Dark Souls Trilogy Compendium 25th Anniversary Edition Hardcover – 31 Mar. 2024

Future Press have formed, yet again, another stunning reference guide. Beautifully presented and produced, this stunning hardcover book (provided in a hard embossed slip-case) is THE bible for any Dark Souls and From Software aficionado. Every character dialogue, region map, lore and anything you need to know about the Dark Souls Trilogy is contained within and it puts other "game guide" companies to shame with the sheer effort, love and production skills that so obviously went into the making of this mammoth tome. More than a coffee-table book, and a work of art in itself, this is a must-have for Soulsborne fans and worth every penny. I believe it's a limited edition and would advise purchasing to those who even have the previous guides of parts 1 & 2 (Future Press didn't do a guide for part 3). VERY highly recommended.

This is THE definitive Dark Souls trilogy book. At a whopping 2.7KG in weight and almost 30cm in length, it's more like an ancient tome than a book and it oozes quality.The front is beautifully illustrated thick card and every page is full colour with a nice glossy feel. It comes with a marker so you never lose your place.The book discusses everything. Lore overviews, bosses, all dialogue lines and NPC/Item locations and descriptions.You're also treated with 4 lovely art cards that you can frame. It's an exquisite item at a cheap price.

Beautiful product. The amount of detail and care that went into this is so, so clear and wonderful.The four art prints are a little bit smaller than A4 size but are of good quality. You get an Black Knight from DS1 akin to the original Steam release banner for the Prepare to Die Edition, what I believe is the standard player character from DS2, the Dancer from DS3 and an Irithyll Knight from DS3. I cannot wait to put these on my wall.The Compendium itself is ridiculously comprehensive with references and citations everywhere. Item descriptions are in full, the Bestiary section has notes of which items correlate to each enemy/character, the maps are fully drawn out, every enemy has a model displayed, the sets and weapons have their in-game locations displayed to check for contextual meaning... Bravo to the team that put this together, it's a fruit of the labour of love and I'm a proud owner of one now!

This book provides all you need to complete the game as you should excellent maps and pictures.

It came later than expected, but it is an awesome addition to my library, the artwork is amazing and it has literally everything you need for the games. The bonus prints will look great framed in my games room.

It's important to establish, first and foremost, that this is a lore focused compendium, not a strategy guide. That is, you will find an alphabetized list of items, chronological lists of maps, pages of thorough NPC dialogues, and lists of bosses/enemies corresponding to the particular game entry (the latter being a wholly separate chapter dedicated to enemies and bosses from all three games). The book also opens with an introduction to the various intertwining story arcs, with referencing to particular details in the games, be it items, dialogue lines, bosses, etc.The book includes maps for each area in each game, with a consistent legend to help you to identify bonfires, bosses, items, NPCs and so on, which are organised into dedicated chapters to each game.This book is beautiful; the gorgeous, weighty, glossy/matte-finish book itself has an equally beautiful sleeve to sit in. The pages are made of good material, with fantastic print quality. There is a silky book mark to help you keep your reference page. The picture/icon and item descriptions from the game itself are all there, and it truly feels like a thorough lore compendium of Dark souls I, II and III.But, it also needs to be clarified what this book is not. The bosses/enemies section has no further information than their name, appearance, and obtainable lore related items. That is, no move lists, strengths, weaknesses, tips, lore, locations, item drops, souls gained, hp etc.The items section includes the item name, general aquisition details, and the lore page from the game - but no stats, nor stat requirements. You cannot, for example, see how a regular spear will scale against a divine spear, etc.The dialogue page includes a list of NPCs from the particular game entry you are reading on, with all of their dialogue lines and its respective conditions - but no information about items obtained from them, be it through their story arc, or from simply killing them.There is no general mechanic explanation section in the book, which explains stats and how they affect the gameplay for that particular entry.The final few pages of the book include an entire alphabetized index of items, enemies, NPCs etc, from all three games, which are appropriately colour coordinated according to which.All in all, this is a very nice book for what it is - a collectors compendium. But do not assume this is 'fextralife in print', because the practical application of this compendium is somewhat limited in comparison to what you could expect from a dedicated strategy guide for one of the individual games. This is more of a 'all the Dark Souls games memorabilia collection'. Unfortunately, not quite what I was hoping for in truth, but it would be unfair to blame future press for my own assumptions, when, as I have stated many times now, it is a compendium - not a strategy guide.

Must have if you love Dark Souls

I’ve got platinum all the games except for the first. These book is filled with every bit of information and lore. When playing these brilliant games the small items you notice are actually quite informational, the lore and the world building is great. It references almost every item and puts it into context and some theories. It is a great quietly. A heavy book, don’t get me wrong, but the little box it comes in is a nice touch, it’s filled with recognisable images which make you remember being there. Definitely worth getting, it feels like a collectors edition item by itself, a must have for souls fans looking to reminisce.