Every time we get a new look at the enormous Dark Souls 3 mod, Dark Souls: Archthrones, it seems better and better. By combining the 2016 trilogy capstone’s framework with original ideas and mechanics from other FromSoftware games, like Elden Ring and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the team responsible for the mod has made something that feels like a natural extension of the base game. Now, after years of hard work on the project, it’s just hit its biggest milestone to date: releasing a free demo on Nexus Mods that you can play right this moment.
Dark Souls: Archstones takes Dark Souls 3 as a jumping off point and turns the original action-adventure game into something new. Its Nexus Mods page describes it as being “inspired by Demon’s Souls level structure” while pulling various features from many other FromSoftware games to create its own storyline within the Dark Souls fiction. The Archstones team lists 17 new boss fights (with “more to come”) and NPCs among its additions, as well as a host of unique weapons and armor, combat mechanics, side quests, and fresh locations to explore.
The game’s certainly attracted a lot of attention. In the past four hours, its demo launch trailer has been viewed nearly 64,000 times and the video announcing the demo’s launch date has racked up a massive 235,000 views since it was posted on Monday. At the time of writing, its Nexus Mods page has been viewed 34,460 times and the recently released demo has 9,056 unique downloads within hours of its launch.
If you want to give Dark Souls: Archstones a try for yourself, you can get it right here at Nexus Mods.
Otherwise, take a look at our recommendations for other soulslike games and RPG games.
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