I've been playing this game for 50 hours since release and have finished it twice.

So this is a thread for talking about the game in general I suppose. Did you like it, did you find any cool secrets on your own, which was the best boss fight, etc.

EDIT: I really recommend everyone to do the lord of hollows quest line and get "The Usurpation of Fire" ending. Some of the best story in the game according to me.

The Princes boss fight was the best boss fight in a souls series by a mile for me. The bosses in general were incredible. Enemies, Music, locations were just exceptional. One of those games that I never wanted to end while playing it. I think it's better than Dark Souls 1, but I've got to do repeat playthroughs, NG, and check out the PVP scene some more. Unlike BB, DS2 all the excellent ingredients are here so it's going to have the life span of DS1, i'm hoping.

@asilentprotagonist: I think the nameless king boss fight was up there with the princes, he was much harder as well. I feel the same way, overall this is the best souls game. Only thing I miss from ds1 is the ability to upgrade armour. The online play is much smoother over all and I've enjoyed a fair amount of good coop and pvp.

The nameless King was a great boss fight. Probably my favorite boss fight of any Souls game. Also, He's Gwyn's firstborn.

Beat it once but haven't gone into NG+ yet. I'm afraid I'll get stuck on some boss and not be able to take my main guy into any DLC. Little too many gimmick fights for my tastes but great game regardless

@roninenix: Oh really? that's super cool. They do look a bit alike. Wasn't there a theory about solair being the son of Gwyn?

@slyspider: I wouldn't be to worried about it, if you have a couple of weapons at max level and are around level 60-80 you shouldn't have a problem with ng+.

@a_turtle: If you read the Solaire shield & chest item description, it pretty much just says that Solaire was a normal dude. And if you read the item description for the nameless king's weapons & soul, it's said that he is the heir to lightning.

@roninenix Yeah that seems straight forward enough :) really enjoyed a lot of the item descriptions in this game, a bunch of good writing.

Not sure about anyone else but I really like Anor Londo being in the game. Also Aldrich was pretty cool lore-wise and an interesting fight though not too hard. I did invade a bunch as the Aldrich covenant. You can get a lot of people in some of those fights. Had a 3v3 (I think? Was hard to tell in all the chaos) at one point.

As an aside, I saw a streamer whose Anor Londo area was sunny. How do you do that?

Also I went to NG+ before I went to the Archdragon Peak or whatever gosh darnit. I beat the game and then thought to myself, "Wait...where was the area with the lightning guy riding the dragon I saw in the trailer?" Then I doubled that up with, "Wait...where did I see that streamer showing the easy, legitimate way to farm souls late game??!!"

I was very annoyed when I looked up the boss page on the wiki and saw 2 I hadn't fought.

Also NG+ in this has new loot. 2nd or 3rd item I picked up in the starting area was completely new and they've also updated the soul consumables to scale with NG+. Real excited to see what new gear is in it.

@strangestories: Yeah it's real tricky to get to the area where the nameless king is, I assume you've looked it up by now?

also in late game the sun i like a eclipsed orb thing that shines red. that might have been what made anor londo seem sunny?

@a_turtle: yeah I looked it up because it was so vague aside from when I first passed the statue in the dungeon a person had put "gesture required ahead". I just ignored it because you don't get the gesture until later. I have to go through the game either in NG+ or on a new character to get there, though. Not sure which I'll be doing.

It was a lot easier finding the secret area after Ocerios. Someone watching me asked me to hit the wall just to be sure.

Also the eclipse might have done it? I should have gone back and checked and I really should watch the video again to make sure but I remember it looking really sunny. It would be cool if they had a reverse of what happened in DS1.

EDIT: just watched the video again, there was just something weird going on with his recording that made everything look really yellow in that area when it was the normal nighttime of that area.

@strangestories: Yeah without the signs it would almost be as hard to figure out as how to access the abyss content in ds1 dlc.

Ah I see, would be cool if you somehow could get a sunny anor londo tho.

So I just beat my first playthrough, and I have to say I am supper disappointed in the final boss. Way too easy. Loved the game over all and really looking forward to NG+. But man, was that boss a huge let down.

So for anyone in NG+, did they do any/expand on the additional phantom enemies that DS2 had? That was my favourite new idea in that game, and it'd suck if NG+ is just back to being the same thing again (outside of ring upgrades, which I know are in there already).

