Dark Souls 1 vs Dark Souls 2 vs Dark Souls 3, best to worst in my personal experience.

[Yozora]

Okay, so at this point I've played all three games and now I want to express my opinion on my souls experience. Let's start off the bat, that I played all three souls games in reverse order and may be slightly biased on my favorite souls game, which I'll get to that in a moment. I'll be listing some pros and cons from each game and critiquing them. At the end, I'll be ranking them from best to worst.
First let's start out with Dark Souls 3 since it was my very first souls game, which I started playing roughly two years ago.
Pros:
• This game probably has one of the most beautiful boss animations I have ever seen in any souls game. Not only that but, the majority of the bosses themselves were also well designed.
• Probably the most polished souls game of all. The UI was easy to navigate, and much cleaner than 2.
• Weapon arts were really fun to use via PvE, a little bit annoying in PvP.
• The difficulty was fair, despite being my first souls game, I never thought the game was overly difficult, which made the game easier for me to get into. Though gundyr did give me trouble the first time around.
• The graphics and the environment were probably the best in the series, anything you can see is where anything you can go (most of the time).
• Ember mechanics is probably my favorite next to Human Effigies. It makes killing bosses more rewarding.

Cons:
• The game is very linear. This one is quite obvious because the game was always pointing a direction for me to go. I know you can fight some bosses early and even fight "some" bosses in different orders, but I never felt the freedom to take a different path since there was always a wall that kept telling me to go back. This also impacts playing new game again since everything just feels the same over and over again.
• Not that much variety in areas. Pretty much the areas felt the same because it was more like Castle, Village, Swamp, Swamp, Cathedral that felt like a swamp, Dungeon, Swamp, back to Castle. I guess you could consider more areas, but that was basically the whole experience for me.
• The story was basically reused content. As you can see, Dark Souls 3 relies too much on Dark Souls 1's storyline and lore that it has become fan service. This didn't bother me much at first but after playing through 1, I understood why.
• A lot of great mechanics and animations were completely removed. After playing Dark Souls 2, I came across so many cool mechanics and features that would have made my souls 3 a much better experience. Too bad some of these mechanics were removed and never to be seen again.
• Too many bonfires. Literally spammed bonfires all over the place which I thought was unnecessary. I think at the very least remove the bonfires that are rewarded by the bosses.
• The tutorial boss was literally a middle finger for new players. Honestly when I got into Dark Souls 3 and fought Gundyr for the first time, I felt like it was unnecessary difficult, though now that I'm better at the game, it usually takes me first or second try to beat him every single time I make a new character.

Conclusion: I like Dark Souls 3 and it was my very first souls game as well, however I don't think there's much replayability since the game is so linear. My score, 8/10.


Next let's move on to Dark Souls 2, specifically SOTFS, the game that I probably have the most time on steam at the very moment. This is the second souls game I have played.
Pro:
• Emerald Herald. After playing through so many playthroughs, I have grown to love the Emerald Herald and it feels like she has been making her own journey just as yours. Out of all the three main fire keepers in all three souls game, the Emerald Herald is definitely my favorite, the Firekeeper from Dark Souls 3 got kind of boring, though I also like her as well, as for Dark Souls 1, let's not talk about her....
• Fashion Souls. Out of all the three games, I think this game has the best fashion souls of all, so much variety to choose from.
• The mechanics in this game were definitely the best. I really like powerstancing, bonfire ascetics, and fast climbing on ladders. It's a shame that Dark Souls 3 never included or at least try to implement some of these mechanics. There's also a lot of animation varieties for different weapons.
• The DLCs were probably the best the series had to offer. After playing through the entire crown DLCs, every single boss (not challenge bosses), were amazing. The level designs imo might have even been better than the Ringed City DLC from Dark Souls 3.
• Replayablity. This game has a lot of replay value, and I have made over 6 characters so far, with plenty of builds. What keeps this game fresh is that a lot of areas and bosses in this game can be played in so many orders. Literally you can make a DLC boss be your first boss.
• The lore is actually good imo. I hear a lot of people dislike 2 because it feels so disconnected from the rest of the franchise, but I think it's very refreshing that they took an entirely different perspective on the souls series. They do make some callbacks for those people who complain that they don't make enough of them, even if minor.
• Probably has the best game hub ever in the souls series. Honestly every single time I came back to Majula, I always felt welcomed home. The music is great and the place feels tranquil. It's even more tranquil when you gather all the NPCs in the game to your hub.

