Ranking the Areas of Dark Souls III [Part 1]

I'm Billy s welcome back to the channel today we're exploring a world converging in on itself as I rank all 23 Dark Souls 3 areas from worst to best today's video will cover areas 23 through 13 with my top 12 areas coming out next week of all the soulsborne games I think Dark Souls 3 has the least visually distinct set of areas perhaps this is due to the desaturated color palettes that make areas blend together or the linearity of Dark Souls through his progression in comparison to the games prior that can make the early game feel like a slog that's not to say they're bad but Dark Souls 3 increasing the average size of places you can explore certainly makes these areas feel slower to get through my focus on Dark Souls 3 has always been the bosses which you'll be hearing about in a few weeks before we start though please note I have split the painted world of Ariane well into two areas for this list as I feel it has two very distinct portions to its gameplay and I'll cover that when I get to those entries now then my top 23 Dark Souls areas are ranked and be sure to let me know your least favorite areas in the comments below if there was one entry I knew before doing my footage playthrough of Dark Souls 3. it was that irithyll dungeon was going to be my least favorite area in the game and nothing was going to change that hidden on a path past the distant Manor bonfire these jail cells lead deep underground towards the profaned capital and serves as the main challenge to go through if you want to fight yorm immediately you can feel that aerophyll dungeon is attempting to recapture the magic of the prison of Hope from Demon Souls but fails to understand what made that area so special in the first place the prison of Hope was a master class in atmosphere while promoting slow methodical exploration to ensure you find all the keys and make it out alive erithil dungeon via its main enemy type promotes the opposite playstyle be fast and be Reckless because the jailers guarding this dungeon have an ability that makes them in my humble opinion my least favorite enemies in any Souls game to fight if their lanterns turn red they can sap away your health bar decreasing your maximum HP for as long as you're in their gaze it's brutal has no remorse meaning if you get hit once you're likely going to be sent back to the bonfire combine this with their ability to slow the player down upon a first hit leading to that hot poker slam on the floor move that will kill you and fighting these jailers in groups becomes a miserable experience something you will get the chance to go through as the bottom floor of the jail is filled to the brim of them they're having a roller disco Good Luck running or fighting through that mess of game design especially if you want to free Carla later because you'll have to kill all of them to do that the rest of the dungeon is a mostly dull affair with a layout that has you working your way through the cells to figure out how to get outside not a required key in sight to make it through the main path so recapturing that Resident progression system was a no-go there's an undead giant you can kill which is about as entertaining as you think it is either hack at its feet in a rat infested pit or do my more entertaining method of trying to attack its arms ceaseless discharge style the only other notable location is the little rat cave where once you reach the end you'll be ambushed by a horde of basilisks a memorable trap but too little too late in the area yeah I have nothing nice to say I'm sorry I [ __ ] hate this area with a passion and it might just be my least favorite location in the series we'll see I'll freely admit that I have a very soft spot for farron key in fact I have a major soft spot for all of Miyazaki swamp levels I think that once your brain says [ __ ] it and begins to ignore the poison and just explore it's pretty relaxing the main progression of farron keep comes from needing to put out Three Fires on Islands scattered throughout do doing this opens up the gate leading to the undead Mausoleum where the boss awaits and this isn't as hard as people make it out to be players often complain about getting lost in farron keep but if you don't know the layout there is a simple solution that will keep you on track follow the Flames there are burning pies on different islands that you can follow to always lead you to progression you'll still have to trudge through the poison swamps and handle a host of Fairly difficult enemies but as long as you follow the fires you'll never get lost unless you purposefully go off the beaten path and if you do that you'll find some cool references to ulacile like the corpse of Elizabeth in this cave past some basilisks all those mushroom people from Dark Souls 1 tucked away in a corner just before the most brutal Trio of Elder Cruz you will ever meet it's clear this area is a bastardized version of my baby Dark Root Garden and that's part of what makes me endead to it on the flip side the other grew enemies that can be found throughout are in absolute pain in the ass to fight especially the leaping grooves that can catch you in some extremely brutal grabs if you're not careful there's something about the frenetic way these