We were given the opportunity by Bandai Namco to play an updated build of Dark Souls 3 today (I believe it was updated on the 14th of March) and I wanted to share my experience with the community as well as share some information that may not be known about the game.
I decided to go with the Knight class. The Longsword is generally my go-to in Souls games because of its fast attack speed and decent damage (add in the wicked Stance Skill and it’s really hard to find anything wrong with it), so this was a no brainer. Attack speed in Dark Souls 3 is noticeably faster than any previous Souls game and is probably closer to Bloodborne, at least with the Longsword. Bloodborne was the last Soulsborne game I played extensively, and it felt like I picked up where I had left off, which probably saved me a few deaths.
I made my way through several enemies and eventually came to a rather large Crystal Lizard that hit like a truck. He killed me once before I figured him out and was able to pull off a couple ripostes after I staggered him. He dropped a Titanite Scale for my troubles and I wondered when I would actually be able to use it. Note that these lizards DON’T replace the tiny/fast crystal lizards that dropped Twinkling Titanite and other goodies in Dark Souls 1, as those are actually in the game later on and they drop goodies as well.
Shortly after, I encountered the first Boss: Iudex Gundyr. He was a rather lackluster fight and it only took me one attempt to down him without the need to heal. Moving ahead, I came upon Firelink Shrine. Demon’s Souls fans will feel the nostalgia immediately upon entering. With its large circular shape, vertical levels both up and down, spiral staircases, and a blind Maiden and Crestfallen Knight, you will find yourself faintly muttering under your breath (or screaming as I did) “The Nexus”. For all intents and purposes Firelink Shrine is now The Nexus of Dark Souls 3. I ran around for nearly 30 minutes looking for a way out, but the only way is to port from the bonfire in the middle. NPCs you find throughout the game will make their way here and you will purchase Spells and Equipment and upgrade your Weapons here. There are also a few other interesting things to discover there…
The Upgrade system in Dark Souls 3 is extremely similar to Dark Souls 2, with perhaps a dash of Demon’s Souls. Let me explain. Weapons can be infused with gems that change the properties of the weapon. You can add Fire or improve scaling, similar to the way you could add Lightning or Mundane to a weapon. You upgrade to +3 with Titanite Shards and then, I can only assume, it remains the same as in the past: +6, +9 and +10. The Boss Soul Weapons are handled differently and I believe cap out at +5 and use the new Titanite Scales to get to +4 and then most likely something else to get to +5. I did not see a way to upgrade Armor.
I ported directly to the High Wall of Lothric from Firelink. Those familiar with Network Test footage will know this area by heart, and really not a lot has changed, although I did find a Mimic. It took me a bit to make my way down to the boss due to my lack of Estus Flasks and noobishness, but I eventually got there. The Boss of this area is now Vordt of the Boreal Valley. He is a huge, hulking, heavily armored creature with a giant hammer and he is located directly across and down the now open steps from where the Dancer was previously located. This was another underwhelming fight as I had half health and zero Estus Flasks when I got there and again downed him on the first try. His attacks were slow enough that you could roll through them and get several hits in with ease.
From this point forward the game became much more of a challenge and it gave me that nostalgic Souls feeling of newness. The Undead Settlement will remind Bloodborne players of Hemwick Charnel Lane (they may have in fact used the same gravestones), and is packed with pitchfork and cleaver wielding enemies. The area is massive, expansive and damn difficult due to the sheer quantity of enemies and the rather low amount of Estus Flasks you will have. There are so many things to explore and see that you will most likely spend and hour or two just combing through it all. I was under a bit of a time crunch, so I didn’t find everything, but I did find Absolution.
Further along in the Undead Settlement I came to the Curse-Rotted Greatwood Boss. This is the giant tree looking enemy with lots of undead running around trying to shove their spears and pitchforks into your Dark Sign. For some reason, I saw the area where he was and just kept going past it. Shortly after that I found something that made me extremely happy:
The Blue Sentinels are back! I am pretty damn excited about that. The best part, you no longer need to wear a ring to be summoned. Simply wearing the Covenant “badge” is enough. Praise the Blue!
