Which Souls Game is The Most Challenging?

[@hhowdy]

1.Elden Ring 2.Bloodborne 3.Sekiro 4.DS2 5.DS3 6.DS1 7.Demons Souls 8. Elden Ring Elden Ring can be the hardest game in the series but it can also be the absolute easiest which is why it’s at #1 hardest and at the bottom. And it was also my first souls game and it was really hard for me. The same thing is kinda with Sekiro too it can be the hardest in the series. But once you learn the combat system (it doesn’t become easy) but it sure does become a lot lot more manageable.

[@Arkade_k17]

True. I wanted to put Elden ring at #1 too

[@issi529]

​@@Arkade_k17some bosses are stil very very hard in Elden Ring even with mimic tears. A lot of people don't know that.

[@howellbeman4157]

I have to disagree. In no way is bloodborne harder then sekiro. So many bosses in bloodborne can be beaten in a few attempts it’s not even close

[@hhowdy]

@@howellbeman4157 This isn’t an objective tier list. This is my personal one and for me Bloodborne was way harder than Sekiro. It was also my second souls game I was still getting used to the hard games.

[@shadysorkin9214]

Bloodborne is one of the easiest IMO

[@JoseViktor4099]

Insanity that Elden Ring can be both on last and first place xD

[@issi529]

Not the dlc cause leveling up doesn't count there anymore. The dlc was just peak difficulty. They objectively nailed it.

[@ItsTaken__]

⁠@@issi529 I don’t think you’ve seen how easily you can beat the dlc bosses😂 People out here one shoting them. Though I have my gripes with some of the bosses, how they executed the difficulty was pretty good.

[@issi529]

@@ItsTaken__ Yeah one shotted bosses after dying a milion times😂. With OP builds and summoning players. I bet you didn't fought every dlc boss. Shadow of the erdtree was just beyond difficult. Much much more difficult than Sekiro or any other soul and video game.

[@ItsTaken__]

⁠​⁠@@issi529 What makes you say I didn’t fight every boss? I did indeed, no way I would play these dlc without getting to see every boss. You mention OP builds and that’s the exact reason it can still be last, just make sure to get your fragments and depending on your build, you can destroy a lot of the bosses. ER just gives so much build variety that it can become easy. I admit without those builds it’s very difficult but not harder than sekiro imo, just cause of the learning curve.

[@issi529]

@@ItsTaken__ Sekiro is hard in the beginning but after that its just challenging thats all. Yeah elden ring can be easy. But if you play it normal without those bullshit builds its just very hard! The bosses are also way too agressive with very tight hitboxes.

[@GreatJoey91]

Sekiro is the one game that has people quitting before they really get started, so it’s worthy of that number 1 spot. Once you master the combat it’s also one of the most rewarding and satisfying games to play. In no other game would I happily be stuck on the same boss for days and enjoy replaying and learning the move set until I succeed. It’s a masterpiece!

[@abmtz8537]

Sekiro was my first souls like game. I remember getting my cheeks clapped by lady butterfly so many times that I was genuinely thinking that was the final boss 😂

[@axscend9147]

i’ve given up for now lmao. I’m on a trip and currently only have my steam deck and it just feels incredibly clunky. I’ll definitely try it again when i get back

[@fullmetal55100]

I am one of those people,I can’t get past the first boss I quit to hard . I’m not someone that is good at parry and that is what it feels like the game is relies on, I more of a dodge wait for an opportunity to strike play style

[@GreatJoey91]

@@fullmetal55100 I urge you to keep trying, it takes some time and patience to get the timing down, but once you master the parrying system you’ll be able to enjoy the game to its full potential.

[@SkullChama]

@@fullmetal55100damn me and you are completely different. I absolutely hate the dodge and roll with other souls games, it feels too slow to me. Sekiro is fast paced and fun asf to parry, the combat clicked with me so fast.

[@proggz39]

It’s obviously Sekiro. No summoning, no farming, no op builds. Just you and your ability to execute

[@marbycalip6522]

And your one and only sword..

[@nicod4c]

​@@marbycalip6522What about mortal blade?

[@friedchickenlover7291]

@@nicod4cI think he’s referring to no ranged or arcane builds you have to actually get up and close to each boss and learn their move set to win

[@Schizo_Ty]

@@nicod4cyou can barely use that

[@nicod4c]

@@Schizo_Ty You can cheese almost every boss with the mortal blade 😂.

[@pollen1253]

Sekiro to me was a game that once I mastered it and beat all the bosses and mini bosses in my first playthrough I was able to defeat them all again and again easily but! That damn first playthrough was the most difficult experience I’ve ever had with a game I haven’t died as many times in any of the fromsoft game as I have in Sekiro. Sekiro may always be my favourite game. Nothing has came close to topping it for me.

[@breathair66]

same brother

[@thelastpersononearth9765]

Still, I never hated dying because I can just fly past many mobs. Also, no boss runbacks were a huge W. It has the right type of difficulty

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Suckiro just isn't a Souls game though. It's a basic action game, made by the same dev that makes great RPGs.

[@pollen1253]

@@jarlwhiterun7478 I don’t know what that has to do with anything? Why call it suckiro? What don’t you like about it?

[@mateussantos8344]

​@@pollen1253 He probably couldn't BEAT the Ogre

[@andrewramirez3998]

Elden Rings bosses are by far the most mechanically difficult, input reading, delayed attacks, insane damage, long combos, roll catching, undodgeable moves which can only be dodged by exploiting tracking like waterfowl etc

[@heyguyslolGAMING]

ER Bosses also have I-Frames too. DLC Radahn has several starting & ending moves that he gets I-Frames which reduces the players ability to punish when you get an opening.

[@RedShogun13]

@@andrewramirez3998 Not for nothing but I’m like 97 percent sure everything you mentioned applies to other Soulsborne games as well? Specifically Dark Souls?

[@solarogx7476]

Yeah but if u roll u don’t get hit no matter what. In sekiro u have to perry or be away from the attack and when your on the ground and can’t move u still get hit

[@Charlie-wj4fk]

The roll system in elden ring is so easy u get the fattest reward for mashing 1 button whilst u have to time it to the ms in the ds series

[@andrewramirez3998]

@@Charlie-wj4fk I very much find that to be the opposite, in Elden Ring the delayed attacks are designed to force to player to not panic roll early. This is punishing the spam rolling in dark souls. Also there are moves that do not fit perfectly into roll frames so u have to time them perfectly so u aren’t roll caught coming out of a roll

[@AbisaiBonOv]

People don’t understand that Demon Souls was extremely difficult because it was the first of its kind… I played it on my PS3 and let me tell you, it was the most hardcore experience. Only someone who played it in the original PS3 can actually share the challenges we overcome.

[@kwaddell]

Be me and my buddy, cluelessly playing it on our PS3s for the first time on Halloween when the world tendencies were automatically pure black… we spent all day trying and failing to fight our way up to the Tower Knight. I swear, that run up held the same sinking feeling as when you’re stuck on Melenia-at the time it felt so impossible-which made it feel all the more amazing to finally beat the boss and get that new checkpoint.

[@timothyhightower2288]

Sekiro was easily the hardest for me. That last fight was brutal. One of the only souls games that I’d quit after dying to a boss and have to pick it up back up later. Other souls games I’d just keep playing till I beat the boss.

[@CaucasianWhiteFemale33]

Isshin/Inner Isshin & Inner Owl🦉 Inner Genichro Was Hell (At First) ~ But When You Learn They Moves Patterns They Become Fun 2Fight

[@pennygirl015]

Sekiro has a high ceiling to learn but low ceiling to master. It's the exact opposite for Elden Ring, at least in my opinion.

[@DETRACT0RD00M]

Demon's Souls is definitely NOT the easiest.. P.S. I love that Elden Ring brought SOOO many new players to the genre.. FromSoft is one of the only companies left making games for gamers, not for their shareholders..

[@forwardmoving8252]

How is demons souls not the easiest? Lol. It's either that or ds1.

