5 Petty Things I want to see in Dark Souls 3

It’s all well and good debating and contemplating the big things that we all want to see from the next Souls title; but, for the most part, I don’t care if we see a return to some of the most memorable locations or see pyromancer again as a starting class. What I care about are the finer, less ‘in your face’ elements that I’ve come to expect from FromSoftware. With that, here are my picks for the five petty things I want to see in Dark Souls 3.

5. Drastically different male and female armours

One of my favourite sets from Bloodborne was the Yharnam Hunter armour, mostly due to the fact that I could wear it on one character and see it look completely different on another. The male version was an open coat, displaying a vast array of bullets, belts and buckles, while the ladies had the coat closed, offering a whole new look and providing me with something fresh and exciting to use while running through Forbidden Wood for the umpteenth time. The different models still retained the same armour values and style while looking suitably different to be interesting. Knowing me, I’ll play Dark Souls 3 with hundreds of different characters and clothing sets, and I’d like not to get bored by my favourite armours too quickly.

4. A return of quick stepping and quickening

Another Bloodborne one for you here: I’ve always preferred dodge stepping to dodge rolling, which is probably one of the reasons I loved Marvellous Chester so much from the original Dark Souls. If I’m wearing the lightest armour I can find, why on earth should I be forced to drop to the ground every time a zombie takes a swing at my head? There’s a certain elegance in being able to sidestep past an enemy before plunging a rapier into its back that overzealous jumping just doesn’t provide; I’m a knight, not a bloody frog. Similarly, Dark Souls 2’s Ivory King DLC introduced the Simpleton’s Ring which supplemented dodging with a healthy dose of evaporation. I desperately want that to come back too, so that I can roleplay as a deadly cloud.

3. Nicer hollowing

Playing through Dark Souls and its sequel again has just reminded me how God-awful being undead is. I don’t like PvP, but risking the occasional invasion was preferable to having a character with the face of a cigarette butt. The Ring of the Dead in Dark Souls 2 sort of helped me out of that problem, but it still left me down one ring slot, which was in no way ideal. Surely, by this point, I have earned the right for my character to look in the same way that I designed, haven’t I? Bloodborne’s character creation screen has given me a taste of just how beautiful my eighty year old scholar can look, and having that taken away from me is liable to make me cry.

2. Somewhere snowy

Living in England means that I don’t see snow. When I do see snow, it’s usually just the slushy stuff that isn’t good for anything besides making depressed looking snowman mounds. One of my all-time favourite areas from any game is the Painted World of Ariamis; the architecture, the night sky and the terrifying yet kind inhabitants all made for a fantastic place to explore, all of which was coated in a blanket of snow. Yes, we got another taste of that theme in Bloodborne with Castle Cainhurst, but I want more; call me indulgent, but I probably won’t get to see night time snow again for another decade at least, so I’ll happily turn to Dark Souls.

1. Longswords

“Of course there’ll be longswords” I hear you cry, but Dark Souls 2 didn’t appear to get the memo. Yes, I know there was a wide collection of straight swords to choose from, but I’m horribly fussy. Visually, none of those swords held a candle to my favoured Silver Knight Straight Sword from the original, and I ended up slogging through the entire game with my rather bland Fire Longsword. I don’t care if it doubles as a magic wand, or shoots energy beams, or is shaped like a cat. Give me a couple of decent looking, useable longswords, and I’ll be happier than an undead merchant and his Yulia.