Cons:
• The game world looks boring. Compared to Dark Souls 1 and 3, I was really disappointed on how environmentally bad this game looked. Some of geography didn't make any sense, and let's not talk about the infamous elevator to the lava castle in the sky. But there are lots of areas I love such as Eleum Loyce, Dragon Shrine, and Drangleic Castle that make up for the bad.
• Lots of good, and lots of bad bosses. This isn't just Dark Souls 2 alone but it has become a lot more notable. Yes I do mean that some of the bosses do feel uninspired and maybe they could have just turned these bosses into mini bosses or hard enemies. Those gank rats shouldn't even be counted as a boss.
• The DLCs overshadowing the base game. Yes if I were completely honest, I would say that the DLCs are way better than base game. Not saying that base game was terrible, and I could definitely say the same with Dark Souls 3, although I feel like Dark Souls 3 makes it up a little more with their secret areas.
• (SOTFS) Too many NPC summoning signs that are completely unnecessary. It kind of defeats the purpose of a difficult game I still like summoning signs from quest npcs because they fit into the world, or at the very least, I wished Fromsoft made used of these new phantom NPCs and give them a questline or at least someway for us to interact with them.
• Some questionable level designs/enemy placement, such as Iron Keep, Shrine of Amana, or Frigid Outskirts. First time I went through Iron Keep, it was literally spammed with Alonne knights.
• Soul Memory is awful. I'm surprised Fromsoft didn't change Co-op to a password system in SOTFS. Makes sense for PvP and Twinking, but still broken because it literally forces players to start a new character if they wanted to play with friends who are new to the game. The name engraved ring doesn't really help that much either.

Conclusion: After playing Dark Souls 2 for a while, it has really grown on me. Now it has become my favorite souls game surprisingly, despite flaws. Overall I would give this game 8.5/10. But really the Emerald Herald swinging her legs gave me some diabetes, I change my score to 9/10.
Alright, so Dark Souls 1, or Dark Souls remastered is the one I played last. I also hear that remastered is a downgrade, which probably doesn't make a difference to me since I never played the original and I assume all the game mechanics are the same.
Pros:
• The game is interconnected. Probably the most non-linear souls game out of the three. Aside from the Asylum Demon being your first boss. Firelink shrine leads everywhere, which I think did better than Dark Souls 2's Majula.
• Its environmentally beautiful. Aside from level designs, the game does a really good job with their parallaxes and skyboxes. Anor Londo being everyone's favorite area in the game.
• Parry is forgiving. Honestly, parrying is so easy in this game that it makes the silver knights look like a joke. But, yeah I find that you can sometimes time your parry a little early and still manage to parry your target. This also made Gwyn's boss fight look like a joke.
• Shortcuts. I really like how shortcuts were used in this game, it really encouraged the players to explore before proceeding to the next area. But honestly, this one is more of a love and hate relationship for me. This is mainly because warps are restricted until later on in game, so finding shortcuts was the best option to head back.
• Sunbro. Pretty self explanatory, one of the most reliable bros in video game history.

