This is, in my opinion, the culmination of everything that has come before it. Boss design, enemy design, lore, environments, mechanics, it is all pulled from the games that preceded this and it all has its own unique spin. It is truly bittersweet to come to the end of this journey that started in February of 2009, but I can think of no better send off for the series than the one it receives in The Ringed City. This is a perfect piece of DLC to round off a great game and a once-in-a-lifetime franchise. I could not be happier with how everything falls into place at the end of the world, and I would highly recommend the trip to any on the fence about taking it.

Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City is a worthy finale for this game and the series in general. Taking every trick that they’ve learned over the course of the series and seemingly packing them into one final journey, The Ringed City is sure to please if you’re into the masochistic nature of the series.

A great content add-on that takes the best of the basic game and the previous games and adds great new features. The Ringed City excels in design, atmosphere, gameplay, boss fights. In fact, almost in everything that it offers.

Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City has found a way to revisit the past without a cheap reliance on nostalgia, wrapping up the story of Dark Souls in a way that will be satisfying for fans who enjoy digging into the rich lore the series has been building for the last few years. But you don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of the Souls series to appreciate the satisfying twists and turns of this short, but exciting adventure, with its abundance of haunting, secret-filled locales and terrifying boss fights.

Because the only way to access the new DLC is to have finished the main game and/or its first expansion, From Software is obviously counting on players to be high level, committed fans, and ready for a final, "ultimate challenge." The Ringed City is exultantly that but at times -- especially in the longer, gauntlet sections -- the game's unrelenting parade of enemies and ways to die becomes unpleasantly fatiguing and a decidedly chore-like experience. Fans of Dark Souls who have come to love the series will appreciate most everything about The Ringed City and the ways in which it represents both the evolution and end of a very important franchise.

The Ringed City moves and ends a little too quickly--well before it gets all the mileage it can out of its setting and premises--but that's a small knock against what’s otherwise an exceptional send-off. A well of inspired locales and a renewed focus on the series' obsession with cycles, death and rebirth, and the passage of time, plus a few spectacularly designed and animated foes round out a worthy conclusion to a storied franchise.

Dark Souls III is supposed to be the last game in the series for quite some time, and it had an ending that left me very satisfied. So much so that I was apprehensive to play any DLC for fear it might leave an undesirable taste in my mouth. Thanks to The Ringed City that was not the case though. While it is less polished than its counterpart Ashes of Ariandel, it shows a willingness on From Software’s part to innovate until the very end. If you’re the sort of fan that gets lost in item descriptions trying to learn more about the world, then The Ringed City is something you can’t miss.