Dark Souls III is an action role-playing game set in a third-person perspective, similar to previous games in the series. According to lead director and series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, the game's gameplay design followed "closely from Dark Souls II". Players are equipped with a variety of weapons including bows, explosives like fire bombs, greatswords, and dual-wielding swords to fight against enemies, and shields that can be used to deflect an enemies' attack and protect the player from suffering damage. In addition, attacks can be evaded through dodge-rolling. Bonfires, which serve as checkpoints, return from previous installments. Ashes, according to Miyazaki, play an important role in the game. Magic is featured in the game, with a returning magic system from Demon's Souls, known as "focus points" (FP). Each attack has two different styles, with one of them is standard attack, while another is slightly more powerful and can be charged up. When performing spells, the players' focus points are consumed and decreased. There are two separate types of Estus Flasks in the game, which can be allotted to fit a players' particular play style. One of them refills hit points like previous games in the series, while another, newly introduced in Dark Souls III, refills focus points. Combat and movements were made faster and more fluid in Dark Souls III, with several players' movements, such as backstepping and swinging heavy weapons, can be performed more rapidly, allowing players to deal more damage in a short period of time. Throughout the game, players encounter different types of enemies, each with different behaviors. Some of them change their combat pattern during battles. New combat features are introduced in Dark Souls III, including weapon and shield "Skills", which are special abilities that vary from weapon to weapon that enable unique features, at the cost of focus points. The game puts more focus on role-playing, in which the character builder is expanded and weapons are improved to provide more tactical options to players. The game features fewer overall maps than its predecessor Dark Souls II, but were created interconnected and were larger and more detailed, which encourages exploration. The adaptability stat from Dark Souls II was removed from Dark Souls III. The game features multiplayer elements, like the previous games in the series. Source:.