He was super easy, and also the first time I beat him he was mid-grab animation, "caught" me as he was dying, and somehow I ended up falling through the floor and had to do the whole thing again. I did like the silly fanservice aspect of it, though.

@teddie: I haven't seen any new enemies/red phantoms. They did make the soul consumables scale with NG+, though, which is nice.

It's basically like the entire NG+ playthrough is scaled to the same level, as in High Wall enemies have as much health/do as much damage as say Irithyll enemies. Basically, the endgame NG+ feels like the same difficulty as endgame NG which Is really odd.

I loved the final boss for the set dressing and music, was okay with it being a little on the easy side.

Some observations after making it halfway through NG+:

1. Normal enemies feel appropriately scaled, both in terms of damage and health.
2. Bosses, however, only really feel like they got a damage buff. I'm murdering them in 30 seconds or less, and it makes for a way different experience.
3. Speaking of different experiences, knowing where to go and only worrying about NG+ items means you can just blow past so much the game in a very short period of time.
4. The NG+ rings are disappointing; there's nothing wrong with getting an extra 2% of whatever, but in comparison to DS2's NG+ which features new boss souls, enemies, and wrinkles to certain boss fights (in addition to the rings), DS3's NG+ mode leaves a bit to be desired.

For me the hardest part of this game so far (I've reached the last boss but went back to go through an optional area i missed) has been the three enemies in the Grand Archives section right before the lift that is the shortcut to princes of lothric. I ended up just running past them, any tips for killing them? I really want to but for whatever reason kept getting smoked by them.

@hark: Try baiting them with arrows to fight them one on one.

@sterling: I tried that but when one agros, all three agro and they all rush you, closest I got to killing one is when I ran past and somehow only one managed to keep up and the other two leashed and I almost killed that one but fell off a ledge.

@hark: bum rush the caster, get backstabs, don't let them drink estus, when the caster is down it's quite easy :)

I agree with the rest of the folks here that the last boss was underwhelming but to be fair ds1 and ds2's final bosses weren't great either. best part of the gwyn fight in 1 is the music imo.

I enjoy speeding through these games after the first playthrough, finding exploits and getting back at the game for being hard the first time around.

@hark: Try pulling one of them with a bow or crossbow, and then hitting it with the pyromancy that charms an enemy?

I actually had two issues with the Nameless King fight. One was that the first phase of it showed the limitations of the game's camera controls. The second was that Andre just had to go and tease you with dialogue that he was from Anor Londo, thus making me believe the game was showing its hand on the identity of the first born. But nope.

My personal favorites:

Nameless King: simply a visual spectacle and a lore payoff 3 games in the making.

Dancer of the Boreal Valley: a fight that visually tricks you with distance and speed due to the size of the enemy.

Souls of Cinder: What Miyazaki very obviously wanted the original Gwyn fight to be.

@hark: If you aren't beyond a little cheesing, you can pull them back all the way to that broken window you come through to get to that upper walkway of the archives (the part with the mumbling corpse in the chair and single scholar enemy). The 3 enemies have real hard time pathing in that area and you can separate them.

The Nameless King fight was epic but I was a bit dissapointed it took place in some sort of void. (I dont know the lore maybe it was all in my head or something)

I think my favourite boss was Dragon Armour as it escalated quite quickly and lead to most of the area being destroyed.

As for the ending I was left with the same 'really?' reaction I normally get after beating a souls game, you'd think I'd be used to it by now. (3rd ending at least seems more elaborate)

I ended up really enjoying the game, despite having some conflicting thoughts about how much it leans into the original Dark Souls. The game really delivers on the boss fights. I think I'd take any boss from this game over most in Dark Souls 2 (except maybe the Ancient Wyvern - that boss was pretty weak). I don't think the game will ever topple Bloodborne as my favourite in the Souls series but that's purely my bias towards Lovecraftian horror speaking.

In terms of my favourite boss fights, I think Iudex Gundyr might be the best first boss of any Souls game, so he's definitely up there. I love the challenge Pontiff Sulyvahn and Dancer of the Boreal Valley present, and I think Nameless King and Soul of Cinder are fantastic visual set-pieces. I've taken a break from the game to finish up my semester but I'm very eager to get back to the game. It's a shame to hear NG+ (and beyond) doesn't alter the game in any significant way but at the very least it may make the bosses a little more challenging. I found their health pools to be rather small first time through.