[@DETRACT0RD00M]

@@forwardmoving8252 go through the games at SL1 and see which one ranks the easiest.. I promise you, it won't be Demon's Souls

[@hussien04]

​@@forwardmoving8252 Ds1 is definitely easier than demon souls

[@dangerousfelon]

​@@hussien04debatable. Ds1 had a few actually tough bosses. Demons souls didn't lol

[@hussien04]

@@dangerousfelon Demon souls did have some tough bosses though, the flamelurker and the maneaters are pretty tough if you ask me. Most areas in demon souls are harder than the hardest ds1 areas

[@uyuty600]

Bloodborne is not that difficult, the only difficult parts of the base game are the forest and the first parts of the game. Now if we talk about bosses, they do not stand out for their difficulty. I would say that they are going down, especially in the last 1/3 of the game where the only difficult ones are optional (ebrietas and Martin Logarius )and both suffer from the Bloodborne Syndrome, heavy blows and poor posture, now the DLC fixes this in a very satisfactory way , respect chalices only the curse ones are difficult, the new game is "hardest" than other souls because of how the damage and resistance of the bosses increases but it's easy to contrarest with gems of blood.

[@hidan407]

Yeah Imo technically Bloodborne is somewhat the easiest one. Its common to fight a boss the 1st time and actually win. I played bloodborne longer than I have played elden ring and I havent died in bloodborne nearly as a much as I did in elden ring

[@spidaaahs]

bloodborne was my second ever fromsoft game and i died to the base game bosses *maybe* 15ish times, ~10 of which were to shadows of yharnam and moon presence combined (granted i never fought logarius or ebrietas)

[@hidan407]

@@spidaaahs those 2 are easy as well tbh. Logarius is very vulnerable to staggers and ebrietas has a area behind her that you can just stay in between and kill her. Even without that most of her attacks are easy to dodge and the only real issue is a magic attack thats rough to dodge but besides that, easy work

[@Afflictamine]

Bloodborne lets you hold 20+ healing items as well, so if you have enough health to avoid one-shots its pretty easy to make it through most boss fights

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

I'm embarrassed for the people who think it's cool to say every game is easy lol. You must play games 18 hours a day and need some additional hobbies.

[@obi-wan-shinobi1967]

Sekiro absolutely has the steepest learning curve. I've platinumed every souls like and it's by far the hardest. Ishin sword saint is also my favorite boss just because of how balls to the wall fun and difficult he is to kill. Promised consort radahn comes in a close #2 spot.

[@GioBMX]

Ahh nothing like ranking the Demons Blood Sekiro Elden Souls games

[@MrMusicM67]

lolololol

[@DigitalHaze65536]

Great video. The only difference in my list is moving DS3 up to #2. I just had the most trouble with the harder bosses in that game and unlike Elden Ring there are no spirit ashes. (and most of the summons are really bad) I did manage to beat Sekiro but I'm getting too old for that level of difficulty, I wouldn't attempt that again. Definitely the hardest!

[@ghost_of_a_dead_poet]

I thought the same thing about Sekiro. I put it down several times throughout the years. When it finally clicked it was alright.

[@clanlorrd3025]

Considering only the first playthourgh of each game, it has to be Sekiro, although Elden Ring comes close second with the boss lineup it has. Especially the late/DLC bosses. However, in NG+ Sekiro feels much easier than ER, Bloodborne or even DS3.

[@hidan407]

The parry system once fully understood made the game less stressful. Knowing that you CAN deflect 95% of enemies attacks made the game much more fun

[@TheOpethOfMastodon]

Demon's Souls has the hardest ng+

[@clanlorrd3025]

@@TheOpethOfMastodon True, even just on NG+2 the most base enemies can almost one shot me.

[@Limbaugh_]

@@hidan407 It’s literally just block on hit. Sekiro isn’t very hard.

[@seanschifferle3001]

If a person never looked at any elden ring guide it would be undoubtedly #1 the bosses are just so much harder than the rest. However with those guides you can’t really say it’s harder than sekiro.

[@ShadowDemon2228]

For me, even with a lot of experience with souls games, Elden ring is the hardest. Even harder than sekiro

[@invarkul7831]

More or less optimized greatshield build or bleed build trivializes the game

[@peanutbutter5217]

Elden ring bosses are still much harder than any boss in sekiro

[@gilligoat]

Never looked at any guides or anything about the game before, but imo if you go out of your way to explore like how i spent majority of my time before going to any of the obvious main areas the game is a joke

[@invarkul7831]

@@peanutbutter5217 correct. I'd wager that if you put any sekiro boss into elden ring players will beat em without too much trouble

[@daves7086]

Bloodborne never felt difficult for me because I guess I was so immersed by it because of how much I loved the environments

[@mehmetvursavas5922]

Ds2 not being top 3 is criminal, so many hard mechanics. No roll spam, lower dodge s, stamina managment and all that

[@The_Motivation_Effect]

i thought its the easiest after demons souls

[@liszt646]

The bosses are really easy. If you have trouble is probably due to not leveling ADP (and overall jankyness of the game)

[@andrewlochner2932]

The argument isn’t which bosses are easiest it is which game and the levels in DS2 are brutal. The fact that he ignored the Lud and Zallen run back and the Blue Smelter run back makes me wonder if he forgot or just overlooked those fights. It also feels like this ranking is his favorites and not which is actually hardest. Without using summons Elden ring is still one of the easier games hence why it was so embraced by many.

[@Omallo-qp4oi]

DS2 is not difficult at all. It's just annoying which is a completely different thing

[@Omallo-qp4oi]

​@@andrewlochner2932I haven't played ER but I remember vividly how when it came out everyone was saying that the mandatory bosses were quite easy. It still confuses me how radically people's opinions on this game's difficulty have changed across the time

[@cvdeiana]

I have to disagree about Elden Ring, it's one of the easiest games in the series. Elden Ring gives you far too many tools to help hold your hand through the game, for it to be difficult you would have to go out your way to make things more difficult for yourself, which just isn't good game design.

[@cvdeiana]

most difficult 1. Sekiro 2. Bloodborne 3. DS3 4. DS2 5. DS1 6. Elden Ring 7. Demon Souls

[@Vengeance_I_m]

Actually, it's incorrect logic. Using spirit summons is actually going out of your way to use cheesy stuff that's meant to help newbies make the game exponentially easier for themselves. Tarnished doesn't start with a spirit calling bell and spirit summons. You actually have to take that item from an NPC and you're completely free to either use it or not use it, it's a choice that the game gives, it doesn't force you to use that thing the way these games force you to use dodging, blocking, leveling, parrying. I agree that Elden Ring can be the easiest with those broken unbalanced and unpatched tools. But let's not use mental gymnastics here

[@evan1430]

Elden ring easily has the hardest bosses out of any actual souls game

[@patrickdelrosario3549]

@@Vengeance_I_m How is that incorrect logic? Your logic why spirit summons is not the norm is because you have to go out of your way to an NPC to get it and you are free to either use it or not. While that is true, every item you also get falls into this category. So what is your point exactly? Did you know that you have to accept Melina's request to get a mount and to level up? Without accepting it, the game is exponentially harder is it not? But you also do not start with that, so is that also not the norm as you say? That is also freedom of choice. But before we continue discussing, can you define what is the normal build for this game? So we can come to an understanding and have established terms.

[@drtrp6769]

​@@cvdeiana bloodborne is so easy lol. I first tried orphan of kos

[@umutozer9667]

