So, I've just beaten the game. 27 total hours, standard ending (there's apparently four).
It's a beautifully flawed gem of a game. It's the shortest Soul to game, though I don't agree with the notion that it is the easiest (that'd be Dark Souls 2, or Bloodborne if we count it as a Souls); it certainly has its challenging spikes here and there.
A small mini-review:
+ Oppresive but alluring atmosphere and world to explore.
+ Gameplay is what you'd expect, but more ruthless, relentless and challenging.
+ Some classic Souls dungeon design that gets burned into your mind as your progress.
+ There are (albeit few) truly memorable bosses, worth of being on top of every other boss in the franchise.
+ Fair, except for some sequences here and there which are incredibly cheap and injust.
+ The OST is fucking incredible and I'm glad to have it on disc. It's beautiful.
+ Tons of side-quests. They're hard as nails to complete, so you have to be careful.
+ Borrows from Demon's, Dark Souls 1 and 2, and Bloodborne.
- Borrows waaaaay too much from Demon's Souls. Now before you might say "how this is bad?", it felt like going the cheap way simply replicating sequences from the former game. There are entire places that made me think "been there done this", and things play out exactly as in Demon's.
- Shortest Soul to date. That being said, I failed most of the sidequests, and missed certain objects and items.
- Barely any secret area to explore (Secret as in Ash Lake/Cainhurst Castle kind of secret).
- Some obscure things to do that are clearly meant to sell guides, particulary for those like me who play offline. No, seriously, there are some dumb things you have to do to at times.
- Some weapons/armors are worthless. I know this is the case with almost every game aside from Bloodborne, but unless you want to give your character a cosmetic appeal sacrificing defense, there are some items that I have trouble believing people would use.
- The ending (at least the standard one) is a piece of crap considering this is supposed to be the final game of the franchise. Credits Song make up for this, though.
EDIT: My Dark Souls 3 rating is unchanged:
· Dark Souls
· Demon's Souls
· Dark Souls 3
· Bloodborne
· Dark Souls 2
SECOND EDIT:
I forgot to mention how lazy the blood splash effect looks in this game. Especially considering how beautiful was it to have your character drenched in blood in Bloodborne. It's terrible, guys. All kind of terrible. At first I thought my game was messed up or something but no. The blood splash effect is so bad it's worth mentioning here.
