SOULS series - Best to worst?

How do you rank the games in the Souls series?

Results are only viewable after voting.
Dark Souls is the best for several reasons. First, its first section is a marvel of level design that loops back on itself. You can see every detail from afar because they all connect at some point. Second, the Metroidvania stylings also mean it feels more freeform than both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2, making it the most fun to replay.

Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls are about equal in my book. Dark Souls 2 has a fantastic amount of content and ideas, but at point they don't naturally fit together. For example, the Iron Keep is an awesome level, but it doesn't really feel natural after Earthen Peak, especially since you somehow take an elevator up to a fortress that sunk deep within the Earth. And then there's the horrid hitboxes. Demon's Souls has the best individual level design of each game and the best atmosphere, but the hub system makes the world feel disjointed and there are several janky features like world tendency (Are you good at the game? You get more healing items and easier enemies!). It also regrettably never got a PC port, so it's the worst looking and performing.

SpokkX said:
DeS has the best atmosphere, bosses and framerate.
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Ha ha ha consoles.
 
DS: 1500h give or take
DkS: 200h
DkS2: 120h so far, most likely going for 300h
 
Dark Souls > Demons Souls > Dark Souls II.

I played them all for the first time within two months. I like Dark Souls the best because it reminded me of playing the original Metroid for the first time. That feeling of being all alone and weak, slowly building yourself up and finding your way... Demon's Souls I could argue is just as good, but shorter and less maze-like, so I have to rank it just below. Dark Souls II just felt too inconsistent to me. There were some great areas like Iron Keep, but overall it just wasn't as memorable to me. Maybe I was just burned out on the formula by that point, but something definitely felt like it was missing.
 
demon's had best lore/atmosphere story, heebie jeebie feeling
dark souls 1 had best PVE
dark souls 2 has best PVP..but too bad its basically non existent until NG+ and the soul memory system is botched.
 
NEOPARADIGM said:
1 and done

Actually went and played some Demon's Souls after countless hours with the sequels and years in between, was expecting it to be shittier than the other two, rose-tint and all that, but instead found the combat much tighter (hit boxes that are spot-on, remember that guys?) and the graphics surprisingly good.
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Been playing Demon's Souls quite a bit over the past 2 weeks, and before I re-downloaded it my thoughts exactly were, "I think I am just playing this for nostalgic reasons and it won't be as great as I remember." Especially with the 200+ hours I've logged into DaS II.

Nope, Demon's Souls is certainly the superior title in my eyes, by a considerable margin and it was just reinforced with my most recent play through. I've put in about 70 hours since I've picked it back up (this in addition to the 300+ in previous play through). And I still can't wait to get home and boot it back up tonight/this weekend, I can't get enough. The atmosphere is superb (3-2 is particularly amazing), the OST for bosses are the best in the series, the controls are so much more fluid and quick compared to DaS I & II.

The bosses are so much more memorable for me also, not the most difficult, but definitely the most memorable. Loved world and character tendencies and really wish it would have somehow been included in DaS I or II. Hell, the black phantom's you face in pure black world tendency are just as hard and harder than bosses in some cases. Oh, and Looking Glass Knight has got nothing on the Old Monk -
If you are invaded/are invading
.

My second choice would be Dark Souls. The seamless world is wonderful (though this kinda kills off world tendencies). I felt the bosses in DaS are more difficult and challenging (a good thing) than DeS and DaS II. I think I prefer the "uses" system for magic as opposed to the mana bar from DeS. But that last half does go down in quality, but the DLC was amazing. Knight Artorias is by far the most memorable boss fight for me from DaS, so much rage, yet taking him down felt soooo good.

Also loved the addition of covenants and this is one aspect I really wish would be in DeS more than anything from DaS I & II.

Third for me would obviously be DaS II. Loved the game, but I feel like it is definitely a step down from DaS I and at least a couple steps down from DeS. At first I figured maybe its due to Souls fatigue, but after picking back up DeS and falling in love with it all over again, kinda negates that point to some extent in my mind.