For those of you who participated or watched any of the Network Test footage out there you will note that connectivity was by far the best it has ever been. I can only imagine how much fun this Covenant will be with that kind of smoothness. From has made more options available than in previous Souls game to ensure that you have the best multiplayer experience possible. Below is a screenshot of the multiplayer menu from the game so you can see all the customization that is possible:
Following my encounter with the Blue Sentinels I entered the Road of Sacrifices. The Road of Sacrifices is a large forest/mire that looks somewhat similar to the forest area in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC from Dark Souls 1 when you first enter, and then somewhere along the way it transitions into a large mire that will have you thinking Blighttown, only without the horrible frame rate or large flying bugs. There are a few familiar enemies from Dark Souls 2 here along with some new creatures that turn into gargoylish type things which jump attack you. I was nearing the boss when I got beat down by this guy:
That wrapped up my hands on time with Dark Souls 3. All in all it was a wonderful experience and I really got sucked into the game. I think Dark Souls 3 does a better job than its predecessors at crafting a narrative that any individual can follow, yet maintains the depth and obscurity that really allows for lore hypothesis. I look forward to playing more and I can’t wait to see what’s next! Join us for the Japanese release of the game when Fexelea will be streaming Japanese gameplay and will be translating on the fly:
Visit the Dark Souls 3 Wiki
16 responses to “Dark Souls 3: Road of Sacrifices”
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the problem si you cannot be in the way of blue and blue sentinels at the same time that is a problem i want people to help me punish invaders but i also wanna invade then as a harbinger spirit so that is a problem
people seem not to like way of the blue but if they were one with the blue sentinels then there would not just be more people joining but also more people in overall
otherwise i might just gank people as a sunbro in the next iron keep
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On the other hand, covenants are no longer tied to rings it seems, so it’s less of a sacrifice to stay in way of the blue. Also, with infinite use Red eye Orb, I imagine there might be a few more invasions happening.
Hey there,
thanks for the article.
I do have a few questions though. Excuse all these questions but I’m really, really interested in it and I guess since you were allowed to write about it and even show screenshots you will hopefully be allowed to answer these.
1.) Was the Greatwood boss optional? You don’t need an item from it in order to progress nor does the cave that it falls into lead to a different place?
2.) You mentioned some Dark Souls 2 enemies in the Road of Sacrifices. Which enemies do you refer to? Someone on reddit assumes it would be the kappa monsters hiding in the water. Please tell me that the Cyclops/ Ogre enemies from Dark Souls 2 make an appearance as well here.
3.) Which other enemies did you encounter in the Road of Sacrifices? Did you fight Beastmen?
Look at 01:41 in this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTnQl9JAef8
I’m refering to these enemies that you can see very briefly in the trailer and that seem to be Beastmen?
4.) Do you know who the boss is for the Road of Sacrifices? Did anyone tell you or did anyone else who was playing this version encounter the boss there and told you?
I personally predict what is known as the Dirty Beast:
https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Dark-Souls-3/Dirty_Beast.jpg
5.) How did you know that you were nearing the boss anyway? Did someone tell you that you’re very close to it?
6.) Do you think that the swamp area that was mentioned several times these past few months is the one you played? The screenshot with the crab looks sunny whereas other screenshots hint at a way darker and more sinister swamp:
http://imgur.com/ptq3kbD
http://www.gamersyde.com/news_new_dark_souls_iii_screens_artworks-17616.jpg
This question can also refer to my previous question: Are you sure you were approaching the boss of the area or did you just think so?
Maybe there’s a third “layer” of the area that leads into a darker swamp that was showcased in these concept art images. You wrote that the first layer was more like a green forest, the second layer a sunlit mire with lots of vegetation. Maybe there’s a third layer after that which finally leads to the boss (I still predict it’s the Dirty Beast).
7.) Final question: Sicne the article linked to a live stream or video that would be available in 4 days will you show the Road of Sacrifices on video? Will you start with the tutorial area or will you jump in right after where the preview event footage ended: in that church that is leading to the road?
wish way of the blue/ blue sentinels was just one covie. Seems pointless to have them be seperate imo.
Nice read though.
arf its clear they have an english version the game partially read, they could at least give a demo of the lothric walls area without online features for those who bought the preorder
From my understanding the Greatwood was never fought to begin with, based on the reading that it was just run past to the next area.
excuse me, but how did get out of the pit where you fight the Curse-Rotted Greatwood’s second phase? did warp out? does the Road of Sacrifices connect physically to the Undead Settlement?
Sounds very exciting, but I’m still skeptical of the network connectivity. A network test has a very limited number of players and is not at all representative of real world day one gameplay. If it works as well as has been hyped, I’ll be impressed.
