Demon Souls v Dark Souls 1&2 v Bloodborne - Difficulty

Personally i think it's DeS, BB, DS, DS2. Most to least difficult.

DS2 can feel more difficult at times but that has more to do with the crappy ADP system and broken i-frames on the PC version than it does with design decisions.

Had the toughest time with Dark Souls, but that's because it was my first Souls. You just gotta get used to it.

There's no way to assess the difficulty fairly considering that Bloodborne is my 4th Souls game and Demon's Souls was my 1st.

I remember dying to Tower Knight more than 5 times, but only because I wasn't fully initiated into a Souls game. I'm sure I would cheese the Tower Knight if I fought something equivalent now, like say....The One Reborn - which I've never died against ever.

You don't walk away from 2 or 3 Souls games not having learnt anything. And that's what people forget when evaluating difficulty

As said above, I can't give a fair assessment because Bloodborne is the fourth Souls game I've played, but even still the feel of combat and the behavior of enemies was different enough to make the beginning segments of the game difficult. And objectively, the first few bosses in Bloodborne are much harder than the first few bosses of any Souls game.

Based off my own experience, I'd say BB > DeS > Dark Souls > Dark Souls 2.

Dark Souls 2 > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls >>>>>> Bloodborne

Based on melee playstyle. It's quite notable that using a cheesy spellcaster build can make the Dark Souls series significantly easier.

Dark Souls 2 is the hardest IF you start on Company of Champions from Majula as soon as the place is discovered. If you exclude CoC then Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Bloodborne when it comes to difficulty. BB is kind of a joke compared to its predecessors when its comes to difficulty. Insta healing spam, shitton of iFrames while dodging, very low stamina cost for dodging and being able to stunlock almost every enemy make it pretty easy compared to the others. Its the best Souls game, tho, just nowhere near as challenging.

Only played Demons and Dark Souls 1. Demons was much more difficult imo.

Bloodborne>>demons souls>> dark souls 2>> dark souls for me

in difficulty or gameplay? Because i don't see how could anyone find BB harder than at least demon's and DkS1

As it's been said, really hard to fairly judge difficulty when played through them and learnt from them in a certain order.

If i was to try and judge though, i would say it would be:

Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Darl Souls 2.

I found Bloodborne a lot easier than I did DS2, but i think that's down to my experience with the Souls games in general.

I heard someone out there beat Bloodborne on PS4 with an Xbox 360 Guitar Hero guitar controller and some kind of conversion adapter... **** me, hearing that makes me feel too ashamed to say these games are difficult.

Demon Souls

I've only played dark souls one and two and neither game was remotely hard.

How can three different IP's be compared this way?

I'm soooo confused. :P

Anyway, I've only played a bit of Dark Souls 1 so I dunno, my sons the expert when it comes to these games.

It is a toss up between Demon's Souls and Bloodborne - of course my perception of DeS may be jaded by the fact that it was my first 'Souls experience. In Bloodborne every time I git gud the next area or boss ends up kicking my ass. Then again Dark Souls had some really challenging areas too, it is hard to decide.

One thing's for sure, Dark Souls 2 is by far the easiest - by miles.

Bonfires every 10 steps? Check!

Repairable rings of life protection? Check!

Warp out of danger at anytime? Check!

Enemies stop respawning? Check!

Cheap life gem candy? Check!

Infinite human effigies? Check!

All 4 titles were developed by the same company, From Software. 3 titles, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, were directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. Same play style and mechanics, different lore, different worlds.

For me it's Demon's Souls > Dark Souls > Bloodborne > Dark Souls 2 in terms of difficulty.

Demon's Souls was the first I played so that's the hardest. Bloodborne was a little easier than Dark Souls since it has the best gameplay out of all of them and the dodge mechanic works really well. I just found Dark Souls 2 to be by far the easiest, it was the only one I managed to do a playthrough without dying once and got that ring for it.

Dark souls.

Demon's Souls is the hardest. Then Dark Souls. Then Bloodborne. Then Dark Souls 2.

I prefer Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne though since they both excel in level and enemy design the most imo. And Bloodborne objectively has the slickest combat.

@skektek: I don't know, I have never played a magic build in any of the games. Always pure melee tank or thief/rogue builds. As such I felt dark souls 2 was the hardest entry.

For one block and reposte didn't work like it did in demons and dark 1, they made the window to pull off the move insanely small. Combat also felt off, like hits that should of landed didn't and vice versa. Demon souls was hard but dark 1 felt harder for me.

