4 things we still don’t know about Dark Souls 3

Last week I played Dark Souls 3 for nearly four hours, during which I discovered a great many things, most of which you can read about here. On the other hand, what with this being a Souls game, there were about 40 million other things that I didn’t find out about, which I’ve handily condensed into 4 below.

Just how much of an impact the weapon art system is going to make

In case you missed it, Dark Souls 3’s ‘weapon arts’ enable the player access to powerful attacks by changing their weapon/item usage, their character’s stance, or a combination of both. It is aimed in some ways at making the game more approachable to new players, as well as adding variety to weapons and other items such as shields.

Thing is, I barely used them. I wouldn’t class myself as a Souls newcomer, but then neither am I a hardcore onebro player, and it seemed easier to default into sword-and-shield play rather than exposing myself with, say, a two-handed charge attack. The greatshield-wielding knights that you encounter early on would have been prime fodder for a weapon art guard break, but then again it was easier to let them attack and counter from there.

There seemed to be one moment where they would have worked very well: against the Undead Settlement’s Curse-rotted Greatwood boss, which – should you get past its defences – is open to massive damage. But then again, given that weapon arts use is governed by a gauge that is refilled via a special Estus flask – and that you can choose to carry additional health flasks instead of these – I think most players would go for extra health, especially in the early going. Only by playing around with the various weapons, items, and stances will we find out how useful the arts will really be. And that will take years. Sorry.

How tough Dark Souls 3 actually is

We all know that the Souls games are hard: at least 80% of the marketing budget is spent telling us so every time a new one comes out. Sadly, despite having played it for hours, I still don’t know how hard it will actually be when it hits shelves. That’s because Bandai/From/whoever made the call to make the game less difficult for the event. This meant that it was slightly easier to get through the build, which was great as we were playing through Lothric again, but it also meant that there’s no real way of discerning how tough it will actually be. Sorry. Blame games journalists for that one. In fact, blame them for everything.

Just exactly what the f*** is going on

As expected, even spending hours with Dark Souls 3 hasn’t given me much insight as to how the story hangs together. Yes, we know about the Lords of Cinder leaving their thrones, and that your character is also a Lord of Cinder, and that they are off to kill the other lords, but there are still countless other plot threads, intrigues, and machinations to uncover. As ever, it’ll take hours to piece the story together, even after the game has come out, and many of the ‘facts’ will be open to interpretation: a large part of what makes Dark Souls’ lore so engaging.

How the expanded multiplayer is going to change things…or not

Multiplayer has been a part of the Souls games since their inception, and Dark Souls 3 has upped the player count from 4 to 6. Which sounds very cool – and in video game land, more is always marketed as better – but will it upset the balance? Will six people be too many? How will the dynamics change? Will it ruin co-op? How will the covenants work? The same? Slightly tweaked? Will it all be ruined? Probably not, eh. But in my time with Dark Souls 3 my game was only invaded once, and I did the honourable thing and jumped off a cliff, so I really can’t be sure.