Current Events > Best out of Dark Souls, Demon Souls, and Bloodborne.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tough choice...

Sorry about the typo in the topic title.

Bump

Bloodborne just barely beats DS3 because of chalice dungeons.
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Demon's Souls all dat immersion
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I played Dark Souls and really disliked it. A lot.

Fucking LOVE Bloodborne. 10/10 for me.

I like Dark Souls 2 and 3 a fair amount, too but still can't get myself to like Dark Souls 1. I'm not sure why that is but I really just don't like it.
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Yaridovich posted...

I played Dark Souls and really disliked it. A lot.

Fucking LOVE Bloodborne. 10/10 for me.

I like Dark Souls 2 and 3 a fair amount, too but still can't get myself to like Dark Souls 1. I'm not sure why that is but I really just don't like it.

Sounds like me.

Dark Souls 1 = DkS2 > DkS3 > DS > BB
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Dark Souls, specifically because of world design. Nice, flowing, interconnected map with numerous unlockable shortcuts and bonfire teleportation introduced late in the game with finite nodes.

No hub world and no bullshit in whatever dark souls 2 was:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/a4566e5973dc991511d9a1583f01e493/tumblr_n4je7xh8Z81r0r8nyo1_500.jpg
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Demons' Souls by far.

philsov posted...

Dark Souls, specifically because of world design. Nice, flowing, interconnected map with numerous unlockable shortcuts and bonfire teleportation introduced late in the game with finite nodes.

No hub world and no bullshit in whatever dark souls 2 was:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/a4566e5973dc991511d9a1583f01e493/tumblr_n4je7xh8Z81r0r8nyo1_500.jpg

hahaha

Bump.

Not a single vote for Dark Souls II :/

Bloodborne
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Dark Souls > Bloodborne > Demon's > DkS 2 > DkS 3

Recently played 2 again and I think I actually like it more than 3 at this point. For some reason 3 is the one I never sunk time into replaying/co-op.
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Dark Souls I was unfinished, and BB lacked variety. Gotta be DkSIII.
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dark souls 2 PVP >> anything else in the series
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DS1 > DS2 > DeS > DS3 > BB

CapnMuffin posted...

Bloodborne just barely beats DS3 because of chalice dungeons.

this.

Bloodborne > Dark Souls 3 > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls > Dark Souls 2, IMO.
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Demon's Souls was great at the time but has been massively improved upon since then, and so has aged poorly. It's also a small game with some really bad mechanics that never made it into the newer games. It's way off the quality of the later games.

Dark Souls 1 was a strong improvement over Demon's but, like Demon's, has not aged well and has been vastly improved upon by later iterations in nearly every way, except world connectivity.

Dark Souls 2 faltered at times in realising what should be a true Souls vision, but also is by far the most mechanically smart game and just generally has the best gameplay design, and a lot of effort was put into it making it the largest game overall. Retrospectively I came to realise all the other Souls games did plenty of their own dumb shit that didn't feel right for a Souls game either so it's hardly fair to only scrutinise this one. It also is the only game that was designed with players who keep playing it after a first playthrough in mind. Overall my favorite.

Bloodborne is heavily flawed. It's mechanically dumb in several ways, it's small and generally suffers from being "baby's first new console generation game" which is shown in many technical problems and dialing back of scope and quality in some areas. Randomised dungeons and diablo-esque loot with their blood gems is combined the single dumbest thing ever put in a Souls game and is the very antithesis to Souls design, while also killing PvE beyond a first playthrough. The weapon system also causes new playthroughs to all feel the same and monotonous because there's a narrow list of ways to even play, with two whole stats not even being worth investing in for a long time. It's "streamlined" so, simplified, which hurts player variety because you're basically going to be one of various flavors of melee guy, or you can go home. That said it's the best atmosphere and sound design, it dramatically raised the bar for boss design/complexity and enemy complexity in general, the weapons themselves are almost all very well designed and impressive and surprisingly well balanced with each other and, for a first playthrough at least, its PvE is very good. The setting also feels fresh, albeit while not literally being original it still is a big breath of fresh air in a market over-saturated with generic fantasy stuff.

Dark Souls 3 is Souls' Greatest Hits. It doesn't have a lot of identity of its own...if any. It's a collection of favored memories in the past games and attempts to further polish some things, but is largely a "safe" game, a "Dark Souls: another one" so it doesn't quite excite like a new game should. It maintains and further one-ups Bloodborne's boss bar-raising, but in many respects is instead a step back. It actually has less weapon types than Dark Souls 2, and in some cases even less moveset variety. It got rid of hexes as a spell casting type that DS2 added. It is mechanically dumb and feels like a step back from 2 in a lot of ways, undoing a lot of the improvements 2 made like powerstancing or bonfire ascetics. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I think sequels are supposed to build on the previous game, not take away a bunch of things it added.

So I voted 2.

I don't think there's ACTUALLY a best Souls game though. But the pieces for the best Souls game, are found almost exclusively in 2, 3 and Bloodborne, and DS1's world structure (though that could use polish and updating).

