History YMMV / DarkSoulsIII

** The Spear of the Church can turn into this if the player controlling him happens to suck. Even if the Spear is controlled by an AI, it's still basically just a 2 vs. 1 [=PvP=] fight.

* {{Adorkable}}: For all her serenely calm dignity, using the right EmoteCommands in front of the Firekeeper reveals her to have a surprisingly playful side. Do something silly and she'll put a hand to her mouth as if [[NotSoStoic suppressing giggles]], salute or bow her and she'll gracefully bow in return, and if you start clapping or give her a toast she'll even perform a GirlySkirtTwirl. Small wonder that most, if not all, of the fanbase has fallen in love with her.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], as, while some ''Dark Souls II'' fans were pleasantly surprised to find more overt references to the game in ''The Ringed City'' [[spoiler: including revisiting good ole Earthen Peak, several armor sets from the second game, and some more lore connections,]] the continued trend of ContinuityPorn to the first Dark Souls and lack of important closure for lore introduced in II still disappoints other fans.

** The Dancer of the Boreal Valley has managed to earn quite a surprising fanbase, both for generally being an excellent and challenge boss battle.

** The Dancer of the Boreal Valley has managed to earn quite a surprising fanbase, both for generally being an excellent boss battle, and for [[BrutalHonesty her impressive]] [[MsFanservice ass]] (and how she [[ShakingTheRump shows it off]] [[DanceBattler as she fights]]).

** [[BlobMonster Aldrich]], Saint of the Deep and [[KillTheGod Devourer of Gods]], was a cleric who founded the Church of the Deep and took to [[ImAHumanitarian devouring the flesh of men]] for power. Turning to devouring the undead, Aldrich grew bloated and [[EldritchAbomination mutated into a hideous, slug-like being]] who continued to devour countless people alive, luxuriating in their screams. Eventually sacrificed to become a Lord of Cinder, Aldrich was revived and housed within the Cathedral of the Deep where he continued to have helpless people fed to him. In his most profane act, Aldrich devoured the god Gwyndolin slowly, [[AndIMustScream keeping him in a state of unending agony]]. Not even children were safe from Aldrich, and only two, Anri and Horace, ever escaped the Devourer's hunger.

** The soft-spoken and enigmatic Yuria of Londor is the potential architect of the Age of Dark, pledging her loyalty to [[PlayerCharacter the Ashen One]] once they obtain 5 Dark Sigils from the pilgrim Yoel. Set on making you into a Dark Lord, Yuria uses a proxy to manipulate Anri of Astora into joining you in wedlock, granting the Ashen One the remaining Dark Sigils they need to become the Lord of Hollows. Instructing them to usurp the First Flame, one of the potential endings of the game sees the Ashen One bringing forth a new world of darkness, one where mankind can potentially thrive, [[WellIntentionedExtremist just as Yuria desires]].

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: A common interpretation of the game and the story is that is is symbolic of Miyazaki wanting to end the ''Dark Souls'' series, but being forced to continue by publishers. The Lords of Cinder are often attributed to being the developers, who after making the first game, were forced to create more games despite wanting to make new properties, while the player character is supposed to represent the publisher, who go around forcing them to return to make the third game. The Lord of Hollows ending has even been linked to something of a TakeAThirdOption meta wise: the developers decide that they should take the "soul" of ''Dark Souls'', while letting it end to create something new. The rabbit hole goes much deeper beyond that but many find the game to be an allegory for that concept, not unlike ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''.

** The [[ChestMonster Mimic]] and the [[DemBones skeletons]] in the Catacombs of Carthas (aka [[FanNickname MVP Ledge Mimic and the Skeleton Gank Squad]] are extremely well-liked for the mechanic that lets you [[EnemyMine cooperate]] with them to kill the much larger nearby Fire Demon, which both of them can do [[CurbStompBattle without hardly breaking a sweat.]]

*** The crabs in general. They're all rather out of place and [[{{Bathos}} goofy considering the tone of the series]]. The baby crabs are virtually harmless, making them something like the successors of the [[MushroomMan mushroom enemies]] from ''I''.

* ContestedSequel: While ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' has been generally well-received, there isn't much of a consensus on how the game stacks up to its predecessors. On one hand, gripes about its lack of individuality, combat more reminiscent of ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' than the other two ''Dark Souls'' games, and [[ContinuityPorn near-constant callbacks to ''Dark Souls'']] are common. Praise, on the other hand, for its detailed world, balanced difficulty curve, [[AwesomeBosses/DarkSouls numerous and varied bosses]], and overall polish and cohesion is just as common.
** To say nothing of the response to the DLC, with it ranging from people feeling it was the best send-off for the series to people feeling it inferior to previous DLC [[ContinuityPorn for]] [[ItsShortSoItSucks a number of reasons]].

