Dark Souls III: The Ringed City Reviews
There are a few segments and bosses that feel damn near impossible without the help from a friendly phantom.
Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City has found a way to revisit the past without a cheap reliance on nostalgia, wrapping up the story of Dark Souls in a way that will be satisfying for fans who enjoy digging into the rich lore the series has been building for the last few years. But you don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of the Souls series to appreciate the satisfying twists and turns of this short, but exciting adventure, with its abundance of haunting, secret-filled locales and terrifying boss fights.
As satisfying an ending as Dark Souls was ever going to get, with some shocking story revelations and memorable boss battles.
The Ringed City is a well-executed conclusion for the revered Dark Souls series.
The Ringed City DLC is a mixture of things, unfairly difficult in the beginning, it opens up and delivers a thematically fitting end to the series of the whole. Great boss fights as well as a new PvP mechanic elevate it above the previous DLC.
Two locations and four bosses doesn't sound like a whole bunch but don't be fooled - The Ringed City easily clocks in at four to five hours depending on how you fare with the bosses and other challenges. It's a meaty instalment and a welcome deviation from the practices seen in Ashes of Ariandel, while still interlocking with and continuing the complex narrative. The bosses are challenging and visually fantastic - besides a cheap NPC opponent - and the environments continue the Dark Souls tradition of being large, intricate, and engaging. The Ringed City feels like the climatic end that the Souls franchise deserves, even if we find ourselves hoping that this isn't actually the end at all.
With some notable flaws and lack of originality, the Ringed City is a bit of a mix bag. Even so, the new areas are fun enough to explore, and the epic final encounter is something that absolutely needs to be experienced by anyone that calls themselves a Souls fan. It's unclear if this truly marks the end of Souls as a series, but if it is, it can rest well knowing it has left an indelible mark in gaming that will never be forgotten.
The Ringed City is possibly the best DLC of the series - Bloodborne's Old Hunters included. It's challenging, intriguing and mysterious, like a good entry in the Souls series should be, but takes all of those factors to the max. A wonderful conclusion to the series, but we can't help but want more...
This second DLC is a great add-on which concludes the 'Souls Saga' made by Hidetaka Miyazaki. With a stunning art design and a lot of new enemies, weapons and bosses, The Ringed City is the perfect ending of an incredible series.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While The Ringed City may not be perfect, it still serves as a fantastic send off to one of the most engaging series in modern gaming. Even with some lackluster environments and sections that feel artificially difficult for the sake of it, this second expansion reminded me of why I fell in love with this series.
Dark Souls III The ringed City is a good conclusion to the saga, with a great level design, a lot of exploration, good new ennemies, and a lot of "You are Dead".
Review in French | Read full review
A greatest hits package of delights, The Ringed City gets just about everything right. If this is the end, as we believe it is, Dark Souls is going out on a high note.
The Ringed City is a must for Dark Souls fanatics, and not just because it's almost certainly the final chapter in what has become a cult classic series. It's a great piece of DLC in its own right, with thrilling boss fights, gorgeous locations and an appropriately sad, mournful ending.
The Ringed City conscripts volatile opposition and capacious geography into Dark Souls III's formidable maturation. FromSoftware's blueprint—maintaining infrastructure with careful distortion and clever addition—is now a familiar process, but the quality of their output remains uncompromised. As a tidy finale or a signal marking a hiatus, The Ringed City is pure Dark Souls.
Playing through The Ringed City was a bittersweet experience for me; it felt almost like I was lamenting the end of the series whilst playing rather than allowing myself to truly immerse myself in the content. The Souls series has become one of my all-time favourite gaming franchises and, whilst I commend From with having the plums to pull the plug whilst they’re still arguably on top of their game, there’s a little piece of me that dies inside every time I hear that the Souls series is now considered complete.
The Ringed City is as challenging and enjoyable as one would expect from a Souls game, and although it suffers from some level design issues at the beginning, it's a great conclusion for Dark Souls III.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Gorgeous but empty, challenging but not always fair, The Ringed City is a weak reflection of the series' best traits.
Dark Souls III: The Ringed City is a worthwhile expansion for fans of the series but it also frequently devolves into a controller-throwing nightmare.
This experimental final look into the world of Dark Souls is fascinating, but also comes with a few critical missteps.
Dark Souls III: The Ringed City isn’t the swan song that we hoped it would be, but it’s still an enticing adventure for hardcore fans.