Dark Souls

Droigan

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Can I get some opinions on the difficulty scale of my remaining Soulsborne games? AKA rank them from easiest to hardest? I want to play more of these for Halloween but I want to start with whatever's easiest because I haven't played much of anything difficult in months.

DS1 is the only one of these that I've played previously, with the original version. Here's what I have left, rank away pls:

Dark Souls Remastered
Dark Souls 3
Nioh
Nioh 2
Sekiro
Code Vein

Kind of depends on how you play them I guess. If you do them purist style, then DSR and DS3 are roughly the same? Each has some bosses that are hard, DLC is harder than the base game. Hard to rank. The DS games are made easier by using the NPC summons or players. I personally like that by doing "side quests" and talking to certain characters add their npc summons to bosses.

Nioh games are much more action / arcade oriented than the souls games, but can be very difficult due to far more aggressive mobs and more of them. Unlike Souls games though, you don't just scale a weapon for more damage and level some stats, there is a whole skill tree for each weapon, magic and ninjitsu. You can easily look up OP builds that will make the games significantly easier. Same with weapons, some do much more damage more easily than others. IE: Nioh 1 - axe and Nioh 2 - odachi. It can also be made easier by summons since other players (even higher level ones) can add their summons. For instance you can find level 50 people to summon in front of level 20 bosses (not as OP as it sounds as your equal level summons are basically useless and die after one hit from a boss). You can also battle other peoples graves for gear. Some magic skills (like slow) also has a large impact on some mobs that are very hard, but slowed become very easy. You also have skills that respawn you upon death.

Code Vein is easier all around than the rest of the list. It's also easier to grind up to progress through power rather than skill.

Sekiro is probably the "hardest"? Since there is little point in grinding for souls to level up and no summons. Upgrades are won by minibosses and fights. You either learn the parry system or you don't progress. For someone who probably blocked / parried less in all the DS games combined than the first area of Sekiro, it just didn't click with me. I've never got very far in the game (past snake and guy on horse). Got to the temple with the screaming guys. I wanted to like it, but.... just didn't. It's a very one minded game so to speak. You have one sword, no upgrades to it that I know of. You get some gizmos to use, but in reality, every fight is won by the parry mechanic.

Not sure if you played them, but would also add The Surge 1 and 2 to the list. They're probably in the middle/high ground of difficult. You can die quite fast in those games, but can grind for armour upgrades to power through.

Probably not really accurate, but I'd go from easiest to hardest (not taking into account NG+ runs, which Nioh does really well with more content, bosses and loot). This is taking into account the various abilities the games gives you to raise your power to bypass "skill" checks. (The Surge games would be between Nioh2 and DS)
1) Code Vein
2) Nioh - Axe
3) Nioh 2 - Odachi
4) DS 1
5) DS 3
6) Sekiro

On another note, Elden Ring popped up on the PS5 store, couldn't pre order, but added to wishlist!
 
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Penance

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I'd say DS2 is the hardest out of the mainstay Souls games (haven't played BB yet). And Sekiro is definitely the hardest out of the whole Fromsoft universe. Nioh is a lot easier in that its biggest thing is just patience. I'd also argue some of the deaths in Nioh feel more cheesy then DS. Haven't played Nioh 2 yet.
 
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Hateyou

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I was loving Nioh 2 then got absolutely stopped by the big snake boss. I got him into the 20%ish range a couple times if I remember right but were talking a ton of attempts. I finally got frustrated and gave the game up.
 

Phazael

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I have replayed most of these recently, except for Seikoro and the Bloodborne expansions (too much twitch).

If you know what you are doing, DS1 is materially the hardest over all, mostly due to the really limited grinding options (post dragon head sploit fix) to level up and the abundance of really annoying as fuck zones (blight town). The only real hard wall mob in it is Four Kings for certain builds, and of course Ornstein and Smoag as a solo player. And you can magic cheese the fuck out of the bulk of the game.

DS2 is decently challenging with a couple hard as fuck bosses that are entirely optional. The two ice wolf fucks with a 30 minute runback in the snow where you cannot see are the one and only boss in the souls series I have never beaten. DS2 has really well thought out game progression and good build variety, so if you progress steadily, it can be one of the easiest games outside a handful of bosses. There are not really any super hard progression blocking bosses, except as optional fights at the ends of the three DLC zones (the three phantoms fight is probably the hardest fight in this game to solo) that are not needed to complete those worlds.

