10 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About Dark Souls 3

8. Optional Boss Fights... Or Lack Thereof

One of the major joys of the Souls series has been stumbling onto those hidden gems of a boss. Finding Pricislla and the unique position she puts you into, or discovering Darklurker -the best DS2 boss- hidden away in the abyss, were some of the high lights of the game. Or finding out that a boss you thought weren’t optional, has a way to bypass it entirely. The choice to fight bosses or not or finding a hidden boss was a major highlight of the first games, but DS3 fall way short.

Where both DS1 and DS2 have fourteen optional bosses (DLC included) and Bloodborne has upwards of twenty if considering the unique chalice bosses, it’s a crying shame that DS3 has only seven. And that’s including the Gravetender DLC boss. And the way most of those optional bosses are presented, in a single line, one optional boss after another as if they are their own chain of bosses, is disappointing. It often means that discovering one boss means you’ve discovered them all.

There isn’t that reward for exploration and finding those secrets hidden away in the depths of the game. Not when the supposed optional bosses are presented blatantly. There is no Gwyndolin who makes you jump through insane hoops to fight him. It’s disappointing when a game that is known for its secrets and its mentality of willingly hiding massive chunks of the game away from players, knowing full well most people won’t see it, suddenly had the urge to show us everything they had to offer.

I will admit that Archdragon Peak and The Nameless King was one of the best hidden secrets in the whole series, even if it was coupled with an absolute abhorrent first boss. Ancient Wyvern was a joke. A massive joke.