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Best Souls game ?

Best souls game ?


  • Total voters
    184
  • Poll closed .

randir14

Augur
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
641
Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne are about equal for me.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,085
Location
デゼニランド
King's field 4...
King's Field 3
King's Field 2 (KF US).
The verdite from kf3 was much more cooler than the isle from kf2, but kf2 actually were more fast and better to play then kf3. But the content and atmosphere from kf3 were the best in the series.
Yeah, right, yuge open and empty fields w/ shitton of backtracking are better than claustrophobic & compact island w/ complex level design and lots of shortcuts you get to discover on your own.
 

ColonelTeacup

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
1,433
Hipster: Demon's Souls
Balanced: Dark Souls
"Here's why Bloodborne is inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft (disclaimer: i've never read Lovecraft)": Bloodborne
Edgelord: Dark Souls 2
You should. Lovecraft stories are great, and despite common misconceptions, are not always about eldritch creatures. If reading is not your forte, there are radio dramas done on lovecrafts work you can listen to while you do other things, like play videogames.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,474
Location
California
Bloodborne as it features the best combat and the most consistently good world design. While I love Dark Souls 2's DLC, the OC is painfully dull and unimaginative. Dark Souls 3, at least for me, is easily the most boring Souls game because it plays it too safe. Far too many callbacks, not enough new shit (the DLC was a step in the right direction, but it wasn't enough).
 

ColonelTeacup

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
1,433
Bloodborne as it features the best combat and the most consistently good world design. While I love Dark Souls 2's DLC, the OC is painfully dull and unimaginative. Dark Souls 3, at least for me, is easily the most boring Souls game because it plays it too safe. Far too many callbacks, not enough new shit (the DLC was a step in the right direction, but it wasn't enough).
Objectively wrong. Bloodborne combat is too dull, and too fast, with far too few options in terms of weapons/equipment. Dark Souls 1 is best for pvp, 2 for content. Dark Souls 3 is the worst of the lot however.
 

Valtiel

Scholar
Joined
Jun 27, 2017
Messages
116
Hipster: Demon's Souls
Balanced: Dark Souls
"Here's why Bloodborne is inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft (disclaimer: i've never read Lovecraft)": Bloodborne
Edgelord: Dark Souls 2
You should. Lovecraft stories are great, and despite common misconceptions, are not always about eldritch creatures. If reading is not your forte, there are radio dramas done on lovecrafts work you can listen to while you do other things, like play videogames.

I was joking, I was quoting some video I watched on youtube, i've read a bit of lovecraft
 

ColonelTeacup

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
1,433
Hipster: Demon's Souls
Balanced: Dark Souls
"Here's why Bloodborne is inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft (disclaimer: i've never read Lovecraft)": Bloodborne
Edgelord: Dark Souls 2
You should. Lovecraft stories are great, and despite common misconceptions, are not always about eldritch creatures. If reading is not your forte, there are radio dramas done on lovecrafts work you can listen to while you do other things, like play videogames.

I was joking, I was quoting some video I watched on youtube, i've read a bit of lovecraft
I am doubtful. I require proof.
 

Hyperion

Arcane
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
2,120
far too few options in terms of weapons/equipment
Play The Old Hunters. You'll change your mind quickly. I felt similarly on my first playthrough.

Voted for DS2 and Nioh. I'm a combatfag at the end of the day. DS2 is the best iteration of Souls combat, excluding BB because it's a wholly different, but awesome beast. I also preferred that it focused on the condition of the Hollowing, rather than just a world in decline. Was more personal, and when you did NPC quests, particularly Lucatiel's, seeing the downfall firsthand felt more ruthless and painful.

Nioh, while repetitive after 200 hours, I have to cave and say has better combat than BB and Souls, both. Each weapon style nailed everything Souls tried to do with its weapons. Wasn't an easy decision leaving Bloodborne off the board, though.
 

ColonelTeacup

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
1,433
DaS2 had good combat, but lacked decent covenants for a completely satisfying pvp experience. If not for the arena, as well as the bell covenant somehow staying alive, the pvp scene would have died. The souls amount also effected the game negatively imo. It had the greatest wealth of options and variety though, and it's changing NG+ option as well as great amount of bosses contributed to a lot of opportunities to play with different specs and techniques. It was also the last of its kind without fucked up poise and functioning mechanics. As for the old hunters, a game should not require dlc to have a decent amount of weapon variety and options, not to mention this doesn't take into account the game now lacking armors and weapons comparable to other games made that were tangentially related that had armors and weapons added in as well. Frankly, the only game i've less desire to play than bloodborne is DaS3. As for Nioh, i've never played it, so I can't comment on it.
 

Ocelot

Learned
Joined
Feb 21, 2018
Messages
363
Dark Souls 1 because it's very memorable. It not very refined or balanced and it feels half-finished at times but it has the most memorable bosses, encounters and NPCs by far. And it's atmosphere is spot on. I've played DS1 and finished DS2 a year later. I can remember most bosses and NPCs from DS1 but only a couple of DS2 bosses and NPCs, even though DS2 is more recent for me.