DS3 is at once the easiest, with the easiest hall trash to kill, lots of great farm zones, decent weapon options early on, and virtually no boss with an outrageous difficulty spike that actually blocks progressing the main game (except maybe the Dancer). There are optional boss fights in the game that, especially if soloed, are among the roughest in the game series though. This is particularly true in terms of the build you have potentially making certain fights in the DLC really rough. Nameless King is another good example where certain builds are just going to have a bad time against him. Sister Friede can be nasty solo, if you are not set up for it. Midir is basically impossible as anything not a two handed mele setup, at least solo. In general, the DLC fights in DS3 (like many in DS2) were built around co-op and are fun and quite manageable in that context. Even though I gave up on the twin frost dogs in DS2 due to the reclear bullshit, I think Midir is probably the single hardest kill in the entire series.

Other Games-
Code Vein is not really comparable and much easier than anything here.

Did not play much in Nioh, because I hated the grind and twitch.

Bloodborne I have never had an urge to replay due to it being a twitch fest, but I found that you had one early hardblock in the form of the first priest/werewolf boss and it got steadily easier from there. Also, once you get Ludwigs, the whole game becomes a complete faceroll. Once I got Ludwigs and leveled it up a bit, I rarely died anymore and one shotted just about every single boss from that point forward. They may have nerfed it since I played, but that weapon was fucking ridiculous.
 
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Rajaah

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I'm getting the impression that Code Vein and then Nioh 1 are the easier ones on the list. That works for me, I was kind of hoping for something like that. I can finally finish Nioh.
 

Chanur

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Can I get some opinions on the difficulty scale of my remaining Soulsborne games? AKA rank them from easiest to hardest? I want to play more of these for Halloween but I want to start with whatever's easiest because I haven't played much of anything difficult in months.

DS1 is the only one of these that I've played previously, with the original version. Here's what I have left, rank away pls:

Dark Souls Remastered
Dark Souls 3
Nioh
Nioh 2
Sekiro
Code Vein
In my opinion the first one you play will always be the hardest one. For me it was Bloodborne. The rest were much easier. In my opinion I would either play them in order, or go Bloodborne, then Dark Souls 1.

Bloodborne has the best combat and best theme.
Dark Souls 1 has the best world design, its near perfection.
Dark Souls 2 is a massive game that gets better and better the more you play it.
Dark Souls 3 is a really solid mix all around but probably my least favorite of the series. It is still great though.

In general the expansions for all of these are masterpieces and really make the games better.

I hated the restrictions in Sekiro so never got to far.

Nioh always felt weird to me so never played them much either.
 
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Phazael

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I strongly disagree about Bloodborne being superior combat, but I know I am in the minority on that one. The guns were, well garbage. It was all very twitch based, at least until you get Ludwigs and faceroll your way through the rest of the game. I much preferred the methodical combat, with different weapons and stances, that the Dark Souls games had. Most strategy in Bloodborne goes out the window when it becomes a button mash race to recover your health faster than you are losing it. Whereas, with the combat in Souls games were about knowing your weapons and how they and their movesets matched up against enemies, plus reading the enemy moves. I got put off of Nioh largely for the same reason and did not even bother with Sekiro. I just cannot stand twitch play in an action RPG.
 
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Utnayan

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Yeah - I played the Demon Souls Remaster - Came back to Bloodborne after a LONG hiatus and was moving through BB like a breeze. Wasn't sure why that is but what Phazael says makes sense.
 

Chanur

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I strongly disagree about Bloodborne being superior combat, but I know I am in the minority on that one. The guns were, well garbage. It was all very twitch based, at least until you get Ludwigs and faceroll your way through the rest of the game. I much preferred the methodical combat, with different weapons and stances, that the Dark Souls games had. Most strategy in Bloodborne goes out the window when it becomes a button mash race to recover your health faster than you are losing it. Whereas, with the combat in Souls games were about knowing your weapons and how they and their movesets matched up against enemies, plus reading the enemy moves. I got put off of Nioh largely for the same reason and did not even bother with Sekiro. I just cannot stand twitch play in an action RPG.

This is all wrong. Bloodborne had weapon stances with different play styles for each one. It's also not that twitchy as you didn't have to parry through things. There are also 2 different parry styles depending on the gun style you picked.

Didn't you summon help for most of bloodborne also?
 

Phazael

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Summoned for the witch in the house fight, was about it. Only one there were people at the time hanging at. I soloed pretty much every other boss in that game. And yeah every weapon basically had two stances in the game, but there was never a point after getting it (and immediately upgrading it fully/near fully) that two handing Ludwigs and mashing attack was not the winning strategy. Maybe that big illusionary laser beam worm thing might have taken some strategy? I never found the guns anything less than completely useless, beyond agroing a mob to pull it to a better fighting location.

I found the chess game of selecting the correct weapon and setup (plus power stancing) in Souls games way more satisfying. Bloodborne was great if you were one of the people who hated anyone who blocked in Souls or were a full time twitch roll backstab PVPer. For those of us who liked farming up the gear to tackle bosses in certain ways and thinking about swing arcs and how they would deal with certain enemies patterns, not so much.

