Dark Souls II: Crown of the Ivory King

The Crown trilogy haven’t been the most filling morsels. Unlike Dark Souls’ Artorias of the Abyss, they feel superfluous to the main show, something scooped off the cutting room floor. It’s still Dark Souls, and it’s still brilliant, but the Ivory King is a similar deal to the last two—a solid five-hour chunk of adventuring in another enemy-filled fortress. Like its wintry setting it might leave you a bit, well, cold.

Crown of the Ivory King is exhausting, but at the end of it all, the predominant emotion swelling inside of us was sadness. We wanted more: one more boss fight, one more tucked-away room – not because the DLC is lacking, but because we didn’t want to leave. This may be the last we hear of Dark Souls II, but it went out with a bang.

If you've been playing through the Dark Souls 2 DLC up to this point, Ivory King offers plenty of reasons to see the last of what FromSoftware has to offer. It features the same focus on new experiences and terrifying boss fights as the past two Crown installments, tucked into a setting that's atypical for a Souls game. Once you tie the bow on Dark Souls 2, the only thing left to do is start counting down the days until Bloodborne.