Okay real post, I just started up Dark Souls III tonight cause the other Halloweenish type games I have I wasn't feeling as much and I've been itching to play this since I finished DSII. My biggest beef so far is that just like Bloodborne, the online gameplay is hidden behind the PS+ paywall and outside of these two games I'm probably never going to use it so I'm a bit annoyed it came to this. So I'm doing this solo just like Bloodborne.

As tradition, I remained in my basic bitch choice of Knight as my starting class, if only because the starting armor looks like the fluted armor from Demon's Souls which is my favorite armor in the Souls series. My Burial Item was the Life Ring because none of the other items sounded useful.

So after making a hideous character cause I've never been good with face creation features in games, I rolled through the tutorial area, ignored the crystal monstrosity hiding in one of the optional paths, and crushed Gundyr like a bug and then was promptly murdered by the Ronin Hollow guarding a door near the Firelink Shrine. Twice, and I lost all my souls. I was going to let that slide but losing that many souls before reaching the person who levels me up just didn't sit well with me, so I exited the game and started a new file.

Managed to make a significantly better looking player character who looks like a young Mitsurugi of another famous series with Soul in the title. Waltzed through the tutorial, decided to not err on caution and tackled that overgrown monster Crystal Lizard who turned out to be super easy. Crushed Gundyr a second time, saved at the Firelink Shrine and leveled up, then tackled the Ronin Hollow, who still crushed me because I can't get the parry timing down. Ended up beating him as a fluke because I rolled past him when he did his charge attack and then tried to backstab him, only for the guy to continue his combo off a cliff. Sadly, I fell with him since I used auto-target and ended up doing a combo instead of a backstab like I planned. Went back for round two but he doesn't respawn and instead I found his gear waiting for me by my bloodstain.

Went to Lothric High Wall which is basically a weird redo of Boletaria Castle/Undead Burg with the usual assortment of Souls tropes like a dragon level hazard, suicidal hollow dregs, and more dangerous armored knights. New this time around are the Humanity Corrupted Hollows who easily fell into "avoid if you can" territory since they soak damage like a sponge and they take up so much of the screen that staying in close makes combat too difficult to tell what anyone is doing.

I found the cell key to free the thief character who has me looking for some old woman at the bottom of the wall, and to my surprise, while I explored that way I ended up encountering the next boss, who is a mace wielding dog knight who ended up being ridiculously easy since I just followed the Bloodborne method of dealing with big bosses by staying under him where all his attacks missed.

Leveled up a few times and upgraded my weapon once, noticed armor upgrades are gone, and was able to get two extra Estus Flasks. I don't really know how I'm going to build my character this time around but I'm already noticing the heavy influence Bloodborne left on this entry with the sped up combat, higher basic combos, more generous stamina recovery, and the heavier emphasis on weapon arts this time around. The other thing is the graphics, part of the game look like they could be from Bloodborne as well due to the game sharing the former's high detail and stylized aesthetics. I don't think any of the castles in other Dark Soul entries were this heavily ornamented with all the statues, corpses, and general weirdness.

I am digging the game really playing up the idea of this being the end. The earlier entries never felt like the world was really just coming to an end like it does in this entry and while the "Unkindled" is just another way of saying Hollow mechanically, I'm digging the premise of hunting down former heroes of the fire linking.

Anyway, any suggestions or hints? I've heard there is something off about armor in this entry among other complaints from long time Souls fans.