SOULS series - Best to worst?

How do you rank the games in the Souls series?

Results are only viewable after voting.
Poll reset when Demons was winning a glorious victory. Now it is getting defeated! Conspiracy!

Anyway, I havent voted again since the reset but it still says I did already vote.
 
How do I re-vote?
 
Demon's Souls = Dark Souls > Dark Souls II

Not only is the atmosphere, story, music and settings better, but the art direction and general concept is amazing in both games.

I find the bosses and characters in Dark Souls way more memorable than Dark Souls II.

Dark Souls II only got somewhat memorable to me towards the end when you
arrive to Drangleic Castle, standing outside of it was simply mindblowing.
Kudos to whoever made the art/concept for it!

I can't wait for Miyazaki's new project I hope it nails what made Demon's and Dark Souls so good.
 
The issue of PvP as a basis is interesting because of the balance needed between gameplay options via weapons or SLvsSM and the purely technical server/netcode side. There's still a ton of people playing Dark Souls PC on Steam (1,578 now 2,800 peak - today) of which I assume quite a number will be there for the PvP side of things thanks to SM not being an issue and there being save editor/inventory hack that gives new players everything they will possibly need instantly from weapons to souls to hit the appropriate level and it's just a matter of joining the right covenant or going to the right spot. So yeah, little QoL things like that go a long way in comparison to Dark Souls 2 where VAC might one day start taking issues towards offline cheats and the tools not being there yet as far as I'm aware while SM creeps up on you.
 
I had a feeling that most people were going to pick Demon's as their favorite, hell, I would probably do the same if I played it before Dark I & II.

Item load sucks, what happens if you pick up an item and you're over the limit? I noticed it early in the game so I always made sure to dump items before playing a new level. I also didn't max out a single weapon in Demon's, farming materials seems a lot more tedious. Everyone talks about shortcuts in Demon's Souls as if every level has one, but in reality there's probably three or four for the ten "real" levels, not counting X-3 boss fights. Speaking of which, there's a lot of similarities between all three games. Maneater x2 = Gargoyles = Gargoyles. Dirty Colossus = The Rotten and so on.

Oh, please don't complain about The Gutter or Blighttown(only its fps! on consoles.) The Valley of Defilement, or more specifically: 5-2. OMG That was dirty, From.
 
I think I just voted DkS2<-Demon's Souls<-DkS1 but to me it's really a toss up between Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2 as the best in the series.

Dark Souls 2 to me has more accessibility while still retaining the atmosphere, challenge and replayability of Demon's Souls. It improves the online gameplay with the new PvP convents and it takes a little bit of the drudgery out of Demon's Souls (walking back to the same boss over and over is easier in Dark Souls 2).

Demon's Souls was a marvel. The atmosphere is the absolute best of all of them imo. The level design was better than DkS2 and it was more challenging.

I really have a tough time saying which is better. The new and shiny improved in most ways DkS2 or the classic and very atmospheric Demon's Souls. I feel like DkS2 is a little more RPGish which may be a draw to me as well.

Dark Souls 2 is at the bottom for me. It may be a marvel of level design and atmosphere but really I wouldn't know. I put about 10 hours into it before just losing interest. It almost felt like it was TOO open with too little guidance in the beginning and I was met with almost insurmountable challenges right from the get go without any sense of progression. It didn't really draw me in.
 
I'd pick Dark Souls as my favorite by a wide margin. It has the best world design, the best enemies, NPCs, and bosses, the best NPCs, and the best soundtrack. It also has my favorite single moment in the series: stumbling unaware into Ash Lake.

I don't have a strong preference between Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2; they're both great games with little problems I like to nitpick. I really wish the other two games had DS2's matchmaking.
 
Everyone just blatantly saying DkS1 > DkS2, PLEASE elaborate. I'm genuinely interested in knowing why, exactly, this is the case for you. Also state if you've played the PC version of DkS2 or not.

I made a poll in that other poll regarding PC/console-version and got surprising results!

XeEBiLv.png
 
For me it's Demon's > Dark > Dark 2 (so far). Though I haven't scratched the surface of Dark 2, so maybe I'll be surprised and forced to change my opinion later, I dunno.

They're all brilliant in their own distinct ways, though, many of which have doubtless already been described in this thread, so I'll leave it at that.
 
I love them all very much but for me it's Demons Souls = Dark Souls > Dark Souls 2. Demons Souls still has my favourite area out of any of the games in Tower Of Latria. Nothing else in the series has come close to just how damn creepy and scary as shit that area was. I still remember the first time I played it even now. The level design is still great and it's still fun to play even now. It also has the most memorable characters for me.

Dark Souls I put on equal footing because I love it's level design just as much and it has some really memorable boss fights as well such as the one with Sif. Such a great, yet sad fight.

Dark Souls 2 is still great and I love it a lot but I just don't think it's as good as the other 2, nothing really 'stood out' to me really whilst playing it. But I'm also wondering if that's due too being so familiar with the formula now. Still a top contender for my GOTY though.
 
zashga said:
I don't have a strong preference between Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2; they're both great games with little problems I like to nitpick. I really wish the other two games had DS2's matchmaking.
Click to expand...
Demon's should be the same as Dark 2 as they're both using dedicated servers, but Dark 2 being new and popular at the moment gives you far more opportunities.
 
