[Video Chums] Dark Souls III: The Ringed City - Is this really the end?

FromSoftware's epic series of challenging action RPGs has supposedly come to an end with this latest DLC. The Ringed City is definitely a memorable albeit brief adventure so let's journey forth to the land of ash and see what it has to offer.

[Jc95]

I don't understand the lower reviews, from what i've played its just as good if not better than the disc based content.

[UltraNova]

Its far better thatn the vanilla game. The bosses alone are some of the best ever put in a game. Plus its filled with lore and secrets.

I've played it on NG+4 and let me tell you...most enemies can kill me in 2 swipes...Gael is kicking my ass and I havent even tried Maneater Midir yet...Its beyond masochistic..(me like alot)

All in all its a great end to the Souls series. I cant wait to see what Miyazaki has in store for us in the future.

Dark Souls you'll be sorely missed.

[Jc95]

totally agree The dlc is great, haven't done Maneater Midir yet, i' going for him now!!

[UltraNova]

When I said I didnt try Midir I ment I gave up on my 10th try (lol)and moved on to the other two bosses. You must not summon, he gets eradic and you'll never be able to read his moves. Go alone and stay bellow/close to him. Hit only his tail and beware of the tail swipe! Its an endurance fight...he has defence and HP for days...be patient and use a heavy hitting weapon! I will try him again as soon as I m done with Gael's one hit kills...dear lord...

[Jc95]

I gotcha yeah, he has a ton of HP, I feel like I could beat him in a couple tries if I do solo.. By the way, for me personally, the demon prince was the best boss fight for me. That fight to me stuck out as one of the hardest in the entire series.

[TWB]

Some people tend to be little salty, as it feels like the expansion stops dead on its tracks. I do think that they should have given a little better indication of the ending, but overall it was a great expansion.

[Jc95]

I agree, i'm still pretty lost when it comes to what the hell happened at the end LOL..

[TWB]

Well, anyone not wanting to get spoiled, look away.

The story of the expansions isnt exactly related to the main story at all. Its about its own side story (the Painter, and her painting). The first DLC was about showing her flame, initiating the burning of the rot in Ariandel, and inspiring her to paint a new world. The second DLC is all about getting her the pigment/tracking down Gale who went to search the pigment.

First and foremost, you need to realize that the game we are playing the base game, is probably in the past, and the present time itself is the Soul of Cinder/Flameless Shrine area. Same for Dreg Heap.

The Ringed City might be an illusion, held together by the egg Filianore holds in her hands (or other way around, its keeping the illusion inside the egg together, which gets destroyed or "corrected" when we enter it). Its broken because Gael broke inside of it.

What happens inside? Well... we see the world possibly in a fully neutral state controlled neither by flame nor dark (Age of Ash), and the people Gael killed/ate, were the Pygmy kings who held a part of the Dark Soul itself. Gales only way of obtaining the Dark Soul was to consume it (eat it/the possessors of the soul), but it disfigured and corrupted him, hence why he needed us to kill him to bring blood of the Dark Soul (the pigment) back to the Painter.

On the grand sceme of things, it was only you and a slave knight fighting for a severly weakened Dark Soul at the end of the world, just to bring it back to the Painter, who could maybe paint a new world for herself, and the Corvians. So, fairly irrelevant for the plot of the game.

It should also be mentioned that its not some sort of happy ending, that you get a whole new world to live inside of. Its just a new Painted World for its people, with its own set of issues. Its still open for interpretations, but basically everyone from Firelink Shrine/the base game is long gone.

Yeh, we time traveling now. Its confusing as fk.