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Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin
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I thoroughly enjoyed Elden Ring and now looking to try one of its predecessors. I've heard of Dark Souls, Demon Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro, plus good things about God of War too.
If I were looking for something as close to ER as possible, which one would folks recommend?
Btw, this is for PC, if that matters.
If I were looking for something as close to ER as possible, which one would folks recommend?
Btw, this is for PC, if that matters.
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Well none of them is open world, but the Souls games are basically exactly the same as Elden Ring in terms of how they play, just with a smaller closed off world(Dark Souls 1) or with hub centric games(the other souls). Bloodborne and Sekiro change the combat in very large ways, especially Sekiro, so they'll feel pretty different I think, but Bloodborne still very much feels like a Souls game. God of War I'd say is somewhat different, more action-y.
If you're ok with dated graphics, can't go wrong with Dark Souls 1 to 3. 2 has its detractors and 1 is really old and some thing are as a result kinda clunky, but 3 is really good. Demon Souls if it's the remake is also solid, the original even emulated to not look like ass still plays very weirdly, being the oldest in the series.
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LiquidDeath
Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
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What Pyros said above, but I'd like to add that Dark Souls 1 is basically a master class in world/level design. You don't get fast travel until more than halfway through the game, but every single place you go is connected to other parts of the world which makes traversing it much faster than you would expect. It is really worth playing.
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Zaide
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Go DS1 for sure. Best world building, great combat etc. The biggest note is that when you're locked onto a target in DS1 you are locked to cardinal direction rolling vs the 360 range in other games. If you don't lock on I am pretty sure you can roll in any direction though. This helps to prepare you for DS2 where you fight every boss without lock on anyway because every boss is just a 40 foot tall knight you can't see if you lock on.
I'd love to hear the perspective of someone who started with ER and then went to DS1. I wonder if fights in DS1 like Capra Demon, O&S, and Manus still hold up compared to the modern boss encounters.
I went back and beat DeS after doing DS 1-3 and BB. I found DeS to have very fun and challenging areas but the bosses were all super easy and just fell over.
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Seananigans
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I'll say that while Demons Souls remake is very solid, coming from Elden Ring you will absolutely notice the stark contrast in enemy and boss AI and moveset. I played DeS recently (Elden Ring on release), and on most bosses I was laughing my way through them.
Dark Souls 3 would be my recommendation, then if you like the way that one's made, Dark Souls 1, and Bloodborne (for a bit of a combat change-up). Sekiro I'd save until later; my usual recommendation on that game is only play if you LOVE FromSoft games, and/or LOVE shinobi/samurai theme. Much better if both are true. It's fun, beautiful, and quite good. But easily the toughest enemies/bosses of the entire FromSoft game catalog reside there.
Chanur
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Rajaah
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Dark Souls 1 is rough to go back to now, even the remaster. Not just the visuals but also the design choices.
Sekiro is a totally different type of game.
Here are a few options, from most to least recommended:
-Dark Souls 3. The most refined and closest to ER Souls game from what I've heard. This might be your best bet if you want a challenge. It's shorter, kinda like if you just took all of ER's legacy dungeons and streamlined sharpened-up versions of some of the areas and lined them up in a non-open world game.
-Ghost of Tsushima if you want to play something with a similar open world and constantly-in-motion visual style. It's easier, but has a similar vibe IMO. Not From but it's daaaamn good.
-Demon Souls Remake. This is visually STUNNING but it's still, at core, a game from 2009 and has its annoyances, to say the least.
-Bloodborne. This is IMO From's best game and an absolute masterpiece, just takes some time to get used to and learn. The only reason it's four spots down is that I'm almost sure they have a remake in the works for some time in the next year and a half, and the original is a dated 1080/30. So I'd wait a little while on this one and play the remake. If they hate money and announce that no remake is in the works and stop asking, then have at it.
-Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin. This one is really hard and the level design is lacking. Has a lot if detractors. Personally I like it a lot. It feels big, with expansive environments. Play SOTFS version of course. I wouldn't play this before Souls 3 or Demon remake, though.
-Souls 1 and Sekiro, for the reasons above. Souls 1 feels so antiquated now, but it's good to see where things began. And Sekiro is it's own, very difficult, beast.
