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How Would You Currently Rank The Souls Games That You've Played?

Issun

Issun

Chumpy
(He/Him)
For our purposes, this means From's output that falls under that umbrella: Demon's, Dark1-3, Bloodborne, Elden Ring and Sekiro. Just post what you feel right now. You can always rerank them later if you change your mind. For me (haven't played Sekiro yet):

1. Dark Souls
2. Bloodborne
3. Demon's Souls
4. Dark Souls II
5. Elden Ring
6. Dark Souls III
 
jpfriction

jpfriction

(He, Him)
1. Bloodborne
2. Dark Souls
3. Elden Ring
4. Sekiro
5. Darks Souls III
6. Darks Souls II
7. Demon Souls


Might swap 2 and 4 if I thought about it some more. Sekiro is a good time.

Demon Souls just never felt right to me, something about how the character moves.
 
Regulus

Regulus

Sir Knightbot
1. Dark Souls
2. Demon's Souls
3. Elden Ring
4. Dark Souls III
5. Dark Souls II
6. Bloodborne

I don't really consider Sekiro a 'Soulslike', though I would place it probably next to Dark Souls in quality.

Dark Souls is just... incomparable. The world design is so good up through Anor Londo that it almost completely covers for how mediocre some of the final areas are. The lack of warping in the first half adds some wonderful tension. I loved the feeling of being stuck for what feels like hours in the grimey depths, eventually breaking light and unexpectedly finding your way back to Firelink Shrine. Firelink is the best hub any of the games have had for entirely this reason, even though there's not much to "do there". It's just... home.

Demon's Souls feels the most novel. It has the highest volume of "weird" of any of them, and Boletaria itself is just fascinating. The bosses are pretty easy compared to the later games, but they all feel unique. It also gets a lot of points for being the first one I played.

Elden Ring would maybe be higher if the bosses weren't tuned so difficult. I just wasn't having fun with them most of the time.

Dark Souls III is great, but doesn't have quite the same spark that the first Dark Souls has. I think it might have the strongest overall boss roster, though?

Dark Souls II is a perfectly adequate game. But its trouble development really shows. I don't like how "ambush-mob" heavy the game is, and the Scholar version is even worse about this. It also feels the most "gamey". I also thought the art direction was kinda bad compared to the first game.

Bloodborne I'm sure I'll like if it ever gets a PC port. The inconsistent, sub-30 FPS and forced chromatic aberration strain my eyes and give me headaches, so I have trouble playing it for any length of time.
 
4-So

4-So

Spicy
S tier: Dark Souls, Elden Ring
Mid tier: Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, Demon's Souls
It's fine, I guess tier: Sekiro
Wet garbage has more entertainment value tier: Dark Souls 2
 
estragon

estragon

Post-Elden Ring Ranking:

Demon's Souls=Dark Souls 1=Dark Souls 2: SotFS=Dark Souls 3=Elden Ring

They're all good to me, and each one offers something I want that others don't.

Pre-Elden Ring, I used to rank them like this:

1. Demon's Souls
2. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
3. Dark Souls 1 & 3

But something about the Elden Ring experience changed my feelings about them. I can't quite explain it, but it's something like seeing that permutation of the formula made me feel more favorably about the ones I liked less.
 
MJG

MJG

1. Dark Souls
2. Elden Ring
3. Dark Souls III
4. Dark Souls II
5. Sekiro
6. Demon Souls / Bloodborne

The top four are all great games I've played through multiple times. The first three in particular are all-time favorites. Dark Souls II is probably a small notch below the other three, if I were doing a tier thing instead, but no shame in that.

Sekiro, I am not a fan. It was interesting for the first ten hours or so, then became less and less fun the further I got in, and I ended up dropping it well before the end after I realized it was getting worse, not better.

I have only played a few hours each of Demon Souls and Bloodborne, so I don't know if they are really even fair to rate. Neither one of them grabbed me at all. I tossed them at the bottom because Sekiro at least managed to get me to stick with it for ~25 hours or so.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
1. Dark Souls
2. Bloodborne
3. Elden Ring
4. Dark Souls III
5. Dark Souls II
6. Demon's Souls
7. Sekiro

Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring are all very close together in my rankings, and after that everything falls off in significantly bigger steps the farther down you go. Dark Souls III was fun, Dark Souls II is alright, I didn't love Demon's Souls but I played it to the end. I bounced off of Sekiro super hard, not sure I ever went back to it after 10 hours or so.

Dark Souls was just an incomparable experience, not just for my first playthrough but for even two or three after that as I learned to break the game and do powerful things right out of the gate. In all my years of playing video games I'm not sure anything has ever felt the way that entire journey did.

Regulus said:
Dark Souls is just... incomparable. The world design is so good up through Anor Londo that it almost completely covers for how mediocre some of the final areas are. The lack of warping in the first half adds some wonderful tension. I loved the feeling of being stuck for what feels like hours in the grimey depths, eventually breaking light and unexpectedly finding your way back to Firelink Shrine. Firelink is the best hub any of the games have had for entirely this reason, even though there's not much to "do there". It's just... home.
Click to expand...
It's like you pulled this paragraph straight out of my brain! (I realize that my use of "incomparable" probably comes from reading it in your post right before I wrote mine, but it's hard to find another way to describe it.)
 