I mean, I get why people like it. ITs the best twitch souls type game out there with incredible atmosphere. It just was not for me and I would have not even finished the base game if I did not enjoy the Cthulhu feel to it as much as I did.
 
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Ambiturner

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Summoned for the witch in the house fight, was about it. Only one there were people at the time hanging at. I soloed pretty much every other boss in that game. And yeah every weapon basically had two stances in the game, but there was never a point after getting it (and immediately upgrading it fully/near fully) that two handing Ludwigs and mashing attack was not the winning strategy. Maybe that big illusionary laser beam worm thing might have taken some strategy? I never found the guns anything less than completely useless, beyond agroing a mob to pull it to a better fighting location.

I found the chess game of selecting the correct weapon and setup (plus power stancing) in Souls games way more satisfying. Bloodborne was great if you were one of the people who hated anyone who blocked in Souls or were a full time twitch roll backstab PVPer. For those of us who liked farming up the gear to tackle bosses in certain ways and thinking about swing arcs and how they would deal with certain enemies patterns, not so much.

I mean, I get why people like it. ITs the best twitch souls type game out there with incredible atmosphere. It just was not for me and I would have not even finished the base game if I did not enjoy the Cthulhu feel to it as much as I did.

Just because you preferred a specific weapon/stance doesn't mean other ones don't exist.
 
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Zaide

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In my opinion the first one you play will always be the hardest one. For me it was Bloodborne. The rest were much easier. In my opinion I would either play them in order, or go Bloodborne, then Dark Souls 1.

Bloodborne has the best combat and best theme.
Dark Souls 1 has the best world design, its near perfection.
Dark Souls 2 is a massive game that gets better and better the more you play it.
Dark Souls 3 is a really solid mix all around but probably my least favorite of the series. It is still great though.

In general the expansions for all of these are masterpieces and really make the games better.

I hated the restrictions in Sekiro so never got to far.

Nioh always felt weird to me so never played them much either.
DS1 is probably the best game ever made imho. The world is just so awesome and the gameplay feels great.

Something about DS2 kind of feels bland and the movement feels a bit dull or mushy, it’s hard to put my finger on. Still loved it but it’s leagues behind DS1.

DS3 was cool but felt overproduced. In DS1 you go into a room and there are 1-2 enemies. In DS3 it’s like Dynasty Warriors Souls Edition.
 
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Chanur

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DS1 is probably the best game ever made imho. The world is just so awesome and the gameplay feels great.

Something about DS2 kind of feels bland and the movement feels a bit dull or mushy, it’s hard to put my finger on. Still loved it but it’s leagues behind DS1.

DS3 was cool but felt overproduced. In DS1 you go into a room and there are 1-2 enemies. In DS3 it’s like Dynasty Warriors Souls Edition.
That is fairly intentional for DS2. If you put some points into ADP and get your AGI raised up it feels much better. At least it made drinking faster and gave more iframes.
 
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Ambiturner

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DS1 is probably the best game ever made imho. The world is just so awesome and the gameplay feels great.

Something about DS2 kind of feels bland and the movement feels a bit dull or mushy, it’s hard to put my finger on. Still loved it but it’s leagues behind DS1.

DS3 was cool but felt overproduced. In DS1 you go into a room and there are 1-2 enemies. In DS3 it’s like Dynasty Warriors Souls Edition.

The controls in DS3 feel much more reponsive than in DS1. It's jarring going back and playing DS1 after getting used to DS3.

The bosses are also a clear step above DS1.

The world in 1 definitely feels like more of a world and the best parts of DS3's world is the callbacks to DS1
 
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Rajaah

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In my opinion the first one you play will always be the hardest one. For me it was Bloodborne. The rest were much easier. In my opinion I would either play them in order, or go Bloodborne, then Dark Souls 1.

Bloodborne has the best combat and best theme.
Dark Souls 1 has the best world design, its near perfection.
Dark Souls 2 is a massive game that gets better and better the more you play it.
Dark Souls 3 is a really solid mix all around but probably my least favorite of the series. It is still great though.

In general the expansions for all of these are masterpieces and really make the games better.

I hated the restrictions in Sekiro so never got to far.

Nioh always felt weird to me so never played them much either.

Yeah, Bloodborne was my first one and it was pretty difficult. That said, Dark Souls 2 was my second one and it was WAY more difficult. Took me like 2-3x as long to get through. I played both of them again this year (for the 5th and 3rd times respectively) and yes, Souls 2 does get better the more you play it. On this third run I finally understood the lore and that adds a LOT to the world. It's still my least-favorite Souls game but I give it an A+ for the lore. Also agree that the DLCs make all of these better. My fondest memories of Souls 1 and Bloodborne are in their DLCs, and Souls 2's DLCs took me as long as the actual game did because they were such a struggle (a memorable struggle). I wish Demon's Souls had ever gotten a 6th archstone DLC, still surprised we didn't get that for the remake. I guess the assets for the 6th archstone all got used in Souls 2's ice DLC, as we discussed a while back here, so at least it was a thing at all. Would still be awesome to get an extra area in Demon's, even if it was something entirely new and not the intended 6th archstone.

