Dark Souls 3 is my fav atm,
Terraria is #2
Dark Souls 1 is maybe like the third fav
Elden Ring will likely be in the top 3 as long as it doesn’t blunder the 2nd half of the game.
Hollow Knight is a lovely experience
Stardew Valley I adore, but don’t ever commit enough to.
For multiplayer games?
Warzone was my favorite for a LONG time, but it got too campy.
Dead by Daylight is like a drug
Valorant can also be fun, but sometimes it suck doodoo
I just got Elden Ring, but haven’t got much playtime in yet due to parental duties. It could end up being my favorite game of all time. DS2 is my favorite of the Souls trilogy because I’m weird, I guess
I like how open ended it is compared to 1 and 3. It’s the only one I went through multiple NG+ characters. Also, power stance is epic and I wish they kept using it in other games.
I wouldn’t say weird. I think ds2 is amazing on its own right and does the same souls like formula but I really loved the different devs team take on it. Not my favorite but for some reason possibly my most played. Something about Majula and the area is just nostalgic and magical.
I’ll never understand the consistent hate for DS2. The core gameplay of all the games is so similar that I just enjoy all of them. It feels like people have this weird revisionist history slant to DS2, where people act like it’s always been a universally hated “bad” game. Other than the lighting engine just not being anything like the trailers, it seemed like pretty much everybody enjoyed it up until popular youtubers started saying it was a terrible game.
My favorite is Demon’s Souls just because it’s so much closer to From Soft’s older stuff. It’s less about combat, and more about exploration/environmental puzzle solving. If you didn’t play it on release or don’t enjoy the King’s Field games I fully understand why you’d rank DeS the lowest in the series though. It’s definitely the release that stands out the most, and I think the remake did a pretty poor job of capturing what made DeS so cool. For people who only played the remake, they’re probably just left thinking it’s just like every other Souls game, but with really easy/simple combat and all of the bosses are too easy and boring. Which is missing the point of DeS entirely lol.
I don’t really know what you mean. I’ve clocked around 150 hours in DS2 and a lot more into the other games in the series and I think they’re all good. Just because Miyazaki didn’t work on it doesn’t make it any worse. If anything I kind of appreciate that DS2 has such a starkly different world over DS3, which mostly just felt like it was trying to give people DS1 fanservice.
DeS > DS1 > BB > DS2 > DS3
I think that’s how I’d personally rank them? So I don’t think my opinions are particularly weird or controversial.
I’m also mixed on my placement of Bloodborne if only because I think weapon and build variety is really lacking in the game, so many of the weapons feel exactly the same, and magic builds are effectively locked into NG+, and weird defensive builds are entirely removed. There’s just fewer ways to play the game, I get what they were going for, but I think it came at the cost of replayability. I loved my few playthroughs of it, but I feel no desire to pick it up again. Unlike the other games where I feel like there’s always another stupid build idea I have. Some days I like BB more than DS2 and DS3, but other days it’s my least favorite, since it’s the only game I know I won’t be able to do a weird new build in.
I’m not trying to convince you. I’m just telling you what it feels like. It doesn’t bother me if you like any over any others.
If it provides you any perspective, I thought dark souls 2 was almost like pure fan service, like you say about dark souls 3.
I know most undervalue DS2, but for me it has some of the best boss fights of them all. Fume Knight, Darklurker, Mytha, The Lost Sinner, Burnt Ivory King. They’re some of the most memorable fights for me. Also the Curved Dragon Greatsword will always be my favorite weapon across Souls games. I’m of the opinion that DS2 had a ton more merit then most give it credit for. Sure it doesn’t flow as well as the rest in terms of level design, but if has some fantastic boss fights.
It’s not that people in the Dark Souls community regard it as a bad game, per se. At least that’s not how I see it. I just see it as the worst souls game.
DS2 felt like it was trying to be the most irritating parts of DS1, but upping the ante. These meh parts being how cheap the game felt in some areas, clunkier combat, and frustrating enemies. Less memorable bosses also just made the experience less engaging overall. In DS1 and DS3, I felt compelled to explore every nook and cranny of an area, I had fun exploring and seeing what there was. In DS2 I was constantly irritated, and bosses rarely left me feeling satisfied after these irritating areas, which is sad, considering DS2 has the most bosses of any Dark Souls game.
90% of the appeal to DS1 and DS3 to me was the combat and the bosses. DS2 just didn’t deliver either of those to me.
It’s like, in DS3 there’s the Abyss Watchers, the Nameless King, Champion Gundyr in the main game, then in the DLC you have Darkeater Midir, Friede, and Slave Knight Gael. In DS1’s main game you had O&S, & Sif (tho there are notably less memorable bosses in the main game), and in the DLC, you had Manus and Artorias.
DS2 I remember the Looking Glass Knight, and not many others.
But that’s just why I prefer DS1 and 3 to 2. DS3 is my favorite of the three because the combat is the fastest, and most satisfying otherwise I think they’re all great games, it’s just that DS2 isn’t as good as DS1 and 3 to me.
Ah, that actually makes a lot of sense if combat is the main draw of the games to you. Imo DS2 feels a lot closer to DeS and DS1 where a lot of bosses have gimmicks or “tricks” that will completely neuter them. Especially if 3 is your favorite there’s just so few aggressive melee bosses in 2, it’s all big hulking slow boys and gimmick fights.
Frozen Wastes is also legitimately one of the worst designed areas in any video game I’ve ever played.
DS3 had consistently good boss fights, but a lot of them ended up feeling kind of samey to me. So many hyper aggressive humanoid enemies that only feel different in their unique dodge timings. Pontiff and Nameless King were pretty stand out though, they felt like two of the hardest bosses in the series to me. I know I kinda knocked DS3 for having a lot of fan service, but my favorite fight was probably Yhorm just because of how excited I was to see Stormruler in the fight lol.
Agreed! Frozen Wastes just felt so stupid and pointless and needlessly difficult to navigate. It was such a dumb area. Although I do have a fondness for the King’s Pets. It felt incredibly triumphant when I finally defeated them.
Also agreed on how DS3 bosses felt way too familiar throughout the game. I legit beat Nameless and Cinder in just a few attempts each because the mechanics felt really familiar.
Don’t get me wrong I loved every second however.
Yeah, it depends on what you take from the experiences for sure. For example, dark souls 2 had my friends and I jumping through too many hoops to play together, so we usually didn’t. I played dark souls through the worst of trolling invasions and kept playing, but when soul memory kept me from playing with my friends, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Anyway, I’m playing elden ring now. Lots of it. The games are great to me, so there’s a lot to love here.
I think my favorite of the group is Bloodborne. Demon’s souls I’d still call equal. We’ll see how elden ring turns out. I can’t help but love them all, really. They’re beautiful games. Sublime.
otherwise I think they’re all great games, it’s just that DS2 isn’t as good as DS1 and 3 to me.