enemies fight that catch players off guard and they've been a constant source of pain in the community ever since release I'm also not a fan of the moments where the swamp water rises and forces you to walk incredibly slowly that's an aspect of the swamps that I fail to find the appeal in and it makes exploring the outer edges of the keep a bit of a trudge especially here with the white tree thank goodness you made friends with the Giant in Undead settlement so he can kill the crab for you right Qualcomm right this area is fun to explore once or twice but on repeat playthroughs very much loses its luster and becomes the trudge everybody says it is I'm also lowkey traumatized by the walk to the boss room as I spent hours farming offline for swordgrass drops and pale tongues from the Gru and dark Graves for my 100 completion run last year though that sequence is pretty cool if you just let the factions fight it out and let's not forget if you find the secret path to the Covenant bonfire you can find an elevator that takes you up to the bridge to lothric right by the entrance to Undead settlement where you can fight a disheveled version of the Asylum Demon from Dark Souls 1. a nice bit of fan service and worth it as its boss Soul creates this game's Havel's ring nice the Giants were such an integral part of the lore of Dark Souls 2. so when we discovered that your magiant was going to be one of the Lords of Cinder I thought wouldn't it be great to get another area steeped in history like The Forest of Fallen Giants what we got was for lack of a better term a crumb they had the goal to call the profaned capital a capital despite it consisting of a walkway down to the bonfire Tower another walkway down to the profane flame two rooms and the boss fog with a cavernous optional area that leads to a church and back to irithyll dungeon it's tiny and not one aspect of this place screams of giant lore Dark Souls 2 once again gets the short end of the stick Aldrich got [ __ ] Anor Londo of all things while yorm got a flame governed by a few fire maidens the main path to yorm is so simple that this area is less an area and more a very brief enemy Gauntlet you have to avoid the profane Flames attacks and either enter the room on the far left side or drop down these Ledges and attack the profane fire directly do this and you can walk straight to yorm's boss room I'll like the usage of classic soul series gargoyles here they fit well with the area's aesthetic and are a suitable challenge for new players the rest of the maiden enemies though are a bit Overkill it feels like they put a whole lot of them in the side rooms just to say look at how challenging this is the real star of the show at the profane capital is ironically on its side path for a poison swamp Cavern in the dilapidated church as inside you find one of from software's most grotesque monster designs ever these gigantic hand trolls that are tanky to kill an absolutely horrifying to fight a truly memorable moment but sad because you might not even know these guys exist on a regular playthrough they're just so far out of the way on this path you can also re-access aerithil dungeon allowing you to collect a jailless set of keys and save siegward of Katarina by doing a little jump from the church roof vital for the end of his storyline the profaned capital and by extent him himself just feel like an unfinished thread every other Lord got a fleshed out area or series of areas dedicated to them he got the corpse of ladder Smith Gilligan before we continue to number 20 let me just take a few quick seconds of your time I'm trying to reach 10 000 subscribers by the end of 2023. I think we can do it and all it takes is for you to subscribe over 68 of you aren't subscribed so let's Rectify that Parry that subscribe button so you can enjoy new videos every Wednesday back to the list another area that could have used some expansion the consumed King's Garden promises way more than it gives the last Garden location in the series was Dark Root Garden from Dark Souls 1 a sprawling land of greenery and ruins bathed in cold dark Moonlight steeped in tragic lore consumed King's Garden is neither a sprawling land nor filled with much Greenery nor containing tragic lore instead being a mini toxic swamp filled with pus of man enemies that you either love or absolutely despise the area is very quick if you know the route to the boss but they are kind enough to include a working shortcut here that skips most of the toxic an elevator leading up to a room filled with those irritating little skittering Undead thieves leading to a door that opens up to the start of the area I like the large towering Knights that guard various points in the level from the one on the first elevator to the pair just before the boss fog on past playthroughs I'd never actually kill those Knights running past and getting hit every so often on my way to Osiris but in this playthrough I actually killed the guy and felt damn good doing so as the sludge throughout the garden inflicts a toxic status as opposed to just regular poison it's far less fun to explore as your health is most certainly draining at a much faster rate than if you were exploring farron keep combined with the aforementioned pus of man enemies whose hitboxes are