DS3 is by far the worst of the lot. the only thing it has superior to the others is the graphics (not even the art direction) and some bosses. combat is worse, multiplayer is worse, covenants are garbage, story/lore is the worst it has ever been, world design is the worst, even the music isn't good. but that's just compare to the other soulsborne games, because as a standalone game it's still excellent. it's just the worst of the ones in the list by a wide margin.
and just like DS3 is the clear loser, DS1 is the clear winner here. it's probably the only game of the list that manages to be greater than the sum of its parts. it truly is a special game that manages to transcend most of its flaws
i love Nioh. as many have said, by far the best combat mechanics of the options in the poll (if not the best action "rpg-ish" combat fullstop). but the repetitiveness kills it a bit, and the story/lore and shit is kinda eh (though the setting is great), so i can't vote for it
Severance will always have a special place in my heart. when it came out it was fucking beautiful (and still holds up pretty well), it has so many amazing moments, like the sense of Indiana Jones-y adventuring you can get from levels like Temple of Al Farum or Oasis of Nejeb or Temple of Inanna (the level design in general is absolutely superb. i don't think there's a single bad level in the whole game), the fucking mental traps that you need to go through to get the true sword and the real ending (they make everything in Soulsborne look like a kids game), the first time you encounter that Vampire Necromancer, how there's enemies in the bestiary who hate each other so you can get them to fight among themselves, how you can dismember enemies, the first time you find one of those special elemental weapons, how different the characters are... i have pretty much preyed to the gods of gaming every night since i finished Severance 7 times almost 2 decades ago to get something similar, until DeS finally came, but i can't vote for it... i've replayed it last time a couple of years ago, and the mechanics haven't aged nearly as well as the visuals/atmosphere, the characters aren't actually different enough (f.e. each having a different movement mechanic that would let you access different parts of some levels? a bit more variety than just the first level..), the story is subpar, the controls are beyond clunky, the progression way too linear, the dial-a-combo system is eh...
Demon's Souls was the game i have been waiting ever since i finished Severance all those many years ago. out of all the ones in the list, it has the best story+atmosphere (but not lore!
), the setting is fantastic, and some of the ideas are great and it's "The First of its Name". but... i just can't vote for it. the mechanics are just way worse than all of the sequels in every single way, the build and weapon variety is pretty bad, the tendencies are good ideas but executed atrociously, most bosses are one-trick ponies and are boring to fight after the first time, most levels are mediocre, and i personally don't find any of the NPCs compelling other than meme material (just personal opinion). it's by far the least replayable in the series (but if you judged them on first-playthrough only, i'd say DeS is a very very close second to DS1)
and i'm having a difficult time deciding between DS2 and BB as the second vote. on one hand, DS2 is the pinnacle of Souls mechanically, it has the best online by a very,
very wide margin, and the DLCs are by far the best Souls experience currently available, but on the other it's the ugliest (thanks to the last minute gutting of the engine and the overuse of 90ies era texture tiling), a bit too floaty (ironic, considering it's the only mocapped one) and some of the vanilla parts can be quite bad at times. and it has soul fucking memory. and BB takes the formula in a different enough direction to feel both familiar and alien enough, plus Lovecraft (though not really!) and great level design and visually and musically it's probably at the very top, but the magic system is crap (well, the spells are best they've been in the series by far, but making them cast by bullets was silly, and it's a bit too limited and needs quite a bit of metaknowledge to properly go arcane etc), it's too linear, combat feels to samey because of the focus on fast pace and aggressiveness so even though the weapons are the most diverse they have ever been, builds don't feel anywhere near as diverse as in DS2.
for now, my vote goes to DS2 because fuck the haters (and i used to be one
), even though deep down i probably think BB is the better of the 2
all in all, i would honestly vote for all of them (except DS3
), they're all great in their own way, and all are worth playing (yes, even DS3)
tl;dr: DS1 >>> DS2+BB > DeS + Severance + Nioh >>>>>>>>>> DS3