Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City Review

Welcome back nerds! It's been a long week.

 It's been the DLC/Update week from hell. Which means it was an amazing week for existing games, just terrible for the people like me who want to play them all asap. This should go to explain why it took me this long to get the review up for a DLC. But I'll explain throughout in more detail. So without further stalling..

The Ringed City

Look, I'm ultimately going to save you some time and reading if all you care about is if this is worth your money (Though I appreciate if you continue reading!). The Ringed City is amazing. It is a fantastic send off to the Dark Souls series. I want you to think back to all of the previous Dark Souls DLC content.. Do you have your favourite piece in mind? Good. Now understand that The Ringed City if far better than whatever DLC pack you picked. 

This is a huge relief after Ashes of Ariandel came and went without people really noticing. 

The Ringed City has a total four bosses, only one of them is optional and another one of the bosses includes a PVP element linked to the games new Covenants. I don't want to spoil much on some of the locations, NPCs or bosses of the new DLC, I'll just say whether or not you try your hardest to comprehend the extremely convoluted story that is the Souls series, you will be taken back by this content. It doesn't take a History major in the Dark Souls lore to appreciate fully where this games story takes you and feels like true conclusion to the franchise. The one thing I will mention about the story without giving much away is, even if you have not played Ashes of Ariandel because you heard the wealth of content wasn't worth it (fair enough), I would highly suggest picking it up and playing though it before waltzing into The Ringed City. You will appreciate what it has to offer once you have a little more backstory under your belt. 

Maps

The Ringed City has some of the best looking locations that has ever graced your Souls-Borne eyes. From giant cathedrals, views of the city quite literally falling over what looks to be the end of the earth, and sprawling deserts. Not unlike anything in the Souls-Borne series, absolutely everything comes with an encyclopedia's worth of history behind it, and that includes each area you visit. If you are a Souls scholar you will lose your life once again (and again, and again...) trying to piece together the history of this strange new place. 

Items

The new Weapons and armour are some of the coolest and best looking in Dark Souls 3 yet. From the Ringed Knights armour to the Aquamarine Blade, which is a small dagger, however using the weapon art will cause the blade to extend as if you were living out some crazy Souls/Starwars fantasy. 

The new spells seem to be slightly lackluster. I speak as a pure magic user with max intellect. Semi decent dark sorceries are there, however the Miracles introduced here seems like the could really do some damage and really made me rethink my build...

Speaking of magic, you may have a difficult time as a magic user. Most of the enemies I faced seemed to be resistant to my magical self and my Moonlight Great-sword. I feel like a good melee build may not have as difficult of a time as I did at certain bosses...  

And lastly, yet very connected to my last point.. Do not start this piece of content in NG+4(New Game Plus 4) or above. Holy shit, what a slap in the face. This content is very much endgame content. Seeing as you can't even access it until you have either made it to the final boss of the game or beaten the Ashes of Ariandel DLC. If you rush through the game and thought it might be a little easier because you paid a premium for it and think FROM Software just wanted you to enjoy the journey. Throw that shit out the window. This is arguably the hardest content in the game. Each boss taking at the very least.. 8 times before I finally bested them. And I consider myself to be a pretty decent Souls-Borne Vet. 

All in all, this is a very solid expansion onto the already fantastic game that is Dark Souls 3. It's rare that a new piece of content can bring meaning to the poorest part of the game (The Ashes of Ariandel DLC) and take the franchise out on really high note. If you were wavering because you bought the previous DLC and were not sure what you would be getting into. do yourself a favour and jump on in for what may be the last time and enjoy Dying again and again. 

If you haven't touched any of the extra content for the final Souls game, pick them both up. You will not be sorry.. Unless you physically can't beat it. Then just summon some phantoms.. However, they can only take you so far..

Ultimately I would absolutely consider this to be a must buy for any type of fan of the series. 

If you did pick it up, let me know your thoughts!

I'm out, Nerds!