incredibly difficult to manage for new players and you have a fairly oppressive area that feels like a slog to get through luckily those enemies are weak to fire so some charcoal Pine resin or a few firebombs will do the trick and you can get some good upgrade materials and an Estus flask Shard here so it is worth visiting and it's over much quicker than farron keep which is why it ranks above it plus if you beat osiros you get access to a special gesture that will allow you to reach an area we'll discuss in next week's video and there's an illusory wall leading to an area will also discuss in next week's video I'm such a tease the opening tutorial of Dark Souls 3 is in my opinion one of the worst starting areas of any Souls game because the cemetery of Ash commits the cardinal sin of being a bit boring a mostly linear Affair that takes you past some simple Hollow enemies towards an admittedly awesome boss but bosses don't affect my area rankings for posterity's sake I'm including everything after the gate you open from beating udex Gundy as part of firelink's shrine and not the cemetery which admittedly doesn't leave much for this area you can learn the basics of Dark Souls 3 here without much issue the cloaked hollows are simple to kill but can gang up on you if you're complacent especially those after the first bonfire as you're heading down to the Boss Arena as you may not notice just how many of them are resting around Each corner waiting to knock you out and to the cemetery's credit it has one really cool idea in the optional path leading to the giant crystal lizard a fun early game challenge that will test a new player's skill while allowing old players to feel some satisfaction from defeating such a towering foe so early on everything else though just feels Bland especially a comparison to other tutorial zones like Demon Souls tutorial the Undead Asylum ashina Reservoir etc etc it's still better than things betwixt in Dark Souls 2 but that's not really saying much is it at least the Aesthetics are very fitting being a gray dilapidated cemetery and the Boss Arena is so damn cool with the puddles of water and the series of tombstones littering the hills around the fight capped off with a gorgeous Cliffside view you could have a nice brunch picnic there the next spot is a purely biased pick as when I play through Dark Souls 3 there are times where I'll feel myself getting bored during a new character run through most often this tends to happen around the end of the early game which is the crucifixion Woods area this entry will include the road of sacrifices as part of the woods which bolsters its position a little bit but fun fact when I started this list I had this area at number 22 but I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on that ranking why do I dislike the crucifixion Woods then well for starters we have the swamp which thankfully is not poisonous but can still inhibit your movements if you're not careful combined with dark souls 3's biggest contribution to from software lore the giant enemy crab these [ __ ] show up again in farron keep smoldering Lake and even at the bottom of a chasm in the ashes of Ariane Del DLC and they made their way to l Golden Ring I used to find the crabs quite novel to fight and used to be a crab Defender but upon multiple recent playthroughs I've since learned the era of my ways and you'll never catch me defending them anymore the Elden ring lobsters are my new best friend now these enemies are irritating tanky and can Retreat and regain all their health if they feel like it which is the most immoralizing feeling you could ever feel on the plus side I like the rest of this area's enemies the lycanthropes tied to the crucifixes reward players sneaking up on them to deal the first blow while the hunters with their giant sticks are fun to dodge and fight the Mages in the ruins leading to the crystal Sage are fine there are no complaints I wouldn't Lodge against any magic using enemy in the series there's a few NPCs waiting to challenge you near the ladder to farron keep which can be a fun time and even a black knight guarding the farron coal which was invaluable for my playthrough as I wanted to use sharp infused sellsword wind blades and let me tell you seeing a black knight in the land of lothric was a very confusing on my first playthrough I thought we left those guys in Dark Souls 1 so seeing them make their way to three I was intrigued my other main issue of the crucifixion Woods actually comes from the ruins prior to the crystal Sage I don't know if anybody else had this experience on their first playthrough but this happened to me and it also happened to my boyfriend but we managed to miss the hole in the wall that leads into the ruins yes on the far side of the swamp there are stairs leading to the back half of the ruins but sue me if on my first playthrough I was too afraid to go through the swamp because of the crabs feel like the hole is so unnoticeable unless you're aware it exists and I've seen multiple people have this issue of not knowing where to go which causes them to like my boyfriend completely miss the crystal Sage progressed the entire game to irithil and then realize wait there's a boss I missed wait there's an entire area Cathedral of the deep that