Can also try Nioh 1 and 2, as well as Code Vein, if you run out of all of the above. They're all worthy Souls ripoffs.
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Rajaah
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I agree that Souls 1 is very worth playing. I'd just put it below the others. Playing 3-2-1 in that order could be interesting.
Personally I did run throughs of Dark 1 and Demon Remake (both NG++) this year after Elden Ring. Both kinda felt like they paled in comparison to ER when it came to the bosses. Very simplistic bosses in both. Flamelurker and Man Eaters in DeSR, and maybe the final boss of Dark 1, were the only fights that felt on the level of ER's average boss.
I still have Souls 3, Nioh 1 and 2, Ghost, and Sekiro to go. Other games almost feel like a waste of time in comparison to From and their clones, but I don't want to burn this candle down too fast.
Seananigans
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You have some catching up to do in the Backlog Un-challenge thread, it's your turn for Sekiro. If I can do it, you can!
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Ambiturner
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Haven't played DS1 in a bit, but the controls were always pretty jarring as they're so much less responsive than in DS3.
If similar to Elden Ring is what you want, then DS3 wins hands down.
DS1/DS2/Bloodborne do all have really great things about them that make them valid choices as peoples' "favorite". Sekiro's so different I wouldn't even classify it as a Soulsborne
If similar to Elden Ring is what you want, then DS3 wins hands down.
DS1/DS2/Bloodborne do all have really great things about them that make them valid choices as peoples' "favorite". Sekiro's so different I wouldn't even classify it as a Soulsborne
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Phazael
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DS2 is as close as you will get to the exploration feel and variety of builds (viable at least) and environments. Others are critical of it, but with the DLC its a long game with a lot of hub like options. Its also probably the least difficult of the three, but balances this by having the best NG+ experience of any souls game (fights actually change as do rewards in NG+). Start to finish DS3 combat feels the closest to ER, but there are some pacing and difficulty spike issues with it that the other games do not have. People who complain about Melenia have not taken on Midir or the Nameless King.
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Chanur
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The DLC in DS2 makes it a must play in my opinion. I love all the souls games. Bloodborne is my favorite. DS2 is the only one that has grown on me the more I play it. It went from okay to love. It's different but it's also great like the rest.
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Rajaah
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Yeah I also like DS2 the more I play it. I think it has the best story out of all of them, and the best DLCs. I love how one of the DLCs is basically the scrapped Demon Souls DLC.
I found DS2 to be the most difficult out of the ones I've played. I can speedrun Demon, Dark 1, or Bloodborne start to finish without much of a hiccup. However I can't speedrun Dark 2. Not even a little. It's slow and methodical the whole way through and there are a few places where I have to kill enemies 10x to make them disappear as I go through. Shrine of Amana is horrendous.
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Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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Sure, it's not a speed runner game, but to me speed running a game you like is like trying to blow your wad as fast as you can during a great hummer. What's the fucking point? If you want to do that, ok. But if you diligently clear (not even grinding except to get some specific mats you want), you will always end up strong enough for what you are facing off against. The biggest issue it has (which it shares with D1, honestly) is the overuse of the big guy in armor enemy. The DLC ups the variety a lot, though. And it does not do the hyper aggressive feinting auto tracking attacks that DS3 started a trend of (my biggest annoyance with ER really), so learning patterns and execution are rewarded way more than twitch (BB and ER biggest sins).
The other issue DS2 has, though, is with how resistances are handled. The first issue is that multi element weapons drastically underperform single element attacks from equivalent attack portal. So, unless your stat build is overpowering for a hybrid element, you will essentially find it harder to hurt mobs that are resistant to either element. The other issue is that the common resistances shift drastically in the DLC. Prior to the DLC, lightning spells and standard sorcery are pretty viable against nearly everything. The DLC is jam packed with resistant enemies, however, basically making Pyro and Dark the only viable magics (and even then, sparingly). So, you kind of have to shift your gears once you hit the DLC content if you are relying on magic or certain elemental damage types. The other games don't screw you as hard on this.
