Finished Dark Souls 3 (well, sans The Ringed City DLC)... probably gonna do a LTTP on Era, but some quick thoughts for now. NVM I wrote my LTTP here basically.
I'm glad that I played through Demon's Souls before I got around to really digging into Dark Souls 3. I loved Dark Souls, enjoyed Dark Souls 2, but Demon's Souls was probably my favorite in the series because there was always something new around the corner. Levels all had their unique gimmicks, bosses - while maybe not the hardest - always had something new to show you. That game, as a whole, wasn't just laser-focused - but also wholly original. Even having come from games that had copied many of the ideas from Demon's Souls, those games never really managed to convey the same exact feelings that all of those systems intertwining could give you.
In that sense, playing the last game in the franchise right after playing the first really opened my eyes to just how much of the series' original, well, soul had been lost by the time From had gotten this far. While stuff like the combat was smoother, most bosses just felt the same. Dodge roll at the right time, punish, DON'T GET HIT. Besides the exact timings, the vast majority of these fights are essentially the same sort of encounter as the rest. The few exceptions, meanwhile, feel aped from other games in the series. Curse-rotted Greatwood is just Bed of Chaos but an actual encounter and not as ass. Yhorm is like a mix of the giants from DS2 and the gimmick from Storm King in Demon's Souls.
Levels themselves, for the most part, were relatively small and linear affairs. While there's more to do in Dark Souls 3 than in Demon's Souls, In a way it didn't feel like it because I was railroaded down the one path. Even when the game did branch, it never looped in on itself like Dark Souls 1, or even the moments that Dark Souls 2 did! While the optional areas are great - arguably some of the best areas in the game - they're the exception and not the rule, and the rest of the game is essentially a straight line. The only Lord of Cinder you're allowed to fight at any point is Twin Princes. Abyss Watchers must be 1st or 2nd. Aldrich and Yhorm can both be either 2nd, 3rd, or 4th - but they're both within such close proximity of each other it doesn't matter much at all.
Don't even get me started with just how much the game copies from earlier ones in the series. At the best of times it uses this to its advantage - Smouldering Lake acting like a mix of both Ash Lake and Demon Ruins is great, Most of the time, however, it feels like rather hollow callbacks to earlier games in the series because Dark Souls 3 just isn't allowed to stand on its own merits. Anor Londo making an appearance, briefly, would've been great if the game hadn't come out less than 5 years earlier, and the game wasn't already filled to the brim with nods to Dark Souls 1 to begin with. I know that "poison swamps" are a damn meme by this point, but From have literally put one into every soulslike game and it honestly feels like the one here in DS3 was only included out of a sense of obligation.
Stuff like Archdragon Peak, Cathedral of the Deep (although it does etch relatively close to copying Bloodborne), and the bits I've seen of Ringed City are great. As a concept, Untended Graves was neat, and was a great example of how you can re-use content in a way that it feels like it fits the story. Dark Souls 3 absolutely had some great ideas, but especially now that I've got the entire series under my belt it's disappointing to see how From didn't really try anything "new" for 3. DS2, despite its issues, felt like something different - and in that sense, I think I appreciate it more than 3. 3 is flashy, and the fights are great tests of reflexes, but especially after playing Demon's Souls - I want something more than that. There are countless action RPGs I can go to these days if I just want flashy, difficult boss fights. I can't really go to anyone else for something like Demon's Souls.