To start, I played all souls games and no hit all main&dlc bosses of Elden ring at lvl1 and completed DS3 at lvl1. So i can say i know most of the bosses very well. Elden Ring without summons and spirit ashes is by far the hardest. Boss moveset complexity is way above any other title. Radahn's phase 2 alone is more complex than all of DS1 bosses combined. Simply dodging at the right time (or deflecting for that matter) just doesn't cut it in Elden Ring. Malenia has waterfowl and the clone attack. Radahn's whole phase 2 is a fuckfest that requires very fast reactions and specific dodging methods, Cross Slash attack requires very specific positioning and fast reaction time to dodge. Rellana's quick jabs (the thrust and the uppercut) require very fast reactions to dodge also. Again, simply dodging and reflecting at the right time isn't enough and positioning is more important than any other Fromsoft title. Sekiro especially requires almost no positioning. Sekiro only has inner father and demon of hatred as bosses that are as difficult as malenia/rellana. But none of the sekiro bosses or any other fromsoft boss for that matter come close to radahn and the average difficulty of the dlc is just way higher than sekiro. After Elden Ring comes the debate of bloodborne vs sekiro. Bloodborne's difficult fights are Orphan of Kos and maaaybe lawrence. Lady maria is too squishy and ludwig just isn't that hard. Gehrman can be hard but maybe as difficult as malekith or so. Orphan is the clear top dog but he alone is just easier than inner father, isshin, demon of hatred and maybe even inner genichiro. So the second place is sekiro for me. Rest of the games are quite a bit easier than these three, DS2 is harder than DS3 solely because the dodge in DS3 is so forgiving without having to invest any stats. Stamina management is also a very noticable aspect of the difficulty for DS2 while in DS3 you never have to worry too much. The damage output of most bosses in DS3 (except midir maybe) is lower compared to other titles. Even at lvl1 Gale, Soul of Cinder, Nameless king won't one shot you. And you can always parry Pontiff and Gundyr. DS3 is just way less punishing than DS2. Even though DS3 has some of the most mechanically demanding encounters (Gael, Midir, Friede, Pontiff, Gundyr, Soul of Cinder etc damn the lineup is stacked lmao), the player character is well equipped to deal with the increased moveset complexity and health pools. Therefore the ranking is 1. Elden Ring 2. Sekiro 3. Bloodborne 4. DS2 5. DS3 6. Demon Souls. I find flamelurker harder than fucking Manus sometimes lmao. Only hard fight in DS1 is Manus. Demons Souls has flamelurker, king allant and cancer ass maneaters. 7. DS1. O&S and Manus are the only real challenges. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[@themasterbiga]

Thank you friend, this was a very well compiled list and I agree 90%

[@BickeringBuckets]

Dark souls 3 was my first souls game and it was extremely hard for me. Tbh most people think sekiro is the hardest but if you just play the game how it wants you to it’s not too bad. Also I haven’t played every souls game so this list is only out of the ones I played 1. Ds3 2. Elden ring 3. Bloodborne 4. Ds1 5. Sekiro

[@ViolaGMidi]

I mean if you go back to DS3 after Elden Ring. It's not that bad

[@BickeringBuckets]

@@ViolaGMidiI guess but for a first play through its hard

[@RowanStole]

@@BickeringBuckets every games hard for a first play through and if were going by weapons in the game to, Elden Ring is by far the easiest cause of all the ways you can cheese it. But I do agree sekiro gets not as hard after you get the controls down but ds3 is one of the easiest souls games.

[@tylerturner1429]

Excellent video sir, but one minor quibble- the problem with Sekiro, I would argue, is not a high skill ceiling, but a high skill *floor.* The “ceiling” on player skill for sekiro is essentially someone playing with Demon Bell on ASAP, no beads, no memories, no damage speed run. I haven’t checked, but I’m 99% certain that exists. The problem people run into with Sekiro is that it sets a bar and says “if you want to beat sword saint isshin, or owl (father), you must get at least this good.” Anyone who can’t hit that is left unable to finish it. That was damn near me. Took me frickin forever to beat the sword saint, and I’ve only ever done it once

[@XxPetexXx]

Sekiro imho is by far the hardest simply because you have to play the game FromSofts way. There is no way around it. Elden Ring is only as hard as you want it be basically. Which imo makes it not that hard. You can do that in some capacity with every game.

[@staticshocking9992]

I love this discussion so much because any single souls game can be someone’s “hardest” since doing my souls journey I had more struggles with the traditional souls games being DS 1-3 while Bloodborne and Sekiro I had a blast just ripping through them enjoying every boss but mostly beating them well below 10 tries. But I play Elden ring and I died to Margit 50+ times. Die to Maleketh and Malenia constantly even after multiple play throughs and learning their sets. When Elden ring can definitely be the easiest if you run Op Blood Builds or Summons. So it’s really dependant on how you approach the games. Since I love aggression and that’s my bread and butter, a game that challenges my patience like Ds 1 or 2 can really put me in the gutter. Meanwhile it could be someone’s number 1 easiest game

[@bigsmall2842]

People only say Elden ring is hard because of a few endgame bosses, when in reality 90% of the time spent playing is extremely tame and not punishing compared to the other games. Checkpoints are extremely close together, enemies are pretty non-threatening, and the game accommodates any playstyle. There’s like 3 challenging levels in the entire game. And that’s not to mention the myriad of tools to make your dps insane. You have to actively nerf the hell out of yourself to make it challenging.

[@Vengeance_I_m]

Game having good life quality improvements doesn't make it easier, it simply makes it better designed and less annoying. DS2/DS1 have the hardest bullshit mechanics like no bonfires, runbacks, curse that makes your hp 2 times smaller, one shot moves, glitchy ganking enemies, etc. Difficulty should come from bosses, and in that aspect Elden Ring is the hardest game with the most complex and engaging hard bosses

[@dangerousfelon]

This is genuinely the lowest IQ comment I've seen in a long time 😂 elden ring enemies are significantly tougher than in any of the previous games .. and Margit alone is harder than almost any boss in the previous games lmao. Are you disabled dude? Not a chance anyone with a functional brain would actually try arguing the souls games are harder than elden ring in any meaningful capacity 😂 that's hipster nonsense. Legit not ONE of the souls games comes close. You are actually mentally challenged I'm confident in that

[@Torinna_]

This is one of the most interesting questions in my opinion. Each game is hard in their own way and depending on the context your list can be completely different. For example, Sekiro on a first playthrough is without a doubt the hardest in the series. But on later playthroughs it feels like one of the easier ones. Elden Ring with summons is one of the easier games but one of the hardest without

[@hewhoshallnotbenamed5168]

There's no right or wrong answer here. Depending on your playstyle and if you use all the tools that the games give you they can range from brutally difficult or rather easy, which (with the exception of Sekiro in my opinion) all of Fromsoft's games excel at, giving you options on how to takcle the challenges they'll throw at you.

[@jonaichi_09]

Couldn't have said it better. Just like how I think Demon's Souls wasn't the easiest because comon, we all know it was the first of its kind and basically what started it all. The souls experience began with it. But then let's say you played like any Dark Souls title and then to play Demon's Souls... You'll probably have an easier time due to already learning the core mechanics and all. To me difficulty ia very subjective. We all have different experiences so there's no real way to rank these games.

[@conyer8104]

Bloodborne was my first Fromsoft game, and while I found it extremely difficult at first, I soon came to find it quite easy and engaging. But Dark Souls 3 always gives me trouble which I find funny because many people say bloodborne is the harder game.

[@canontheory]

Elden Ring has the hardest bosses but the levels themselves are by far the easiest in the series, almost too easy. Demon souls, DS1, and DS2 have the hardest levels but easier bosses. While Bloodborne and DS3 are a good mix of both.

[@lucabarnardo6613]

What helps a lot is that you only have to go through the levels once to get to the boss because there is always a grace basically directly outside the fog gate. Other Souls games have you completing an entire marathon and fight off an entire army just to get to the boss again.

[@ToonKurt]

Ds1 was maybe the hardest but in a different way. Because there are a lot of thing that the game doesn't tell you, like how to upgrade your number of estus flask (I beat Nito with 5 flask and it was very not funny) or others obscure mechanik. And in the time, this type of information were lot harder to get. But this applied only for the first playthrough

[@denzelvilliers]

Self-Imposed restrictions doesn't make a game "harder" by design, so Elden Ring is by far the easiest Soulslike from the Studio, period ( don't use this item... don't make that choice... don't go for that zone... don't play this Class... don't summon that... don't surpass SL120... c'mon, that's not an actuall "difficulty", it's just cheap sabbotage ). If the Players are using legit Tools, Classes and Mechanics that the game provides you so it's fine, that's the regular difficulty by default. If the Players are ignoring mechanics and resources to "make it harder" or exploring bugs and glitches to "make it easier" it doesn't count towards anything ( cuz the game wasn't made to work like that by design ). Said that, my personal list goes to: - Bloodborne; - Dark Souls 2; - Dark Souls 3; - Dark Souls 1; - Demon's Souls; - Elden Ring. Sekiro may be developed by From Software, but it's not a Soulslike. Miyazaki himself told us that Sekiro wasn't a Souls Game and some people still is too stubborn to let it go and face it.

[@ShadowOfLaw]

What a shit opinion. You have said - not to use any restrictions. In bloodborne - I will go to campf dungeon and get 200 levels and the best blood gems with blood chicage and destroy the game. In ds2, I will go farm souls and buffs reloading some locations 10+ times and cheese game with 400+ char. In ds3 I will go with wall build using shied magic buff for 100 stability. ds1 - pyromancy, will cheese the game even without leveling. demon souls - magic=cheese. And I am not even talking about NPC summons and imba-weapons.