The other issue DS2 has, though, is with how resistances are handled. The first issue is that multi element weapons drastically underperform single element attacks from equivalent attack portal. So, unless your stat build is overpowering for a hybrid element, you will essentially find it harder to hurt mobs that are resistant to either element. The other issue is that the common resistances shift drastically in the DLC. Prior to the DLC, lightning spells and standard sorcery are pretty viable against nearly everything. The DLC is jam packed with resistant enemies, however, basically making Pyro and Dark the only viable magics (and even then, sparingly). So, you kind of have to shift your gears once you hit the DLC content if you are relying on magic or certain elemental damage types. The other games don't screw you as hard on this.
DickTrickle
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So, I finally picked up a PS5 and decided I'd try Elden Ring, having never played a Fromsoft game before. It definitely was not as intimidating or tedious as I might have been led to believe, which is good. In fact, towards the end, the bosses oftentimes felt easier than the earlier ones -- I was dying more to random mobs than I was on the big bosses. I'm guessing I was "overleveled", but I never did any farming. I would go through an area on my own as much as I could then when I thought I got everything, I'd look up to see what I missed and go after it. I rarely ran past mobs so maybe that's why, but I don't get how people get to the end game at level 100 or even 120.
It truly is probably the most beautiful open world I've ever played. Great level design and I appreciated that most of the areas had a lot of little nooks and crannies to find secrets in without feeling cheap. The build variety was awesome and overwhelming. I got so used to using the BHF that it was hard for me to switch to other weapons because all my timings were wired to knowing that weapon. The boss models were so amazing. My only complaint is that on a lot of fights you often only see the feet of a massive being after the start of the fight. I loved when I was able to use Torrent for some of those types of fights because only then could I really appreciate the scale and majesty of giant bosses.
I do wish the story was a little more engrossing. I imagine From fanatics will say something like "omg it's all there you don't need your hand held". While it's true there's a lot of information and lore in the game, learning about it felt almost more like reading a Wikipedia article than being immersed in the story. I felt like I was a passive observer even though I was going about murdering everything (and it begs the question what you're really being the Lord of when almost everything in the world is a monster/evil thing trying to kill you). And if you're not willing to deep dive and probably even write down notes, some paths/encounters will seem out of the blue or without context. I'm not someone who does NGs, so if I don't see it on my first playthrough, it will only come from reading about it online. I also wish there was more lore context for some locations. Like, almost every cave/tunnel/catacomb feels similar and without a story hook. Some had some cool designs but there was a lot of reuse too. It made me realize how much little notes/terminals from Fallout or random NPC encounters in RDR2 can really fill out the world.
I wish there could be a combination of this type of combat with the more story heavy open world RPGs out there. The difficulty in those games isn't great and raising it mostly consists of becoming a glass cannon fighting damage sponges, which isn't satisfying.
It truly is probably the most beautiful open world I've ever played. Great level design and I appreciated that most of the areas had a lot of little nooks and crannies to find secrets in without feeling cheap. The build variety was awesome and overwhelming. I got so used to using the BHF that it was hard for me to switch to other weapons because all my timings were wired to knowing that weapon. The boss models were so amazing. My only complaint is that on a lot of fights you often only see the feet of a massive being after the start of the fight. I loved when I was able to use Torrent for some of those types of fights because only then could I really appreciate the scale and majesty of giant bosses.
I do wish the story was a little more engrossing. I imagine From fanatics will say something like "omg it's all there you don't need your hand held". While it's true there's a lot of information and lore in the game, learning about it felt almost more like reading a Wikipedia article than being immersed in the story. I felt like I was a passive observer even though I was going about murdering everything (and it begs the question what you're really being the Lord of when almost everything in the world is a monster/evil thing trying to kill you). And if you're not willing to deep dive and probably even write down notes, some paths/encounters will seem out of the blue or without context. I'm not someone who does NGs, so if I don't see it on my first playthrough, it will only come from reading about it online. I also wish there was more lore context for some locations. Like, almost every cave/tunnel/catacomb feels similar and without a story hook. Some had some cool designs but there was a lot of reuse too. It made me realize how much little notes/terminals from Fallout or random NPC encounters in RDR2 can really fill out the world.
I wish there could be a combination of this type of combat with the more story heavy open world RPGs out there. The difficulty in those games isn't great and raising it mostly consists of becoming a glass cannon fighting damage sponges, which isn't satisfying.
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