Current Events > Dark Souls III and Bloodborne are still the best From Software games.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sekiro is great but not in the same league as the aforementioned.

The original Dark Souls is also great but not top tier worthy either.

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Armored Core is better
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And Dark Souls 2 is bottom tier. Yes.

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King's Field II

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Sekiro >= Bloodborne > DS3 > DaS >= DeS > DS2

Most of the games have at least something going for them. DeS I only played the PS3 version and while it's a fine game, I think it had trouble getting balance right. the PS5 remake might be better than Dark Souls, I'm not sure.

DaS and DS2 were games I defended a lot until I replayed them. DaS has a lot of really solid parts, but I don't like the Depths, and it really is true that the game nosedives when you get the Lordvessel. Crystal Cavern, Tomb of the Giants, and Lost Izalith are all just stomach-churningly bad areas. You don't notice as much on the first playthrough because everything is scary and overwhelming, but on replay it's very clear how either unfinished or baffling these levels are. The hallway between Catacombs and Tomb with the dozen wheel skeletons is possible the single worst little area in the series.

DS2 suffers from being forgettable. On replay it might as well have been my first time with so many places because I could not recall my first playthrough at all. Despite having a slew of bosses, they do little to differentiate themselves or make you interested in their lore (at least until DLC). I don't know if the game's running a whole different engine or what, but it just feels strange to play compared to the other ones, and it suffers some SERIOUS texturing problems that I'm guessing was because of devs rushing or something. Like it's just not forgivable that entire spans of wall and ground in some sections can just copypaste the same green puke textures.

One day I'd like to play the non-Scholars version of DS2. I was watching a speedrun and was shocked by how some of the enemy placements differ. Some of the placements in scholar real extremely unnecessary, like the female pyromancer in the castle comes to mind. Can just blow your shit up as you open the door. Speaking of doors, the mechanic of letting mobs beat your shit in in front of fog gates, combined with how many enemies there are and how long the runs up to the boss rooms are, make this a truly grueling game. I'll give it some points though: it pretty much has the coolest weapon selection in the series with stuff like that twin greatsword, and it really pleases me how the game lets you be left-handed. It makes me so happy when games do that. (you get a damage penalty for left-wielding swords but I think that's to balance people going southpaw in PvP to throw people off).

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Doe posted...

One day I'd like to play the non-Scholars version of DS2. I was watching a speedrun and was shocked by how some of the enemy placements differ. Some of the placements in scholar real extremely unnecessary, like the female pyromancer in the castle comes to mind. Can just blow your shit up as you open the door. Speaking of doors, the mechanic of letting mobs beat your shit in in front of fog gates, combined with how many enemies there are and how long the runs up to the boss rooms are, make this a truly grueling game.

It really says a lot that enemy gank spam was one of the biggest complaints in vanilla DS2 so they release Scholar which... ups the enemy spawns in a lot of areas. Like, they literally went out of their way to re-release the game again and make it worse (at least in this aspect).

Having played vanilla for years before I finally got to Scholar, it felt like a slap in the face. And I never even bothered playing it more than once. The fact that DS2 is still somehow the easiest game in the series while being so intentionally annoying is baffling.

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BipBapBam posted...

It really says a lot that enemy gank spam was one of the biggest complaints in vanilla DS2 so they release Scholar which... ups the enemy spawns in a lot of areas. Like, they literally went out of their way to re-release the game again and make it worse (at least in this aspect).

Having played vanilla for years before I finally got to Scholar, it felt like a slap in the face. And I never even bothered playing it more than once. The fact that DS2 is still somehow the easiest game in the series while being so intentionally annoying is baffling.

I have a platinum trophy in all the Souls games, including Bloodborne and Sekiro - I played Scholar for like a few hours and just rage quit.


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Doe posted...

Speaking of doors, the mechanic of letting mobs beat your shit in in front of fog gates, combined with how many enemies there are and how long the runs up to the boss rooms are, make this a truly grueling game

I dunno, I have to disagree here. Like, why not punish the tactic that works so well in other Souls games of "just ignore the enemies and sprint to the boss"? I thought Souls fans prided themselves on the games being hard and making you take care, why do so many complain that they need to clear a room before they can move onto the boss

And while gank bosses may be annoying, it's not like DS3 isn't left wanting for them, with a stretch in the middle from the Greatwood through Wolnir where every boss either has a load of enemies waiting in the room or will spawn enemies

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Neoconkers posted...

I dunno, I have to disagree here. Like, why not punish the tactic that works so well in other Souls games of "just ignore the enemies and sprint to the boss"?

That tactic is usually employed after youve cleared a level and died to the boss, not what everyone does by default.


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Actually the order of best to worst is the the way they were released. Except demon souls
Ds1>ds2>ds3
I never played Bloodborne. But ds3 is just Bloodborne with shields. So that sucks demon asylum booty cheeks too


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Neoconkers posted...

I dunno, I have to disagree here. Like, why not punish the tactic that works so well in other Souls games of "just ignore the enemies and sprint to the boss"?

You can only really do that in other souls games when you've already explored the area and gotten what you want and have learned the enemy placements. In DS2 it doesn't matter how well you know the area, because in Sunken Iron Castle for example you'll just be forced to kill all of the dozen katana knights every time you want to try smelter demon because there's a 5 second wait to enter the fog gate. It actually takes away depth from the game by forcing you to rote slaughter everything every time you try the boss. It's less fun and not anymore rewarding.

And while gank bosses may be annoying, it's not like DS3 isn't left wanting for them, with a stretch in the middle from the Greatwood through Wolnir where every boss either has a load of enemies waiting in the room or will spawn enemies

I wasn't really talking about the boss rooms themselves. I don't think that's an enormous issue in either game, at least as far as I recall. In DS3 especially for stuff like Greatwood the hollows serve a lore purpose and aren't much of a threat to you.

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