My first ever souls game was Elden Ring, and I think that put a hamper on my Dark Souls experience. I'm not saying it was a bad game, I just think that after playing ER you can feel the jankiness and the out datedness of the gameplay in DS3. I definitely was missing a lot of the quality of life improvements that ER has during my time with DS3. I didn't play DS1 or DS2 before jumping into a co-op game of DS3 with my boyfriend... so the story went completely over my head. But I dont think that hampered my experience of the game at all... what DID hamper my experience was how imbalanced a lot of the damage felt. Both damage delt BY the player and damage delt TO the player. I don't claim to be any kind of souls expert, but I pumped vigor like crazy in DS3 and yet almost everything would hit me for 1/2 to 2/3 of my health and it didn't seem fair. I also had over 40 DEX on an S scaling DEX weapon and I still felt very weak... and coming from Elden Ring, this was a frustrating feeling. I found out latter that DS3 didn't balance PVP damage and PVE damage separately like they do in ER, and I believe that this is the biggest reason why I never felt like I truly got stronger in DS3... because stuff got nerfed into the ground for the sake of PVP. (this is just a theory) Technical complaints aside, I think this game still deserves its praise and recognition for shaping the video games industry like the Fromsoft collection has done... and there are very cool bosses and enemy designs on display here. Also, I love how much feminine armor this game has! The armor and weapons in DS3 are all beautiful, and many of them look nice on a female character model. That is something I've always said is missing in Elden Ring. Lastly, I will quickly mention how visually beautiful the game is. During my time playing, it was insane to think about how this game is over a decade old now but still gives modern games a run for their visual money. The technology and artistry is truly remarkable, and many sweeping views of the broad horizons you come across made me audibly gasp in surprise.