Cons:
• Player character looks like a potato. This is probably just a personal preference, but imo, the character creation was absolutely atrocious. While some people don't care, I wanted to make a good looking waifu character, but it never really looked right. In 2, the character creation looked best, and 3 has that weird plastic skin gloss, but still decent.
• Terrible level designs. So every souls game has terrible level designs but nothing compared to this game. Wanna know the list of stupid level designs? Blighttown, Sen's Fun house, Lost Izalith, Bridge after Taurus Demon, Underground Undead Burg, Demon Ruins, Catacombs, New Londo Ruins, Tomb of the Giants, and lastly Anor Londo first half. Wow that's a lot places, where do I start? Honestly, I asked myself a few times why I was playing this game. Most of these designs are unfair and heavily punishes you for making one simple mistake. Those Anor Londo archers probably killed me at least 20 times. Honestly though, people say Dark Souls 2 has terrible designs, but imho they are much better than a bunch of bs that Dark Souls 1 pulls off.
• Probably one of the worst boss in the entire series. Honestly, I don't even mind some of the bosses in Dark Souls, however this boss was probably the most hated boss in the entire series for its most absolute bs. I'm talking about the Bed of Chaos, you know the one that destroys the ground and makes you fall to your death and makes you run back a few miles all the way from the beginning in a pool of lava, yes I'm talking about that boss. Nothing else needs to be said.
• The lack of bonfires. So because of playing the sequel games, I've been used to finding a lot of bonfires in game. Well in this game, there is a lack of bonfires. Dying and running back from the beginning is so tedious, I know unlocking shortcuts help but sometimes I would miss these shortcuts and would end in a loop of a living hell.
• No warp until lordvessel. Since I played 2 and 3 first, I expected bonfires to warp, but to my disappointment, running back and fourth at the beginning of the game was tedious. I like idea that game encourages you to explore, but I'm an impatient person and walking miles and miles away from home is boring.
• Most clunky controls in the series. I had a hard time adjusting to the controls switching from 3 to 2, but 1 was on a whole new level. I can't really blame the game for being clunky since it's an old game, but at the same time, my experiences with combat and movement wasn't as enjoyable as 2 and 3. This is mostly because rolling was difficult and I didn't have full control on where I wanted to roll while doing so.

Conclusion: My souls experience for this game was a total downgrade, it certainly lives up for its name for being extremely difficult. I'm not exactly a masochist so it was pretty much a living nightmare to play through. My final rating for this game is 6.5/10.

TL; DR
Ranking my favorite Dark Souls games from best to worst.
DS2 > DS3 > DS1

[Yozora]

Originally posted by StillCan'tThinkOfAGoodName:

Such a controversial opinion. If you are on Reddit you would get crucified. Not gonna lie though I hate having been forced to level up ADP for i-frames and chugging speed.

tbh, ADP has it's ups and downs but I didn't mind it. I didn't even know iframes were bounded by a stat up until reading a post about it on reddit, I just raised it because it also raised my poise and other resistance stats. I normally don't dodge into enemies either way, so it didn't make much of a difference.

[☆𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒇𝒚｡⭒❤]

Originally posted by StillCan'tThinkOfAGoodName:

Such a controversial opinion. If you are on Reddit you would get crucified. Not gonna lie though I hate having been forced to level up ADP for i-frames and chugging speed.

You only need 24 adp for more than enough i-frames. 99 agilty is the cap, thats 24 adp which is easily done right after the first boss.. And then the whole rest of the game you forget about adp

[Elwis]

I'm glad someone did a fair rating and justice for DS2.
It's far from perfect, but there's nothing wrong about trying to be different from the other entries in the series. That, and it was my first DS game, so it holds a special place in my heart.

[Seferofe]

For me.
PvP:
DS3>DS2>DS1
DS3 is faster, which I quite enjoy. No instant backstabs or passive poise of DS1, and no buff stacking that I kept seeing over and over again in DS2. So many rapier/katana builds with 5 buffs at a time.

Lore:
DS1>DS2>DS3
DS1 started it and made a really good base for the lore. DS2 tried to be a bit unique and not just have a lot of references like DS3 did. DS3 did add its own stuff but didn't really add too much unique aspects.

