Dark Souls III

Dark Souls III, an action role-playing game from FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment, hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in 2016. It closes out the Dark Souls trilogy. Players take the role of the Ashen One, an unkindled warrior, whose journey revolves around the Lords of Cinder and the dying First Flame. The game uses a third-person viewpoint, with combat relying on weapons, armor, magic, shields, and consumable items. Hidetaka Miyazaki, the series’ creator, directed this installment after serving in a supervisory role on Dark Souls II. Critics praised Dark Souls III as a fitting end to the series, and it sold well. By May 2016, it had shipped over three million copies, and by May 2020, sales had surpassed ten million. It earned several honors, including Ultimate Game of the Year at the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards and Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. Two downloadable expansions—*Ashes of Ariandel* (2016) and *The Ringed City* (2017)—were released. A compilation, *Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition*, bundling the base game and both expansions, came out in April 2017. This action role-playing game is played from a third-person perspective. Players control a customizable character who explores linked areas, battles enemies and bosses, and rests at bonfires, which act as checkpoints. Defeating foes yields souls, used both as currency and experience points. Upon death, the player’s carried souls are left at the death spot; they can be retrieved by returning there, but are lost forever if the player dies again before reclaiming them. Combat revolves around managing health, stamina, and focus points (FP). Players can fight with melee weapons, bows, shields, throwable items, and magic. Shields block or deflect attacks, while dodge-rolling evades them. Weapons offer standard and strong attacks, some of which can be charged. New to *Dark Souls III* are weapon and shield “Skills”—special abilities that vary by equipment and consume FP. Stamina limits actions like attacking, blocking, and dodging, leaving the player vulnerable when it runs out. Magic, miracles, pyromancies, and Skills use FP instead of a fixed number of casts. Ashen Estus Flasks restore FP, while regular Estus Flasks heal health; players decide how many flask uses go to each type.