Thoughts on The Ringed City

[ChupathingyX]

So, I just finished The Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3 and I enjoyed it quite a bit, certainly more than the first DLC.

The enemies and locations were more varied, interesting and enjoyable to explore, and I found them to have a certain sense of intrigue and mystery. Gear-wise, there were some 'fan favourite' sets that make their return, as well as some other nice options, alongside plenty of weapons suited for different builds with enough differences in weapon art and gimmicks to make them stand out.

As for the boss fights

Spoiler

- The demon boss fight(s) was nicely balanced and did a good job at varying up the fight, creating a hectic yet fair fight. Their design wasn't anything special, and they didn't have much lore significance (though I do really like the side story concerning how the demon race is dying out) but I had fun with the fight.

- Darkeater Midir was a cool boss, with a nice design and backstory, but what brings it down was his absurd amount of health. After a short while I had attack patterns enough that I could fight him pretty effectively but he just tanks everything. I was sl 100+, with a fully upgraded sharp Crow Quill and roughly 50 dex and I was still doing pitiful damage. A cool boss, but not quite as cool as the likes of Kalameet or Sinh. The katana you can make from his soul is really neat though.

- Unfortunately I don't have PS+ so I wasn't able to experience the online aspect of Halflight's boss fight, but it is nice to see that mechanic being brought back. As for the offline version of the fight, it was okay but he's just a regular NPC with buffed up health just like the Gravetender..

-Lastly we have Gael. Gael's design, the fight itself, and the area you fight him in were all good (however, similarily to Midir he has bit too much health), but he just didn't feel like final boss material, and that leads me to my biggest problem with the DLC - the ending. Gael himself is some guy who only appeared as recently as the previous DLC, and he didn't do anything largely of note there. After defeating him you get his soul and an item (which seems to do absolutely nothing other than add some dialogue) and that's it. Early on in the DLC there are mentions to the Furtive Pygmy, and you get to encounter other pygmies, and I was expecting a big payoff in regards to that but it never came.

On that note, they didn't really expand much on Filianore either, which was a bit disappointing.

So yeah, I had fun, and I really liked the new material that was added, but the abrupt and rather unfulfilling ending soured the story for me a bit.

How has everyone else's descent into the Ringed City been going?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Would you say it's worth the price? I felt shafted by Ashes since I cleared it in like 3 hours plus another hour tops of exploration. Is it as linear? I also felt Ashes was lacking in challenge. Does the Ringed City fix any of these issues?

 

[Wrex Brogan]

It was good. A tad short for my tastes, but I enjoyed the theme of the whole thing and the environments were amazing. Some of the areas were a bit of a shit-fit (fuck those angels in the swamp, god damn, and the staircase with 6 Harald Knights on it) but all in all I came away from it with a good impression.

Also, as someone with PS+, you're... not missing out much on the PvP boss fight, to be honest. I've actually found the NPC boss is a lot harder than any of the players who've been summoned in, and half the time a player comes in they disconnect or have such a bad connection that they're stuck in one spot while I wail on them. Will probably improve a little after launch with some server tweaks, but for now it's kinda just an easy slab-farm given how terrible the connections are.

Spoiler: The Ending, spoilers

I'll say up front that I totally get peoples disappointment with how the DLC ended, where after you beat Gael it just... keeps going, but for me that felt oddly fitting given Dark Souls' history. It's never really been a series that's ended with a 'bang', and given when the DLC takes place - at the end of the Age of Fire, right before you have words with the Soul of Cinder - having a 'suddenly extra bossfight' or big bombastic cutscene would've been really odd. As for fighting with Gael, it... well, gives a sense it truly being the end - there's no more gods, no more dragons, no more knights, mages, priests, heroes, undead or... anything. Just a soldier from an order 600 years forgotten and you, a corpse that wasn't even worthy of being fuel. And then when you beat him, there's just... nothing but sand, all around you. The End, in environment form, the only thing to interact with a bonfire.

Worked really well for me until I found a Ringed Knight fucking around in the corner of the area, but hey, he also dropped a Slab so I won't complain too loudly. And as said, I get that not working for other people, but for me (subjectivity, ho!) it worked quite well. Ended up just logging my character out at that bonfire and leaving 'em there.

Would you say it's worth the price? I felt shafted by Ashes since I cleared it in like 3 hours plus another hour tops of exploration. Is it as linear? I also felt Ashes was lacking in challenge. Does the Ringed City fix any of these issues?

It is short - it's roughly the same length as the Ashes DLC, maybe a little shorter if you rush things, and is much more linear (you can generally see where you need to go to progress right from the start of the area). That said, it's also much harder than Ashes, and there's a decent bit more to explore (plus it helps having 4 bosses instead of 2). Enemies are pretty aggressive and powerful, so you get punished hard if you fuck something up; there's also a couple 'puzzle' enemies that you need to even figure out how to get around before you can deal with them properly, as well as a bunch of NPC invaders that tend to come at you in areas that favour their strategies. Can get a little bullshit though when you have to deal with, say, 6 high-hp, high-damage knights at once while getting shot by smaller enemies or face off against one of the new Ringed Knights while being bombarded by area-denial spells, but what's a Souls game/DLC without some bullshit encounters?

