Dark Souls III is the last game in the trilogy FromSoftware built, and it plays like a studio emptying its pockets on the way out.

Dark Souls III is the last game in the trilogy FromSoftware built, and it plays like a studio emptying its pockets on the way out. Released in March 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, it sends an undead warrior called the Ashen One through the kingdom of Lothric to drag four reluctant lords back to their thrones and rekindle a dying flame. It is the most complete of the three Dark Souls games, and the most punishing to anyone who mistakes patience for a strategy.

Trailer, via IGDBcom.

The First Flame and Prince Lothric

The setup is plain. The First Flame that sustains the Age of Fire is fading, and the coming Age of Dark will produce the undead. Linking the fire requires a champion to sacrifice their soul. Prince Lothric was chosen and refused, opting to watch the flame die from a distance. A bell rings, waking the Lords of Cinder, heroes who linked the flame in past ages. Most abandon their thrones at Firelink Shrine.

Only Ludleth of Courland stays. The Ashen One, an Unkindled who already failed to link the fire once, rises to return the rest.

Yhorm, Aldrich and the Abyss Watchers

The Lords are the best material in the game. The Abyss Watchers linked their souls into one through the Old Wolf’s Blood to guard against the Abyss, and now fight each other in an endless loop. Yhorm the Giant gave his life for a nation his ancestor conquered. Aldrich became a Lord of Cinder despite a ravenous appetite for men and gods. Sulyvahn, a sorcerer out of the Painted World of Ariandel, names himself Pontiff and takes Irithyll of the Boreal Valley and the returning Anor Londo by force.

Each of those names carries weight because the game makes you walk to them.

Stamina, Souls and the Death Loop

Combat is a management problem. Health, stamina and focus points (FP) all drain, and stamina caps attacking, blocking and dodging, leaving you open when it runs out. Souls serve as currency and experience at once; die and your carried souls drop where you fell, recoverable once, gone forever if you die again on the way back.

Dark Souls III adds weapon and shield Skills that consume FP, and moves magic onto the same resource instead of fixed uses. Ashen Estus Flasks refill FP, regular Estus refills health, and you decide how many of each you carry. Movement and combat run faster than Dark Souls II while keeping shields viable.

Fewer Areas, Bigger Ones

The map is smaller than Dark Souls II’s in count and larger in scale. Areas connect through shortcuts that loop back to bonfires, which serve as checkpoints. The character builder and weapon list are wider than before, built to support more play styles. Online co-op and multiplayer return.

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Return

Series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki directed Dark Souls III after a supervisory role on Dark Souls II, and the difference shows in the level design and the boss pacing. Two expansions followed: Ashes of Ariandel in 2016 and The Ringed City in 2017. Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition, bundling the base game and both, arrived in April 2017.

The commercial record backs the reception. The game shipped over three million copies by May 2016 and passed 10 million in sales by May 2020. It took Ultimate Game of the Year at the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards and Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.

The Endings at the Kiln

After the Lords are throned, the Ashen One reaches the ruins of the Kiln of the First Flame and fights the Soul of Cinder, an amalgamation of every former Lord. Win and you can link the fire. Three other endings open from in-game decisions:

1. Summon the Fire Keeper and let her extinguish the flame, starting an age of Dark.
2. Kill the Fire Keeper in a sudden change of heart.
3. Take the flame for yourself and become the Lord of Hollows.

That spread of outcomes is the series at its most confident. It trusts you to have paid attention.

What Holds It at 8.9

Dark Souls III is the cleanest of the three games and the least surprising. Its faster combat and its FP-driven Skills are real improvements, and the Lords of Cinder give the quest a cast worth caring about rather than a list of targets. What keeps it short of the top is that it settles debts the earlier games opened instead of opening new ground — a fine ending, not a new argument. The difficulty is the point, not a barrier, and the shortcuts back to each bonfire are the design telling you it knows how hard it is being.

Dark Souls III · FromSoftware · game review · Hidetaka Miyazaki · Lords of Cinder · Soulslike