** Yuria of Londor comes across as very sinister for wanting to end the First Flame for good and [[spoiler: grooming you to become the Lord of Hollows, including having Anri killed so they can be your partner]], but within the context of the game her goals are arguably sympathetic, and it's ambiguous as to whether the Age of Dark will be a good thing or a bad thing for humankind.

** Considering that in ''Dark Souls II'' the Blue Sentinels just plainly didn't work most of the time, the community is even less happy that they've not only returned but also now share the exact same group of people to defend with the Blade of the Darkmoon, a covenant which never had anything to do with defending the innocent. That, and the Way of the Blue gives no rewards and can once again be swapped out for a better covenant extremely early on.

* {{Fanon}}: Fan artists in general like to draw Pickle Pee, Pump-a-Rum Crow not as a talking crow, but a [[CuteMonsterGirl cute harpy girl]] with short black hair and a rag bikini even though there's nothing to support it.

** The Hollows up on the High Wall and in Castle Lothric can also turn into this due to their better A.I. making it harder to beat them like in previous games, as well as the spear and great axe wielding ones having deceptively high health and hitting like a freight train (especially in the early game). And, as is tradition, their flailing stun-lock combo comes back with a vengeance and can still catch unaware players with a bad case of the You Dieds.

** Holy Knight Hodrick, otherwise known as "The Parry King" [[labelnote:*]]He's absolutely notorious for dishing out parries and lethal ripostes like there's no tomorrow[[/labelnote]]. This gets hilarious within the ''Souls'' community, which pegged either [=YouTubers=] [=OroboTheNinja=] or [=PeevePeeverson=] for the title of "Parry King".

* AntiClimaxBoss: As much as FROM Software tried to avert this for the GrandFinale of the franchise, not all the bosses live up to the hype.

* BreatherBoss: After the ''triple'' whammy of Sulyvahn, Aldrich and the Dancer, the Dragonslayer Armor is fairly easy by comparison, especially if you summon for him. [[ShmuckBait Just don't use]] [[DamageSpongeBoss both the summon signs.]] On the other hand, if you resort to SequenceBreaking and [[ThatOneBoss/DarkSouls fighting him early]]...

** The Curse Rotted Greatwood isn't hard as far as ''Dark Souls'' bosses go, given it only has a few basic attacks and obvious weak spots that foil its otherwise invincible body. What makes it a tedious fight is having to reach those spots while it's constantly trying to swat you away, made even worse by its limbs' obnoxious range and the Hollows that try to interfere during the first half of the fight. In the second half, you also have to contend with an additional arm that can [[GrappleMove molest you]], and you'll be losing a lot of time going back and forth trying to reach the remaining pustules as the Greatwood becomes more mobile and uses attacks that you are forced to rereat from.
** Yhorm the Giant becomes this if one doesn't use the Storm Ruler to win the fight. His moveset is very basic and easy to figure out, with only his stomps being attacks the player has to worry about. However, he has absurd defenses that make all attacks do significantly reduced damage even if one uses strong builds that would be useful against such a foe. Due to that, he essentially's a DamageSpongeBoss in a game series that generally avoids that type of boss, and so you are encourged to either use the Storm Ruler, or do Siegward's quest so he does it for you. If not, he's potentially one of the longest boss fights in the entire series.

* DemonicSpiders: Welcome to Lothric! Please enjoy your stay, as FROM has made certain that the enemies are difficult and the mercy is out of stock.

** The Pontiff Knights are {{Lightning Bruiser}}s through-and-through--they can catch up with you and perform different types of multi-hit combos that can kill you if you fail to block or dodge any, and one of them includes extending their range (and slowing the delay) and damage of their next attack by imbuing it with magic. On top of that, they can fire homing projectiles from afar and are content to do just that as long as you're far away, making even dragging them out a chore as they can very suddenly change their mind and rush you. And just to make it worse, they always come in pairs or threes, sometimes accompanied by the Fire Witches. The only way to reliably beat them is stunlock them and pray that they'll be dead before your stamina runs out.

** [[spoiler:Silver Knights]] make a return and learned a few new moves along the way - they can now dodge too (in a ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}''-sidestep way), can charge up their weapons with lightning, got quite a lot of HP, and don't stagger easily unless you're packing a heavy weapon. Ironically enough, these changes can make them harder to some players than [[spoiler:the Black Knights]].

** Likewise in Archdragon Peak, the rock lizards. They look deceptively slow and weak, but can actually take reasonable amount of punishment, are more than capable of shoving you off ledges, and can roll over you worse than a wheel skeleton. Oh, and they breathe fire. Even one can be an incredible pain in a narrow space, but two or more can become pure insanity.

