By now, the Souls series has become entrenched as one of the great gaming franchises of the last couple generations. Three titles into From Software’s series (four if you count Bloodborne), the style of design is well-known, the gameplay is rightfully respected and feared, and the fanbase continues to grow. So finely-tuned are the game mechanics that every new title goes under a great deal of scrutiny. What have they changed? What has stayed the same? What weapons have been nerfed? Is it still as difficult as it should be?
Over the weekend, Bandai Namco hosted a “network stress test” of the fifth Souls game, Dark Souls III, and I managed to play a fair bit of it. Obviously, this was a pre-release version of the game, and doesn’t reflect the eventual finished product, and it was a curated slice of the game rather than a fully-functioning copy. With that in mind, let’s dig in.