Bosses were too simplistic and "samey." Lost Sinner was probably the most memorable, but even that fight is basically a poor man's Artorias, and that was before the nerfs. Strategy for most was "try circling" for too many bosses. I feel like there are too many bonfires. I never really felt like I was in danger of losing my souls, I even declined to use the rings of protection. The combat is the slowest of the 3 and hit boxes are odd at best. I know some have said to just pump them back into Agility and you'll be fine, but the idea of taking something like iframes away and saying you can get them back by building your character a certain way doesn't feel good to me. All this are things I am overall fine with in the end, but soul memory has really soured me on this game and basically drove me back to pick up DeS and DaS.

EDIT: Online for DaS II is definitely the best of the 3, just you know, Soul Memory can die in a fire.

That being said, i still love DaS II, it just happens to be number 3 in my mind behind two other amazing games, no shame in that.

TLDR; Demon Souls > Dark Souls > Dark Souls II
 
impact said:
If there's barely any lag then why are phantom hits (ie dude swings at the air nowhere near me, I still get hit) such a huge problem, moreso than in either previous Souls game? Aside from that, soul memory makes builds useless so everyone is super leveled and powerful in everything making magic a huge factor which is annoying to deal with in such a laggy game. The PvP areas suck shit compared to Oolacile or Undead Burg too. And invasions are pretty much NG+ only, which sucks.

and before you tell me it's laggy because my connection sucks

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That's odd as fuck, because all I remember of DS and DkS(1) PvP was that exact lag you're describing. I only played DkS2 PvP on PC but the experience I had (from doing approx. 100 battles online) was absolutely outstanding. No phantom hits, no stutter stepping, no nothing.

Odd.
 
went back to demon's souls a little last week and it's such a huge step down from the dark souls games, it's amazing it isn't older than it is. from did amazing things for dark souls.

love the dark souls 2 world so much, even the level design, which a lot of people find slightly offensive from what I've seen in those complaint about complete nonsense threads. ds1 and ds2 really complement each other very well though. love both of them, but I like the differences that makes dark souls 2 what it is the most. for me it's all about exploration, the world and the different locations. the way ds1 wove in on itself constantly was nice, but the different locations in ds2 has been absolutely incredible. also the armor sets, lol. love my corpus monstrum benedict armor.

dark souls 2 > dark souls 1 >>>>>>>>>> demon's souls
 
There is now a poll for everyone who just wants to make a drive-by, content-less post. I could not fit all of the permutations of some game = another game > another game, etc., so those with those opinions will still have to post. But everybody should be posting with reasons, so we can have a discussion.
 
Dark Souls II
Dark Souls
Demon's Souls

I played Demon's for the first time last week, I bought it and got into it right after beating Dark Souls II on pc. It's definitely a great game still, but I expected a much better game based off of what I read on gaf.

I didn't like the grass mechanic, I had 95 full moon grass by the time I made it to Old King Allant and I didn't have to farm for it. Dark Souls II does it best, start with one flask and slowly builds your inventory as you progress and explore the world. Starting with five in Dark Souls may have been slightly too generous, although I needed every single one at the time.

Combat feels somewhat floaty in Demon's Souls, I felt like my strikes didn't have much of an impact on enemies. I also died many more times rolling off the edge in Demon's than in both Dark games combined. I know people don't like the 360 homing attacks in Dark Souls II, but I prefer that to the mega easy back stab every thing of Demon's and Dark 1.

All three worlds are amazing. Demon's is a dark game, the torch would have been a godsend in that game. I'm having a really hard time picking a favorite, I like them all equally.

In terms of difficulty, I would say Demon's is the easiest. However, that may be because I have the experience from Dark Souls I & II. It took me 20 hours to beat the game and by far the hardest level in that game for me is 4-2. Manta Rays and laser beams, fuck. Sen's Fortress also made me rage quite a bit in Dark Souls. I'm trying to think of an area that gave me trouble in Souls II and nothing comes to mind.

I also love how much easier it is to level up your weapons and armor in Dark Souls II, as a result I'm maxing out and learning new weapon types. I pretty much used the Zwei in Dark Souls for the majority of two playthroughs. In Demon's I used the crescent falchion exclusively.

All in all, they're all amazing and I absolutely can't wait for project beast.
 