Demon's Souls > *. The atmosphere, level design and boss fights are by far the best of the three. Demon's Souls was pretty much a horror-fantasy game while DaS 1 and 2 are just high fantasy worlds. The reason why I am so excited for Project Beast is because it seems much closer to DeS than DaS.
 
Yoshichan said:
Everyone just blatantly saying DkS1 > DkS2, PLEASE elaborate. I'm genuinely interested in knowing why, exactly, this is the case for you. Also state if you've played the PC version of DkS2 or not.

I made a poll in that other poll regarding PC/console-version and got surprising results!

XeEBiLv.png
Click to expand...

Lost Izalith invalidates that! Bed of Chaos, yuck. I should really finish Dark Souls PTDE, but I'm not exactly motivated to beat Dark Souls a third time right now. As soon as I finished Demon's Souls and rolled 1-1 on ng+ I jumped back to my Souls II ng+ and lit 3 more primal fires. Drangleic Castle here I come! after work :(
 
FourMyle said:
Demon's Souls > *. The atmosphere, level design and boss fights are by far the best of the three. Demon's Souls was pretty much a horror-fantasy game while DaS 1 and 2 are just high fantasy worlds. The reason why I am so excited for Project Beast is because it seems much closer to DeS than DaS.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is why I liked the atmosphere in DeS much more. Felt much more oppressive and to a certain extent horrific.

I mean just look at Project Beast already:

Project-Beast-PS4-Rumor_004.png
 
Dark Souls has such brilliant thematic and mechanical cohesion, that's enough to put it far head of Dark Souls 2 for me. But it also has brilliant level and world design, iconic bosses and NPC as well as a fantastic soundtrack. Dark Souls 2 is good, Dark Souls is a true classic that will be remembered for a long time.

Sure, Dark Souls 2 has some interface improvements, better performance and graphics etc. but that doesn't make up for the fact that it's simply not very memorable. There are a few great vistas, but that's about it, nothing in its design or world resonated with me. Personally I also like the mechanics less, ADP sucks, phantom range on enemies sucks (there are so many instances of hitboxes that are fucked).
 
Psycho_Mantis said:
Yes, that is why I liked the atmosphere in DeS much more. Felt much more oppressive and to a certain extent horrific.

I mean just look at Project Beast already:

Project-Beast-PS4-Rumor_004.png
Click to expand...
Great. Now I have to change pants again. Fuck, that shit looks so good...
 
I haven't played Demon's so I can't comment on that but I preferred Dark 1 a good bit over Dark 2. I mainly dislike the number of forced engagements with multiple enemies in Dark 2. The game in general kind of make me feel like I had less control over my encounters. I also feel like Dark 1 was more atmospheric but that could be because Vaati hasn't released a couple dozen lore video on it yet.
 
Yoshichan said:
Everyone just blatantly saying DkS1 > DkS2, PLEASE elaborate. I'm genuinely interested in knowing why, exactly, this is the case for you. Also state if you've played the PC version of DkS2 or not.
Click to expand...
Because Dark 1 controls much better, combat is better, and encounter designs (including bosses) aren't just frequently about throwing multiple enemies at you. PC versions of both.
 
I voted Dark > Demon's > DS2, but I was torn between putting Dark or Demon's first. Glad to see the vote didn't make too much difference and they're almost neck and neck.

Demon's AND Dark - why choose! <3
 
Dark Souls > Demon's Souls = Dark Souls II

Mainly Because I played dark souls 1 first and I thought it was just brilliant mainly because of how the world was all intricately pieced together. I then downloaded Demon's Souls which was quite similar to dark souls but I didn't like the game being split into different worlds and it's similar with Dark souls II as it's world didn't feel as well put together as dark souls 1 e.g the Earthen Peak and Iron Keep, I also didn't particularly like what they did with the despawning of enemies and making some items a pain to get due to despawning.

First post on Gaf :D
 
Having recently completed both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I couldn't help myself and looked at some of the armor sets available in Dark Souls 2. What the hell happened? Sure, you still have some that are semi-realistic but now they've crammed a whole bunch of ridiculous-looking armors into the game. It just looks bad, especially compared to the (relatively) quite realistic armors in the first two games. The knight from Demon's Souls is what initially drew me to the series, because it wasn't some over-the-top neon-colored or badly accentuated armor, it was like the armor you see in museums or books (which I always loved). Now quite a few armors just look stupid.

When you combine that with the criticisms of the game (re-used bosses, cheap difficulty, areas that don't connect with others, etc) it seems like Dark Souls 2 suffered more than just a graphics downgrade.
 
Dark Souls > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls II

I loved Demon's Souls but I think Dark Souls had a bigger impact one me for some reason. DSII is great, but I feel like it's made up of a lot more smaller locations rather than fleshing out big ones. I also have a difficult time trying to map the world. Just finding all the shortcuts in Dark Souls was so much fun as everything was super interconnected. Either way, all three are great.
 