[@denzelvilliers]

@@ShadowOfLaw your opnion it's the real shit one here, not mine 🤷🏻 - Bloodborne: you don't need SL200 to beat the game, but why in the fckng hell should people stop leveling their Characters?. Why people should not use the best Gems in their Builds?... - Dark Souls 2: You also don't need to clear out all enemies for each zone ( or grind up to "SL400" ) to beat the game as well. But I ask once again: why not?... - Dark Souls 3: You also don't need "wall build and shield magic" to easily beat the game and I ask another time: why people should not do that?. - Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls: Magic Builds are ( in my opnion ) not even close to be the most broken OP builds in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 or any other Souls Games. They surely hit hard but their HP and Defenses are fragile like an egg shell, you die easily ( against most enemies, not only bosses ) and must play the entired game running away trying to avoid any Damage ( while, at same time, you must find room for channeling your Spells... ). Meanwhile, STR Builds gives you as much Damage than Mages, allow you to Stun most enemies ( Dragon Bone Smasher it's a complete joke ) and you have enough HP and Defense to eat most damage without even care about dying ( Havels Set is another joke ). So I think it's time for us to stop pretending that Mages are that "broken" when we have STR Builds to play with ( the real broken "cheese" ones ), the only Souls game that I did play as Mage was my first Playthrough in Demon's Souls ( Cleric ) and I had a most difficult time trying to beat some bosses ( such as Flamelurker and Maneater ) and clear some zones ( such as Tower of Latria, Altar of Storms and the Ritual Path ) than I had in any other Souls Games playing with a STR Build using Heavy Armos ( like the Havels Set ) 🤷🏻 But anyways, just like I told before: "self-imposed restrictions doesn't make a game harder by design", so you can't claim that a game is harder than another one based on self-imposed restrictions. You can't claim that ( let's say: ) Resident Evil 4 is harder than Resident Evil 5 because you beat the game using a Knife and no Herbs, that was your doing, your deliberated self-imposed restrictions by ignoring any other weapons ( and herbs ) in the game, that was not the actuall Game difficult made by design and how the game was intended to be played 🤷🏻 So stop Gatekeeping people trying to force down their throats self-imposed restrictions ( created by other Players ) to make the game artificially "harder". You're not any better than a person who Level their Characters past over SL120, that use Summons, that use the best Weapons, Gears, Upgrades or anything else... You're not any better than people who use any classes, mechanics and resources that the game provides for their benefit... You're just an stupid person who must to boycott your own game to find some validation from it👌

[@ShadowOfLaw]

@@denzelvilliers You sound like a guy who beats an opponent in a fistfight with weapons and friends and then bragging how cool and skillful he is.

[@denzelvilliers]

@@ShadowOfLaw try harder, cuz you still sound like a stupid person to me 💁🏻

[@Vengeance_I_m]

​@@ShadowOfLawyou cooked bro so bad😭

[@GMan-ou9ht]

I finished all of the FromSoftware souls games except Sekiro. I just couldn’t get the “Deflect” skill down- and probably only finished 25% of it. All the other games offer multiple ways/strategies to win if weak in a particular skill set. But Sekiro is unforgiving. Regardless of the other tools the game provides you- if you cannot master the Deflect- you won’t finish the game.

[@flouf-p2j]

mate people have beat the game only dodging 😭

[@eenne2]

I mean i think Sekiro should almost always be objectively number one, and im not glazing. Its the only game where «cheesing» opportunities are basically non existent. Its simply git gud. Meanwhile Elden ring, which should ALWAYS be put at easiest, has so much variety in build opportunities that any boss can be taken down within 3 attempts easy. And no you cant come with the, «but if you dont use summon and magic», its a part of the game. If you wanna go ahead being lvl 1 w lvl 1 weapons doing a challenge run thats on you. Cant call a game hard when its only that because you decide to make it that way

[@lucabarnardo6613]

I would have to disagree. If you play the game on the same basis which you would take on the other souls games (no summons/decent weapon) then mechanically it is definitely harder than any other titles. Thats what makes ER so good too, it delivers a wide range of variety for those who don’t enjoy spending more than 3 hours on a boss.

[@eenne2]

@@lucabarnardo6613 well that in itself is flaud since their different games. You cant complain or assign difficulty when ignoring how easy it actually is, just cause you wanted to do it your way. But we can agree to disagree

[@reedrazor7546]

​@@eenne2 True af, In Elden ring even the movement is easier, you can jump, crouch, and you got MOUNTS, Don't get me started on the weapons and spells it literally makes the game a joke lol, I mean if someone wanna prove something go try and make dsrk souls a joke without going out of your way to overlevel. Best weapon you got there is an axe that does lightning attack after charging for a good second in the middle of battle 😂

[@Shupao77]

FACTS! Say it louder for the people in the back!

[@dangerousfelon]

@eenne2 yeah I'm convinced people like you shouldn't even be able to vote or reproduce with IQs that low 😂 elden ring is objectively harder than any of their other games besides sekiro. Grow up you hipster dork. It's so sad how hard you people try to make this bogus argument. Elden ring WITH summons playing whatever build you want (guarantee you looked it up which invalidates your argument because the info is more available for elden ring than any of their other games) elden ring is STILL harder than dark souls or demons souls. Not even close 😂😂

[@adamwestslappup]

I feel that since Elden Ring can be on all spectrums; is a testament to its design. I love all of the souls games, but Elden Ring lets me have fun with ashes of war and spells, as well as build diversity. A complaint I had with ds3 back when it first came out was how you now have these cool weapon arts, but you don’t really wanna do them cause you’ll either just get knocked out of it, you’ll take double damage cause of the counter frames, or they just don’t fit certain weapons. They nearly perfected that in ER, I feel.

[@handzofstone1152]

My list is mostly the same, I would just switch DS3 and Bloodborne. 1. Sekiro 2. Elden Ring 3. DS3 4. Bloodborne 5. DS2 6. DS1 7. DeS DS3 was definitely harder, especially in terms of bosses, mostly due to the more complex design, attacks, and movements; along with having less healing items and slow healing animations. While in Bloodborne you do have to farm healing items, that’s more of an inconvenience than a difficulty thing. As for the bosses, most of them are fairly similar; either other hunters or giant beasts. Also none of them even have a second health bar, let alone a third one, like Friede. Overall I mostly breezed through the bosses on Bloodborne. Even Orphan of Kos, the boss who most consider to be the hardest in the game, was beaten in my first attempt. And that was after not playing the game for a year too. Plus having a lot less time in Bloodborne compared to DS3. Honestly, I would argue that Bloodborne is mostly hard for people coming straight from Demon’s Souls or one of the Dark Souls games due to the difference in play styles, and less so for people who play it before those games. As for Elden Ring, that one is realistically interchangeable with any of the ones in the top four. For me, it was difficult because I played it just like I do the Dark Souls games. I didn’t take advantage of all of the things that it gives you to make it easier such as ash summons, NPC summons, and certain items. If you do use all of that stuff though, it can be one of the easiest games of the bunch.

[@SurfingPandaa]

ds3 might have harder bosses but ds1 is very hard to figure out where to go

[@drtrp6769]

​​@@SurfingPandaa boss difficulty matters more. It's not fun to waste time not knowing where to go. It is fun to fight a hard boss and not just beat it on the first or second try.

[@SurfingPandaa]

@@drtrp6769 youtube hid my comment could you paste what i said?

[@SurfingPandaa]

@@drtrp6769 nevermind it hid my new comment and showed my old one. i agree yeah.

[@OZD_Collective]

Elden ring with them bosses reading your input, sometimes made me fake dodge (not clicking) the boss in the hopes he makes a move so I could counter. The fights really are perfect.

[@RedShogun13]

If we’re talking exclusively first playthroughs Sekiro is by far and large the hardest. I’ve gotten the platinum trophy for every single Soulsborne game and Sekiro was HARD hard. Yeah yeah ive heard you can practice and really get good at deflecting like a pro and it makes things more doable but I’m not the absolute sweatmaster. I’ve only beaten Sword Saint two times and COUNTLESS hours and tries. Demon of Hatred was another controller breaking experience along with all the other 30 something sub bosses in the game. The very first sub boss in Sekiro during the intro gave me trouble and it literally never got any easier for me from beginning to finish. I will say it was a blast though and for as hard is it is it might be my favorite Soulsborne game even above Elden Ring. Elden Ring is the easiest imo although Shadow of the Erdtree is more in line with standard Soulsborne difficulty imo.