I've played Dark Souls and half an hour of Dark Souls 2. Haven't played Demon's Souls.

I think Dark Souls is the best. Dark Souls 2 felt like more of the same.
 
Aeana said:
There is now a poll for everyone who just wants to make a drive-by, content-less post. I could not fit all of the permutations of some game = another game > another game, etc., so those with those opinions will still have to post. But everybody should be posting with reasons, so we can have a discussion.
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Great idea!
 
I played them in the order they came out

Demon's Souls was an incredible game but rough around the edges both artistically and mechanically. Some of the designs and gameplay mechanics have never been topped, but overall it felt like a rough draft to me even when I first played the import. I bought a PS3 just to play it, but it was not a game I would have considered ranking next to Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, Ico/SOTC, or Gothic/Risen.

Dark Souls is a "top ten games of all time" masterpiece, suffering from only a few late-game areas with boring enemy encounters (Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith) and one annoying navigation puzzle (Duke's Archives). Everything else people call a flaw is only part of the magic as far as I'm concerned.

Dark Souls II is sort of a half-clone half-sequel, clearly missing a lot of the top artists (art, animation, sound, story, level design) but also clearly added a bunch of real improvements in stats and combat mechanics especially. And a great torch system that was inexplicably removed at the last second, pretend you can't see in the dark and the game is a lot more fun. A lot of the bosses and encounters and exploration are fairly dull next to Dark Souls, but if you can accept its lack of elegance, you can probably enjoy the RPG mechanics for even longer. And No-man's Wharf and Lost Bastille really are excellent levels.
 
burgerdog said:
Dark Souls II
Dark Souls
Demon's Souls

I played Demon's for the first time last week, I bought it and got into it right after beating Dark Souls II on pc. It's definitely a great game still, but I expected a much better game based off of what I read on gaf.

I didn't like the grass mechanic, I had 95 full moon grass by the time I made it to Old King Allant and I didn't have to farm for it. Dark Souls II does it best, start with one flask and slowly builds your inventory as you progress and explore the world. Starting with five in Dark Souls may have been slightly too generous, although I needed every single one at the time.

Combat feels somewhat floaty in Demon's Souls, I felt like my strikes didn't have much of an impact on enemies. I also died many more times rolling off the edge in Demon's than in both Dark games combined. I know people don't like the 360 homing attacks in Dark Souls II, but I prefer that to the mega easy back stab every thing of Demon's and Dark 1.

All three worlds are amazing. Demon's is a dark game, the torch would have been a godsend in that game. I'm having a really hard time picking a favorite, I like them all equally.

In terms of difficulty, I would say Demon's is the easiest. However, that may be because I have the experience from Dark Souls I & II. It took me 20 hours to beat the game and by far the hardest level in that game for me is 4-2. Manta Rays and laser beams, fuck. Sen's Fortress also made me rage quite a bit in Dark Souls. I'm trying to think of an area that gave me trouble in Souls II and nothing comes to mind.

I also love how much easier it is to level up your weapons and armor in Dark Souls II, as a result I'm maxing out and learning new weapon types. I pretty much used the Zwei in Dark Souls for the majority of two playthroughs. In Demon's I used the crescent falchion exclusively.

All in all, they're all amazing and I absolutely can't wait for project beast.
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It's really interesting to read your opinion based on the fact that you kind of played these games in the order opposite most fans of the series. I think you point out a lot of key flaws with Demon's that many people in this thread seem to ignore for whatever reason. There are certainly aspects of Dark Souls II and maybe even Dark Souls that are steps backwards from their predecessor(s) but the series has also introduced quite a few positive changes with each new entry.

I honestly think a huge part of this is which game you played first, as many posters have said. That doesn't seem to affect me as much with most series though, as I tend to love seeing a well established formula taken to the next level.
 
MormaPope said:
So are you arguing there have never been areas like that is Souls games? Sens Fortress is one giant death sprint if you don't want to take things incredibly slow. The bridge with the dragon perched on the other side in Undead Burg is a peculiar spot that requires poking the dragon and timing a sprint to the middle or end. What about the mega archers in Anor Londo that caused players constant grief? Or the extremely thin walkways near the ceiling where monks attack you? There are tons of problematic spots for players where fighting isn't involved. Falling to your death because of taking one hit is the same thing as a one hit instant death, except gravity and inertia is involved.