** The Corvian Knights in the Painted World of Ariandel. Extremely fast, durable, and mobile, they can stunlock you to death using either a rapier or their WolverineClaws, both of which can rapidly break your guard and then inflict bleed on you for a near instant kill. Despite their size, they're also surprisingly difficult to land a good hit on due to their tendency to leap out of the way just as your weapon is about to connect, throwing a set of kukris at you as they do so just to add insult to injury. It really doesn't help that they have a ton of health and it's possible to agro as many as 3 of them at once if you aren't careful.

** The Pygmy Hollows in The Ringed City have behaviour designed to frustrate you. Thrall-like ambushes? Check. Mobbing you out of nowhere? Check. Interfering in battles with or accompanying tough enemies? Check. To add to the annoyance, they're capable of casting the lightning spear and stake miracles and can cast the former from quite a distance. A special variety does not attack but has curse crystals on its back, rapidly building up your curse meter, while the Hollow itself plays dead or is difficult to spot. Finally, they have one of the most annoying and pathetic attacks in the entire game: a push that does no damage and only serves to interrupt your attack animation so that they can retreat and fling lightning spears from a safe distance. Due to their low health and melee attack power, it will only delay their death by a few seconds and further test your patience.
** Rats return and are just as annoying as ever. Low HP, come in swarms, and have an annoying jumping attack? A classic example of this trope. It gets even more pronounced if you decide to take on the Giant in Irithyll Dungeon - the game starts to spawn them infinitely until you kill the giant.

** Wolves in the Painted World of Ariandel aren't very tough on their own, being somewhat similar to the undead dog enemies. If not killed immediatley, however, they will howl, drawing wolves from within a considerable range to you, which on their turn will howl to summon more wolves. Their realistic AI of surrounding you and baiting your attacks can make them very frustrating to fight. If the pack grows too large, this easily crosses over into demonic spider territory, as they will attempt to overwhelm you when you fail an attack.

** The Curse Rotted Greatwood isn't hard as far as ''Dark Souls'' bosses go, given it only has a few basic attacks and obvious weak spots that foil its otherwise invincible body. What makes it a tedious fight is having to reach those spots while it's constantly trying to swat you away, made even worse by its limbs' obnoxious range and the Hollows that try to interfere during the first half of the fight. In the second half, you also have to contend with an additional arm that can [[GrappleMove molest you]], and you'll be losing a lot of time going back and forth trying to reach the remaining pustules as the Greatwood becomes more mobile.

** The Curse Rotted Greatwood isn't really hard even by the series standard as it only has a few basic attacks and you have to attack specific spots on it to kill it. What makes it a tedious fight is that you have to find those spots while it is trying to swat you away, and during the first half of the fight generic enemies will try to kill you while you do so. It can extend the length of the fight and cause a player to have trouble hitting it. In the second half you also have to content with it moving, and it has an attack that spits out some kind of acid that forces you to run away from it. It isn't hard but it takes so long to to defeat sometimes.

** The Curse Rotted Greatwood can be a pretty tedious boss. To start, there are only certain spots where you can effectively damage it and you have to wait for it to be in the right position so you can attack the weak points. The boss also has an annoying habit of using attacks that keep you from getting close to it and there are also respawning mooks that you need to deal with in the first phase.
** Deacons of the Deep. Not the most unique idea of a boss (read: it's a room full of mooks, with one being the KingMook), but good god, the [[FatBastard fat bastards of a clerics]] will make life hell trying to kill the head pope in the room just by ganging up on you.
** The Crystal Sage is an excellent example: while he starts the fight immobile, he soon starts teleporting everywhere while spamming massively dangerous spells, meaning your stamina is going to be basically drained as soon as you get into range due to all the running and dodging. [[spoiler: It's even worse when he starting bringing his illusory doubles into play, who have 1 health each but spam out dangerous spells of their own!]]
** Aldrich, Saint of the Deep, as part of his ThatOneBoss status, due to sinking in an out of the deep regularly, as well as being able to move while spamming dark soul masses that don't hit terribly hard, but nevertheless are numerous enough to make them annoying to dodge and impossible to ignore. He also has his OneHitKill rain of arrows attack that stops the fight and forces the player to run around avoiding it.

