In the age of estoc, the meta was unformed, shrouded by fog.
A land of greatshields, dark swords, and everlasting stamina.
But then there were builds, and with builds, came disparity. Strength and dex, int and faith, and of course... fun and tryhard.
Then, from the planners, they came, and found the stats for weapons to fit their builds.

Straightsword, the first of the playthroughs
The Weeaboo Edgelords, and their Blades of Chaos
FUGS, the Lord of Damage, and his faithful poise
And the furtive caster, so easily forgotten.

With the power of builds, they challenged the greatshields.
FUGS's mighty blows peeled apart their huge stamina
The weebs weaved huge ♥♥♥♥♥torms on the internet
Straightswords unleashed a flurry of R1s and kicks
And the Hornet Ring betrayed his own, and the turtles were nerfed more.

Thus began the Age of Builds.
But soon, the meta will change, and only tryhards will remain.
Even now, there are only duels, and invaders see not ganks, but endless bows.
And amonsgt the PCs are seen, carriers of the accursed Cheat Engine
-Rain, discord memelord

it's a nice and relaxing game.

Was not Gud
Decided to Git Gud
Got Gud

10/10
Would Git Gud again

If you liked dark souls 1 or 2 then just buy this game as it's basically the same formula with some tweaks.

If you've never played a souls game then let me ask you these questions:

Does the idea of facing a moderately tough (for a souls game) boss in the first 5 minutes, without any level ups or extra equipment, sound appealing to you?

Do you like dark fantasy? (If you're a fan of berserk then this is definitely the game for you)

Do you want a game challenging enough where even the most basic enemies can kill you very quickly if you mess up?

If the answer yes then is this the game for you, if not then get gud or get out.

Before I played Dark Souls 3:
＼＼
　＼ ＼( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
　　＼ <　⌒ヽ
　　　/ 　 へ　＼
　　 /　　/　 ＼　＼
　　 ﾚ　ノ　　　 ヽ_つ
　　/　/
　 /　/|
　(　(ヽ
　|　| 、＼
　| 丿 ＼ ⌒)
　| |　　) /
ノ )　　Lﾉ
After I played Dark Souls 3:
／ﾌﾌ 　　　　　　 　 ム｀ヽ
/ ノ) 　　　　　　　　　｜ ｜
/ ｜　　( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°） ⌒（ゝ._,ノ
/　ﾉ⌒7⌒ヽーくー ＼　／
丶＿ ノ ｡　　 ノ､　｡|/
　　 `ヽ `ー-'_人`ーﾉ
　　　 丶 ￣ _人'彡)

Now, with my vast experience of every SoulsBorne game, and each of those from the Dark Souls trilogy on at least two platforms, I believe I can offer a well educated judgement of Dark Souls 3. I will be comparing it to its predecessors, naturally, but I shall also judge Dark Souls 3 as a game in its own right.

So, for those that haven't played a Souls game before, and won't understand my comparisons. Dark Souls 3 is an amazing game, but don't buy it. Go play the others, at least Dark Souls 1, or I'll come to your house and slap you until you do.

Right. For those experienced in souls, and want to know what Dark Souls 3 is like. Prepare to be both amazed and disappointed by this game.

Dark Souls 3 keeps the complex combat of the previous games, in face goes one step further by making it so complex that it makes no f***ing sense. Diminishing returns and the peculiar new 'poise' mechanic make ultra-heavy armours mostly useless, as they weigh you down. It's fine for me, because I always had 0 poise, but for those that always killed the 4 Kings by R1 spamming in Havel's.... gone are those days - but chugging is easier.

As usual, there's a hell of a lot of weapon variety. Unfortunately, only a few from each class are viable, as many weapons are wholly outclassed by others in their category. The same goes for armour, but nobody cares because fashion is what's important. Despite what some say, magic IS viable in DS3 and actually remains the most powerful thing in the game if used correctly.

Hyper Armour is a new addition. Certain weapon types now offer hyper armour during parts of their animations. This is good, since there is a lack of useful poise, but is very easily abused... and so 2-handed Hollowslayer is very powerful against someone who can't parry - not kidding, among the best weapons in the game.

The world design is similar-ish to DS2 mixed with Demon's Souls, but the individual area design is more akin to Dark Souls 1. In general, it's bloomin' good, I just wish the world as a whole was more connected. The HUB of the game works a lot like ademon's Souls and Bloodborne. Host to your very own Maiden / Doll for levelling, merchants, a blacksmith, and gathering place for various NPCs... it feels a lot like the Nexus in this regard. It is also disconnected from the main world.

The story and lore is just as expansive as its predecessors, and only more theories and secrets are coming to light as time passes. The same goes for a NPC quest lines. They are very akin to those in DS1, boasting unique encounters with NPCs and witnessing their stories unfold as yours does - take Ostrava, Siegmeyer, Solaire and Logan's quests for example. Most quests are as complex in nature, each with their own emotional and compelling story, as well as new kinds of gameplay features to improve upon the quests. Honestly, I think DS3 is host to some of the best NPC quests and characters, on par with Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1. Unfortunately, we have no Mephistopheles asking us to kill everyone, but there is one similar quest, and obvious reference.

The soundtrack is amazing, on par with that of predecessors, and accompanied by equally awesome bosses. There are slight disappointments, as with all of the games, but the majority are very good. Just be warned, bosses are more aggressive in DS3.