Some of the best bosses in all of the Souls games. Dancer, Gundyr and Nameless King are right up the top for me. I ended up hating the final boss though, I wanted something new and original, not a rehashed Gwyn. As for the rest, the level design is way better than Dark Souls 2 but I was a little disappointed to see mostly the same stuff as before. I kinda wanted something new, not "another castle" and "another swamp". I guess that's a tall order though and I can't really fault them too much for it. Magic sucks, skills are cool but mostly useless and I feel more restricted in playstyle compared to Dark Souls 2. I'll come back when the DLC launches, but I don't see myself replaying this from the beginning. I did a pure fighter first and an almost pure mage second and mages are fucking terrible.

@sterling: Yeah but when has a souls final boss been hard? They just feel like cool set pieces at this point.

Abyss Watchers making me upset the moment I saw it was a multiple boss fight then immediately making it work by having the Watchers fight each other was so good. Also the Usurp ending is awesome.

@plasmaduck:This is the last game in the souls series after all (presumably). So your longing for something new and original might come to life in whatever From comes up with after this.

@sunbrozak: If I was doing the dlc for this game I would take a lot of inspiration from ds2's scholar of the first sin. I have high hopes that they mix it up and encourage people to play the entire game again with the dlc.

I also loved the bosses in DkS 3! My favourite bosses in this series have always been the ones who get right up in your grill fast and force you to dodge without ever giving you too much room to breathe. Happy to see a lot of those fights in DkS3. (Favourites: Nameless King and Lothric Bros, probably also Dragonslayer Armour). There's one thing i'm still unsure about though: With all the references, callbacks and straight up returning areas from Dark Souls 1 it seems pretty obvious that 3 is taking place in the same location/Land/whatever as 1(with anor Londo and Izalith being there, also Farron=Ooacile/Forrest?,Undead Settlement related to Undead Burg?). So what i'm now wondering is wether or not these areas are in the somewhat "correct" geographic location relative to each other. Or if they aren't then is there at least an explanation for why they are where they are? Otherwise i'd be kinda disappointed.

I'd check for myself but i dont have my 360 anymore and im playing 3 on ps4.

@darkwingduck: Geography in the dark souls universe is weird because of inter dimensional relations + the time span off 1000's of years. I have seen people describing the game as taking place in the epicentre of the linking of fire and everything is drawn towards the centre and that counts people but maybe even geographical locations from alternating universes? I don't know, not very well informed on this kinda stuff.

I still think that the Abyss Watchers is my favorite boss in the game. But then, I'm also a fan of Gehrman/Maria fights in Bloodborne and Abyss Watcher phase 2 was like that and I really liked it. Plus since it was the first Lord of Cinder fight seeing that they could also Ember up was initially frightening. Bosses up to that point had second phases but this was the first time that one was like "No fuck that I'm popping an Ember and getting full health let's do this".

That said, the Lord of Cinder fight was appropriately nice. I thought it would just be the first phase and it being this nice amalgamation of the player characters from previous Dark Souls. And then the piano hit and the memories came flooding back. Speaking of music, I think I'm ready to declare that Dancer of the Boreal Valley has the best music of the bosses - though it definitely loses impact if you listen to it straight because it doesn't have those pounding footsteps that add so much to the fight. Honestly I think this is the best soundtrack of the Dark Souls series. Bloodborne is still tops but this is a good second.

End of Fire ending is the true ending and I'll hear no argument otherwise.

@a_turtle: Yeah, that's kinda how i explained the world of Dark Souls 2 to myself, since the player even jumps in a big vortex looking thing at the beginning of that one. Anyway ive been walking through the areas of Dark Souls 1 in my head again and i THINK the locations/distances generally match so weee.

Edit: On a side note i really love how Lothric Castle just towers over everything else in the game. Like, if you look down from where you hold up the banner you can even see the top of Anor Londo in the distance to the left below you. Its like the Lothric family was so proud of themselves for linking the flame that they build the most opulent frickin castle in history so everyone would know how cool they were. It's like: "Anor Londo is HOW big? Nah man, we'll build one 10 times the size of that."

