>play the souls series after years of relentless recommendations and unanimous praise >play bloodborne and sekiro as well >play them all to completion at least twice, doing all content possible (except in demon's since online is dead) >have fun but mostly with the first two games (and bloodborne) >of all those games only dark souls 1 and bloodborne felt genuinely good, but even then those games are still full of many flaws themselves
i don't mean to say that all the other games besides BB and DS1 were bad, but they never really amounted to feeling like anything better than 'just average'. and in the case of DS2 and DS3, both those games have big problems in them that make them both really shit at times. still wouldn't say they're completely bad but they sure aren't good either.
do people just give these games a pass because they came out in rather quick succession while maintaining a rather-decent gameplay formula? the whole "no handholding" thing isn't exactly new but I've seen a lot of people list that as the reason of why they got into the series and why its been successful. the games aren't particularly hard either, it's just a process of trial-and-error like any other video game except the game doesn't vomit tooltips at you constantly. but again not having your ass wiped for you the whole game wasn't and still isn't that uncommon, so i dunno. overall the games were okay but i wish i could've enjoyed them as much as other people have seemed to. they really have them high on a pedestal as the "ultimate action RPGs" it seems.
one of the biggest problems i had with the whole series is bosses can tend to vary a ton quality. I know not every boss can be a 10/10, but it just feels strange especially in DS1 having such memorable fights as Ornstein/Smough and Sif juxtaposed to complete garbage like the centipede and Pinwheel. and it's far, FAR worse in DS2 and DS3. even in BB you get great fights like Gascoigne & Logarius, then there's Celestial Emissary. feels off.
The series gets a pass from zoomers quite literally only because it’s baby’s first “hard game”. They would get anally raped if they played 99% of older games. But to be fair thats more indicative of every other game series being a lot more shit too.
Robert Barnes
why did you not like sekiro OP? for me it was their greatest game of all time
Landon Ramirez
it just didn't do it for me, it was certainly better than DS2 and DS3 in terms of gameplay but in variety it fell off. I know it's not really supposed to be a a souls game but the core gameplay is still comparable so I feel comparison is apt. I didn't like that you couldn't customize your guy in (nearly) any way, and while the combat was fun it got a bit stale after a while being restricted to only what you're given, it just made me miss the build-making of other games. also felt aesthetically that the game was a bit bland despite the interesting fantasy Japan setting and that it fell flat in most places, and same for the bosses unfortunately. I will say the guardian ape boss and all the guys you can fight at the end are great fights though, Owl especially. I liked the verticality and grapple stuff too but after a while it felt a little barebones and I wish they had given you a bit more to do with it. some of this disinterest could be due to burnout on the gameplay and from the other series maybe, but I dunno I think I just didn't like it that much. but it's still a very decent and polished game and I'd probably put it as their third best game in this style or something like that.
Jordan Long
Dark Souls 2 was the best game in the series.
Juan Young
DeS, DS, DS2, BB >iconic player character armor DS3 >Soul of Cinder
I haven’t liked any of them since Dark Souls because none of them have used the world design to the level that Dark Souls did. In Dark Souls 2 and 3 every level is essentially a big linear corridor with maybe a few deadend alternate paths. There’s no interweaving levels, nothing cool like that. Bloodborne tried to do it a little bit but gave up on it immediately after Yharnam and it was far too small scale to take seriously.
Here’s hoping Elden Ring actually takes this format somewhere. It’s been stagnating for 9 fucking years.
Juan Perry
Those are all the boxart sets. 3 just bamboozled players by spoiling the final boss without them knowing it. I thought it was cute.
They get a pass because From Software have effectively created their own niche genre and no other competent dev has bothered to try to actually compete with it.
It's the same reason why the Yakuza games get a pass in places despite there being TONS of shit and bad content in those games. There's nothing quite like them.
Kayden Harris
>no other competent dev has bothered to try to actually compete with it. Nioh Nioh 2 Hollow Knight
Isaiah Brooks
I played Demons Souls and DS3, DS3 sucks dick and Demons Soul has the atmosphere I guess people expect from the others but god damn is it a wierd grind. Pack the right wep and you do basically an entire world in.
