By the time DS3 was in development, FromSoft knew that their core audience were the hardcore gamer types, and so DS3 panders to them at the expense of everyone else. The mechanics have been set up in such a way that "get good and dodge roll to victory" is the only viable strategy:

- Armor is meaningless, as long as you have something in each slot, it doesn't much matter exactly what you have
- Poise might as well not exist (it only triggers on very specific heavy attacks)
- Sorcery is garbage (so many things are resistant to it)
- You can't upgrade armor (not that it would help even if you could)
- Shields are almost worthless (you can block 2, maybe 3 attacks with a high-stability shield; you can dodge roll 7 times in a row with default stamina)
- Most enemies and bosses come at you with ridiculously long combos, so you have to dodge roll or your guard gets broken
- When your guard gets broken (even by kicks to your shield) you can now be riposted for extra humiliation
- More enemies and bosses have grab attacks that are less telegraphed and have shorter windups compared to previous games
- Many of the grab attacks enemies/bosses come with now involves very long lunging or dashing movements so simply getting out of melee range isn't enough; couple this with the very short windup and these attacks are unnecessarily hard to dodge

In DS1 and DS2, some strategies were more optimal than others, perhaps, but you always had options. There were multiple viable ways to progress past any given roadblock.

DS3 wants you to play it a very specific way, and if you don't want to learn how to dodge roll everything? Screw you.

It's not even a terribly creative game because it's loaded front to back with references to the last two games (mostly DS1). And those references aren't creative; as soon as you see one start, you know exactly where it's going.

The world design is also extremely linear. The only two times the path branches, the 'main' path will have a wall requiring you to beat the side path first in order to progress. Compare this to the 'hub and spoke' of DS2, or the deeply interconnected world of DS1 - it's another symptom of the designers wanting you to play the game in exactly one intended path.

I prefer DS1 over DS2, but they're both good games. I cannot say the same of DS3, and I don't recommend it to anyone, except maybe people who enjoy speedrunning Souls games.

By the time DS3 was in development, FromSoft knew that their core audience were the hardcore gamer types, and so DS3 panders to them at the expense of everyone else. The mechanics have been set up in such a way that "get good and dodge roll to victory" is the only viable strategy: - Armor is meaningless, as long as you have something in each slot, it doesn't much matter exactly what you have - Poise might as well not exist (it only triggers on very specific heavy attacks) - Sorcery is garbage (so many things are resistant to it) - You can't upgrade armor (not that it would help even if you could) - Shields are almost worthless (you can block 2, maybe 3 attacks with a high-stability shield; you can dodge roll 7 times in a row with default stamina) - Most enemies and bosses come at you with ridiculously long combos, so you have to dodge roll or your guard gets broken - When your guard gets broken (even by kicks to your shield) you can now be riposted for extra humiliation - More enemies and bosses have grab attacks that are less telegraphed and have shorter windups compared to previous games - Many of the grab attacks enemies/bosses come with now involves very long lunging or dashing movements so simply getting out of melee range isn't enough; couple this with the very short windup and these attacks are unnecessarily hard to dodge In DS1 and DS2, some strategies were more optimal than others, perhaps, but you always had options. There were multiple viable ways to progress past any given roadblock. DS3 wants you to play it a very specific way, and if you don't want to learn how to dodge roll everything? Screw you. It's not even a terribly creative game because it's loaded front to back with references to the last two games (mostly DS1). And those references aren't creative; as soon as you see one start, you know exactly where it's going. The world design is also extremely linear. The only two times the path branches, the 'main' path will have a wall requiring you to beat the side path first in order to progress. Compare this to the 'hub and spoke' of DS2, or the deeply interconnected world of DS1 - it's another symptom of the designers wanting you to play the game in exactly one intended path. I prefer DS1 over DS2, but they're both good games. I cannot say the same of DS3, and I don't recommend it to anyone, except maybe people who enjoy speedrunning Souls games.