Area design:
DS1>DS3>DS2
Places like Ash Lake looked amazing. Then you got areas like Undead Burg where it truly did feel like a city/kingdom that fell to the curse. The general feel was great, besides select few areas like Izalith... DS2 felt quite a bit more bland honestly, though I did really love the atmosphere of Majula and Drangleic Castle. DS3 can be a bit bland as well. places do look beautiful, Lothric Castle for instance, but it just didn't have that feel of DS1. Of course there's some great looking areas in DS3, such as Ringed City, Ariandel and especially Irithyll.

PvE is a bit hard on how to decide, since I've played DS3 PvE that much that I don't really enjoy it at all anymore. Though I will say I like DS2 most in that regard, plenty of early options and NG+ is actually different. I do hate a lot of the DLC enemies, even though I really like the areas.

Overall I've enjoyed DS3 the most, followed by DS2 and then DS1.

[Yozora]

Originally posted by Seferofe:

For me.
PvP:
DS3>DS2>DS1
DS3 is faster, which I quite enjoy. No instant backstabs or passive poise of DS1, and no buff stacking that I kept seeing over and over again in DS2. So many rapier/katana builds with 5 buffs at a time.

Lore:
DS1>DS2>DS3
DS1 started it and made a really good base for the lore. DS2 tried to be a bit unique and not just have a lot of references like DS3 did. DS3 did add its own stuff but didn't really add too much unique aspects.

Area design:
DS1>DS3>DS2
Places like Ash Lake looked amazing. Then you got areas like Undead Burg where it truly did feel like a city/kingdom that fell to the curse. The general feel was great, besides select few areas like Izalith... DS2 felt quite a bit more bland honestly, though I did really love the atmosphere of Majula and Drangleic Castle. DS3 can be a bit bland as well. places do look beautiful, Lothric Castle for instance, but it just didn't have that feel of DS1. Of course there's some great looking areas in DS3, such as Ringed City, Ariandel and especially Irithyll.

PvE is a bit hard on how to decide, since I've played DS3 PvE that much that I don't really enjoy it at all anymore. Though I will say I like DS2 most in that regard, plenty of early options and NG+ is actually different. I do hate a lot of the DLC enemies, even though I really like the areas.

Overall I've enjoyed DS3 the most, followed by DS2 and then DS1.

Yes, I do agree that some areas in DS2 were bland. A lot of those levels were extremely short as well and could've merged with another level. Some areas felt like a weird platforming area that doesn't feel organic to the environment. I feel like 1 and 3 did a good job blending areas into the environment that made them feel more organic. Examples of terrible designs (visually, since I'm not a fan of DS1's unfair designs either) I can think of are most of Iron Keep, the Black Glutch, and Heides Tower (some visual aspects appealing but felt very unnatural, still like the cathedral of blue though). As for DS1, while most of the level designs were natural, aside from izalith, blighttown, and tomb of the giants, I wasn't a big fan of those tight catwalk areas, such as most of the areas in Anor Londo (Love the visual aspects, but those catwalks were sometimes a pain in the ass). I think DS3 kind of fixes those and has both visuals and designs, however DS3 had lots of swamp and water areas that were annoying to navigate in.

[Seferofe]

Originally posted by Hitoribochi:

Yes, I do agree that some areas in DS2 were bland. A lot of those levels were extremely short as well and could've merged with another level. Some areas felt like a weird platforming area that doesn't feel organic to the environment. I feel like 1 and 3 did a good job blending areas into the environment that made them feel more organic. Examples of terrible designs (visually, since I'm not a fan of DS1's unfair designs either) I can think of are most of Iron Keep, the Black Glutch, and Heides Tower (some visual aspects appealing but felt very unnatural, still like the cathedral of blue though). As for DS1, while most of the level designs were natural, aside from izalith, blighttown, and tomb of the giants, I wasn't a big fan of those tight catwalk areas, such as most of the areas in Anor Londo (Love the visual aspects, but those catwalks were sometimes a pain in the ass). I think DS3 kind of fixes those and has both visuals and designs, however DS3 had lots of swamp and water areas that were annoying to navigate in.