I missed it just wasn't a good area to have that fork in the road and checking Reddit threads from back when the game first released it seems a lot of people agree never make your split paths based around a swamp filled with grabs border am I the only person who absolutely dreads the anticipation of going through smoldering Lake only to have a fairly simple time clearing the area out once I'm down there no just me from a law perspective I have to respect this area as it's seemingly a combination of lost izalith the demon ruins and Ash Lake from Dark Souls 1 all meshed into one dark underground Cavern the hints of orange flame through the walls gives this place a pop of color that Dark Souls 3 desperately needs while discovering this location is one of the biggest oh my God moments of the game as you have to destroy a bridge in the catacombs Indiana Jones style to create a ladder leading down wasn't prepared for a giant ballista or a giant carthus sand worm though let me tell you but I think the smoldering Lake suffers from vague level design that means people will likely not experience the area in the way the devs intended my suspicion and this obviously isn't confirmed this is just what I believe is that the developers wanted the players to approach the sand worm get scared run away and then find that breakable floor you can destroy via the ballista which drops you into the demon ruins this makes sense to me as immediately you'll find the king's anti-chamber bonfire and the rest of the level makes more sense going through it via that direction the ruins themselves feel very similar to The Chalice dungeons from bloodborne as every Corridor looks and feels the same the group enemies feel like they could be right at home as lichens in bloodborne you even have these demon clerics that can conjure flame turrets to Hound your movements the most annoying enemies in this area by far I like the rat cave and the Basilisk cave that lead towards the path to the ballista it's a nice break from the enemy types I dislike and there's a fun fight against both a black knight as well as night Slayer sorig who drops the fume Knight Ultra great so stored one of the most popular weapons from Dark Souls 2. and the path up to the ballista is pretty fun which is rare of me to say given it involves a bone wheel skeletons and these flippy dippy carthas skeletons I'll get to in the future it feels good to disable the ballista and explore the lake without repercussions even if for the most part it's not really worth the hassle you can also find Horus the hushed in a side path whom you have to slay lest anri's questline be ended which sucks because he seemed like a cool guy outside of the hole being unable to speak apart all of this is fun but I've neglected a rather obvious oversight on the part of the developers you can just walk around the giant sand worm at the start of the area and immediately reach the demon ruins bonfire and the boss no need to break any flaws go through the demon ruins turn off the ballista or anything and that's what I did on my first playthrough and I bet that's what a majority of players did on their first playthroughs I recall someone saying it would have been cool to go through the demon ruins first and then you emerge at the bottom of the ruins onto the smoldering Lake itself where you'd then fight the sand worm and reach the boss fog I don't know sounds like a more interesting level progression than what we got I'll talk more about this area's boss in my boss ranking videos as I'm a fan of the lore but the arena you fight The Old Demon King in is fantastic the corpses of various demons from Dark Souls 1 litter the stones and serves as a very striking view that proves every civilization Must Fall even the demons well this is certainly a fall from grace and Orlando one of the best areas of Dark Souls 1 returns in Dark Souls 3 as a sorpressa after climbing the rafters of the Boreal Valley and discovering a large elevator that brings back memories of times a long gone by if it wasn't clear that this game has a lot of fan service for Dark Souls 1 it should be blatantly obvious at this point seeing that Cathedral Rising into the skies no longer lit by the iconic Golden Glow instead a frozen cold Baron ruin it's striking seeing somewhere we're so familiar with fallen into disarray and yet I can't help but rank an Orlando low because it's such a surface level reappearance we only really get to explore the main hall leading to the boss chamber as they've completely cut the right wing of the cathedral where most of Anor londo's gameplay took place in the first game now this doesn't leave the developers with a lot of room to work with but unlike say the profane Capital which was also a tiny Area Housing a lord of Cinder at least erythill of the Boreal Valley leads up and connects to Anor Londo in a meaningful and interesting way erithil dungeon could never but that's also a double-edged sword as a majority of the snow-capped Boreal Valley is part of irithil's domain and not Anor londos I'm including everything from finding the Dark Moon tomb onwards as Anor Londo here as it feels wrong to not include gwyn's resting place especially as you get married there shame it's a straight wedding even londor said [ __ ] the gays and right