The Giant's memory levels last for like two or three minutes if you sprint past everything. Instant death all around the player causes tension and fear.
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Sen's was certainly less annoying than the memory. I think I died 20 times before figuring out a temporary strategy to beat it.
 
Dark>Demons>Dark II

Falls into the same situation I find with King's Field. The second game - in this case Dark Souls - builds on the framework of the previous game and in turn add a fully interconnected world. Conversely, its sequel is far more linear, and thus it suffers.
 
I've only finished Demon's Souls and Dark Souls

I'd say Demon's Souls > Dark Souls

I preferred the World Tendency Events, I loved the hub world structure over the open world structure, and even though the bosses in Dark Souls were great, something about the bosses in Demon's Souls were pretty amazing; having beaten the Flamelurker and then right behind it is the Dragon God had me saying "nope,nope,nope..."
 
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are a toss up. Sometimes I like one more than the other but if I had to choose, probably Demon's Souls. It's just got an ethereal, otherworldly feel to the entire thing that isn't quite there in the others and has the tightest and most consistently designed levels. It's able to simultaneously play like a game, yet feel like a world, like an experience. I feel it also had the most functional PVP out of the games, even if there wasn't a proper arena.

Dark Souls 1 is quite ambitious and has some amazing moments in it, but also has some very low, lows as other people frequently point out. Also, I felt the PVP was simply and completely broken due to the rollie-pollie, 360° backstabbathon every fight always turned into.

Dark Souls 2 would be last in my rank up as it feels very haphazardly designed and lacks atmosphere which the other games had in spades. It takes a few steps forward and a few steps backwards in areas.
 
They're all equally amazing to me. The changes from game to game are never enough to really damper the experience, but at the same time nothing's really stood out as "must haves."
 
Dks II > Dks I ? Demons

Admittedly, i haven't played and will probably never play demons.
Darks Souls II is at the top for me for better combat and better covenant gameplay.

Special mention to the parry system making you fall over,
the parry's were terribly annoying in Dark Souls because of lag.

How can you rank Demon's when you haven't played it?
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Feel better now?
 
I prefer a connected world and bonfire checkpoints but Demon's is still excellent too and I'd recommend both to anybody who is looking to get into the series.

Haven't played DS2 though, so I don't know how that fares against the rest.

DeaviL said:
Dks II > Dks I > Demons

Admittedly, i haven't played and will probably never play demons.
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How can you rank Demon's when you haven't played it?
 
I chose Demon's > Dark > Dark 2

I think the experience of not knowing what I was getting into in Demon's Souls made me enjoy it the most.

As the sequels came along, I knew what to expect more and more, and the element of surprise dwindled. Not to say I didn't enjoy sequels immensely.
 
I was seriously considering Dark > Demon's > Dark II, but I feel like Demon's not only gets credit for kicking it off but it has enough of a distinct feel to it from Dark Souls, though I really do like the Dark Souls Metroid-style world structure. So, Dark (>)= Demon's > Dark II.

But they're all great games, even Dark II is ahead of most games out there, kind of like how Bioshock 2's arguably a shadow of BIoshock 1 yet is still way ahead of a lot of FPS games out there (including Bioshock Infinite for me... hope Project Beast isn't a repeat of that.)
 
Demons > Dark > Dark II

Dark Souls is an amazing game but Demons has the best level design by far. Because of the hub style of selecting your world the levels were much tighter and refined. There were no bland 'filler' areas unlike the latter two games. I haven't finished Dark II but wow there are some filler areas there. It feels so disconnected in comparison.

Also the nexus just reeked of atmosphere. And that music. Amazing.
 
Dark > Demon's > Dark 2


The controls in Demon's Souls threw me off. They just felt....disjointed and slackjawed. Not very responsive. The severe lack of checkpoints made me loathe playing sometimes, especially in the mines (god damn you giant worms!). I really liked the different environments and lack of direction.

