Brand new Dark Souls 3 gameplay has been captured as part of a recent From Software livestream, featuring footage of the Thief class. The demonstration, which you can watch below, is set in a swampy graveyard quite literally overflowing with headstones and being stalked by hooded, knife-wielding enemies. It’s a suitably atmospheric piece of design that stands up there with some of From’s most evocative scenery.
The most notable feature of the demo is the extreme mobility of the Thief character, with the player not only dodge-rolling but also utilising a Bloodborne-esque sidestep to outmaneuver his opponents. Each of these sidesteps appears to consume a small amount of magic, suggesting that this is one of the new ‘Weapon Art’ skills unique to the knife the player is wielding. So far we’ve only seen offensive Weapon Arts being demonstrated, however if, as suggested, they can also affect things like mobility it will allow for a much greater breadth of viable builds and divergent skill sets. Exciting stuff.
A couple of other salient points; the backstab window appears closer to that of Dark Souls 1, and backstabs also appear to be a single strike, rather than the breakable combos of Dark Souls 2. I personally never found the Dark Souls 2 backstabs to be nearly as satisfying o useful, although that might have more to do with my skill than anything else. We also get a glimpse at the re-vamped bow gameplay. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has stated that he wanted bows to feel more mobile and active, and for players to feel ‘like Legolas’. That’s demonstrated here, with the player going from a dive-roll directly into firing his bow and launching volleys of arrows in quick succession to whittle down an opponent.
The Souls games have always thrived on replayability; it’s exciting to see the palette of playstyles being meaningfully diversified, and if this philosophy continues throughout the finished product, we could be in for a real treat come the game’s launch on April 12th.
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