Which modern FROM games should I play/skip?

[Compass]

I was a big KF and ST fan, but have only dabbled in their post-PS2 output:

• Demon's Souls - Beat and liked.
  
• Dark Souls Remastered - Beat and liked a lot. Spent 100 hours or so on one playthrough.
  
• Dark Souls 2 - Haven't played. Apparently: B-team-developed, worse and less-interconnected level design, obnoxiously difficult. Should skip?
  
• Dark Souls 3 - Much better than 2 most agree. Intend to play at some point.
  
• Bloodborne - There is good 30 FPS and there is bad 30 FPS. Have this, but only played an hour. Will wait for inevitable remaster with better frameage.
  
• Elden Ring - Exploration is my favorite aspect of these games. Intend to play maybe later this year. Know it will be a huge timesink.

I don't play online and generally don't do multiple playthroughs. I'm thinking of bypassing DS 2 and 3, and just moving straight to ER. I'm also worried DS 2 might be a misunderstood hidden gem I'd be remiss to skip. Thoughts from the experts?

[Nauct]

I loved DS2, it's a little different from the rest, leaning more heavily into RPG aspects. It's a good game for sure

[Richie Jerimovich]

Originally posted by Compass:

I was a big KF and ST fan, but have only dabbled in their post-PS2 output:

• Demon's Souls - Beat and liked.
  
• Dark Souls Remastered - Beat and liked a lot. Spent 100 hours or so on one playthrough.
  
• Dark Souls 2 - Haven't played. Apparently: B-team-developed, worse and less-interconnected level design, obnoxiously difficult. Should skip?
  
• Dark Souls 3 - Much better than 2 most agree. Intend to play at some point.
  
• Bloodborne - There is good 30 FPS and there is bad 30 FPS. Have this, but only played an hour. Will wait for inevitable remaster with better frameage.
  
• Elden Ring - Exploration is my favorite aspect of these games. Intend to play maybe later this year. Know it will be a huge timesink.

I don't play online and generally don't do multiple playthroughs. I'm thinking of bypassing DS 2 and 3, and just moving straight to ER. I'm also worried DS 2 might be a misunderstood hidden gem I'd be remiss to skip. Thoughts from the experts?

Skip Deracine, it's good but not worth buying if you don't already have a VR

[Dollmaker]

Not really a souls game, but i highly recommend Armored Core 6, its also Fromsoft, and its amazing.

I wasnt sure if i was even gonna like it when i played it, and now its one of my favorites from the studio.

Also Sekiro, everyone should play Sekiro in their lives.

[Kim]

Originally posted by Compass:

I was a big KF and ST fan, but have only dabbled in their post-PS2 output:

• Demon's Souls - Beat and liked.
  
• Dark Souls Remastered - Beat and liked a lot. Spent 100 hours or so on one playthrough.
  
• Dark Souls 2 - Haven't played. Apparently: B-team-developed, worse and less-interconnected level design, obnoxiously difficult. Should skip?
  
• Dark Souls 3 - Much better than 2 most agree. Intend to play at some point.
  
• Bloodborne - There is good 30 FPS and there is bad 30 FPS. Have this, but only played an hour. Will wait for inevitable remaster with better frameage.
  
• Elden Ring - Exploration is my favorite aspect of these games. Intend to play maybe later this year. Know it will be a huge timesink.

I don't play online and generally don't do multiple playthroughs. I'm thinking of bypassing DS 2 and 3, and just moving straight to ER. I'm also worried DS 2 might be a misunderstood hidden gem I'd be remiss to skip. Thoughts from the experts?

as an "expert" i will say you this ,

my tastes in games are mine and your tastes are yours. If you are influenced by me, by him, or by others, you will probably end up disappointed for having been misled.

[Shard of Manus]

Dark Souls 2:
Weakest in the series, sure. The full game plus the DLCs however are still definitely worth playing. They aren't bad games, they just aren't really as good. Not as good environmental design, not as good enemy placement and encounter design, not much interconnectivity.

The game is still fun, and there's a lot to be had in it. It's not obnoxiously difficult, it's just different. Stamina is more important in DS2 than it was in DS1, and obviously way more important than anything since DS3 (since stamina is almost a joke now). Bosses are hit or miss. Some are good, some are meh, a few are great, a few are bad.

Either way... it's worth it. Quite a big game, plenty of fun.

Dark Souls 3:
Again, not much interconnectivity. Different style to the older games - stamina is way more forgiving. Overall design and encounters are good, bosses are in general good but a couple bad eggs.

Kinda lacks good atmosphere imo, and is very sorta... just plain when it comes to areas/atmosphere -- until you hit the DLC. Ariandel is fine, and with a great boss. Ringed City though is standout quality - really great stuff.