Juno

Juno

The DRKest Roe
(He, Him)
1. Dark Souls 2
2. Dark Souls
3. Elden Ring
4. Demon's Souls
5. Dark Souls 3
6. Bloodborne

Have not played Sekiro.
 
Peklo

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Demon's Souls
Sekiro
Bloodborne

Dark Souls

Elden Ring
Dark Souls III
Dark Souls II

Gaps to represent the relative and descending level of affinity between the groupings.
 
Patrick

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
  1. Dark Souls
  2. Elden Ring
  3. Demon’s Souls
  4. Dark Souls II (either version)
  5. Bloodborne
  6. Dark Souls III

I value variety in character builds and routes to approach the game more highly than most, which is why Bloodborne & DS3 didn’t land as well for me. Elden Ring hit the sweet spot, though the interconnectivity of the first half of Dark Souls maybe keeps it on top overall? I’m still not sure which of those I prefer.
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
1. Bloodbourne
2. Elden Ring
3. Dark Souls 3
4. Dark Souls
5. Dark Souls 2

If I included Sekiro it would be above Dark Souls and below Dark Souls 3.

Never played Demon Souls.
 
Lokii

Lokii

—
(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Sekiro
Demon/Dark/Dark 2/Blood/Eldin
Dark 3

Reasoning: Sekiro is my favorite, DS3 my least. Comparisons are dumb.
 
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ArugulaZ

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
What, no Eldest Souls, Young Souls, Duck Souls, Beat Souls, Crossing Souls, 6 Souls, Tormented Souls, or Dual Souls: The Last Bearer?
 
ASandoval

ASandoval

Old Man Gamer
(he/him)
Elden Ring
Dark Souls 2
Dark Souls
Demon's Souls
Bloodborne
Dark Souls 3

Haven't played Sekiro yet. Some day.
 
MCBanjoMike

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
I'm not quite done with Elden Ring, but right now I think I'd go:

Elden Ring
Dark Souls
...
Dark Souls III
Demon's Souls

I loved Dark Souls when I first played it, but there's enough garbage in the back half that I have a hard time ranking it above what I've seen of Elden Ring (which I believe is most of it). Neither DS3 nor Demon's managed to hold my attention long enough to finish them.
 
Oathbreaker

Oathbreaker

Elden Ring
Bloodborne/Demon's Souls
Dark Souls 3
PvE Dark Souls 1 / PvP Dark Souls 2
PvE Dark Souls 2 / PvP Dark Souls 1

I don't really feel like Sekiro quite fits the umbrella so I don't really think of it in comparison to any of these other ones.

It's difficult for me to place exactly where I think of other Souls-like games in direct comparison to From Software's output, though I feel Hollow Knight is an obvious winner here, probably equivalent to Elden Ring in terms of 2D. I thought Salt and Sanctuary was very good and what little narrative it had was very fun. I personally just don't like The Surge, and even though The Surge 2 is clearly a better game something about the way the art design, combat, and animations all smash together just doesn't work for me still. Lords of the Fallen is very slow and mostly not very fun, especially when its habit of crashing shows up, though I did have fun doing its boss challenges for unique reward variants (The Surge also does this but I had notably less fun with it there even though its design is inarguably better).
 
balder the brave

balder the brave

1. Dark Souls 2
This is the only game where I felt the various builds were all balanced and fun. I played STR, DEX, INT, FTH, and Dark builds and played them all to the end. In most other Souls game I burn out on non-STR builds partway through.

I like the way that weapon enchanting works…you can actually make lightning and magic weapons that are useful. You can buff your enchanted weapons for amazing 30 seconds of damage. There is a sword and a mace that can act as catalyst and bell. Fun!

It also has the most visual and gameplay variety in levels and some of the best DLC. And no huge swamp!

It’s the only one where I understand the story!

2. Sekiro
This is the most pure fun gameplay. The boss fights are amazing. The levels now have a different feel than the bosses. It would be my favorite but for the lower of replay ability as a consequence of how leveling and stats work.

3. Bloodborne
Amazing world and gameplay. Amazing DLC. Unfortunately, lacks major replay value for me. It takes too long at the start of the game to find new weapons and I didn’t have any fun with Arcane or Bloodtinge builds. I think some of the large monster bosses make for sloppy fights that aren’t very fun. Has a big swamp.

4. Dark Souls
The most memorable characters. The start of the game, before you unlock fast travel, is magical. I think fast travel in general breaks immersion and may have been a big mistake. The combat is stiff and it’s difficult to go back to. I wish they had done more of a update for the remaster. In particular, the 8 directional rolling is rough. Going back to it, you also miss the complexity of bosses having multiple forms.

5. Dark Souls 3
The combat is nice and fluid and bosses have so many forms. The world and characters are dull. The least inspired game from a visual and story perspective. The faith and magic builds are not fun or balanced. Another big swamp.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
balder the brave said:
Going back to it, you also miss the complexity of bosses having multiple forms.
Click to expand...
I might be in the minority here, but I actually miss bosses  not having multiple forms. It's cool when it's once in a while, but giving every single boss multiple phases takes away from it feeling special or dramatic for me. Plus, not every boss has to get progressively harder the longer you fight them.
 
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