So, I'm not far into NG+, but has anyone who is pretty far into or completed it yet, seen anything different? I mean, there hasn't even been a single new enemy placement yet or any new phantoms. The only thing that seems different is soul items have now scaled. That is literally the only thing different so far. Enemies don't seem tougher in the slightest either. Kind of bummed out about this. It makes replaying it somewhat pointless.

Outside of the altered soul items and the "+" rings, there's no new items. Enemies only get a buff, I don't believe there's any new enemies or enemy placements.

@sterling: I'm most of the way through it and there's nothing new beyond a few rings.

@sterling: There's some shiny new +1 rings?

NG+ is fairly disappointing. Bosses don't seem to have much more health either, they just do more damage. The only reason I'm even doing NG+ is to finish questlines/see other endings and get the platinum. People can shit on Dark Souls 2 all they want but at least it did NG+ better than any other souls game.

@mirado: @sunbrozak: That is super disappointing.

What carries over into NG+ in terms of inventory - or rather what doesn't carry over? I finished the NG story line (went with the dark ending) and I want to be careful before going into NG+.

@sterling: yeah the lack of variety in ng+ was kind of a bummer, I missed a lot of story and npc's on my first playthrough so I still got a lot out of ng+. I did a new character as well because I wanted to try out a sorcerer managed to finish the game again in 9 hours with a couple of summons. This game has it's claws in me like no other souls game have and I think I'll be spending a lot more time in the pvp. It isn't a perfect game, the lack of incentives to replay is one of the bigger knocks on it and I'm still fighting the camera from time to time.

Side note: 3 playthroughs and I still haven't found the fucking pyromancer. Haven't gone out of my way to find him/her so that may explain it.

Key items are the only items you lose. Everything else that resets is just related to bonfires, NPCs, etc. You'll keep all your consumables and gear.

@sunbrozak: Cool, thanks. Sounds like the standard carry over for Souls games but wasn't sure if they'd try something new for this one.

@technician: One thing to keep in mind is that the vendor NPCs reset as well, meaning that if your build either relies or benefits from late game items (arrows, for example), you'll have to wait until you get whatever you need (mainly ashes) to unlock those items again in NG+.

My suggestion is to buy as many upgrade materials as you can before you make the transition, so you aren't stuck waiting before you try out a new weapon. You'll also need the coals again if you wish to do any infusing.

Anyone done any PvP at the Kiln? It's pretty heavily populated, using a Dried Finger is gonna get you swarmed, so get some bros to help

I keep reading nameless king nameless king nameless fucking king in these threads and I'm over here pissed that I didn't even find that boss fight!

Good thing I play these games twice

Same thing here! I thought I had found every optional boss before starting NG+, but it turns out that I completely missed one, and now I have to go through almost the entire game all over again to even have another chance at him, how annoying.

For my second playthrough I'm making sure to use a guide, turns out despite the fact that I thought I was combing through the areas pretty well, I still missed a TON of stuff, included a half dozen characters. I didn't bother to do the "drawing out the true strength" thing either, because I was afraid it would have negative consequences later on. I was actually wondering where the hell the freaking Onion Knight guy went, since I only ever saw him once in my first playthrough and never again.

Ok, question about endings because I'm gonna do new game+ and I wanna get the lord of hollows ending.

I got all 8 dark sigils all by myself somehow without looking up a guide but I didn't get the lord of hollows ending. Now, I did give the firekeeper the eyes and also summoned her at the end. My question is- did one of or both of these things keep me from getting the lord of hollows ending? I guess it had to, right? I ended up getting the End of Fire ending instead.

For new game+ I don't wanna mess it up so please let me know!

@frostyryan I'm pretty sure it's fine to give the Firekeeper the eyes, you simply cannot summon her as that instigates the end of fire ending. I did something similar but upon summoning the Firekeeper I panicked and took a swing at her, leading to a whole other ending.

I haven't gotten to The Nameless King yet, but it's possible to miss him? Anyone got some tips on how to avoid skipping him? I'm nearing the end but haven't done all the optional stuff yet.

@csl316: If you do one particular optional area, you are going to get a gesture that will tie into a secluded portion of a previous non-optional area. I can't tell you much more without spoilers, so here it is: Once you beat The Consumed King's Garden off of the entrance to Lothric Castle and learn how to do the Path of The Dragon gesture, head back to the Dungeon area and do the gesture next to the dragon statue with all the dead knights.