Bloodborne:
Boot it back up and bloody play it. The single most polished and 'complete' Fromsoft game ever. The game is absolutely fantastic, and the DLC just piles more on top of it. Top quality game.

Elden Ring:
Big game. Lots of exploration. It starts off fantastic, but honestly the novelty wears off a bit in the latter third of the game. Dungeons and side-content makes you miserable because the rewards start to be mediocre compared to the early game where everything was important -- but you do all of them anyway because you don't know which place is hiding the good stuff.

Overall the game is excellent. Boss design, characters, stories, music, atmosphere etc. -- the game has some real 'wow' moments beyond what any of the games have accomplished so far. However, at the same time, it also went a bit overboard in some areas with difficulty -- not in encounter design, but instead with stat bloat.

The game gives you A LOT of tools to beat it, and so if you are pragmatic it really isn't a hard game - but if you want to use a specific build and limit that, you gimp yourself. Enemies with huge HP pools, loads of damage, infinite poise etc. - it gets troublesome if you don't allow yourself to target the specific weaknesses of enemies (or just cheese them).

The first half of Elden Ring had potential to be the best game Fromsoft have made, but honestly after a number of playthroughs, plenty of PvP and PvE etc. etc. -- Elden Ring sits comfortably at about joint 3rd/4th place. It really is a good game, but has a few too many hiccups that don't sit well with me - though I suppose all the games do.

[Kyutaru]

I'd definitely play DS2. It gets a bad rap for being more hardcore and less handholdy than the other games. Much like Elden Ring's boards have been, people complain about difficulty when it's really not that bad and the lvl design is just another form of difficulty that annoys casual players who don't have the stomach for it. Best in the series for sure.

Skip Bloodbourne. It's a fusion of a Souls game and the millions of hack-and-slash games that came before it. People praise it because it makes them feel like pros.

Much like the original Souls titles and their niche existence, true souls isn't forgiving or accessible. It's a niche title meant for players that can handle its grit. If it's widely appealing, much like how BB and Elden Ring have been, it's likely not that challenging. If it's hated by all like DS2, that's the game you really want to play.

[zmanbuilder]

You should play armored core 6.

[TyresTyco]

Originally posted by Kim:

my tastes in games are mine and your tastes are yours. If you are influenced by me, by him, or by others, you will probably end up disappointed for having been misled.

Yeah ^thats true.

That said. You cant go wrong playing them all. If you enjoyed ds 1 so much. You will enjoy them all. Sekiro and Armored Core 6 are also excellent games and while ds 2 is the weakest of them all.. it's still better than 99,5% of all the games western garbage companies release.

When people talk about weird lvl design in ds 2 it's mostly the lava sea part that shouldnt have been above some other map.

I for example dont really care about such logic flaws. Lvl design is mostly great in ds 2, bosses for the most part are good. You at least have options there and arent forced to go a certain path. Ds 3 is great but it's mostly just a linear experience without much choice.

Also fashion in ds 2 still is the best of them all. While it's overall the weakest game it still has some real awesome stuff in it.

[r1ver]

You can skip DS2, but skipping DS3 is a crime. ER is good to go.
Just pick any game you want to play. Maybe give DS2 a chance some other time, but for me, DS2 is a f^cking suck game, but it has the most stylish outfits and the best dragon form in the From series.

[Compass]

Thanks for the feedback, y'all. I'll take it under advisement.

I forgot about Sekiro, but that one might remain forever out of my reach, as I'm pretty sure I lack the skills and reaction times necessary to master the parry mechanics. (I can barely successfully parry in Stray Blade.)

[Richie Jerimovich]

You can skip DS3, but skipping DS2 is a crime. ER is good to go.
Just pick any game you want to play. Maybe give DS3 a chance some other time, but sadly it's an objective fact that DS3 stripped major amounts of core elements of the Dark Souls identity to make the game appeal to a more casual audience. But it definitely has some good boss fights (6 good fights, the rest are gimmicks are genuinely awful to play. Funny enough they even reused a boss fight).

[Sgt. Flaw]

Originally posted by Porcelain:

You can skip DS3, but skipping DS2 is a crime. ER is good to go.

[paincanbefun]

bb. do it

[Copper]

I started with DS2, I really enjoyed it but the game mechanics were really strange. In DS2 killing a single enemy around 13 time or so will despawn that enemy forever so you could cheese the whole game by clearing out all enemies from each area so they're all empty. This also comes with a really interesting new game+ feature where you can reset a single area of the game to new game+ rather than resetting the whole game you can make each area different difficulties. It's both a cool feature and a really annoying feature.

[Vinnolo]

never understood the hate for ds2, it has some really flawed designs, like iron keep location and adaptability, and the base game is lacking in some areas, but the dlc and pvp more than make up for it, not to mention many ideas from it were grabbed for future games (also its the only souls game to get ng+ right and add exclusive gear and changing enemy placements/adding more enemies).