DS1 is probably the best game ever made imho. The world is just so awesome and the gameplay feels great.

Something about DS2 kind of feels bland and the movement feels a bit dull or mushy, it’s hard to put my finger on. Still loved it but it’s leagues behind DS1.

DS3 was cool but felt overproduced. In DS1 you go into a room and there are 1-2 enemies. In DS3 it’s like Dynasty Warriors Souls Edition.

Souls 2 being made by a B-Team while Miyazaki did other things really shows.
 
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Zaide

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Yeah I remember loving 2, I beat it on like NG+7 or whatever autistic amount you needed to turn the fires in the Majula basement blue. I think it really is the adp issue because whenever I try to start a fresh game it just feels awful and I don’t want to grind out 20 levels of adp right away.

I played DS1 after DS2 and it felt clunky at first but I realized it was just the 4 directional rolling I think and that may just be while locked on.

DS3 and BB are unquestionably smoother in terms of movement though.
 
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Rajaah

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Yeah I remember loving 2, I beat it on like NG+7 or whatever autistic amount you needed to turn the fires in the Majula basement blue. I think it really is the adp issue because whenever I try to start a fresh game it just feels awful and I don’t want to grind out 20 levels of adp right away.

I played DS1 after DS2 and it felt clunky at first but I realized it was just the 4 directional rolling I think and that may just be while locked on.

DS3 and BB are unquestionably smoother in terms of movement though.

I have the same experience with DkS2 and it sucks a lot of the life out of new playthroughs knowing that I'd need to get a ton of ADP before I do anything else just to have it be "what I'm used to" in terms of mobility.
 
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Phazael

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DS1 did have the better world layout, but that slow crawl in the dark to Nitto can fuck itself in the ass. There are elements to the combat I liked, but the list of really viable and fun weapons was really narrow. I think they hated how the bulk of the Demons Souls player base went spear and shield and overreacted to that. Plus magic was just fucking stupidly good in DS1. Covenant system was kind of poorly thought out, and there was way too much Mario Souls, where you stuggled mainly against the environment or cheap bullshit (Sens Fortress, Blight Town, Bed of Chaos Fight, ect) rather than tactical combat. Its held up pretty well, though and I totally get why most rank it the best.

I liked the variety in DS2, as far as playstyle options and weapon choices the best. It was also the last game where you could go deep in one of the four magic schools and not feel gimped in doing so. The DLC for DS2 was by far the best and the most perfectly integrated into the main game of the series. I get why people rank it last, but DS2 remains my personal favorite for its lack of progression cock blocks and variety. I think, with the DLC, it might be the longest play of the series too. Three areas it suffered were the nebulous (at the time) addition of the ADP stat, The really linear nature of the third act of the game, and the over reliance of Big Dude in Armor boss type. But the pirate ship zone might be my favorite area in any of these games, in terms of atmosphere and variety of things to fight and do.

DS3 was basically a big rehash of the prior games, in terms of zone design and mechanics, with some mixed results. The world design was fun, but a lot less open world than the prior games. Boss variety was good. DLC was fairly ok, but the item bloat that took place was way more jarring than it was in prior entries. I mean, that fucking scythe from the ice world boss just plain wrecked shit compared to nearly anything form the main game. Later bosses had some variety, but most really punished you for not tanking up a bit due to all the fucking splash damage the final DLC fights tossed at you. And playing as a mage was gimp mode in the DLC, particularly without summons, due to some really heinous resistances on trash mobs and super mobile and aggressive bosses near the end of it. A lot of Mario Souls in the DLC, but not as bad as DS1. The one thing it did right was the combat, which was very tight and well paced without straying into twitch.
 
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Rajaah

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DS3 was basically a big rehash of the prior games, in terms of zone design and mechanics, with some mixed results. The world design was fun, but a lot less open world than the prior games. Boss variety was good. DLC was fairly ok, but the item bloat that took place was way more jarring than it was in prior entries. I mean, that fucking scythe from the ice world boss just plain wrecked shit compared to nearly anything form the main game. Later bosses had some variety, but most really punished you for not tanking up a bit due to all the fucking splash damage the final DLC fights tossed at you. And playing as a mage was gimp mode in the DLC, particularly without summons, due to some really heinous resistances on trash mobs and super mobile and aggressive bosses near the end of it. A lot of Mario Souls in the DLC, but not as bad as DS1. The one thing it did right was the combat, which was very tight and well paced without straying into twitch.

So what you're saying is, when I do Souls 3, I should do the DLC as early as I can for murderscythe?