 

[Worgen]

I've only beat the demon prince so far. It's really cool, but fucken hard, then again I am on ng+++ so the enemies hit really hard, the only boss I've faced so far wasn't too bad. It was a fun fight. But Zoey on the way though, she was super hard to deal with, 2 hits from her would kill me.

 

[jademunky]

I have to say this is probably the best looking Dark Souls content I've seen. No more snow fields, lots of vibrant colours, sweeping Vistas, lots of harmless plummets.

Finished the first boss (kinda hard, Lotta hp and AOE). I've noticed that the level designers seem to really like to force you to keep running when you find new area.

 

[Marik2]

So this is the final dlc? And no more souls games from from software?

 

[Marik2]

So this is the final dlc? And no more souls games from from software?

We can only hope.

Miyazaki: "I don't think it'd be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating Souls and Bloodborne games. I'm considering Dark Souls 3 to be the big closure on the series. That's not just limited to me, but From Software and myself together want to aggressively make new things in the future. Dark Souls 3 will mark the last game where the development project began before I became president. The next title will be a game that was conceived while I was president. I believe that From Software has to create new things. There will be new types of games coming from us, and Dark Souls 3 is an important marker in the evolution of From Software."

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/dark-souls-3-interview-it-wouldnt-be-right-to-cont/1100-6432425/

I'm over this series. Already uninstalled Dark Souls III, which I played far less than the previous games.

I still want a sequel to bloodborne or an experience like it that has werewolves and vampires, not aliens.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Spoiler: The Ending, spoilers

I'll say up front that I totally get peoples disappointment with how the DLC ended, where after you beat Gael it just... keeps going, but for me that felt oddly fitting given Dark Souls' history. It's never really been a series that's ended with a 'bang', and given when the DLC takes place - at the end of the Age of Fire, right before you have words with the Soul of Cinder - having a 'suddenly extra bossfight' or big bombastic cutscene would've been really odd. As for fighting with Gael, it... well, gives a sense it truly being the end - there's no more gods, no more dragons, no more knights, mages, priests, heroes, undead or... anything. Just a soldier from an order 600 years forgotten and you, a corpse that wasn't even worthy of being fuel. And then when you beat him, there's just... nothing but sand, all around you. The End, in environment form, the only thing to interact with a bonfire.

Worked really well for me until I found a Ringed Knight fucking around in the corner of the area, but hey, he also dropped a Slab so I won't complain too loudly. And as said, I get that not working for other people, but for me (subjectivity, ho!) it worked quite well. Ended up just logging my character out at that bonfire and leaving 'em there.

Spoiler

I totally see your point, and even agree with you to an extent thinking back on things, but namedropping the pygmies and featuring them only a small amount ended up being a huge tease for me. Not to mention the dialogue with the painting girl after handing her the blood felt like a sequel hook that we may never receive or won't receive for a potentially long time.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I think it's the best DLC in the series TBH. I loved how the devs put in a lot of stage threats that required you to think a lot about where you were going to move next.

Spoiler: The Bosses

The Demon Prince was great. As far as big monsters and gank fights go, this was one of the more satisfying encounters in the series. Nothing felt cheap. I only wish there was a tail attack so that hugging the crotch wasn't quite as effective.

Midnir was probably my favourite dragon fight in the series. A lot of people are saying that they think he's too tanky, but I really don't see that. The DLC is clearly meant for end game SL, so I think people need to keep that in mind. Also, you do about twice as much damage hitting it in the face than you do hitting it in the legs. I was using a Black Knight Sword and found that it took out a good chunk each hit. Also.... it's a dragon. A really fucking old one. It'd be pretty sad if it wasn't tanky. As for its attacks, they are some of the most visually impressive in the series. Its dark beam in particular is quite something. It can one-shot you, but it's very easy to avoid IMO.

The PvP boss was fine. I died several times due to people throwing the anti estus stuff. Seems like a dick move when you have some really annoying AIs helping you out. PvP bosses always heavily depend on the player for how they end up being. I lost twice and then my third fight was against someone who was clearly just trying out the new Ring Knight Greatswords. An interesting fight, but PvP has never been a huge draw in the series for me.

Gael ranks among the best fights in the series for me. Once you learn his moveset, dodging his crazy sword/cape attacks becomes some of the most satisfying fighting in the series. I love how he transitions from the cripple with some fairly unpredictable movements to a powerful warrior with the deliberation of the Nameless King.