DS2 is still my favorite Dark Souls game for different reasons but the first one is where the series peaked IMO.
 

Ninefingers

Educated
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2018
Messages
70
Location
England
Bloodborne for best atmosphere and music (with the DLC).

DS2 for best combat and build / gear diversity.

If I had a third choice then DS1 for the world design / high degree of interconnectedness in the early game.
 

Machocruz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
4,318
Location
Hyperborea
Of the actual Souls games, I have to give it to DkS1 overall, although DeS is my favorite for its tone/atmosphere. I like Severance maybe even more than any of them though. So if TC titled this poll correctly, I would have voted for that.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
I'd say DS1 has the most memorable bosses, the best area design, and best world progression; but the character builds are the most restrictive, it has the most Demon Soul's baggage, and generally lacks QoL features of the later games (teleporting)

DS2, meh, boring levels and bosses, no interesting story really. At least it standardized a lot of the builds and upgrading mechanics.

Bloodborne was cool as hell but is severely lacking in build choices. No real magic system. Also suffers from some dumb level design problems, like teleporting back to the manor whenever you want to level.

DS3 - not sure where the hate comes from, generally an inferior game to DS1 but I still liked it a helluva lot more than DS2. Good variety of builds, best progression, world and bosses are still great.
 

DemonKing

Arcane
Joined
Dec 5, 2003
Messages
5,958
I'm still playing through Bloodborne as I only recently got a PS4 and enjoying it - it's just hard to find the time to get into it as I find with these games I need time and concentration to get the most out of it - both are in short supply when you work full time and have young kids.

Of the DS games I've finished 2 (vanilla) & 3 (including DLC) but never got round to finishing the original. I guess I like the quality of life improvements in the later games (like teleporting from bonfires) which make it easier to get into when you're time poor. Unemployed autistic edgelords will argue otherwise, but for me DS3 was still a very hard and rewarding game despite the few concessions the designers made with regards to ease of accessibility.
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
Dark Souls 2.

I like that the combat makes the weapons and armour feel like they have weight to them. You're not moving like some anime crackhouse but when you swing your sword you're committing to it. It may be clunky, but fuck it, I like it. It also has the highest replayabiltiy of all the Souls games just from the sheer number of builds you can do and how easy it is to run a playthrough of. If you hate certain portions of the game you can either entirely ignore them or fast track through them to get to where you want.

Story/lorewise, I think it's actually pretty good. The implication is that you're in a world that takes place hundreds of years or so after DS1 and because the world goes through this constant up-and-down cataclysmic struggle, nobody has time or care to keep much record of history and as such a place or person that seems familiar to the player is barely acknowledged by the game because time has moved on. Think about Ornstein in DS1 vs. DS2. In DS1 he has a name and proper title and everything. In DS2 he's just "The Old Dragonslayer" and is never even called Ornstein directly, but is given a slight nod to being reminiscent of an old legend. I like that nothing in DS1 really mattered or amounted to anything but completing a cycle, and it's the same thing in DS2. You don't link fires or any of that to inspire hope, you sit and wait for the corruption of the land to consume you. This would've been way better conveyed if they could get the lighting engine and necessity of using the torch more prominently to work like they originally hoped. It also doesn't fall into the whole, "hype up some king, eventually have an epic clash with the king." You go through all this trouble to find him, going through his castle, beating his two best sworn knights, and then you get greeted by him completely hollowed out and barely functional. He's not some great force that serves as a final climatic challenge, he's a shambling piece of undead trash that wanders aimlessly in his tomb.

Now if you're into epic and grand stuff, I can see why DS2 would be a big "fuck this game" but the fact it's such an unapologetic subversion of expectations is why it's a breath of fresh air -- especially in retrospect now that DS3 has been released and did barely anything fresh from a narrative standpoint. DS2 has the ugliest areas with some annoying obstacles in your way. You're thrown into a world that through an endless repeating of being torn asunder you're experiencing the absolute nadir of it. You still see flickers of greatness such as Heide's Tower and moments of opulence like Drangleic Castle that suggest that civilization once thrived here, but it's also surrounded by a lot of catastrophes and other devastation which makes the rest of the land look like hell and sells you that it's only a matter of time before everything else crumbles.

There are still flaws with the game and some design philosophies that were stupid but overall it's the one that dares to stand on its own and not repeat the same song like DS3 did.

Also, I'm going to commit heresy that will piss off a lot of people but I found the Looking Glass Knight fight to be way more enjoyable and fucking awesome than Artorias. I love that the area you fight has a thunderstorm going on that he's using as a conduit to empower his attacks and that with how awful the place looks compared to the rest of the castle he's clearly been fucking up guys for a good long while. But I'm more into environmental storytelling than, "This guy has a HUGE dick, you should be scared" that Artorias had associated with him.
 
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