* GuideDangIt: Some sidequests or covenants are easily either missed, or locked until your next playthrough.
** If you defeat [[spoiler:the Curse-Rotted Greatwood]] before you managed to join the Mound-Makers covenant, it becomes unavailable until late in the game. [[spoiler:And then if you miss that and decide to join Rosaria's Fingers you then lock yourself out of the covenant until your next play through if you didn't get it already.]]
** Curing [[spoiler:your Dark Sigil]], either out of curiosity or because [[spoiler:you want to cure your Hollowing?]] Great job, you just locked yourself out from the third, secret ending.
** The mechanics of Yoel giving you free levels and [[spoiler: upgrading the Dark Sigil]] are counter-intuitive; as opposed to avoiding death like the series has taught from day one, Yoel will only be able to give you another one for every two deaths the player has. He will also die of his own accord if you defeat the Deacons of the Deep or get through the Catacombs. If you don't know this, you get locked out of the questline that follows his, just for not dying as much in the early game as you're expected to.
** Even joining a covenant just to see what it's about can lock you out of questlines without prior warning. [[spoiler: Joining the Rosaria's Fingers covenant will make Sirris show up at Firelink to give you a courtesy call saying you're her enemy, preventing you from finishing her quest until next playthrough. She only tells you that the Fingers are her enemies after you help her in Irithyll; for reference, you can join the Fingers as soon as you find them in the Cathedral of the Deep, whereas even getting to Irithyll means clearing the Cathedral and the Catacombs]].
** Getting to Archdragon Peak requires you to kill BonusBoss Oceiros, the Consumed King, pick up a gesture from a corpse in the room past his boss chamber, then ''use said gesture in one very specific spot in a completely different part of the world''. The one hint you're given is a corpse/statue performing the gesture where you're supposed to do it.
*** The Twinkling Dragon Torso Stone is obtained in a similar manner.
** ''The Ringed City'' has another instance: [[spoiler: to get to the Purging Monument and finish Lapp's questline, you're told to 'show your humanity' to a wall. What this actually means is to go out of the building, stand in the swamp outside, and use Chameleon or a Young White Branch, which will turn you into a Humanity sprite and cause a ladder to drop when you approach the wall. Missing this means losing both Lapp's armor set and the ability to reset the Spear of the Church boss fight.]]

* ItsShortSoItSucks: The general reception to ''Ashes of Ariandel'' can be chalked up to this. Its got a great final boss and the area is well designed, but it only has ''two bosses'', and at most has ''maybe'' two areas if you are generous and count areas like the pre-cathedral as being its own area. Given the quality of past DLC adding at least three bosses and usually two-three areas, it makes it one of the weakest DLC content in the series. To put this in perspective, Dark Souls 1 had four DLC bosses and Dark Souls 2 had three bosses per DLC. One of the things FROM made sure to mention when advertising ''The Ringed City'' was its increased length and greater number of bosses (4).

** Another storyline that gets a lot of focus is Londor. Apparently its a city for Hollows founded by three sisters, two of which appear in the game, and are shown to be skilled but overly decent people who wanted to ensure Humanity was freed of the shackles of the Linking of the Fire. Given how many dead Pilgrams of Londor are found, and the implications a city of Hollows has, just like the Angels of Lothric, its a plot and concept that doesn't get the same amount of focus. Londor itself is used more so as a plot device to justify characters more so than an actual location, which for many made the DLC sad since Londor was one of the most wanted DLC locations.

* ItsShortSoItSucks: ''Ashes of Ariandel'' got this reaction from some quarters, in particular because it [[spoiler: only has two bosses, one of whom is very difficult to find and generally considered to be somewhat underwhelming anyway]]. To put this in perspective, Dark Souls 1 had four DLC bosses and Dark Souls 2 had three bosses per DLC. One of the things FROM made sure to mention when advertising ''The Ringed City'' was its increased length and greater number of bosses (4).

** While it fits the ending of the game being an anti-climax of a dying world, the Soul of Cinder is not radically more difficult to fight than a single-sword-weilding Ringed Knight, one of the {{Mooks}} of ''The Ringed City'', who can serve as practice for this fight due to them having some simularities. Unlike the Ringed Knights, the Soul has a more diverse moveset and a boss-sized health pool, but this is basically canceled out by it being a boss fight, so you can use all of your resources against this single enemy, who at the end of the day feels like fighting another {{Mook}}.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The rot (the black sludge that corrupts Iudex Gundyr and other enemies) is almost completely ignored. Almost no lore even mentions it and only a few enemies including the Iudex are affected by it. Considering how much lore is taken from previous games, some fans are annoyed that one of the game's unique lore points is dropped past the first area. [[spoiler:AllThereInTheManual reveals that they're called the Pus of Man, and are a result of being corrupted by the Abyss. Their Humanity has gone wild and turned them into twisted monsters as a result. However, it doesn't explain how ''wyverns'' have been infected by it, or how specifically the Abyss was able to affect them. They're also ''somehow'' tied to the Ancient Serpents.]]