reminding me of John Carpenter’s The Thing as it suddenly takes on a new form, like a giant rat head on a snake’s body. It’s a drastic transformation that requires a new line of thought, with very different attacks and cues to look out for.

This isn’t necessarily a new thing for the overall series, but these kinds of transformations can also occur in otherwise unexpected places to normal enemies, creating situations where formidable demi-bosses can suddenly appear. In some ways that’s similar to the patrolling knights you can encounter, but I feel are more dangerous in the way that they can catch you in awkward positions which restrict your movement and rapidly deal damage with their fast and sinuous attacks.

They present a considerable challenge that, with limited charges to my Estus Flask – another unfamiliar point for those coming from Bloodborne – saw me avoiding combat with them in order to try and explore and find new bonfires and shortcuts within the castle.

This castle, the High Wall of Lothric, has been shown a number of times in the past and was first demoed at Gamescom last year. It’s the first main area to explore and fight through after the introductory Cemetry of Ash, but these two places aren’t linked. The High Wall of Lothric feels like a large and expansive area, but it seems to be cut off from other parts of the Kingdom of Lothric, as the way that you reach it is by jumping there from the bonfire in the Firelink Shrine.

It’s in the shrine that you can upgrade your character with the souls you’ve collected, as well as visiting a few other NPCs who will help you out. One fascinating wrinkle in setting up your character revolves around the Estus Flask, choosing between how many health potions you have and how many Ashen Estus Flask potions you have, which restore FP or mana points for magic abilities. Splitting the four drinks up between the two, it means you can focus your character around magic abilities or around close quarters combat more effectively with the Estus Flask giving you the back up you need to do so.

There’s going to be plenty of experimentation once again, with various character builds and styles of play. There are ten classes to pick from and nine Burial Gifts as you start the game. I picked a combat oriented Herald – who I named Janine Butcher – meaning I started with a spear and shield, and predisposing me to a particular style of combat. It was interesting that, as I died repeatedly, the game seemed to take pity on me, with random enemies dropping certain items from a set of clothing and armour – though nothing better than what I wore initially – as well as a sword that I quickly found I was much happier to play with than a spear.

After years of not understanding the appeal of the Souls series and battling through a particularly challenging and punishing environment, I definitely get it now. Three hours of Dark Souls III dented my ego, after having felt competent and fairly good at Bloodborne, but I know that I’ll be back when the game is released.