Overall people were too hard on 2, and too easy on Bloodborne and hindered too much with nostalgia for 1 and Demon's. Scrutinised all equally, it is actually Bloodborne that makes the most offenses, not 2, despite being a Miyazaki game, and 1 has a lot of flaws that don't deserve a free pass. Whereas Demon's Souls is just obviously their first attempt where a lot of stuff wasn't figured out what works and what doesn't yet. That said, what each person personally finds the most import informs their favorite.
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Dark Souls 2 faltered at times in realising what should be a true Souls vision, but also is by far the most mechanically smart game and just generally has the best gameplay design

could not agree more. every weapon is viable, and there are tons. i still play dks2 to this day, and the arena is still active, and so are invasions (my current build is sm 2m or so, but still -- plenty of activity, even on the bridge).

ADP was a mistake and so was the overhead tracking, but all the former did was push the meta back to 150, and the latter is just in PVE.

but in many respects [dks3 is] a step back. It actually has less weapon types than Dark Souls 2, and in some cases even less moveset variety. It got rid of hexes as a spell casting type that DS2 added. It is mechanically dumb and feels like a step back from 2 in a lot of ways, undoing a lot of the improvements 2 made like powerstancing

thank you. the removal of powerstancing blew my mind, and so did reverting back to 'you really can't use weapons lefty' as a design choice. some of us might *want* to. i was also a fan of backstep dodges, even though they became a bit broken once your AGI hit a certain point.

and also the PVP is an unbalanced suckfest.
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Hollow Knight.
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Dark souls 3 was my first, I like it the most and I feel like 1&2 are a little too slow paced because of it.

Dark souls 3 tied with Blood borne
Dark souls 2
Dark souls

Never played demon
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Bump..

Dark souls 2 was so bad lol
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Zurkon posted...

I loved Bloodborne so much. I've only done one playthrough though and I need to beat it two more times to get the plat. I also never really dived into the Chalice dungeons and I need to do those too. Dark Souls 3 is up there for me too. Great games.

Yeah I want to replay it too sometime.

thinking about it, I'll change my answer to Dark Souls 3.

it felt like the best mix of everything.

Bloodborne had the best atmosphere and story, though, IMO.
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Dark Souls from the beginning through Anor Londo is the best video game experience in history.
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I would vote for Dark Souls if the second half of the game was as strong as the first half, but the second half becomes a whole lot less interesting for some reason. I can't quite put my finger exactly on what it is though, but I always lose interest after Anor Londo.

I think I probably enjoy 2 the most when I go back and replay the games. Demon's Souls is still really good too, but that's probably because I'm looking through rose-tinted glasses. Bloodborne and 3 didn't really do anything special. They felt like Souls games to me, and since I've been playing the series since Demon's Souls, they were overall a lot less interesting.
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even though DaS2 wasn't my favorite, I still really enjoyed it.

Looking Glass Knight is such a cool boss, IMO.

one of my favorite in the series.
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boxington posted...

thinking about it, I'll change my answer to Dark Souls 3.

it felt like the best mix of everything.

Bloodborne had the best atmosphere and story, though, IMO.

I agree.

for me... hmm..

Demon's >= Bloodborne > Souls 3 > Souls 1 > Souls 2 SotFS > Souls 2

If Souls 1 was on the 3/BB engine it would be a 3 way tie, but as is that game's performance in shit after playing the new ones
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Bloodborne > Dark Souls > Dark Souls 3 > Dark Souls 2 > Demon's Souls

They're all fantastic though!
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Bump...

Imo: dark souls=bloodborne>dark souls 3>demon soups>dark souls 2
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the best? probably Dark souls 1. it changed gaming. but I had the most fun with SoTFS.
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CapnMuffin posted...

Bloodborne just barely beats DS3 because of chalice dungeons.

I agree with this.
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Dark Souls II still the lowest.

PvE - Bloodborne
For PvP - Dark Souls with Demon's in second
Atmosphere - Demon's with Dark Souls in second
Co-op - Dark Souls 3
For invasions - Dark Souls
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For PvP - Dark Souls

no way. it was good for its time, i'll give it that, and it's even fun to mess around in now, but there's way, way, way too much jank. it's not good that we have to actually parry a full second before an attack.

also the magic is janky as hell. and training in the jankpits of dks1 is what made me invincible to magic (all forms) in dark souls 2 (and 3 subsequently).

also, backstab chaining was a thing. the best place to practice: hackers. i still have a statue of me down outside of the bonfire room in the depths from when a hacker decided enough was enough so he insta-cursed me.

For invasions - Dark Souls

only because of the red eye orb and not lousy creos. if they let us use a full red eye orb in 2, i would have liked it if it worked the same way as in 1 (you could invade anyone so long as they were a higher level than you, all the way to 706. and i did -- 847k souls in one kill, lol).

even still -- they gave you some fun places to invade in scholar. the dragon shrine is for mean people.
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Dark Souls II picked up a couple of votes.