After plenty of requests from Dark Souls fanatics, Microsoft has given Dark Souls 3 the FPS Boost treatment on Xbox Series X|S, letting the game use more of the new generation console power to run at 60fps.
Praise the sun! ☀
We've updated Dark Souls III with FPS Boost on the Xbox Series X|S: https://t.co/KTcFk7PBGe pic.twitter.com/ExqlzC3Fp4
— Xbox (@Xbox) July 8, 2021
This is great news for console-owning fans of the series, as players have often struggled with less than consistent frame rates in FromSoftware’s games – a real issue when you often need near perfection to make it through some of the tougher battles with dodges and blocks.
Dark Souls 3 was released in April 2016 with a string of expansions released over the year that followed. As the PlayStation 4 Pro was released in November 2016 and the game was still in active post-launch development, FromSoftware added the option to remove the 30fps frame cap on PlayStation 4 Pro – the PlayStation 5 can already play Dark Souls 3 at 60fps, in other words. However, there was no such change made when the Xbox One X arrived at the end of 2017, leaving players trapped at 30fps.
Further Reading: Was Dark Souls III a fitting end to the Dark Souls trilogy?
Digital Foundry reports that Dark Souls 3 runs flawlessly on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, with only a single dip down to 53fps on Series S. Meanwhile, the base Xbox One struggles to maintain 30fps. A rousing success then, right? Well, not quite. Dark Souls 3 is still restricted to running at 900p on Xbox, while it’s at 1080p on PlayStation.
On this occasion, FPS Boost is merely bringing rough parity to a game, but FPS Boost in general is a great initiative and a real advantage for the Xbox Series X|S consoles that doesn’t require devs to return to their games and patch them, as they would on PlayStation. Yes, there are often trade-offs that might sacrifice Xbox One X enhancements for 60fps gameplay, but across the board, FPS Boost is giving players more options and improving performance. Since the first five FPS Boost games were announced in February, Microsoft has added a huge glut of Xbox One games to the program. With Dark Souls 3, there’s now 98 titles with doubled frame rates.
We grumbled about the 30fps frame rate in our Dark Souls 3 review.
Dark Souls 3 was the epic conclusion to the Dark Souls trilogy. In our Dark Souls 3 review, Dave said:
“Dark Souls III offers more of the same intensely difficult combat, ambiguous overarching story, and some striking locales and bosses in the franchises’ history. The only real objective criticism on the PS4 version is that the combat doesn’t feel responsive enough thanks to the 30FPS cap and frame drops. Dying in Dark Souls III is part of the territory and if that doesn’t faze you, then this is an easy recommendation for those with the patience of a saint.”
Source: Twitter
