Which Dark Souls Should You Start With?

[@tysontschauner6142]

I started on ds3 and have been hooked on from soft ever since

[@YourFNGamers]

Glad to see the game made you a fan!

[@Gluttonythegoat]

Played the darksouls games in order. Think it was the best order to play it in

[@DerdyDubs]

Same. Agreed. DS1 was the best place to start

[@YourFNGamers]

For sure, I think there is something special about playing them in order and it definitely can help with the "old game feel" since playing them this way lets you see the improvements in each one as you progress. I don't think you can go wrong any way you play them!

[@TFTBLpod]

Interesting! I always thought Dark Souls 3 was the hardest and recommend people start with Dark Souls 1 or even Demon's Souls due to the relative difficulty. Though I agree, keep a guide handy.

[@YourFNGamers]

Yeah, I think from a purely from a boss difficulty standpoint, Dark Souls 1 or Demon's Souls are the easiest just because they were first and the arms race of more complicated boss fights hadn't been pushed like it has now. But when taking it as a whole with more people playing for co-op and some of the more modern quality of life features, I landed on Dark Souls 3. But I definitely think all 3 are worth experiencing and realistically any of them can be started with!

[@kylehart8829]

DS1 is the game that will be the toughest to get through if you play these games without a wiki. It's tough to be a good ways into the game without knowing how to upgrade your weapon, and that is a fantastic experience that you can never get back. Dark Souls 3 is a generally much easier game and is more seamless, although it has somewhat less overpowered strategies a new player will never actually have access to the best pyromancies (or even know how to ascend a pyro flame) or spells or weapons in the game unless they're looking stuff up. So in reality if you're just playing the game without any guidance ds1 will give you an experience you can never get back whereas ds3 won't do this, but on the flipside you're more likely to stick with ds3 if you start there. I think recommending ds1 as the starting point is a risk vs reward sort of thing and I can see how that would make ds3 the obvious "safe" bet. For better or for worse, you're not going to accidentally fight Gundyr with the broken straight sword or get trapped at the bottom of smoldering lake or wonder what's behind the door in farron keep for 10 hours. Those are genuinely great moments that will give you permanent memories of your first souls game, and the streamlined and straightforward progression of ds3 means you'll almost never experience anything like that.

[@YourFNGamers]

100% I think the exploration and sense of discovery is at its peak in Dark Souls 1! Like you said, I ultimately landed on recommending Dark Souls 3 as a starting point because I think it is a safer, more modern feeling game that eases people into the series, especially if they have no other experience with Fromsoftware games. For some people I think going in blind to all the games in order and just experiencing them with no guides beyond the messages on the ground would be an amazing time especially for those looking for that sense of exploration!