Finally, I'll summarise. Dark Souls 3 has its fair share of disappointments, but the are few enough not to tarnish the beauty of the game, and they are almost all mechanic based disappointments that may or may not be altered in later patches. The game, as a whole however, is fantastic and absolutely worth buying. PvP takes getting used to, because of the changes, it is still good. And some covenants suck, but that's nothing new. However, don't let it deter you from getting yet another FromSoft masterpiece.

PS - Also... do buy that PS4 for Bloodborne, because it IS worth it.

"Dark Souls 3" is a great game but that does not excuse its day one problems that to this day have not been solved.

From random FPS drops. To even not being able to enter a boss battle as a phantom.

Before I played Dark Souls 3:
＼＼
　＼ ＼( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
　　＼ <　⌒ヽ
　　　/ 　 へ　＼
　　 /　　/　 ＼　＼
　　 ﾚ　ノ　　　 ヽ_つ
　　/　/
　 /　/|
　(　(ヽ
　|　| 、＼
　| 丿 ＼ ⌒)
　| |　　) /
ノ )　　Lﾉ
After I played Dark Souls 3:
／ﾌﾌ 　　　　　　 　 ム｀ヽ
/ ノ) 　　　　　　　　　｜ ｜
/ ｜　　( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°） ⌒（ゝ._,ノ
/　ﾉ⌒7⌒ヽーくー ＼　／
丶＿ ノ ｡　　 ノ､　｡|/
　　 `ヽ `ー-'_人`ーﾉ
　　　 丶 ￣ _人'彡)

Are you unable to git gud and feel like the only thing to do is end your life? Well, I have the perfect solution. It only takes these 3 easy steps!

1. Buy Dark Souls III
2. Play Dark Souls III
3. Take a shot every time a door is either locked or cannot be opened from the side you're on.

And in just 10 minutes you'll probably be dead!

So, let me tell you right now, dark souls 3 is a good game but copypasting some characters and areas seem a bit lazy. so PVE part is good but today kids we are going to talk about the PVP part of this game (OH BOY, LET THE FUN BEGIN)
1. No variety. PVP in ds3 has no variety at all, 300+ hours of pvp and i've seen only few really cool, exceptional and original builds. Nothing other than meta weapons are being used (at first it was dark sword and estoc, then black knight glaive, gotthard's twinswords, red hilted halberd, washing pole and my favourite: Carthus Curved Sword) Some may argue: "DUDE,I CREATED A MAGE THAT DEALS OVER 9000 DMG, JUST USE THE SCHOLARS CANDLESTICK" No,it doesn't work like that, picking a mage, pyro and a miracle caster is just a suicide if your opponent is not braindead. Picking those classes is still possible, but other people just ruin your experience by endlessly spamming running R1's
2. No Poise. I know everyone have been complaining about poise "working as intended" but i liked the new poise, it added few hyper armor frames and everything was cool, so i thought until recently everyone started to play defensively, waiting for you to attack and only after, attack themselves and stunlocking you for a second hit. The thing is, you can't punish it if you are using anything else than a straight sword or an another fast weapon. Anything in this games needs a counter, we can counter mages as pyros, pyros as clerics, clerics as quality builds and a quality builds as ?????. DKS1 poise would have added a lot more ways to play the pvp in this game, and everyone would've picked something else than just a curved sword. Lack of dks1 poise makes the pvp feel really dull in dks3.
3. Enormous amount of gankers. So if you are an invader, like me and many others, you have already encountered a gank squad that waits for you at the bonfire, one of them is a mage that spams soul arrows, farron darts, crystal soul spears at you, the second one is a guy with a washing pole that chases you down and doesn't let you heal at all, the third one has hyper armor frames for days and the host has ∞ amount of estus and can summon new phantoms for what feels like forever. And after i switched to the Pontiff PVP "HONORABRU" arena, i thought that my torment has ended. Until i got summoned by the gank squad mentioned earlier. And i was not the only one to encounter that, few of my friends had the same unpleasent experiences with the gankers. on other platforms from PS4 and XBOX1<(LUL) to PC. I know that every souls game had a gank squad, but in Dks1 you couldn't chug as a phantom, and in Dks2 phantoms couldn't chug once invaded, but in Dks3 everyone has 7-15 estus flasks which makes everything lingering like in bloodborne.
That could've been fixed by the arena and i know it's coming with the DLC but Dks2 offered to play in an arena from the start and it was included with the game. Though i think Dks2 is the worst PVE soulsgame in the series, but you can't argue that it has the best and the most fun pvp in the soulsborne series.
So, why am i not recommending this game even if it has probably the best PVE in the souls series? (not soulsborne) You will complete the game maximum in 25-30 hours because everything is linear and newcomer friendly in DS3 and you will enjoy it. Probably kill the optional bosses and complete the game on NG+ and that's it. After that you will either uninstall the game or try the pvp. That's why i cannot recommend this game right now, maybe FROMSOFTWARE will fix poise, will tweak few weapons so everything could be viable and make the arena available for everyone (which i highly doubt judging by the dks1) Well, Dark Souls 2 was not perfect at the start of it's journey and everyone remembers the balance issues, infinite stunlocks, and it still has ♥♥♥♥ netcode. So let's just wait and give Dark Souls 3 some time.Thanks for reading this to the end, and goodbye!