Bandai Namco Entertainment has released the final Dark Souls III DLC - The Ringed City.
Does it live up to the lofty ambitions and aspirations of the dark fantasy RPG?
While Ashes of Ariandel was a bit of a letdown in terms of DLC content, The Ringed City delivers a quality experience, featuring interesting new zones to explore, a wealth of new weapons, armors, and spells, and 4 big new bosses to test your might against. The Ringed City ranks up among the best Dark Souls DLC bits, and seasoned players may even find the spirit of homage here to the much-revered Artorias of the Abyss DLC for the original game.
As is often the case with Dark Souls, don’t expect a big reveal after the final blow lands. You’re going to find out plenty about the universe that spans the three games, and some interesting ways that they interconnect, but you’ll be hard pressed to find explicit story bits and a “real” ending to the expansive series. It’s an interesting enough way to end things, but prepare to read item descriptions and to dial down to details for anything of substance.
The bosses range from forgettable to memorable. The first boss is fun in the moment, but will quickly be relegated to the bottom tier of Dark Souls bosses. There’s an optional dragon encounter that is quite difficult, harder than most encounters in the series, but its abilities can often feel unfair (yes, you can git gud and still find yourself getting crushed).
The third boss is one of those cool PvP encounters that pulls other players in for the fight, so depending how much you enjoy facing off against other players you may really enjoy it. This also provides extra hours of gameplay after you complete the content, as you can be summoned in to help the boss destroy other players, and receive items to work up a new covenant.
The final boss is probably the only one that will end up being on any "Top Souls Bosses” list, it’s a great fight, but still fails to capture the awe of some of the series’ best. You will find yourself feeling traditional Souls tension as you attempt to take on the multi-part battle, and you’ll be quite satisfied after you deliver the killing blow.
You can burst through the zones fast, or explore every nook and cranny to pick up some amazing new weapons and spells, from shooting lightning arrows at your foes to dual-wielding greatswords (You’ve always wanted to do that, right?!). Some of the zone encounters can test your patience, even for hardened Dark Souls players, but all-in-all it’s tough content designed for players who have beaten the game, and it fulfills that role well.
Take your time. Enjoy the atmosphere. This is the last piece of Dark Souls III we’re going to get, and thankfully it’s a great ride.
Reviewed for PS4