5/5 ★ – guished_foobi's review of Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition.

This may unequivocally be my favorite game of all time and I'm not sure that is ever going to change. I am a massive Fromsoftware fan and this was my first experience in the series. Even though the other titles I have played in the company's catalogue of games have been fantastic in their own right, nothing truly comes close to the first time I overcame a Fromsoftware title. Before my best friend convinced me to play this title with him, I really only had one conception of Souls-like games. That they were tough as nails and gave you no quarter. Needless to say, from an outside perspective looking in, none of the Souls-like games seemed very inviting to a newcomer so I never really had a desire to play them. Nevertheless, my buddy assured me that the game would really just be tough but fair instead of impossible. I decided to give it a chance and we played through this game together for the better part of 2 months of our senior year of high school. I loved every single moment of it. The combat was methodical in some spaces and exhilarating in others. The weapons, sorceries, spells, and miracles were all incredibly fun to use in their own right and they all add so much replay value to the title. The world was incredibly fun to explore with varied enemies and settings that keep everything engaging. That's not even mentioning that DS3 has one of the strongest and highest quality boss lineups in any game I have ever played. A lot of people hate on Fromsoftware for the minimalism they use in their storytelling. You can see this most commonly in how they hide details about the world in item descriptions. But for DS3, I never found that to be an actual issue. More than anything else, you FEEL what the story of DS3 is about through the attention and detail put into every aspect of the world. Things are not okay, the world is dying, and there is a cycle that has perpetuated all of this that needs to be put to rest. You see this in the way that NPC's talk to you, it's in the design of enemies and bosses, and it's in the way the world looks. The world of DS3 is an incredibly bleak one. Yet even amidst those depressing themes, there is still hope. Hope that breaking the cycle can give the world a chance to heal, be reborn, and finally move on. There isn't much I can say about this title that hasn't already been said about its gameplay. It's fantastic, and if you enjoy Souls-likes this one will be no exception. But beyond just looking at the game technically, I have grown such a personal attachment to this title over the years that it has become my favorite game ever. The themes that are present in this title have gotten me through some exceptionally rough times in my life. No matter how impossible a challenge may seem, it's always possible to persevere and emerge victorious. No matter how bad things are or how dire they may seem, there is always the hope that things eventually can heal and get better. As of writing this, I have played through this game in totality a minimum of 10 times. Every time I go back to this title, I find something new to appreciate and take with me. For me, DS3 is an absolute masterpiece and it always will be.