Sekiro > Dark 1 > Bloodborne > Dark 2 >>>>> Nioh
No, I still haven’t played Demon’s, yes I know I need to get to it
I fully expect Demon’s to land on 1st or 2nd place in my rankings.
someday I may have to defend putting Dark 1 last on my list
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I feel like demon’s souls is really still totally its own thing, I don’t really know how to rank it against the others.
it’s funny for as much I enjoyed dark souls 3 when it came out I barely remember any of it.
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thats pretty much why I expect it to go near the top. Sekiro is also very much its own thing so it naturally became my fav
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Make that day today
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i’ll be cheeky and add my pre-demon’s rankings (taking into account specifically the king’s-field-and-associated strains that in some way prefigured souls. you could make a case for rune/lost kingdoms or evergrace/forever kingdom, but i’m not going to do that here)
Shadow Tower > KF2 > KF4 > Shadow Tower Abyss > KF3 > Eternal Ring > KF1
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Yeah at least visually, Dark Souls 3 is certainly an achievement over the previous Dark Souls games. The detail and visual density is so high. I think Sekiro is even a step backward, in that regard.
However, I would play more games looking exactly like Demon’s Souls. Something about that game’s visuals are timeless, for me.
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demon’s souls has 90’s fps vibes, somehow
Boobarn > DeS > DkS1 > DkS2 > DkS3 > Sekiro
consume my bad taste
I do think Dark 1 probably has some of the objective worst level design and least interesting gear
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tulpa and meauxdal its basically criminal that you have not played Demon’s Souls yet. Go to sleepy jail. (i hope it gets a damn port/remaster someday so it’s easier to play)
i do see a lot of Demon’s in Sekiro and vice versa. I think they each have my favorite bosses From has done, and Demon’s has a creative gimmicky quality to its boss fights that Sekiro takes and perfects by having them all play by consistent rules. Demon’s also feels floatier and faster in a way that feels similar to Sekiro. And again, the fact that they’re relatively compact experiences once you know how to beat them.
the later games obviously improved on Demons mechanically in different ways but i still think Demon’s is perfect by itself. It’s just a very good holistic experience and there aren’t any parts that drag. And it feels similar but distinct in so many little ways. It’s a little jewel of a game.
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Oh umm we’re ranking the games
DkS1 > DeS = DkS2 > BB > DkS3
DkS1 will always be my favorite even though ive played the first half a million times and the second half kinda sucks lol. it was a revelation when i first played it and i still think Lordran is a miracle of design, the best 3D Metroidvania ever. My favorite media is defined by feeling like it was made to order for me, and there are so many little touches unique to DkS1 that perfectly match my tastes.
i already talked about Demons Souls
Dark Souls 2 gets Most Improved for me (helped by Scholar being a superior release). it’s aged like fine wine. At some point i just really grew to love its specific weirdness and how declarative the “B team” was in making their Souls game. It has taken 1’s place as the one i play compulsively and dick around in with different characters, challenges, etc. Good game and i will forever evangelize it to atone for the years i hated on it
Bloodborne fucking rules and has easily my favorite plot/setting in the series. it’s also where they got too actually hard for me and i find the post-Rom half of the game kind of a drag lol. It’s such a cool experience though and the trick weapons/gun parries are the most satisfying, fun articulation of the basic Souls combat system (i am counting out Sekiro because i think it pointedly does something different, though adjacent)
I grew to appreciate 3 as From putting in an admirable effort squeezing as much blood out of the Souls stone it could, to mostly pretty enjoyable effect. It’s the most by-the-numbers one so i can’t really love it, and gets hard in a way that i don’t find super fun, but if this is the worst game in the series, that says a lot. The world isn’t designed in an interesting way but it nails the sense of being in a physical space where landmarks can be visually related to each other, which is the standout thing these games do with their levels. I kinda feel like From wanted to do both a victory lap for the fans and a We <3 Katamari style takedown and sorta awkwardly compromised but that is another post and shall be written another time
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demon’s > sekiro > bloodborne > dark 1 > 3 > 2
i still find demon’s so fuckin’ atmospheric and the jankier aspects very endearing
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Another fresh thing about Sekiro that doesn’t get as much attention is the shift to a different kind of storytelling. Isshin, Owl and the Sculptor are newly well-rounded characters, particularly as they’re presented from many different points of view and contexts in order to demonstrate different facets of their character. And a scene like Kuro cooking a rice ball for his shinobi has a human warmth to it that’s new for From.
The one place I expect to see a straight line from Sekiro to Elden Ring is in this new – more conventional in some ways – storytelling style. From is signaling that with the George R. R. Martin co-branding, and GRRM will get all the credit for it but the transition is already apparent in Sekiro.
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I’m actually not sure that GRRM will take the credit. He’s already stated that he handed them a world treatment and consulted on some ideas for aspects of the game. But isn’t really involved beyond that.
People/article writers may certainly try to credit him, however.
yeah i think his involvement has been overstated, and he’s said about as much
The fringe, underdeveloped details of ASOIAF are the actual best thing about it so im pretty ok with From getting GRRMs all over them
like a From game that has lore at least as cool as house greyjoy or dorne would be pretty aces
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The Greyjoys are so cool. After they introduced Euron…Ergh I was hoping we’d get more detail on them in the show, during those last couple seasons.
DeS > Ds1 > BB > Ds2 = Sekiro > Ds3
DeS is such a magical and dreamlike game. Very few games have given me the sense of wonder I got from it. The only ones I can recall are Super Mario Bros. in the arcade when I was a kid and a rented copy of Castle of Illusion on a cloudy, rainy day in a summer that would last forever.
Someone at From really likes cats.
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this is a feeling i get from dark souls 2 a lot of the time (still haven’t played demon’s…)
all that flat lighting and papercraft-looking textures. it can be pretty cool if you forget how a souls game is “supposed” to feel and think of it like a fighting game character dropped into some online deathmatch map
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i tried fighting nameless king for the first time and it’s 2 phases where the first phase is just a different, worse boss fight. The second phase seemed fun but after trying 3 times and getting to that phase once i said no thanks! i get it!
it’s stupid and unsatisfying from a story perspective but i will always like soul of cinder as the canonical last boss fight in the series. He’s everyone who’s ever invaded you! and it’s kinda funny that he’s just, a big guy. Just a regular big dude with a sword.
edit: oh cripes i forgot the second phase is just gwyn and using the gwyn music. ugh
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All of the Dark Souls have an underwhelming endboss, whereas somehow they got it right in all three non-Dark Souls games. I guess it’s the combination of vague lore and extreme character customizability that makes it a problem in DkS proper.