When comparing Journey vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Journey for most people. In the question“What are the best PS4 (PlayStation 4) games?” Journey is ranked 7th while Dark Souls III is ranked 86th. The most important reason people chose Journey is:
Wherever you look you'll find something beautiful to look at. This can be the obstructed sun shining down on an endless desert, creating a very calming scene. It can be the very detailed and massive ruins that sometimes look mysterious and sometimes imposing. It can be the sand beautifully shifting between your character's legs as it walks. It can even be your character's red robe and scarf fluttering in the wind as you glide across the desert. Everything in Journey looks so nice you just want to keep seeing more.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Beautiful visuals
Wherever you look you'll find something beautiful to look at. This can be the obstructed sun shining down on an endless desert, creating a very calming scene. It can be the very detailed and massive ruins that sometimes look mysterious and sometimes imposing. It can be the sand beautifully shifting between your character's legs as it walks. It can even be your character's red robe and scarf fluttering in the wind as you glide across the desert. Everything in Journey looks so nice you just want to keep seeing more.
Pro Simple but really enjoyable gameplay
Journey doesn't have any difficult mechanics, any explicit story, or even an interface. You simply run, jump, and glide through the desert, trying to reach a snowy mountain in the distance. Along the way you'll find items, enemies, and even companions, but there never are any interruptions. It all flows so nicely, it feels like you're going gently down the stream.
Pro Emotional soundtrack
You can really feel the effort and care that went into creating the soundtrack. From the relaxing flute as you trot along the desert. The heartfelt cello solo as you slide through the ruins of an ancient civilization. To the dramatic piece performed by an entire orchestra as you fall into an abyss. The soundtrack helps you feel the right emotions at the right moments, making Journey an unforgettable experience.
Pro Extensive lore that's presented in unconventional ways
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story.
Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you.
Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Pro Stunning environments
The world of Dark Souls 3 looks amazing, so you may often feel the need to stop and take in the beautiful sights. This can be the sheer size of structures, mountains, or caves. It can also be the decorations, inscriptions, or details in a room. There's always so much to look at, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in its world.
Pro Can give a great feeling of accomplishment
The Dark Souls series is known for its difficulty and Dark Souls 3 is no exception. It's filled with difficult enemies and tough boss battles, able to cause you grief on more than one occasion. However, every time you progress to the next safe spot or defeat a boss you'll often be filled with a mix of joy and relief. Beating this game will almost certainly feel like an achievement.
Pro Unpredictable boss battles
The boss battles in Dark Souls 3 consist of several phases, changing up how the bosses fight over the course of the battle. They will gain new abilities, become more aggressive, or reveal various nasty surprises. This creates an enjoyable experience that is different from most modern games where bosses are just glorified pincushions.
Pro A great variety of equipment for almost any playstyle
You'll be finding new pieces of equipment quite often, giving you many options to choose from. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to pick the equipment that best suits your playstyle.
For example, heavy armor will make you move slower, but you'll be better protected. Greatswords have a wide reach, but you swing them really slow. Conversely a dagger is very fast but it has a horrible reach.
Pro Solid controls
This game feels and plays really well. Your character responds to button inputs immediately and it almost never feels like you're losing control over it. The control scheme can also be customized, giving you the option of a more personalized experience.
Pro Great combat system
Dark Souls 3 is a very fast-paced game but it's not just about having quick reflexes. A lot of the combat comes down to exploiting your enemies. To do that, you have to learn their patterns and attack the moment they pause or perform a telegraphed attack. This creates a combat system, which rewards awareness and patience, and is satisfying to master, even if you don't have extraordinary reflexes.
Cons
Con Incredibly short
Journey is one of the shortest games ever made, clocking in just over two hours of gameplay. The ending credits will roll right as you're getting into it, leaving you unsatisfied. This may cause you to immediately replay it but it will never feel the same as your first playthrough.
Con Poor support for mouse+keyboard control
The default DS3 key/button bindings actually prevent full use of certain weapons by requiring the shift key to be pressed and not-pressed simultaneously. Rebinding is possible, but limited by issues like the left mouse button overriding all others and certain bindings not actually working in game (e.g. Shift+MiddleClick).
Con It's hard
You should try avoiding the trap of great review scores since most of them fail to mention the difficulty. It's simply put - hard. A lot of the combat requires quick reflexes, good mechanics, and the mental fortitude to carry on after failing for hours. If you're new to the Souls-like genre or simply want to enjoy a relaxing evening playing a video game, you most likely won't enjoy Dark Souls III.
Con Poorly tuned dynamic visiblity
You may notice some texture pop in while sharply turning the camera. It can be somewhat distracting if you notice it, but most of the time you won't because it happens in the distance.
Con Occasional performance issues
There are portions of the game that will have noticeable framerate drops, which can negatively affect the gameplay. Most of the fault lies with the game engine, so getting better hardware won't help that much.