[@gamersreactions9267]

I genuinely dont understand everyone saying demon of hatred being so extremely difficult. Maybe it was because i played Elden Ring before Sekiro, but DoH just felt like a slower Elden Ring boss. I barely deflected on him and just strafed and dodged his stuff. Barely in my Top 5 hardest sekiro bosses. Guardian Ape was a bitch though

[@billowv3555]

i don't know if i was just born to play games like sekiro but my first playthrough only took around 20 hours which i think it's pretty good because it was my first souls game, i feel that i understood the combat way too early into the game and that's why i didn't struggle at all, because you could tell me to hop on the game at any moment and 1 try sword saint isshin, so that's why i always get really confused when someone says sekiro is the hardest

[@RamJamDee]

@@gamersreactions9267 I love seeing comments about how different peoples experiences were. I personally find elden ring except for malenia and consort radahn pretty easy. I’ve used all sorts of builds and the game was pretty easy with all of them. Malenia and consort radahn and maybe mesmer were the only bosses that actually challanged me.

[@dasherdude101]

​@gamersreactions9267 it is because the DoH is essentially a souls boss and by this point youve grown accustomed to the gameplay of sekiro Once you figure that out the fight becomes much easier

[@gamersreactions9267]

@@dasherdude101 that actually makes so much sense. I came fresh off elden ring, so t felt natural

[@Kidkinsey]

It's crazy how some runbacks are harder then some bosses. Demons souls 5-1 and 4-2 are more frustrating then ALOT of bosses Sekiro learning curve may be the hardest but pound for pound difficulty idk if I'd have it #1

[@Fishbone0826]

I find Elden ring was an absolute cakewalk except besides demons souls but I know everybody approaches and plays these games differently. I have several thousands of hours in each game. But in terms of difficulty for me from easiest to hardest is: 1. Demons Souls easiest 2. Elden Ring 3. Dark Souls 1 4. Dark Souls 2 5. Dark Souls 3 6. Bloodborne 7. Sekiro (easy on multiple playthroughs but still some fights that just obliterate me lol) but it’s my hardest. 3.

[@issi529]

@@Fishbone0826 I don't think you played the dlc in elden ring. Hardest challenge ever.

[@andrewramirez3998]

Bloodborne??? DS3??

[@mkultrak8226]

I HAD to sub 7 minutes in. I love your approach to subscribing or not and I’m trying to find a game I can actually PLAY. I’m 45+ and grew up on nes and snes. The graphics in these games is out this world, but I spend more time looking at the controller. I bought Bloodbore and I can’t enjoy it. Meaning I can’t get past the hunters dream stage after the werewolf kills you…i was 100% lost after that part…ya…frfr. I’m going to try Dark Souls 1.

[@forrestrichard8133]

You should absolutely stick to Bloodborne but watch a walkthrough video. If you’re brand new to souls games a walkthrough is almost necessary especially if you’re newer to modern games in general. Fighting cowboy has a great walkthrough on KZbin. It’ll explain things to you that the game doesn’t. Trust me the reason these games are so satisfying is because of how intimidating and confusing they are at first and then by the end you feel so powerful. That feeling of progression is unmatched in any other game.

[@Shupao77]

Self-imposed challenges or restrictions does not represent the game's difficulty, it only represents you as the player on how you like to play the game.

[@Vengeance_I_m]

Except spirit summons are in games easy mode, not the other way around. Bosses are not designed around them. Normal build is one you start with in every game. Tarnished doesn't start with spirit calling bell, it's an optional tool you can use if you want to make the game exponentially easier, you are free to use or not use it.

[@Shupao77]

@@Vengeance_I_m thanks for reinforcing my point

[@Vengeance_I_m]

@@Shupao77 ok keep coping and deluding yourself I guess. I provided you facts why your take is wrong, but you simply refuse to see it because of your fragile ego. Maybe it somehow magically cures your skill issue disease, who knows

[@Vengeance_I_m]

@@Shupao77 I have given factual reasons why you're incorrect. But you simply keep coping and running away from reality, just because your fragile ego doesn't allow to see it. But you do you I guess. Maybe it somehow magically cures your skill issue

[@Shupao77]

@@Vengeance_I_m Where am I incorrect? Cure my skill issue, hurt my fragile self ego? Where is this all coming from? Oh I see, a self projection. No worries, I understand.

[@KillerOrangejuice445]

For me it’s 1. Sekiro (first play through only) 2. Dark souls 1 (without having the single most broken build known to man) 3. Dark souls 3 first play through 4. Elden ring 5. Bloodborne 6 demon souls 7 dark souls 2

[@alienbull2303]

You can not put elden ring in number 2 with summons, elden ring is so easy with summons compered to the other souls game, with summons its easily number 5 or 6

[@CaucasianWhiteFemale33]

& Mimic Tear Until They Nerfed It 2Hell~ I Seen My Mimic Destroy Godfrey By Itself 😂B4 Nerfed

[@Vengeance_I_m]

Summons are not the norm, it's an additional tool that player goes out of their way to use to make the experience exponentially easier. On same builds (katana or longsword, without summons), Elden Ring is much harder than any previous game

[@Sigma993]

Bloodborne (mainly the dlc) and Sekiro were the most brutal games on my first playthrough. I really couldn't get used to playing aggressively in BB first which made the whole experience a bit frustrating early on. Same for Sekiro with the parry system. I do not consider both games hard anymore but they deserve the top spot on my list alone due to the fact that they forced me to adjust my playstyle! As for ER, even on my first (blind) playthrough, except for Radahn (pre-nerf), Malenia and Maliketh, I found the game to be quiet easy tbh. The dlc was definitely a lot more challenging though!

[@jameskelso2435]

Exactly!!! I'm surprised people found elden ring a challenge lol. I platinumed all the souls games and elden ring I did it the first week of release. It took me 4 days where the others took me a few weeks to do. Only parts I found challenging were the sewers and the haligtree and for the bosses malenia not as difficult as orphan but still difficult and maliketh not as difficult as Ludwig but still difficult

[@invarkul7831]

I feel like on your first playthrough if you are willing to use everything the game provides you it will be: 1. Sekiro 2. BB 3. DS3 4. DS1 5. DS2 6. Elden 7. DeS Objectively Elden ring has the hardest bosses. I'd even bet that if you take sekiro bosses and put them into elden ring ppl would beat 90% of them pretty easily

[@jameskelso2435]

Exactly this is the perfect list lol. Elden ring is just stupid easy if you actually try.

[@invarkul7831]

@@jameskelso2435 it's not about actually trying, just not restrict yourself to anything. Like, you are an avg normie and your goal is to beat the game. You will be using summons, bleed, frost etc. With that it mind yes, ER is much easier than DS3 for e.g.

[@onii-chan5072]

This has to be a troll list ds2 being below 1☠️

[@HotPocketEnjoyer]

Dark souls 2 vanilla is way easier than ds1 not to mention healing flasks and gems ​@onii-chan5072

[@ShadowOfLaw]

bb is near enden if you farm blood gems and top runes.

[@jordantaylor4390]

Haven't watched the video yet, but my pick would be Sekiro. In all the other games you get to be you Hunter or Chosen Undead or Tarnished, however you want them to be. In Sekiro you're Wolf. Yiu don't get to choose a weapon or magic. You're Wolf

[@epsilon1372]

in before the comments that say "erm actually elden ring is the easiest because if you get this one weapon in this one place you can snap your fingers and instantly kill the boss y'all are just bad at the game and dont use whats given to you"

[@Arkade_k17]

Lol

[@Solidsnake856]

I was just about to post that

[@AtomicZamurai]

How did you read my mind 😳

[@peep3879]

they right btw

[@ausi6758]

There are so many ways to break the game that it's hard to make that kind of exception

[@mvlaris]

elden ring was my first fromsoft, ive played op weapons and used op summons, now ive played ds 1 and 3 and ran through both games + dlcs and i gotta say my first elden ring playthrough even though „cheesy“ was still harder by a lot

[@williamliddell7981]

Haven’t played Sekiro or ER, but the only change I would make is switching DS3 to be ahead of Bloodborne.