Spoiler: The ending

I swear people were expecting to fight the Furtive Pygmy or something and then claim the Dark Soul for themselves... That would have made zero sense. I think it's much more fitting that you and some unknown knight are the ones who've clawed your ways to the very end of the world. You've both outlasted everything else and only one of you walks away. Also, the DLC was meant to be a continuation of the previous one. Not some extended ending to the series. I think people went in with some pretty unrealistic expectations lore-wise. Then again, I've never been particularly in the loop on the lore anyway, so I suppose this stuff isn't as important to me. Personally, despite not really knowing much about Gael, I found that his fight more than made up for that and gave me a lot of respect for the character. Sort of a show don't tell kind of thing.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Spoiler: The Ending, spoilers

I'll say up front that I totally get peoples disappointment with how the DLC ended, where after you beat Gael it just... keeps going, but for me that felt oddly fitting given Dark Souls' history. It's never really been a series that's ended with a 'bang', and given when the DLC takes place - at the end of the Age of Fire, right before you have words with the Soul of Cinder - having a 'suddenly extra bossfight' or big bombastic cutscene would've been really odd. As for fighting with Gael, it... well, gives a sense it truly being the end - there's no more gods, no more dragons, no more knights, mages, priests, heroes, undead or... anything. Just a soldier from an order 600 years forgotten and you, a corpse that wasn't even worthy of being fuel. And then when you beat him, there's just... nothing but sand, all around you. The End, in environment form, the only thing to interact with a bonfire.

Worked really well for me until I found a Ringed Knight fucking around in the corner of the area, but hey, he also dropped a Slab so I won't complain too loudly. And as said, I get that not working for other people, but for me (subjectivity, ho!) it worked quite well. Ended up just logging my character out at that bonfire and leaving 'em there.

Spoiler

I totally see your point, and even agree with you to an extent thinking back on things, but namedropping the pygmies and featuring them only a small amount ended up being a huge tease for me. Not to mention the dialogue with the painting girl after handing her the blood felt like a sequel hook that we may never receive or won't receive for a potentially long time.

Spoiler: more spoilers!

Oh, the pygmy thing annoyed me too - I got excited when I realized we were fighting pygmies as some of the enemy types, but then the ending came round and there wasn't much of anything to do with them, or anything to do with them throughout the DLC either. Hell I didn't even realize that Gael had killed the Pygmy kings until I stopped to check, talk about a major lore moment that wasn't capitalized on. Could've fluffed that out a little more, hell, even just drop a few more gear pieces talking about 'em or something. Ah well.

 

[stroopwafel]

I really enjoyed it. Like I expected it was more of the same but when it's this much fun I don't mind. It really had an 'end of the world' vibe which I think tied neatly into the overall Dark Souls theme and provided a fitting end for the series. I think both DLC's really enrich the overall package of DkS3. I also really enjoyed Ariandel which, besides being a bit short, had a beautiful painterly aesthetic to it which was a nice change from the rest of the game.

But for better or worse(if you didn't enjoy the game and/or the DLC) I guess this is it. Really curious what From Software's next game is going to be as well. It might be the end of 'Souls' but I imagine their next game not being a racing or puzzle game. Besides they appear to already have three games in development one of them apparently being another dark-fantasy action-RPG. Also Miyazaki and Shu are BFFs and had sushi in february [https://twitter.com/yosp/status/827116751078846465/photo/1] so I wonder if one of those is going to be another PS4 exclusive. Hopefully another game that measure up to Demon's Souls and Bloodborne pweeeaaase!! btw don't hope it's just a PS VR title which could be the 'something weird' Miyazaki mentioned.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I hate angels. That is all.

 

[ChupathingyX]

I just hope whatever they do next is both different enough and familiar enough, as in create a new IP in a new setting with new lore, etc. but retain some of the core tenets that made SoulsBorne so good.

But it's also critical to iterate on it and outright fix what didn't work so well.

Targeting felt better in Bloodborne, but it could be more effective still.

Combat could be even more dynamic, where enemies are affected and damaged based on attack type and with what weapon.

Environmental traversal could also be handled better. There were too many instances where your character should have clearly been able to step over a small ledge or tree root but couldn't even jump it.

Simplify inventories. Make finding an item or gear feel more significant and important.

Eliminate farming as much as possible

Focus more on natural character progression in terms of real experience, gained through completing different challenging tasks vs simply pouring x amount of "currency" into y stat.


These are a few things I think could help prevent whatever they do next from becoming stale. Chances are if their next IP is successful we'll be seeing multiple installments regardless of who's at the head of the table.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Miyazaki has been fairly ambiguous about whether or not Souls is being put to bed or continuing in a different form. He's said in the quote Ezekiel posted that DS3 is the closure for the series, but then also recently has said multiple times that it's only the "turning point". Whether that means the series itself or what kind of games they're making as a studio idk.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I certainly hope this launches on the Switch because based on what I've seen it looks like it's pretty great...aside from the instant death-from-above angel attacks of course. I've only ever really played Demon's Souls but I'm hoping to play this and the other Souls games eventually. This probably isn't going to be the final straw that makes me run out and buy a PS4 but I do like how this looks.

 

[Weresquirrel]

I actually read a rather fascinating interpretation on the meaning of the 2 DLCs.

I'll post it here [https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/62cutp/spoilers_the_story_of_dark_souls_3s_dlc_or_why_i/?st=j0y8uwqp&sh=e0cddfc7] for anyone who wants to read it.

Needless to say there's spoilers there.