before pride month it did it at my birthday dinner the enemies in Anor Londo are fine the silver Knights are the obvious highlight as well as the Deep accursed hanging above the cathedral doors that [ __ ] terrifies me because it looks just spider-like enough with its limbs that it makes me go the good enemy is all balanced out by trash tier slimes and some deacons that I feel nothing towards I do however feel a lot of emotions towards the corpse of our friendly giant blacksmith from Dark Souls 1. when your hand is called to Andre he actually reminisces about the Giant and it's very sweet all of this capped off of the iconic Boss Arena of ons completely turned to sludge as Aldrich rules the roost whatever you may think of the boss fight itself I know it's a polarizing one you can't deny how damn cool the arena looks in the cold light with the broken pillars that still work as one of the best strategies for avoiding those magic attacks as well as the drapes fluttering in the wind capped off by visiting guinevere's chamber and finding it empty and quiet I just wish anolando had more to explore from the original it's not the area it once was but that's actually in keeping with dark souls 3's themes so I don't think anyone's gonna mind this rating yeah I bet nobody was expecting to see Dark Souls 3's Hub this low on my list I know all the tricks and tips to maximizing this Hub I know how to do tree skip to get onto the roof early allowing me to visit the nest and grab the silver cover to serpent ring I know how to beat the katana wielder relatively easily and collect the Uchi Katana I've been through these Halls more often than I care to count and yet for some reason despite the fact I feel like this Hub is good it just doesn't hold a candle to the original Firelink Shrine or majula for me in terms of just being memorable for me this is a rose-tinted glasses moment though as I firmly believe that your favorite hubs are influenced by the games in the soulsborne series you started with it's weird I think it's well designed it incorporates elements from the Nexus and in my opinion improves upon it in certain ways but this area doesn't capture the atmosphere of previous hubs the Nexus had a mystical haunting feel fire link Shrine had a homely safe feel majula had a hopeful tone the Hunter's dream made you feel like you were going to be okay but with an ominous twinge in the background I can't say that I feel much for Dark Souls 3's fire link it doesn't really resonate with me beyond the theme of everything coming to an end but its existence does enhance another area you'll see in next week's video so even if I'm not so hot on this incarnation of filing for personal reasons it's still a great Hub and I totally understand if people have this in their top tens or even their top fives there's places for everyone you have a vendor who sells a remarkable amount of content if you give her those ashes and Andre of astora returns who's kind enough to always tell you to pretty be careful I don't want to see my work squandered and there's nothing cooler than when you finally Place those Lords of Cinder onto their Thrones the Thrones being a very cool focal point of this area's appeal for sure the first of two DLC areas I'll be ending today's video on the Drake Heap is a unique location that starts off the ringed City campaign with a striking view the world is collapsing in on itself something you discover at the end of the base game when you visit the Kiln and it's expanded upon here in the drag Heap your goal is to reach the bottom where the ringed City awaits dredging through ancient ruins of areas long past Cathedrals townhouses ending with one of the oddest returning locations from Dark Souls 2 that nobody could have predicted the way Gail's player messages lead you on the road downwards marked by his signature Red Scarf you're dropping through glass windows fighting hosts of merckmen and overgrown lothric Knights early on you'll run into your first Harold Legion Knight which has a dark soul for a head and is weak to plunging attacks [Music] you can also meet the new NPC lap whose questline is pretty fun and worth the effort before having to deal with the return of Earthen Peak the poison area from Dark Souls 2 has formed the final poison swamp in the Dark Souls turology ruined windmills lit to the ground and far up on a single Twisted tree a desert pyromancer Waits good old Zoe 101 who will one shot you if you're not careful leading to an iconic Boss Arena for the demon princes as it's actually a ruined version of Dark Souls ones filing Shrine pretty cool stuff but I'm actually ignoring the main reason why this area is so low partly Earthen Peak they could have picked so many other areas from Dark Souls 2 to Showcase but no the main reason I have the direct heat blow on my list is because of the Angels there are three of these angels that spawn throughout the level one in the first half two in the Urban Peak ruins all irritating to deal with they are effectively light turrets that will attack you on site and absolutely decimate your health bar if you're not careful the only way to slay them is to kill the angel Pilgrim they're attached to somewhere in the world which is fine when you know where they are but not on a first playthrough when