[@BobSB129]

Your ranking is flawless imo

[@mohamedchibanibahiamar9555]

This ranking is so hard. I believe that dark souls 3 was the most beginner friendly, while dark souls 2 was the opposite and filled with bullshit. I do agree with Sekiro being first place, though.

[@iamMildlyUpsetWithMostOfYouTub]

Yea ds3 was the easiest souls game for me and ds2 is too obnoxious for me to want to try beating it again.

[@ahuman5150]

I suck ass at parrying so you can imagine how much of a hard time I had on my first Sekiro play. I decided to go for platinum and I realized dodging and jumping is underrated in this game and almost never mentioned, it definitely adds to the fun factor in my later playthroughs.

[@-Comet.]

People in the comments calling elden ring easy after they rune farm, use the blasphemous blade, use 5 buffs before every boss, and summln mimic tear every fight. Like yes if you go out of your way to make a game easier, it gets easier. The other games are the same way, people just don't go out of their way to be op in them

[@andrewlochner2932]

Don’t do any of that which makes the Elden Ring bosses the most difficult, however, if we are talking overall game difficulty DS3 and 2 are both tougher.

[@ShadowOfLaw]

@@andrewlochner2932 Elden's last bosses are much harder.

[@andrewlochner2932]

@@ShadowOfLaw agreed, but as someone who has beat every boss in the game solo 3 times and does co-op to help folks beat bosses they are stuck on the bosses are legitimately the only difficult part of this game outside of haligtree and consecrated snowfield

[@Vengeance_I_m]

Those same people also use all kinds of mental gymnastics and gaslight us saying it's us who are making a self imposed challenge 😭. Like the player doesn't even start with spirit calling bell, summons and broken weapons like Blasphemous blade, the player freaking gets some of the most broken things later in the game (mimic tear, blasphemous blade, dark moon gs, etc). And overall, the bane of Elden Ring's balancing is it being new and internet being as active as ever. Like you can see right now videos of one shotting DS1, DS3 bosses with most builds. But back in the day those guides weren't as popular because KZbin wasn't as popular as it is now with guides. Elden Ring has hundreds of videos with millions of views with titles like "this build one shots Malenia", "top 10 best spirit summons", "guide for overpowered build in 1 hour", etc. Like Elden Ring, even despite OP things like mimic tear and op weapons, is still the hardest game by far. There's big probability of people not ever finding things like mimic on their first playthrough or not giving it a try. Same with a lot of weapons, they're not that great at first, they really shine with optimised builds. But right now people simply play Elden Ring already knowing what to use that's OP before even playing the game

[@J0n4THANOS]

I’m basing my answers on whether or not I’ve ever beaten certain bosses (including DLC) and just factoring in what I think is the most difficult areas are. 1. Elden Ring: SOTE- Have yet to beat Consort Radahn! I died a shit ton to General Gaius, and OG Radahn a lot… but funnily enough I beat Malenia in 6 tries, I beat Messmer FIRST try, and I beat BAYLE 3rd try. Died more to the Mother of Fingers and Midra. 2. Sekiro- The game barely is a “souls” game, but everyone likes to include it so I will too: I never beat Isshin Ashina’s 3 phase or the Demon of Hatred. That game pushed my shit in for the entire length of the game and the fucking great Ape lol Lordy the great ape….😂 3. Bloodborne: Have yet to beat Orphan or Kos or Laurence. Ludwig and embarrassingly the Living Failures gave me a lot of grief. I think I best Maria 2nd try? 4. Dark Souls 1: The game is much less forgiving. No fast travel until after OandS. On first playthrough I hated Blight Town and the catacombs (because I went there before anywhere else 😅). I wandered into the Tomb of the Giants before getting the Lord Vessel, with NO light source at all and got stuck there for three days trying to get out 😂 . Never beat Kalameet, though to be fair I did only try a handful of times. Dark Souls 3: This game has had me raging at the likes of MIDIR! Though I did beat him eventually….and all of the other bosses. The game just seemed easier to me. I got stuck at Pontiff for a while and died quite a bit against Nameless King for sure as well as Gael. Dark Souls 2: I struggled a lot on my first play through of this game. However, I do believe it’s easier because of the addition of life gems. I was able to successfully beat every single boss in this damn game though! I struggled a lot against Blue Smelter Demon, Fume Knight, and against the Old Iron King actually! Also, two levels are so annoying: Frigid Outskirts and Shrine of Amana. And Demon’s Souls: to be fair I only played up to Tower Knight on the dusty ps3 before it crapped out, but I didn’t die hardly at all to the two bosses I fought and the addition of all of the healing items does make it seem like it’s easier. Plus it was the first one, so… This is to be expected. Once I beat Consort Radahn I’m buying Demon’s Souls remake. 😊

[@nulls5408]

In no way is bloodborne and ds3 harder than ds2. (Calling you out for ds2 bias) In ds3 you can run through most areas due to getting i-frames on opening doors and the mass majority of the base game bosses are pretty much half dead by the time you fight them. Especially if you use things like twin sell swords that you can start the game with. While in bloodborne, even doing casual runs through calice dungeons will cause you to be so overleveled with decent enough blood gems that you will breeze through quite literally anything that isn’t a moon lanter or orphan of kos.

[@SwiggleMcJiggle]

DS2 only has tedious areas in certain spots. I don't think it's as bad as some say, but literally nothing about it is hard. Even Fume Knight is a pushover compared to several bosses from later games. The game only manages to get you when it's able to overwhelm you with a ridiculous amount of enemies in order to give you the illusion of being hard.

[@onii-chan5072]

Spoken like a true casual although i agree ds2 is the hardest if you play blind

[@nulls5408]

Aww, looks like I strike a nerve lol. Let me guess you’re one of those noobs who came in the series with ds3 and bb and can’t handle when someone says anything even remotely negative about these games? If their is anything I learned in over a decade of being apart of this community it’s that I like all these games, in despite of their flaws, but your probably to vain realize that. Lol

[@ArtoriasTheme]

Elden Ring for the bosses. They advanced the boss mechanics over the years and they got to be pretty gnarly by the time of ER. In terms of ganky and cheap difficulty then definitely DS2. The individual enemies aren’t hard but you’ll die a lot on cheap things like enemies hitting you in the middle of animations, getting mobbed on runbacks, getting knocked off the tiny little walkways, etc. Haven’t played Sekiro yet.

[@el_mer01]

I like this liste because I truly hate it when fromsoft fans say elden ring is the easiest game out of all of them yet it’s clearly harder than ds1, 2, 3 and bloodborne. I’ve seen people say that the DLC makes it feel like the “average souls experience” which is quite a pathetic way of trying to discredit the newer gamers to this franchise by trying to say they play elden ring which is “easy mode” in terms of souls games. The bosses attack all the time with little and short cooldowns in between attacks. The only game I’d put above elden ring in terms of difficulty is Sekiro because that game is something else. It’s easily the hardest out of all of them but I think becomes the easiest and feels the most rewarding after mastering it because as difficult as it is, I think it’s the most perfectly balanced game they’ve ever made

[@hkiolo474]

Agree I played Elden ring for the first time without summoning and it was very hard. I think Elden ring is the only game that allows you to change the difficulty.

[@meame6945]

Elden Ring can't be the hardest because the number of tools the game gives you. Spirit summons, physik flask, open world design, ashes of war, great rune buff, etc. Skill required: Sekiro / Bloodborne Low skill required: Demon's Souls Dark Souls 1 / 2 / 3 Very low skill required: Elden Ring

[@waggy11111]

depends on playstyle with ER

[@zfoxcrafter]

Elden ring without spirit ashes and summons is probqbly the hardest but yeah it cant be first place because of the tools you can use

[@N3ro72]

ds3 def needs skill

[@tahireed]

Bloodborne does not require as much as skill as Sekiro. Thats ridiculous.

[@drtrp6769]

​@@tahireed bloodborne is easy.

[@ivanvorster]

In the souls and the elden ring, you can just take a big ass sword, upgrade it, level up your strength and just spam heavy attacks on every enemy and you’ll finish them within 10 tries without parrying, evading or summoning. Just walk around your enemy on the right side. In sekiro you’ll absolutely have to learn to parry and mikiri and cheesing the bosses is often more difficult than actually learning how to defeat them the proper way

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Cant stand when people pretend these games are easy. Prove they are easy by uploading a no death run asap

[@Arkade_k17]

Yo what is up with you?

