Is Dark Souls 3 Hard or Easy? A Passionate Gamer‘s Perspective
As a long-time Souls fan and content creator focused on the hardcore RPG genre, I get asked often about whether Dark Souls 3‘s infamous difficulty lives up to the hype. And after spending nearly 800 hours in DS3 conquering brutal bosses, mastering deep mechanics and guiding others, I can firmly conclude DS3 delivers a challenging yet ultimately fair difficulty that lies somewhere between the hardcore pedigree of past titles, while becoming a bit more approachable for newcomers.
What Makes Dark Souls 3 So Difficult
Make no mistake, despite some welcome changes to ease new players in, DS3 retains the franchise‘s signature ruthless and strategic combat. Health and healing remain limited, encouraging thoughtful, patient playstyles focused on mastery – charging recklessly will commonly end in death. Enemies and bosses sport complex, unpredictable movesets that must be studied intently and memorized. And the winding, interwoven level designs actively punish the unprepared. Let‘s examine specifically what ratchets up the difficulty:
1. Punishing, Demanding Combat
| The combat demands mastery of mechanics like dodging, stamina conservation and learning precise attack windows for your chosen build. Recklessness by just spamming R1 with a melee build will see a quick death. Having appropriate vigor health levels and gear upgrades for the area is also crucial to survival. |
This strategic demand of DS3‘s combat has sparked "blind playthrough" challenge runs by top community creators. The sheer skill required to progress areas & bosses without prior knowledge or preparation is immense.
2. Learn or Die: Unforgiving Enemies & Bosses
DS3 boasts an extensive roster of unique main bosses, side and optional bosses that all bring diverse movesets and mechanics to contend with. The tells and attack patterns of these fights must be thoroughly studied, memorized and countered appropriately:
| Later notorious bosses like Nameless King, Pontiff Sulyvahn, Sister Friede or Slave Knight Gael epitomize this demand for mastery. If you don‘t enter these fights with proper vigor, gear, build knowledge and skill…you won‘t get far. This leads to the "git gud" skill expression praised by fans. |
3. Meaningful Character Building
While daunting at first, DS3‘s weapons systems, stats, upgrades and more offer impressive depth:
| This emphasizes learning what stats align to your preferred playstyle – such as vitality, strength and dexterity for melee builds, while boosting intelligence or faith can actively detract by spreading thin. It incentivizes commitment to a set specialization. |
The depth in fine-tuning builds to tackle certain enemies & bosses or enable unique playstyles provides immense replay value evidenced by the DS3 community still actively experimenting with exciting builds years later.
What Provides Some Welcome Relief
However, DS3 does incorporate purposeful changes from past titles to ease new players into the demanding combat and systems versus the extreme punishment that veterans endured when first facing the DNA of Demon Souls.
1. More Guidance for Newcomers
While still signaturely cryptic in its narrative style, DS3 offers additional tips for newcomers in understanding core combat mechanics alongside more obvious critical paths early on versus say the extreme openness new players faced in Dark Souls 1 before. This gentler onboarding combined with faster, tighter combat responsiveness does widen the initial accessibility considerably while retaining overall difficulty.
2. Further Build Variability Incentivizes Experimentation
The introduction of unique weapon arts paired with an extensive arsenal of gear means nearly any playstyle imaginable can be complemented by a unique build. Magic also becomes much more viable beyond just support roles which raises the skill ceiling tremendously for veterans while giving newcomers options to tailor fights to their strengths.
3. Modern Multiplayer Connectivity Enables Co-op AH
Whether tackling nightmarish bosses cooperatively or engaging in competitive PvP, the modernized online systems of DS3 complete the ultimate Dark Souls package for any player skill level. Password matching with friends along with activity hotspots make jolly co-operation more accessible than ever.
Conclusion: A Worthy Challenge Awaits
While certain gameplay adjustments widen the onramp for interested newcomers, Dark Souls 3 undoubtedly retains the franchises‘ uncompromising demand for skill, patience and learning from failure. For devoted fans like myself, it stands tall as the most refined, balanced Souls experience yet. I‘ll see you around the bonfire, Ashen One. May you carry the lessons of DS3 proudly unto Elden Ring and beyond!