Uncle Rupee said:
Having recently completed both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, I couldn't help myself and looked at some of the armor sets available in Dark Souls 2. What the hell happened? Sure, you still have some that are semi-realistic but now they've crammed a whole bunch of ridiculous-looking armors into the game. It just looks bad, especially compared to the (relatively) quite realistic armors in the first two games. The knight from Demon's Souls is what initially drew me to the series, because it wasn't some over-the-top neon-colored or badly accentuated armor, it was like the armor you see in museums or books (which I always loved). Now quite a few armors just look stupid.

When you combine that with the criticisms of the game (re-used bosses, cheap difficulty, areas that don't connect with others, etc) it seems like Dark Souls 2 suffered more than just a graphics downgrade.
Click to expand...

If you haven't played it then yes, the actual design suffers as they have beacons you light all over the place that were designed for the torch system, but you don't need 95% of them now.
 
FourMyle said:
Demon's Souls > *. The atmosphere, level design and boss fights are by far the best of the three. Demon's Souls was pretty much a horror-fantasy game while DaS 1 and 2 are just high fantasy worlds. The reason why I am so excited for Project Beast is because it seems much closer to DeS than DaS.
Click to expand...

Psycho_Mantis said:
Yes, that is why I liked the atmosphere in DeS much more. Felt much more oppressive and to a certain extent horrific.

I mean just look at Project Beast already:

Project-Beast-PS4-Rumor_004.png
Click to expand...
Agreed, the gothic horror / dark fantasy vibes from the Beast screens really gives me hope

In Miyazaki we trust!
 
Yoshichan said:
Everyone just blatantly saying DkS1 > DkS2, PLEASE elaborate. I'm genuinely interested in knowing why, exactly, this is the case for you. Also state if you've played the PC version of DkS2 or not.

I made a poll in that other poll regarding PC/console-version and got surprising results!

XeEBiLv.png
Click to expand...

For me, better bosses and the interconnected world of Lordran just can't be touched. But I think DaS2 has better gameplay overall.
 
FourMyle said:
Demon's Souls > *. The atmosphere, level design and boss fights are by far the best of the three. Demon's Souls was pretty much a horror-fantasy game while DaS 1 and 2 are just high fantasy worlds. The reason why I am so excited for Project Beast is because it seems much closer to DeS than DaS.
Click to expand...

Sorry but i don't see it, besides Tower of Latria, the atmosphere in DeS is pretty generic and the only memorable bosses are False King and Flamelurker. Both Dark games are much more dark fantasy games than DeS.
 
Demon's for dat atmosphere hands down!

Dark for dat interconnected world and PC version!

Dark2 will always remain 3rd as long as dat soul memory matchmaking is in effect. FROM B team.
 
I haven't played any of these games. Shocking I know. Someone told me they had spiders in, which I'm petrified of, to the point where I stop playing Resident Evil games whenever they get spidery. Do I need to man up Gaf?
 
I think all of them are great games but I don't think any of them are really better than the others. They're all just different.

Demon's Souls has the strongest overt narrative, Dark Souls 2 has the best mechanics, and Dark Souls has the best worldbuilding.
 
Dark>Demon's>Dark 2

Honestly it's all pretty close for me. I'd rate DaS 9.5, DeS 9.0 and DaS 2 8.5.

There's no shocking revelations for me: Demon's Souls was amazing, a real breath of fresh air, Dark Souls had some blemishes, but the interconnected world elevated it even higher than Demon's Souls. Dark Souls 2 is a victim of diminishing returns. There's still loads to love about the game, but we've seen most of it before. I'd say the overabundance of boss fights and the fact that they're not half as good as the previous games is its biggest flaw.

And yes I did play DaS2 on PC, but all the tech in the world doesn't magically change a game's blueprint, it's just a bit prettier and smoother.
 
Dark Souls II

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People give too little credit Takeshi Kajii with the design of Demons Souls too. He was pretty vocal about the setting and the dark nature of the product prior to release and it seemed he and Miyazaki worked pretty well together.
 
Demons > DK2 > DK

I gave up on dark souls because I couldn't get internet features to work.

Demons Souls was difficult but fair and the co op worked well, and I loved the levels it had (the gutter and blighttown had nothing on that valley, valley of defilement I think it was? If there is a hell, it looks like that 5th level in DeS

Dark Souls 2 internet features worked really well but I felt it got really unfair toward the end and in NG+ from one shot killing bosses that basically forced you to cheese your way through
(I know exploiting enemy AI is a theme of the Souls games, but the most feasible solution to kill a giant dragon shouldn't be running up to its claw, smashing it, and running back to the entrance over and over. And the best strategy for killing a giant decayed king shouldn't be literally to just sit next to his right leg as all his attacks miss you. The Darklurker was much better in this regard as you actually had to face him and actively dodge his attacks, but he was still extremely lethal. So it felt like an actual endgame fight, where the Ancient Dragon and Vendrick both just make it feel like the only reasonable way to finish the fight is to exploit the game mechanics. )
and red phantoms that move much faster than a player could ever move. Plus a lot of the bosses weren't really that interesting, whereas in Demon Souls I felt like every boss was memorable.
 
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