[@eudoxaa]

i’m at the end of Dark Souls III, have to get thru Demons Souls, DS1 and DS2 before i can form a complete opinion, but having played the others, i’d rank them as such 1. Elden Ring 2. Sekiro 3. Dark Souls III 4. Bloodborne 5. Dark Souls I elden was my first fromsoft game i ever got into. the learning curve for me was incredibly steep and frustrating. it took me 3 days to beat Starscourge Radahn, 5 days to beat Radagon/Elden Beast, and damn near 2 weeks to beat Malenia on my first every playthrough. i had the most fun, but it was genuinely the hardest game i’ve ever played. i’ve beaten the game about 7 times since then, and it’s definitely alot easier, but the DLC (Messmer, Hippo, Gaius and Consort Radahn in particular) absolutely rocked my shit the first time around. sekiro was harder at first, but i came back at a later date, practiced the parrying system, and the game became alot easier. i somehow beat Demon of Hatred in 3 tries and Isshin, Sword-Saint in 15 tries. i first or second tried most of the bosses minus true corrupted monk and owl father. bloodborne was one of the easiest games i ever played. i died no more than 3 times to any of the base game bosses. i struggled the most on Ludwig and Laurence, taking at least 15 attempts each, but i beat Orphan and Maria after 3-4 attempts each. Ds3 i struggled alot for some reason, i quit the game for 4 months bc i could not get past Pontiff. for some reason i just struggle hard in thst game. but yeah elden ring for me was the hardest bc the learning curve and my impatient ass made for a bad combo. to each their own! all these games are beautiful and wonderful regardless of difficulty

[@ghost_of_a_dead_poet]

Manus destroyed me. I was so ready give up 😂

[@thesovietduck2121]

When I fought him the first time I killed him the first try however I was using the legendary GIANT DAD build so it was fair to say I was the boss in that fight. casul (sarcasm)

[@itsvinilol]

I will never understand people who think Elden Ring is extremely difficult. I played, I never used summons, I never used weapons with bleeding, just builds that I always used in dark souls, pure strength or dex, but what I think is coolest in Elden, is the weapons arts. I don't see the difficulty that so many people find, or I just adapted too much to the soulslike gameplay style, Or in other words, I am him

[@iREVENTONZ]

I feel like I'm in the major minority when I say I found Dark Souls 3 the easiest souls game. Apart from Midir and Sister Friede no other fight gave me much trouble. I first timed Gael for example and for many of the fights I'd beat them in 3 or 4 tries and each time I'd face a boss I'd get a feeling of emptiness like very underwhelmed. Not from the mechanics of the actual fights but just of powerful I felt facing them. Fights such as dragon slayer armor, Gael, Abyss Watchers, Souls of Cinder, Lorian and Lothric, especially Dancer and lastly Nameless King. All these fights were really easy to me surprisingly since these fights are very hyped up and while they are great fights I felt a bit disappointed at the difficulty.

[@nickkunze4320]

Yeah I thought actually funnily enough was easier then ds1 and ds2 bosses overall ceiling is higher quality but in terms of difficulty it’s easier I feel like people really want to rate difficulty just based on bosses and that’s simply not really the case

[@Vengeance_I_m]

@@iREVENTONZ DS3 is stupidity easy after Elden Ring. The bosses feel like they're in slow mo, also you can easily tank hits with hyperarmor without having to dodge. But even then, you only have to dodge attacks, there's no positioning or strafing involved, simply keep spamming either R1 or dodge. It's funny how Margit, literally the first major boss in Elden Ring, is much more complex and harder than overwhelming majority of the hardest DS3 bosses

[@iREVENTONZ]

​@@Vengeance_I_m See I'm a new SoulsBorne/Fromsoft fan. I started playing their games in the past 2 years and the context of me beating Dark Souls 3 was after beating Elden Ring's main game so maybe Elden Ring just makes Dark Souls 3 look easier by comparison?

[@Vengeance_I_m]

@@iREVENTONZ yeah in no way do I think DS3 is an easy game. Overall, every Fromsoft game is hard, especially Souls games. And DS3 is one of the hardest ones. It's just that there's a huge step up in terms of difficulty from DS3 to Elden Ring and Sekiro. To the point where DS3 bosses feel too simple and inferior. It's somewhat similar to how DS3 bosses feel too hard and too fast compared to DS1 bosses. I'm very glad that Miyazaki and co aren't changing their approach and are actually trying to realise their vision with each game. I really loved how they made Elden Ring the most accessible to newcomers, while also making the bosses the most difficult experience to date. I really like knowing that their new game will have even better and harder bosses than those of Elden Ring. It's so good having a company that has their true vision and won't cater to loud minorities who complain about the difficulty. SoulsBorne games have always been about knowledge and skill. The answer to every one of the games has always been to learn, preservere and git gud. I absolutely love that it's the philosophy that Miyazaki won't abandon under any means

[@Pale_Hollow]

Played these all a ton and tracked deaths on 4, so the objective difficulty for me is: 1. Bloodborne: 35 deaths 2. Elden Ring 15 deaths 3. DS2 12 Deaths 4. Sekiro: 6 deaths Those are my latest playthroughs, Sekiro gets much easier as you master it BB is always a challenge especially with the chalices.

[@nam6282]

Elden Ring at its base is probably the hardest game but there are so many tools that make the game so much easier

[@Arkade_k17]

True

[@jmv8925]

With tools is the base of the game, if you don't use them then you yourself choose the hard challenge

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

People who don't use summons or other mechanics that are included in the game make me laugh and shake my head

[@matthewweaver8212]

@@jarlwhiterun7478and here we all were hoping for your approval

[@matthewweaver8212]

@@jarlwhiterun7478maybe we’ll all change just for you

[@enjoyer5680]

I think elden ring could also be one of the easiest because of how op you can get right at the start

[@brett3723]

The hardest sounds game is whichever one you play first. Everyone after that is easy compared to the 1st playthrough EVER

[@Arkade_k17]

Nah man I played ds3 first and it was way easier than sekiro.

[@jeremiahstokes3752]

You are correct with the exception of Sekiro (it plays completely different and can be argued that it's not a souls game.) People refuse to acknowledge that their skill as a souls player crosses over into the other games, making them easier and changing first impressions.

[@brett3723]

Very true Sekiro is in a category of its own. It didn't click for me until the genichiro fight

[@rscare]

Sekiro has been sitting in my Steam library waiting to be beaten for four years.

[@Kyouma.Styles]

Am I the only one who thinks Sekiro is the easiest souls game? This is my ranking list: 1. Elden Ring (Hardest, but also can be the easiest cuz it's cheesable and you can use overpower & one shot build) has 2 hardest bosses in the entire series, Farum Azula is big difficulty jump to beat the game, and has the weirdest difficulty balance. 2. Dark Souls 3 (second hardest) The levels are very easy but some bosses are really difficult (also because it's really well designed and mechanically simple) 3. Dark Souls 1 the hardest early-mid game in any souls series I've ever played. Would be top 1 if after Ornstein & Smough not become easier (still not really that easy, but you easily gets overpower) 4. Bloodborne Has the best difficulty balance in any souls series. Areas, Enemies, and Bosses has the same level of difficulty. 5. Sekiro (The Easiest) Mechanically simple, if you mastered parry / deflect in any other games, then you can beat Sekiro. But, different from other souls games that the hardest bosses are optional boss... in Sekiro, the hardest boss are Mandatory.