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Screw that, and screw mid-roll, for that matter. May that die in hell and never come back. If it was 50% that would be acceptable but 70% is just fine. Besides being able to fast-roll with heavy armor alone didn’t give you the upper hand in a Dark Souls 2 fight (especially if your adp was low or you were at that equip load threshold where your roll distances were shorter and stamina use higher). Besides it’s not like Dark Souls 2 is the only Souls game with broken aspects to its PvP, and 70% and under equip load for fast roll was certainly not the broken part of it. (and in Dark Souls 1 one could easily pump a lot of points in endurance and be able to ninja flip in full, poise break-free Havel’s and spam OP pyromancies or even a decent light weapon if they so desired just as easily while still meeting the “meta” – here’s a hypothetical Souls 1 build I made a while ago just to test the waters: https://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/480498 And still 4 points away from max endurance for even greater VICTOLY!)
So the big ugly nutsac tree boss is technically optional? (based on what you said that you just ran past it to go to the next area and get the Blue Sentinels insignia). And now the Blue Sentinels are officially direct descendents of the Darkmoon Blades so both Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 1 fans can be happy (though Dark Souls 2 haters, the really short-sighted, frothing, and stupid kind, not all of them, for the record, even if I will never understand your disdain, will never be happy as long as anything from that game, good, bad or who-gives-a-shit is referenced or featured in this game but screw them – speaking of, thanks for the Giant Tree screengrab, I was getting tired of seeing videos that either missed it or just glossed over that/didn’t bother to acknowledge it altogether
).
What “Dark Souls 2 enemies” on the Road of Sacrifices are you referring to exactly? Put it in spoiler tags if necessary, thx.
Seeing your chosen, heh, character name, it makes me wonder if they’ll censor out certain words in names like in Dark Souls 2? Scrolling through names and just seeing ********* all the time got annoying. Sometimes even if it was an innocent name like “Lass” it would be like “L***” because of the last three letters of the name. Not that that’s a name I saw specifically censored, but I would see cases like that frequently where I could tell what a name that was partially censored was but it was censored because it unintentionally had a swear or otherwise “naughty” word in it that otherwise was a very normal word. Since this is an M-rated title unlike the T-rated Souls 2 they should maybe not unnecessarily censor other online player names? Or at least provide an option to censor a name or not (similarly in a video I saw they had options to change how much blood you want in the game from none to “Mild” to SPICY! OK really it was “High” or something like that but we can dream can’t we?).
I caught a stream of Dark Souls 3 the other night and saw that Iudex Günther had a grab attack with his big-ass weapon I never saw before that throws you across the arena. So that was… a thing. And Vordt certainly looked harder than how you described him, and faster too, at least his second phase where he does three running charges across the room in a row (the Knight class was also chosen for this stream in case you were wondering). It did look like one of those “get underneath it and whack away” kind of bosses but the second phase looked a little scarier especially when you have as little Estus as you do that early on. And nutsac tree (or, er, “Curse-rotted Greatwood”) I saw also had a nasty grab attack with that giant hand that pops out, but you can attack it to damage it too. So many new things learned so little time!
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Well, if it’s like Dark Souls 2, there may be more cut-off points that we don’t know about until people experiment: i.e. it may scale in a linear fashion with equip load that determines how far you roll. Or there may be non-visual clues linked to equip load that determine your i-frames: i.e. you can’t tell, but at 50% you have 10 i-frames while at 65% you have 9, similar to the difference between 100 ADP and 105 ADP rolls in DkS2.
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Of course it’s 70 silly haha, I was asking him what’s the new one in DkS3. If the knight can fast roll in that heavy armor then it’ll be pretty easy for everybody once again to be a fast rolling havel with a little katana, spending almost nothing in Vit. I wish it was 25% like DkS1…
Great, you beat both bosses on your first try, no healing. Now I’m going to have to try and match that. Assuming Dark Souls 3 dodging is similar to Bloodborne’s, added with blocking and spells, and parrying, I think I can do that.
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what 65 i thought it was 70?
i actually like the blue sentinels although i would rather if both blue sentinels and way of the blue/blue apostles were the same covenant because i don’t remember ever getting summoned as a blue sentinel likely cause nobody uses way of the blue
Velka is not the covenant leader, that I know of. I got the “badge” of Blue Sentinels from someone else. 65% did seem to be the break point for fat rolls. I don’t know if there is a lighter roll as I never took off my armor.
Cas
That was great.
Not exactly hyped about the Blue Sentinels. But I’m glad they’re now related to the Darkmoons. Is the statue of Velka the covenant leader? I always wanted to see her, as I mostly did my sinner cleansing in her name. I hope the Way of Blue synergy works this time well, though I’m not particularly a fan of helping PvE’ers or noobs.
Were you fast rolling with 65% equipload? Is it the same breakpoint as DkS2?
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