FIX - Game won't launch

[Owner]

Just bought the game and spent a few frustrating hours trying to get it to launch. I didn't see any recent discussions of this so I thought it'd post.

Problem: Game won't launch from steam library, no error codes pop-ups or windows appear at all. I'd press play, steam would say the game was 'running' for about a second and then it's status would revert to 'ready to play' without anything actually happening. Tried updating nvidia drivers, .netframework, C++, disabling anti-virus, verifying game cache etc. Tried troubleshooting with a dependency check program. No success.

Cause: Eventually by pure luck I figured out it was a missing DLL d3dcompiler_43.dll. It was already present in my windows/system32 but for whatever reason the game couldn't detect it.

Solution: Copied d3dcompiler_43.dll from my windows/system32 into steamapps/common/dark souls iii. Alternatively if the file is missing entirely from your system you could download it from the internet. Game launched whitescreen for a few moments and then started normally.

I hope this helps someone.
Also bandai namco support sucks, don't bother with their website.