Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel's The Good, The Bad, and the Downright Ugly

Dark Souls III as many of us know is marking the end of a series that will be setting upon us as a dying light in the night sky. It's the title that marks the end of the franchise as we know it according to From Software. In their announcement of this being it - for now - we've all begun clenching our teeth at how the franchise will end till they decide to visit again, if they ever do. Ashes of Ariandel is strangely familiar for those that experience it. Let alone does it once more feature us returning to The Painted World of Aramis, but in another light.

However, that's not what we are here to talk about, instead we're here to find out why this short DLC is as good as it is, as bad as it is, and the extremely ugly part of it that fans may find disgruntling. So let us tear this sucker apart.

'Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel' is punishingly hard - The Good

As you would expect, Ashes of Ariandel isn't as forgiving as the base game. Due to its length, it's noticeable that developer From Software has decided to go all out in a scaling difficulty. On New Game +9 I found the Millwood Knight's were not a joke. These guys packed a punch that one would quite literally find equivalent to that of a boss. Let alone do these guys hit hard, many of them have unique weapons that are just as dangerous.

Their weapons may hit hard just with their base attack, but many of these guys also have weapons that cause harmful AoE's that will leave players reeling in pain. Their weapons cause mass explosions that will launch players in the air while they take massive damage, let alone are these guys dangerous alone, they tend to attack in pairs with archers giving them some over watch.

Let alone are these guys not the big baddies of the DLC, they are only one set of big baddies that offer up a ferocious challenge. However, the harder the enemies, the chance there is some nice loot waiting to be found around the corner. Let alone do these guys provide a challenge, the bosses themselves will make these guys seem like peons compared to what you will fight against, and if that's something you like then you are in the right place at the right time.

'Ashes of Ariandel' is extremely short - The Bad

While I'm one all for rather short DLC's I'm one that has grown a bit fickle due to Bungie's DLC scheme with Destiny. This DLC seems to follow suit in some ways when it pertains to duration. If you are like me and you find everything, you're looking at a duration that will average between 3-6 hours at most. This includes all bosses, all hidden stories, and even the items that lie hidden within the snowy land of Ariandel. While the land seems there could be more to it, From Software has seemingly made it assuredly short if they decide to go about exploring the world around them, but will be saddened by how restricted they are.

While you do have a decent amount of land to explore, it comes out to be rather linear in the long run. While some of the loot is hidden through exploration, as is one of the bosses, players may just find themselves scratching their heads due to ease of access. Much of this ease of access is made possible by overly using bonfires in such a small area. Had the developers given a bit more thought to exploration, they'd know where to expand on, and what to offer players to give a bang for their buck.

Too many bonfires and only two bosses - The Downright Ugly

Bonfires, bonfires, and more bonfires. That's one of the largest issues in Ashes of Ariandel that seems to follow through from the base game. The location is rather accessible via the bonfires once they are unlocked. Instead of dying and having to trek through an entire zone, Ashes of Ariandel circumvents this issue by giving players a rather large abundance of bonfires. Want to go to the cathedral? You can do that quite easily once you unlocked the bonfire.

Want to access the peaks not far up the path? That's easy to do too, there's a bonfire there. Want to access the nearby village? You can do that too, there's a bonfire there also, and it's troubling to access it without the bonfire, but that would offer a bit more challenge as gigantic bird-like grim-reaper creatures decide to jump down only to lay into players that aren't expecting them.

With many players already in the DLC having beat the base campaign a few-times over, it'd be interesting to see the developers step away from the ease of access. Removing bonfires would also increase the difficulty if they were only available in key points of Ariandel. With 14 Estus Flasks and their healing capabilities I'm sure many of us would bake it through quite easily until facing one of the two painstakingly difficult bosses.

Speaking of bosses, while there are only two, we could have hoped for a bit more from the DLC. While both are multi-phased and technically could be counted as five between each other, only one of them truly feels as if it has much to offer. Hopefully From Software will take in account for this DLCs shortcomings in order to offer us more than we have now.