Apparently Deluxe Edition people get no DLC.
So, that’s fun. Glad I gave em extra money 7 months ago.
Didn’t that edition include the season pass content?
It sure does! It’s right there in the DLCs. But apparently that “season pass” gives you… absolutely nothing.
Someone on reddit suspects it will unlock when it was supposed to. So basically people who paid 7 months ahead of time, get the DLC later than people who say, got the Season Pass this morning.
Hell I can buy the DLC RIGHT NOW, it isn’t in my library. I could give them $15 for it right this second. Evidently there is no link between Season Pass and the DLC or something. No idea.
Hey it showed up! Well, gave me time to eat supper I guess.
The DLC is snowy. Some trees are deadly.
Because I just felt like writing something today, here’s my Ashes of Ariandel review! Kinda spoilery, so read at your own peril!
[spoiler]The quick version is that Ashes of Ariandel is good, not great. All Souls DLCs are labours of love, bona fide expansion packs, not horse armor quick cash ins, but this one feels a bit like it’s just going through the motions.
The stats are for it are pretty much what you’d expect: 1 very large snowy area with variations (snowy forest, snowy village, snowy cliff, glacier) 15 new weapons/spells, a handful of armor sets and two bosses.
Just two? I guess that’s the first hiccup. Every other Souls expansion pack had more than that, even the theoretically 33% smaller Dark Souls II DLC did. The bosses are fine, the “main” boss is pretty spectacular (From noticed people liked fighting a graceful chick in the Old Hunters Bloodborne DLC, so you’re getting that times three), but an additional gimmick boss would have rounded out the package and made them feel weightier. For what it’s worth, the bosses can be interrupted by regular attacks, which is a positive rarity since unflinching hunks of steel are the norm and it just feels more “fair” when it seems the enemy must obey the same rules you do.
There are a bunch of new enemies, and they all play their part serviceably. The wolves are pretty cool. Despite being the hundredth retread of the dog enemy, I love the way they strafe around you menacingly and howl for backup and then, holy crap, wolves everywhere!!! I’m happy to report I cried for my mommy.
One thing does get on my nerves. That the DLC is harder than the final area in the main game, I can understand, but that the loot and miserable amount of souls you find are about on par with the mid game I can’t fathom. I suspect it might be to not destroy the progression of the main game with an add-on, but I mean who cares? If you can brave the DLC with meager equipment, you deserve those titanite chunks and a few thousand souls. The new equipment is interesting, but, once again, considering the difficulty, by the time you get that nifty crow talons/rapier combo, you’ve already used your resources on something else. Making the place worth visiting would only require a few tweaks. As it stands, going there before fully kitted out feels more like a hassle.
The other addition is an outright matchmaking option for PvP combat, with 1v1 duel and up to 6 players in teams or free for all. I couldn’t care less about PvP, but some should be happy. It does render pointless the odd but quaint improvised fight clubs, however. I should point out there is a “map” option in the matchmaking, but there’s only one map to choose from. Disappointing
So the action is fine, as usual, and the story is barely there, as usual. The grimdark boringness of characters mumbling about god knows what and nothing happening is getting a bit long in the tooth, honestly. Ashes of Ariandel is fine, but as the penultimate dose of Dark Souls we’ll (allegedly) ever get again, it’s disappointing.
As a recap, here are some things you will NOT find in the DLC:
- A new character to join your little town hub party
- Any shopkeeper at all, for that matter
- Any link to the main gain other than a few lines of dialogue
- Entering a painting inside the painting with mind-bending paint splotches effects and insane boss fight
- A cool gimmick boss fight (I like those! Like a giant on a moving/breaking ice floe that you have to drown or a hide & seek boss in a snowy forest)
- Any NPC that does more than chuckle to himself and/or mutter cryptic nonsense about nothing at all
- Any elucidation of the main game’s lore, if that’s your thing
- A decent source of titanite chunks (pretty liberal with the slabs, though, which is cool).
- Trophies (and I think that’s fine)[/spoiler]
I thought this was pretty bad. The first little side area has some really fun enemies to fight, and the bosses are great, but the middle 80% is dreadful. Some of the level design is just random nonsense.
I’ll run through again with my NG++ character, try the arena, and pack it in until the next one.
In the brand new sealed copy of the game I got for Xbox One, I found nothing but a disc. We have finally reached that point I guess. Usually opposite the disc there’s something else. For Witcher 3 there was a beautiful map. For some games there’s a rudimentary manual. More common nowadays is a little slip of paper saying the name of the game, maybe an epilepsy warning, and where to find the manual online. But in Dark Souls 3, there’s not even a slip of paper.
I’m trying to avoid spoilers so I’m hesitant to read the preceding thread or google for this, but I haven’t played Dark Souls series in years and need a small refresher on co-op.
Assuming I ever summon an ally: Do Estus Flasks still heal summoned allies in DS3? And is there an etiquette for boss fights? Should I just be hiding in a corner while the summoned does all the work?
Estus flasks don’t heal summoned allies in DS3. Summoned allies come in with their own Estus (half as many as they’re carrying). I don’t think hiding is that cool – and why would you want to anyway. Although some people might want you to do that, most don’t. That said, they are invested in keeping you safe, so due caution is always appreciated.
Okay, thanks for info. I thought I noticed flasks not healing others, but hard to tell in that fight.
As for hiding, seemed like the reason would be to not die and screw both players. I thought I remembered something like that (just hide & heal them) from DS1, but couldn’t be sure.
Having fun so far. I’m up to the big tree boss, though the game seems pretty linear (and asstons of locked doors too), at least compared to distant memories of DS1. But I still feel like it’s early on yet.
I’ve missed this world.
Yeah, that’s just my experience. I guess I’m merely recommending that you experience the fights yourself and assume that it’s cool with your coop mate that you participate. No one will hold that against you but some will be slightly annoyed if you don’t get involved. It’s hard to tell in Souls anyway. Even coop has a lonely feel.
Some bosses are kind of hard, and having two people there means the boss HP is higher, so if you don’t help you’re kind of screwing them that way too. Just be careful.
That’s where I left off! I really truly had to return the game that night before 9pm, since I’d already paid for 3 nights of rental because I was addicted. But after 4 or 5 tries at that boss, I finally had to tear myself away.
If you’re scared of bosses make a pyromancer or invest in archery. You can pew pew from safety while the summons aggro the boss, and you still contribute!
It’s not about fear, but expectation. I just want to follow etiquette!
I’m also planning to play a pyro on my second playthrough. I started as a Herald, and swap between a spear and a mail breaker (although I have a couple new weapons I’ll be trying out soon, dark axe and frost sword), with a focus on endurance and dex for now. Lots of melee in my immediate future.
The etiquette is to get in there and kill it the best way you can and try to not die.
Sitting back just makes it hard for the summon, who then likely gets screwed if they do really well, die at the end while you walk in and mop up after their hard work.
It’s much more ideal for you as the guest player to die than the host. If you die, the host can still pull out a victory, and as a guest you lose absolutely nothing for your trouble. If the host dies… different story entirely. And then you get nothing for your trouble.
Defeated the cursed tree earlier… but not before getting it to about 25% health and having Xbox Live disconnect me in the middle of battle and booting me out to the start screen.
I’ve opened the game up quite a bit, so it’s hard to say “I am this far”, but the game is kicking ass, and if it’s doing anything for me it’s making me regret my inability to ever play Bloodborne without first wasting money on a PS4.
If you like the pokey weapons, I heartily recommend the rapier. I got through a whole NG run with one. Sometimes you’ll want a slash, sometimes a bit more reach, but it’s a fantastic weapon.