Dark Souls had a bit more direction as to what you should be doing, but the story was extremely fragmented. I liked piecing it together with the community, along with exhausting every NPC's dialogue and progressing their stories. The DLC, although a bit difficult to understand it's entrance, was an awesome sidequest that had a MUCH darker vibe to it. This game had a soul and you were experiencing it.

Dark Souls 2, on the other hand, lacked a soul. It tried too hard to recreate the magic of Demon's and Dark Souls. That said, the game was a lot of fun. All the different areas were great, new enemies were pretty sick, and the NPC story progression was quite revealing, and reminded me of progressing Seigmeier's storyline in DS1. I just wish they didn't try so hard.
 
I think a lot of it has to do with the player's first Souls experience. A lot of people I know treasure their first Souls game since it was completely new and fresh. Getting used to the combat mechanics and first exploration into the unknown by yourself is an experience that's impossible to replicate again.

Dark Souls appeals to me the most because it has a very balanced world, both aesthetically and in level-design. Everything felt very cohesive, like everything was existing in the same world. The mix of ruins, woods, and giant castles was pitch perfect for my ideal dark fantasy setting.

Dark Souls 2 wowed in variety but hardly felt cohesive or as connected. I actually love Demon's aesthetic a lot (and best music by far), but Dark Souls beats it out by a little. The gameplay changes and wonkiness of Dark Souls 2, as well as tons of underwhelming bosses, puts it on the bottom, even though it's still a good game overall.
 
IT'S A CONSPIRACY! I voted for DS -> DkS2 -> DkS1 and it says 0 votes :'(

ngyne7U.png
 
Aeana said:
There is now a poll for everyone who just wants to make a drive-by, content-less post. I could not fit all of the permutations of some game = another game > another game, etc., so those with those opinions will still have to post. But everybody should be posting with reasons, so we can have a discussion.
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Thanks for keeping the thread open. The poll will be very helpful.
 
-MD- said:
Was the game supposed to last longer than 2 months?
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Dark Souls lasted me over a year. Most of that was re-rolling with new builds to beat the game on and PvP. The game just never got old to me.

Yoshichan said:
That's odd as fuck, because all I remember of DS and DkS(1) PvP was that exact lag you're describing. I only played DkS2 PvP on PC but the experience I had (from doing approx. 100 battles online) was absolutely outstanding. No phantom hits, no stutter stepping, no nothing.

Odd.
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It's the same shit on PS3 and PC. Lagstabs are more rare in DS2 (but not completely gone) but the phantom hits are absurd. PvP in DS2 is just the anti-fun.

Demons has the best PvP in the series imo. Barely any lag, and while the Mirdan Hammer was nuts, there's at least 5 weapons in DS2 that are equally as nuts. Gimmick builds are another issue with DS2, but mostly the game sucks because soul level means nothing anymore.
 
Guess I was one of the first to vote in the poll.

I chose Dark > Dark 2 > Demon's.

I love all of the games. Ranking Demon's last might be an unpopular choice...

DeS is phenomenal and obviously set a lot of the groundwork for the other games. Tower of Latria and Boleteria Castle are just these untouchable works of genius. I think the gameplay and mechanics are improved in DaS and DSII. It's the shortest game of the three, and there's much more build variety available to you in the other games.
 
Dark1, dark2, demon

I really don't like the hub world set up and yes I played demons first then dark then dark 2. Even though demon will always be special because I played it 1st, the improvements that came with dark (and the vastly expanded armor and weapon choices) made the game far superior imo.

Dark 2 continued to build on this with an even larger! World, and more of every thing I love about the series. Demons was good for its time and will always be remembered as the first and game that started it all but the move to open world helped immersion so much that I can't ever go back to the hub style for these types of games.
 
Dark > Dark 2 > Demon's for me.

I like Dark Souls 2 a lot, but it doesn't have the same amount of highs like the Artorias DLC, S&O and other boss fights, but at the same time it doesn't have the lows like blight town.

Demon's Souls is really outdated at this point, go back and play it if you haven't in a while. It's still a great game but it feels clunky mechanically compared to Dark series. The boss fights are still really good and innovative.
 
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