Bloodborne felt the most responsive and fluid making Melle a joy and easier at times. BB is my fav followed by demons.

Oh and dark 2 had that stupid lower health per death mechanic and it limited farming because of the non respawning enemies after a time... these elements made it harder too.

Woah

We got a badass over here

Havent played Bloodborne yet but from the Souls games I would put

Dark Souls > Demon's Souls > Dark Souls II

Strangely enough, the hardest boss of the souls games for me was in the easiest one (Darklurker in Dark Souls II)

I haven't played too far into Bloodborne yet, but so far Demon's Souls is easily the hardest.

The very first souls game you play is the most difficult.

@frank_castle: And get this. he doesn't even like the game! WHOOOAaaaa crazy balls!!!!

I've only played Demons Souls, and lets say it's kicking my ars.

@frank_castle: never claimed to be. The souls games just aren't very hard. They require patience and putting up with a bad UI but actually playing the game isn't hard once you learn where all the cheap deaths are.

I agree though.

Souls games are not hard at all.

Pretty much agreed except for the cheap deaths. I have yet to experience any.

Games are still hard, especially compared to other games that are released, but patience is key is these games. Which is why I like them!

What are the cheap deaths? Like, specifically

@Chutebox: OK, Maybe not cheap deaths but there are some enemy placements designed to specifically **** you over the first run through if you're not inching your way through a new area.

As others have said your first From game is invariably the one you find the most challenging.

Scholar of the First Sin is the most difficult IMO. The hardest bosses are in DkS.

It all depends on class. If you use a Royalty in Demon's Souls, it's the easiest, but if you use any other class, it's really tough. As many have said, Demon's Souls was shockingly hard upon release, but once Dark Souls came out, the formula became expected and the games became easier as the series went on because I was getting better at the game, not because they were getting easier. Royalty did make Demon's Souls pretty simple to go through though. (For a Souls game anyways)

Demon's Souls> Dark Souls> Bloodborne> Dark Souls II

Demons is the hardest by a fair margin

Des>DS>BB>DS2

Bloodborne is so fucking easy dude. It might have cheese builds removed but it's still easier melee-wise. Gascoigne was a pretty nasty boss fight, but collectively? The game just gets easier from there.

Actual difficulty: Demon Souls > Dark Souls > Dark Souls 2 > Bloodborne

Artificial difficulty: Dark Souls 2 > Dark Souls > Demon Souls > Bloodborne

For me, Demon's souls was the hardest and the most fun. It was also more complex with its world states.

I feel like It gets progressively easier with each new game.

I prescribe to the notion that the first game you play in the franchise will be the hardest...then you just get more and more used to the mechanics.

I think you're probably right. :-)

Toss up between Bloodborne and Demon's Souls

Is the combat in Dark Souls 2 slower than BB or a lot slower than BB. I am still hesitant to buy it if it's just going to be a turtle-fest.

Just get it. They're all awesome. Look how to get the beast talisman it's extremely important

@demacabre: It is a lot slower than bb but you can avoid this by experiencing the game differently by playing as sorcerer.

It's only a turtle fest if you want to, I played with a hexer caster and sword wielder. No turtling. The thing is turtling really doesn't work well in ds2, I upgraded the best armor and shield a lot and the difference between that and cloth armor was not substantial.

In Demon's Souls, I'd say the plague babies are very cheap. Also all of the instances in 4-2 where you have to fight on narrow ledges. I'm not sure if cheap is the right word for 2-2 where you have to drop down from bridge to bridge, using the worst platforming system known to man, but it definitely sucks. Invasions can be cheap. Plus, about 80% of my kills are done in some sort of cheap fashion. I need to finish the game. I've done everything except for 1-4 and just haven't been able to make myself play the game for like 2 weeks now.

Sounds a lot like all the Final Fantasy games eh? They needed only call few of them Final Phantasy and they'd be able to call it a new IP. o

Anyway, just playing SW. :P

Well I don't really have trouble with souls games but I would say I like demon soul better than the other souls game because it variety so I can make multiple builds as a different class. Yes I will say it I loved playing as a Mage not because it way easy but they had a lot of cool attacks.

I think Bloodborne is the hardest due to the lack of shields... In DeS/DS/DS2 you could turtle a boss indefinitely if you had the stamina by hiding behind a shield. With Bloodborne, the bosses aggression and speed coupled with the lack of shields force you to have to be super offensive, trying to hold back to learn a boss's move set will result in death 99.99% of the time.

And @GhostHawk196

Thanks, I'll probably pick this up then. After BB, I need my fix.