you can barely get a lay of the land without getting ass blasted to Smithereens by an Angel in the Earthen Peak swamp the first Angel is easy enough to kill the pilgrims on the main path to teach you how to deal with them the second is [ __ ] requiring you to make an incredibly difficult jump onto a branch over the abyss which leads around to the pilgrim hidden away the third requires you to make it all the way through the poison swamp and up to this roof via the tree roots which is so much harder than you think given the poison swamp slows your character down and there's no real way to hide from the angel as it attacks they ruined my first experience with the drag Heap way back when and even now knowing how to handle them I still dislike the second half of this level and nine times out of ten I'll just kill the second Angel via the jumping trick and then use the path past the pilgrim to make my way to the boss without much issue skipping the swamp entirely I recommend you do the same rounding out today's list we have the ariandel snow field this encompasses everything in the ashes of ariandel DLC from the moment you arrive up to the bonfire prior to the bridge leading to the Chapel of sister freed as it feels like a natural cut-off Point these open-ended series of snow fields and forests are filled to the brim with deadly enemies to handle from the farron followers who can launch javelins at you blow Flames from their torches like proper fire breathers or just run at you with an unstagglerable amount of confidence they could be brutal when they gang up together take a trip down a little snowfall and you'll run into a large expensive Forest did I just say expensive expansive Billy an expansive Forest filled with wolves that once you annoy one you summon the pack here you have multiple directions you can take there's an optional path leading towards some more follower enemies and an item the only way to get back to the starting area there's a hill directly to your left after you fall which upon reaching its peak leads down into a valley towards the bonfire separating the Open Fields from the chapel though on a first playthrough I think people are very unlikely to realize you can climb up this hill much less make it through given there are tree women trying to either burn or freeze you alive as you climb instead you can take the furthermost path triggering a giant wolf encounter with the grave tender's Great Wolf who shows up again later in the snow field if you go a specific route rounding the cliff we reach the part of the area that I feel is very overtuned for what it is that is because this area is inhabited by these large milk wood nights very dangerous strong individuals who wield their axes with ease and can decimate your health bar and in the distance there's a tower where some of them shoot arrows at you because what do you want most when fighting fairly tough enemies more enemies shooting projectiles to interrupt your fight forcing you to run up the tower being chased by the enemies outside only to get cornered between those enemies and the ones in the tower of course I only came to this bit to get footage I'd have skipped it otherwise but I was left with no Estes after killing all the knights here there were still a few more rooms to explore but I decided [ __ ] that had I progressed further up the hill in this area I would have encountered the Great Wolf again and dropped down into a large Chasm leading to that bonfire I mentioned earlier so everything wraps around but you can choose whether to deal with the Forest of Fallen women near the beginning of the area or the army of milkwood knights ready to absolutely slay your life but at the same time I do enjoy the challenge and I like the open-ended nature of this first half of the ariandel DLC as once she reached the chapel everything becomes extremely linear and more self-contained and we'll get into that next week hey thanks for watching the video guys I know I usually do the bosses of a game before the areas but in this case I switched it around because I'm so excited for the bosses and I need that motivation to get me through my editing you want to check out my other soulsborne content I have a playlist featuring videos on Demon Souls Dark Souls 1 and 2 as well as bloodborne and if you're watching this video way after release there's gonna be so much more stuff there my socials are on screen now feel free to follow where you feel comfortable my Twitter is my big recommendation I'm not really a big social media person to begin with and a massive shout out to my patrons on patreon I don't offer any rewards Beyond a shout out and a mention in the description but the support of those kind Souls genuinely keeps my channel going so thank you so much see you next week for my top 12 Dark Souls 3 areas adios thank you

Channel: Billy S

Views: 10,028

Keywords: dark souls, demons souls, bloodborne, elden ring, video games, dark souls 1, dark souls 2, dark souls 3, ds1, ds, ds2, ds3, soulslike, souls, soulsborne, gamer, gaming, fromsoftware, fromsoft, tutorial, walkthrough, guide, boss, ranking, billy s, ds3 areas, dark souls 3 areas, dark souls 3 areas ranked, dark souls 3 areas in order

Id: AMPR7o2jt7M

Length: 32min 37sec (1957 seconds)

Published: Wed May 24 2023