Dark Souls III: The Ringed City Reviews
The Ringed City is a fantastically punishing finale for the Dark Souls saga, but is held back by linear level design and an underwhelming story.
A farewell to the Dark Souls series that showcases all of the developer's experience in terms of concepts and level design, and gives those who care about the lore a chance to explore it further. The Ringed City adds more gameplay hours while sustaining the full game's quality, but it doesn't differ much as it reuses the same concepts of previous installments.
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The Ringed City is a brutally unkind piece of content that shows the series at its best, but also unfortunately its worst.
Ultimately, simplicity is not always a negative thing, some titles even use such to their advantage. But when a series which has built itself upon exploration of complex, foreign and extremely hostile environments, especially one as highly regarded as Dark Souls, completely shifts its formula and transforms itself into a simple A-to-B adventure game, it ultimately loses a lot of its charm. And one could debate whether such drastic transition has come from change in artistic vision, financial constraints, or simply a loss of passion, but in the end he/she still has to agree that The Ringed City is a solid piece of content, and unlike the Ashes of Ariandel, it is worthy of being considered a major part of the Dark Souls universe.
Let the Feast End
Dark Souls III's The Ringed City isn't exactly the final piece of the puzzle that people have been waiting for, as it's just more of the same (albeit, very good), and not something that will be hailed as a DLC masterpiece, partly due to its short length. Buy, rent, or never play? Irrelevant. Soulsborne aficionados are already on it…
You can respect how well it fits in with the series' overall lore.
A piece of DLC that for fans will signal closure for the lore and single-player offerings – for the time being at least. It has some of the best moments that the franchise has to offer, some not-so great moments, and indeed some throwbacks to key parts of the series. Until the time comes when Hidetaka Miyazaki wishes to return to this beloved franchise, this heralds the season finale with much more confidence than the previous DLC. Praise the Sun!
The Ringed City is an incredible end to an incredible series.
Exploring ruins has gotten no less satisfying. Risking it all to secure a glowing item or a stash of souls still provokes baseline thrills. The basic back-and-forth of combat maintains its addictive rhythm. And the whole world is incredibly beautiful, especially the lush panoramas of the Ringed City itself.