Logan Lopez
nioh is great but they're barely "souls-like" or whatever the fuck
yes they have the skeleton of a souls game with not-bonfires and not-souls and similar multiplayer, but the actual gameplay is far more similar to an evolved ninja gaiden + diablo loot
>central yharnam best level in the game, great bosses >cathedral ward and old yharnam great level, great bosses >forbidden woods bad level but good boss >hemwick charnel lane forgettable level, bad boss >bygernwerth worst level in the game with bad boss >yahar'gul good level but bad boss >hypogean gaol meh level meh boss >nightmare of mensis terrible level with worst boss in the game (micolash), and one decent boss (wet nurse) >upper cathedral ward bad level, 1 bad boss (emmisary) 1 good boss (ebrietas) >cainhurst good level, good boss >nightmare frontier horrible level with cool optional boss >lecture building boring >hunter's dream cool hub and the final bosses are good
that's only a handful of bosses and areas that are actually decent surrounded by levels that are either just bad or mediocre
when people look back and think "omg bloodborne is such a masterpiece d00d", they're thinking of the first half and probably also the final bosses and the dlc but it's still a measurable fact that nearly 50% of bloodborne ranges from mediocre to downright garbage
it's hardly challenging, most of the enemies take no time at all to kill and the only roadblocks you'll come against will be the enemy hunters which are more often than not more difficult than actual bosses.
chalice dungeons are a complete waste of time that were just added to pad out the game whenever you get bored of the main areas, and every single "boss" you find in them will be below average at best with no kind of challenge. an interesting idea in practice but poorly executed and should've just been left in the idea guy's head instead of cutting what could've been another 3 or 4 levels for what amounts to wasted storage space.
DLC doesn't make the base game any better if you have to pay extra to get the best areas and bosses the game has to offer.
>Dark Souls 2 40+ bosses Several hundred weapons and armor 100+ hours long Amazing area variety Amazing build variety Amazing enemy variety
>Bloodbore Like 15 bosses Like 10 weapons Barely any armor and it does nothing No build variety 30 hours long Every area is just le sickdark le reddit gothic city Every enemy is just some screeching flailing thing
>quite literally only because it’s baby’s first “hard game”
And fun.
Sorry gramps but Ninja Gaiden and Silver Surfer are not fun.
Cooper Watson
Castlevania games, GnG, and NES Mega Man are all harder and more fun than Dork Souls.
Sebastian Kelly
All Japanese games are bad
Nolan Baker
I know what you mean with boss inconsistency, Dark Souls 3 probably has it the worst out of the entire series. you get like 3, maybe 4 good bosses out of that game and everything else is mediocre at best.
Bentley Parker
Nahhh DS2 is worse
Chase Sullivan
what on earth, 3 has the best boss quality consistency aside from Sekiro. the only bad bosses are tree, sage, and wolnir, arguably yhorm. das1 half the bosses are bad, bb like a third are bad, 2 i'm not sure has a single good boss outside of dlc, and des is mostly hit-or-miss gimmicks which are usually not exciting or clever or interesting.
Wyatt Gray
King's Field series is better.
Austin Williams
>oceiros >generic demon king >gundyr part 1 and 2 >abyss watchers and their laughable AI >generic big wolf >good the only bosses you can actually call good are pontiff, nameless and soul of cinder (without going into dlc)
also you're genuinely retarded if you came out of dark souls 2 thinking not a single boss is good outside of dlc, sounds like you haven't played it. i don't agree that it's exempt in terms of being complete shit at boss quality consistency but it's better than ds3 before dlc even enters the equation
Jaxson Diaz
>They get a pass because From Software have effectively created their own niche genre action rpgs are not a niche genre and from didn't invent them. just because they're incapable of making a real combat system that doesn't revolve around dodge-rolling to win doesn't mean it's a new genre.
Brayden Jones
Every single boss you mentioned is good, yes. Even the wolf is better than any boss in 2. The only one that came close to enjoyable was Executioner's Chariot.
Cooper Rogers
The wolf is just the giant rat from Dark Souls 2 but wolf
Jaxson Green
It doesn't even have vaguely the same moveset.
Noah Perry
These people speak the truth. I think Bloodborne is the only game that actually puts me to sleep every time I played it. Maybe it was the brown color palette or the 15-20 fps in a ton of areas that did it.
Hudson Long
Name another game where I can be a Knight hunting down freaks, demons and monsters. In a Dark Fantasy medieval age?
nioh you are a knight you hunt down freaks, demons and monsters and yes it is dark fantasy, and set in the medieval age (there are even two levels set in medieval regions) you just happen to be in japan instead :)
Joseph Jenkins
A game like that doesn't exist...
Horrible Dark Souls ripoff protag is white in japan and LobosJr said the game is trash.
