Woof, what a journey, y'all. After 2 months, my time with the base game of Dark Souls 3 has finally reached its end. Let me tell ya all about what ol' Antihero encountered in his final few hours.
Heading on into Lothric Castle, the area was pretty straightforward. There were some heavy hitters, but at the end of it all, I got to take on the Dragonslayer for a third time. Whatever happened to that big lug of an Executioner? Guess he wasn't cool enough to make into a boss the way DS2 had the Old Dragonslayer and this one the Dragonslayer Armor. After a few attempts, he fell pretty quickly. After lighting a bonfire and walking a short way to another, fulfilling a few pieces of side content nearing their resolution, I headed into the Grand Archives.
Filled to the brim with those tiny Thralls, but they fell to a few swings of my trusty Wolf Knight's Greatsword. Climbing this place was a bit bothersome, the gargoyles didn't quite like me, and I got attacked by some really mean NPCs akin to the forest gank fellas in 1. But regardless, I powered through, finding an elevator back to the bonfire near the start of the area. Finally, I made my way to the top of the place where the penultimate boss awaited - two princes. Nay, not the infectious pop rock song from 1991. Rather, one kneels before you to swing a hulking sword, the other one piggybacking after his brother falls once - being some sorta crazy callback to the Throne Watcher and Defender. Nothing much to say here outside of making sure you beat the Younger Prince Lothric down so the Elder can't be revived.
With the Twin Lothrics beaten, I took back to Firelink, but not before resolving the Sirris and Leonhard questlines, the latter of which I needed to wait for the former to die to even continue. With the Black Eye Orb in my possession, I defeat Leonhard and end that quest line, bringing my time with DS3's base game to one more task: putting the ashes of Lothric upon his throne to bring me to endgame.
Finally, my journey is close to ending. Taking a kneel at the bonfire as per the Fire Keeper's request, I teleport to... The Kiln of the First Flame? Then use another bonfire to get to the main arena where it's time to face the Soul of Cinder.
Every other Lord of Cinder has sorta been a letdown. Usually a gimmick boss of some sort, or a pushover like Aldrich. Soul of Cinder? Now this guy ain't a joke. He took me an attempt, but went down rather easily once I got him. The real challenge comes from the critical feels strike of hearing that 'plin plin plon' as phase 2 kicks in. My older brother watching over me knew full well what to expect as I excitedly said, "I BEAT HIM ON MY FIRST TRY!" only to see him transform and hear those notes. A horrified, but determined Anti continued on, dodging some of the most intense flame-powered swings I'd ever seen. Even if I drank all my Estus, the fact I was able to knock 'em out in a go made me feel so proud of myself. But with that, the Age of Fire was about to come to an end.
After two games, I decided to let darkness come down upon the Kingdom of Lothric. And with that, my journey through the base game of the Souls trilogy comes to an end. But I'm not done yet. There's 2 DLCs remaining, and I'm determined to knock those out. I've come pretty far, and I'm just about ready to wrap up this long journey I started back in November with Dark Souls Remastered. I don't think 13 year old Antihero really expected himself to fall in love with the series after the efforts of playing the Xbox 360 release all these years ago, but with age comes patience and appreciation for the things you couldn't in your youth. And Dark Souls sure as hell means a lot to me, thinking about what games I've played before and after.