Black Gulch isn't the most appealing area, but I suppose not every place should be beautiful, there's got to be nasty things to balance it out. Just wish that most of the nasty places wasn't just poisonous swamps.

Heide's Tower of flame does look nice, but I understand what you mean by unnatural. They should've made it more treacherous, place where you have to jump across. It'd certainly make sense, since the whole place was collapsing, yet for some reason there's a constant convenient path ahead.

As for Iron Keep, it's really a big disappointment compared to what it could've been. It's original design was far more impressive. It might've looked a bit bland, but that'd make sense since it was going to be a giant area. Can only do so much with brick walls everywhere. Still would've been far better than the current version.

Izalith did look natural I think, well besides the large number of dragon butts. It's a kingdom seeped with lava, though probably not to the degree it is when we go there if it wasn't for the Bed of Chaos and Ceaseless Discharge. Would've been nicer to have more variety of demons mulling about though.

I'd also say Blighttown is very natural as well. It's very inconvenient to traverse getting down, which makes complete sense. It wasn't made by great architects, but rather common people, or maybe abominations, so it's going to be a rickety mess of planks. I might hate the area, but I think its look is fitting for its inhabitants.

I love and hate the design of Anor Londo in DS1. Love how it looks, hate how little we get to go through. I really wish Elden Ring lets us actually traverse a large city like Anor Londo, even if it's not nearly as big. I wouldn't care if it's a dead city, but I'd just love some giant area like that to go through.

And yes, unfortunately DS3 follows the previous games with its love of poisonous swamps, something From adores far too much. I honestly don't even dislike the swamp aesthetic, I actually quite like it. I just hate that it's always a giant poisonous field that slows you down.

Edit: Here's a video for what Iron Keep might've looked like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXowyshRW0Q

[cgunforfree]

DS3 > DS2 > DS1

[ChubbNutt]

Wrong.

[cgunforfree]

Originally posted by Baby Face Cool Guy:

Wrong.

:) "tastes are not discussed"
rather then post for me post for urself
and i have to add ds 1 > ds1 remastered

[Yozora]

Edit: Here's a video for what Iron Keep might've looked like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXowyshRW0Q [/quote]
Oh, yes I've already seen this video. Yeah I just wish Fromsoft gave B-Team more time to work on this game. The contents in this version of Iron Keep was far more superior than what we got today. I don't blame B-team for a lot of mistakes they've done, I blame that on the heads of Fromsoft themselves.

[cgunforfree]

Originally posted by cgunforfree:

DS3 > DS2 > DS1

and i must add this DS 1 > DS 1 remastered !!!!
just do NOT waste ur money for that p*e*e of s*it !
hope demon souls on ps5 will not be ds1 remastered ! i pray for this !

[Yozora]

Originally posted by cgunforfree:

DS3 > DS2 > DS1

Not a bad choice, I see you prefer a more polished souls game. Thanks for your opinion, I appreciate you coming to my discussion.

[Jevmen]

DS1 < Demon's < DS2 < BB < DS3

[Seferofe]

Originally posted by cgunforfree:

Originally posted by cgunforfree:

DS3 > DS2 > DS1

and i must add this DS 1 > DS 1 remastered !!!!
just do NOT waste ur money for that p*e*e of s*it !
hope demon souls on ps5 will not be ds1 remastered ! i pray for this !

Demon's Souls is gonna be a remake, not a remaster. Apparently the people who are remaking it are pretty good for it, so here's hoping. Even if I'm not gonna buy a PS5, I do want it to be good.

[Ravelord_Billy]

You forgot the best one, Demon's Souls, where it all started.