Dark Souls III Footage Demonstrates The Battle Axe And Details Its Weapon Arts

FromSoftware recently shared the latest on their upcoming action title, Dark Souls III, with a demonstration on a new feature called “Weapon Arts,” which provides players with a new repertoire of moves.

The above footage gives us a demonstration of the battle axe warrior with a look at some basic movements and attacks at the start, and there’s some emphasis on how the gameplay feels much more different than past titles.

The footage is from a map that was shown during last year’s Tokyo Game Show, and since then, the graphics and lighting has been adjusted, so it might look a little better than you remember.

This time, we’re looking at a feature called “Weapon Arts.” This is done by holding your right-hand weapon with both hands, and then pressing the L2 button, which is demonstrated with the Battle Axe’s “War Cry” at the 1:45 mark of the video. While War Cry is active, it provides an attack up buff, which is indicated by the red aura and a marker by the gauges.

While under War Cry, the Battle Axe-user also performs different and more powerful attack motions to change it up a little more than just an increase in attack. These powerful attacks can also break through enemy defenses, even if they’re holding shields. Against bosses, it’ll be best used when attacking when you see the perfect opportunities. The blue FP gauge is used for Weapon Arts. While it can still be used when it’s low, it’ll be much weaker than usual.

There are all kinds of different Weapon Arts in Dark Souls III, as they’re unique to each weapon. The video shows us a little more of the Battle Axe’s War Cry in action, but they say that you’ve yet to see the best of it since it’s only being used against weak enemies.

Here’s what we know about the various Weapon Arts for the different weapons:

• Long Sword: Stance
• Great Sword: Step
• Legion Scimitars: Spinning Move
• Mace: Tolerance
• Sorcerer Wand: Magic Increase
• Battle Axe: War Cry
• Dagger: Quick Step
• Short Bow: Multi-Shot

Dark Souls III will release in Japan on March 24, 2016 and worldwide on April 12, 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.