At the time of writing, Return to Lothric is now underway! Just like the rest of the franchise, the older Soulsborne series has an annual two week period of time dedicated to it by the loving fans of the community where the idea is to go back to the game, make a new character or a few, and enjoy the game like it’s brand new.

Just like the last few “Return to…” events, my contribution this year will be, among other things, in the form of a formal written review. How well has Dark Souls 3 truly held up? Let’s discuss what the game has going for it along with what it could have done better, beginning with the former.

Boss Fights

Elden Ring has come and gone, but it simply didn’t stand up to the sheer absurd quality of this game’s amazing boss roster. There are basically bangers right from start to finish.

The game offers a memorable, proper tutorial boss with Iudex Gundyr. He is maybe the single best tutorial boss to exist in a video game. The player is prompted to track down and take out four Lords of Cinder, and each of these four – especially the Twin Princes – is great. We end off with straight up legendary encounters with the Soul of Cinder, then into the DLC to face Sister Friede, the Demon Prince, Darkeater Midir and Slave Knight Gael.

Sure, there are a couple of not so amazing boss fights. But even the lesser offerings are at least short and sweet. Prepare for each and every boss in this game to be memorable in some way, mostly for the right reasons.

Cinematic Attention To Detail

Quick distinction: this is not really specifying wholescale environmental design. We’ll be talking about that later. It also ties in with fan service, which is also being discussed soon.

The world building details in this game, and the pristine attention to detail specifically during cinematic or otherwise notable moments, is amazing. Simple features like including the last two descendants of Quelana of Izalith in the Demon Ruins – a long lost mother and daughter who finally reunited, two separate cutscenes for the same thing taking place in a slightly altered environment, the return and subsequent reimagining of a “modern” Anor Londo…

It’s difficult to list everything, or even a lot of it, at once. The general idea is that this game has a way of making those isolated, important scenarios really feel important and have strong visceral value in some way.

Depth of Features

This really was a Dark Souls 3 in the sense that it was a continuation of a number of ideas from Dark Souls 1, while also a refinement on some from Dark Souls 2. This game has a better, smoother dedicated PvP mode, NPC questlines which are far better fleshed out and varied compared to one another, and invasions game-wide are far better optimized in general.

The Ringed City (DLC and area)

The Ringed City area has appeared on this website before as one of the better areas in all of gaming. I am still sticking to that sentiment. This DLC area is must-play stuff, something any serious gamer really should experience. There are some unique twists and turns, the area hits it nicely in terms of a good, but not overbearing or nonsensical, challenge. It looks really nice, and it has a couple of memorable bosses.

The DLC itself, on the other hand, is simply even better. Since we consider The Ringed City DLC, it means we include the existence of the Dreg Heaps, a long with the Demon Prince, and Slave Knight Gael. Gael is my pick for not just the single best boss in this game, but the literal best boss From Software has ever made. Meanwhile, the Dreg Heaps are an area accessed before The Ringed City, culminating into an amazing boss fight against the Demon Prince.

Both the area and the DLC pack by the same name are nonstop fun. If I was to grade either, they would both get an S, hands down.

The PvP

This was a comfortable period of time, wedged right in between the laggy, slow gameplay of the first two Dark Souls games, and right before the adderall-fueled L2-induced mania that ends fights in two seconds in Elden Ring. That is to say, Dark Souls 3 boasts the most balanced, satisfying, mechanically well founded PvP in a From Software game seen to this day.

Fan Service

This game has long been lauded for all of the callbacks to the first two Dark Souls games that can be found. Some of this is reused equipment, while some are hidden cameos and Easter eggs found in an area. Either way, it comes up fairly frequently and is pretty charming to engage with. Things like the Demon Ruins from Dark Souls 1 coming back, Aldia from Dark Souls 2 having very minor but noticeable narrative impact, down to all the carefully thought out item drops and lore directly referencing events from past games.

Dark Souls 3 is not a completely perfect game. Let’s hash out some of its shortcomings.

Consistently Drab Aesthetics

Some areas in this game do not have this problem. Go and look at the Cathedral of the Deep, Irithyl of the Boreal Valley, Ariandel and, of course, The Ringed City.

But other than that, this game’s art direction is fairly bland and forgettable. Yes, the setting is supposed to be in a dreary, dying world. Bloodborne’s setting is essentially this too. Go compare the two art styles and tell me which has a better chance of luring players in. Dark Souls 3 isn’t ugly, per se, to look at. But when it isn’t distinctly trying to ‘wow’ the player somehow, the drab, dry and bland aesthetic for areas like Catacombs of Carthus and the Irithyl Dungeon can get pretty old at times.

Shielding Mechanics

This is nitpicky, but shields in this game were really weirdly handled. Contextually, this would have launched after a Dark Souls 2 game in which shields are typically way too easy to use and equally easy to stagnate combat encounters with.

In Dark Souls 3, the act of “shield poking” is way, way less of a thing than any other game. If you try to shield poke, but your shield is struck by an attack just before the poke comes out, the poke will be cancelled and the shielder will take half the damage and consume half the stamina they would have taken had the attack directly landed. Basically, shield poking is massively punishable if the opponent simply tickles the shielder every once in awhile.

And now, for one subject I find to be neither good nor bad. Controversial? Maybe. Either way, I’m sitting on the fence for this one. This feature is very notable. Is it good, or is it bad? I will leave that up to you, humble reader.

Second-to-Second Combat & Weapon Arts

Although Dark Souls 1 and 2 provided this mechanic to a certain selection of weapons, Dark Souls 3 was the first game to just give every weapon a “Weapon Art”. In Elden Ring, this is known as “Ashes of War.” In Elden Ring, this system is near flawless and makes AoWs a pivotal core function of the game.

In Dark Souls 3, however, most of the time, Weapon Arts are redundant or just weak and useless. Unfortunately, a lot of weapons in this game achieve peak performance by simply mashing a quick, basic right-handed attack until stamina is depleted.

While this does not necessarily hinder the flow of combat, it does discourage players, predominantly PvPers, from trying to get creative and mechanically outperform the opponent. Again, Elden Ring’s AoW setup should be looked at as basically Dark Souls 3’s Weapons Arts, but better and more refined in every single way.

And that’s about it.

Dark Souls 3 is a decorated video game, with some Game of the Year awards and a lasting legacy that will keep fans coming back forever and ever, until the fateful day it gets a remaster. On that note, lacking in any serious flaws, I am happy to give this game a grade of an A. If there ever is a Dark Souls 4, or whenever this game does get remastered, either entry will have some big shoes to fill.