Dark Souls 3: New New Meta

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• published: 12 May 2016
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Dark Souls III is an action role-playing game set in a third-person perspective, similar to previous games in the series. According to lead director and series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, the game's gameplay design followed "closely from Dark Souls II". Players are equipped with a variety of weapons including bows, explosives like fire bombs, greatswords, and dual-wielding swords to fight against enemies, and shields that can be used to deflect an enemies' attack and protect the player from suffering damage. Each attack has two different styles, with one of them being a standard attack, while the other is slightly more powerful and can be charged up, similar to FromSoftware's previous game, Bloodborne. In addition, attacks can be evaded through dodge-rolling. Bonfires, which serve as checkpoints, return from previous installments. Ashes, according to Miyazaki, play an important role in the game. Magic is featured in the game, with a returning magic system from Demon's Souls, known as "focus points" (FP). When performing spells, the players' focus points are consumed and decreased. There are two separate types of Estus Flasks in the game, which can be allotted to fit a players' particular play style. One of them refills hit points like previous games in the series, while another, newly introduced in Dark Souls III, refills focus points. Combat and movements were made faster and more fluid in Dark Souls III, with several players' movements, such as backstepping and swinging heavy weapons, able to be performed more rapidly, allowing players to deal more damage in a short period of time. Throughout the game, players encounter different types of enemies, each with different behaviors. Some of them change their combat pattern during battles. New combat features are introduced in Dark Souls III, including weapon and shield "Skills", which are special abilities that vary from weapon to weapon that enable unique attacks and features, at the cost of focus points. The game puts more focus on role-playing, in which the character builder is expanded and weapons are improved to provide more tactical options to players. The game features fewer overall maps than its predecessor Dark Souls II, but were created larger and more detailed, which encourages exploration. The adaptability stat from Dark Souls II was removed in Dark Souls III, with other stats being adjusted. The game features multiplayer elements, like the previous games in the series. Set in the Kingdom of Lothric, a bell has rung to send a sign that the First Flame, responsible for prolonging the Age of Fire, is dying out. The Age of Fire is a period where, upon death, one rises from a bonfire and continues a long, unnatural life. Some, however, see this as a curse, in that the living never earn a time to rest. As the First Flame begins to die out, the Age of Fire diminishes as the Age of Dark approaches. As has been done many times before, the Age of Fire can be prolonged with the linking of the fires, a ritual in which great lords and heroes sacrifice their souls to kindle the First Flame. When the bell rings, the Lords of Cinder abandon their thrones rather than linking the fires and an undead warrior known as the Ashen One rises and takes on the responsibility of preventing an oncoming apocalypse brought about by the endless conflict between fire and dark. In order to link the flame, the Ashen One must return four other previous Lords of Cinder, heroes who have linked the flame across aeons, back to their thrones in the Firelink Shrine. But because the Lords’ decisions to leave, the Ashen One must return their essences and power back to their throne by defeating them and returning their ashes to the shrine. Once the Ashen One succeeds in returning the Lords of Cinder to their thrones, the Ashen One travels to the ruins of the Kiln of the First Flame. There, they encounter the Soul of Cinder, an amalgamation of all the previous Lords of Cinder who had linked the flame. Once the Soul of Cinder is defeated, three endings are possible based on the player's actions during the game.