[@nickpeitchev7763]

What about ds2

[@Kyouma.Styles]

@@nickpeitchev7763 still haven't played it

[@robertconroy7062]

Before watching, my ranking would be. 6. Demon Souls obviously the easiest it’s a bit dated to games skill level at the time. 5. Dark Souls 2 so many summons and powerful builds in this game. Had a great pvp scene when it was active tho. 4. Dark Souls 1 a great bar to set the series at both difficulty and gameplay wise. 3. Dark Souls 3 had an amazing pvp and pve experience I would say that it surpassed the best parts of both 1 and 2 for me. And to date I think the “Ringed City” and “Ashes of Ariandel”are some of the best duo dlcs I’ve seen in my lifetime. The only better duo DLC I can think of is the Witcher 3 with “Heart of Stone” and “Blood and Wine” 2. Bloodborne This is pound for pound Miyazakis best work, when you scale it to the time imo. It’s has a good learning curve to it, but just like sekiro it’s even more satisfying than both DS and Elden Ring once perfected. Bloodborne was difficult but had a way of making you feel like you were the boss fight w the parries and shit. 2. Elden Ring. If you approach this game like a souls vet and don’t summon it will be number 2 in terms of difficulty if you play all of them solo imo. Some of the bosses in ER were clearly tuned around summons. With obscene learning curves solo. Similar to sekiro. 1. Sekiro. Def the hardest game if you go in blind and play it without looking shit up. I used summons on Malenia tho. I’m not about to go through another 50+ attempt boss, I already beat Ishin and this is the same shit. Yes ER and BB tied.

[@ShadowOfLaw]

In sekiro you can spam-block 99% of attacks. I am pretty sure, I can randomly beat last boss after several times If I launch the game.

[@FeuerNite]

There is no such thing as a difficult souls game, there is a “difficult for me souls game”. I came to this conclusion as everyone seems to find some games easier than others. I didn’t particularly struggle with Bloodborne, yet some people call it extremely hard and I saw people quit it right away. Sekiro was a challenge just a little in the beginning for me now, but years ago I quit it on the first general. I think objectively we can’t say which game is more difficult. As for ER, it’s the easiest soulslike ever, it gives you so many opportunities to succeed, it’s impossible not to pass it.

[@ShadowOfLaw]

It is all comes to build and level. I remember, when bloodborne DLC came, and I first-tried all bosses with my pvp chicage build.

[@drtrp6769]

So you cant say which is the hardest but you can say which is the easiest.. lol. Have you even played demons souls?

[@FeuerNite]

@@drtrp6769 I just stated my opinion. You are entitled to yours. Cheers ;)

[@drtrp6769]

@FeuerNite I'm assuming that's a no. Don't say elden ring is the easiest if you haven't played them all.

[@FeuerNite]

@@drtrp6769 that’s exactly what I did, stated my opinion 😂😂😂 also I will comment whatever I want, not asking you for permission. ✌🏻

[@HighFlyingHaz]

the utter hopelessness i felt after finding out guardian ape had a second phase was crazy. it took my like 300 attempts. i finally see the shinobi execution page. and then this guy starts twitching and picks up his head? OH HELLLLL NAH. beat him the other day tho

[@lordlord3267]

Elden ring is the hardest and its not even close especillay after the dlc Rhadan alone is harder than ds3

[@Charlie-wj4fk]

I'd gladly see u one shot all the bosses in ds2

[@lordlord3267]

@@Charlie-wj4fk its too old to play it now

[@flouf-p2j]

@@lordlord3267what….. 😭

[@flouf-p2j]

@@Charlie-wj4fkall these people have only played elden ring

[@Lukevil91]

I started Bloodborne 2-3 Weeks ago. Its my first Soulslike and I absolutely love it. I already bought the DS Trilogy, Demons Souls Remake, Sekiro and Elden Ring. They are waiting for me until I'm finished with Bloodborne 😂. I also want to play games like Nioh, Lies of P, Steelrising etc. I am afraid that I maybe dont like DS because Bloodborne is way faster and so different.

[@Llamasatemyfmly]

Crazy that people think that Elden Ring is harder than dark souls 3

[@shortsamurai1213]

even crazier people think bloodborne is harder then ds3

[@idiot_city5444]

​@shortsamurai1213 this haha. I found Bloodbourne to be shockingly easy

[@shortsamurai1213]

@@idiot_city5444 fr my first playthrough i breezed through the game with the kirkhammer until i got the moonlight sword in the dlc but my first playthrough on ds3 i was getting my fucking ass whooped

[@billowv3555]

i really don't want to sound like i'm showing off or anything but i've never really understood why ppl say sekiro is one of the hardest because it was my first ever souls game and it only took around 20 hours, which i consider pretty standard for a game, and also i don't think any boss took me more than an hour and a half to beat which is another reason why i don't understand why its considered one of the hardest ones. Maybe i was just built for sekiro but i would really like to know if anyone thinks the same as me

[@faraboveothers]

It’s crazy how everyone is calling Elden ring the hardest game. It was by far the easiest for me. It was literally the only From Soft game where I did not have to farm once for runes.

[@Gerald-of-Riviera]

I still to this day struggle with DS1, where with Elden Ring I was able to beat the game and most bosses with just me and my katanas (no summons, mimic, or magic). Was an absolute blast but far from the hardest which to me is Sekiro

[@LordOfSeamenAndTestickles]

my first souls game was sekiro and It was not hard at all, Once you master the deflection timing, The game will be a piece of cake. Currently I'm playing elden ring and it is 100x more harder than sekiro for me.

[@kvsaditya8972]

@@Gerald-of-Riviera Which part do you struggle with? I found the game to be pretty easy compared to DS2 and 3 first playthrough.

[@Vengeance_I_m]

You need to specify the fact that you relied on crutches like mimic tear and watching guides. Not everyone had the same experience with the game like you

[@Shupao77]

@@Vengeance_I_m bruh just bcus u cant beat the game with the same ease as he did dont mean he watched guides or used summons. are u that insecure that someone is just better than u in a video game? HAHAHAHAHA

[@nguyenlang3727]

It took me 25 hours irl to fight consort radahn (killed him but have to use summon), literally equal to the amount of time I finished the whole game Sekiro.

[@abdullahtayyab8828]

14:20 nice issue pronunciation

[@Unknown_Meliodas]

IMO ds3 was definitely the hardest bc the amount of difficult bosses was insane. Elden ring has THE HARDEST BOSS but Ds3 had the hardest bosses. Especially the nameless king which imo was harder then melianea

[@lBadSport]

anyone that thinks elden ring is the hardest is garbage respectfully. elden ring has an infinite amount of ways to be OP. dont be dumb.

[@karayi7239]

With the assumption of a non-overpowered "honest" build aka no hit-trading, no ranged, no shenanigans, no shield, no parry, simply honest boring dodge/attack formula. (Doesn't apply to sekiro) 1-Elden Ring(Highest Mechanical difficulty) 2-Sekiro(High Mechanical difficulty) 3-DS2(Sheer frustration) 4-DS1(Navigation) 5-BB(High Mechanical difficulty) 6-DS3(Moderate Mechanical difficulty) 6-DS I'm a lil biased against DS3 since I played it AFTER ER, sekiro, and BB.

[@codykage5251]

I truly think whichever is your first souls game is gonna be the hardest too you

[@ShadowOfLaw]

then rank them only after several playthroughs of each.

[@JimtheCODpro]

Sekiro on the first playthrough is insanely hard but if you replay the game, it is a literal joke.

[@mattmillsmpm]

All of y'all saying Elden Ring is #1 has literally never played another soulslike and it shows.

[@Vengeance_I_m]

I played every game and Elden Ring is still the hardest on blind playthrough and normal build. But I understand your opinion after relying on crutches like mimic tear to beat endgame bosses

[@lucabarnardo6613]

Nothing beats Sekiro I think but Elden Ring is definitely harder than the rest if you don’t use summons. Ds3’s hardest bosses don’t even crack the top 5 of Elden Ring (except maybe Sister Friede when you fight her with a dex build). Also promised Consort Radahn (pre-patch) was in a league of his own.

[@Madara_Ghost_of_the_Uchiha]

Elden ring not in dead last immediately makes this worthless... You ACTIVELY have to literally TRY not to one-shot everything in the game. And thats EXCLUDING summons entirely as well. Speaking of which, several can straight up solo entire bosses for you. You literally just watch the summon kill everything. Also it literally doesn't matter what stat your build is around. Every stat one taps bosses. Strength? just jump attack twice or so. Basically bonk it all once or twice and it's basically dead. Dexterity? Bleed or shred dual wield. Int? Kamehameha or meteor shower or frost or spam from distance. Faith? Lightning storm or spam from distance or just buff yourself to immortality. Fucking arcane? Bleed or rot or dragon breaths. You cant escape it unless you actively try to. And calling the bosses hard? Really? 99% of them lose to diagonally dodging once or twice and then just deleting them. If you actually struggle on Elden Ring, you simply suck or do some kind of over the top challenge run... And even then I'd wonder how you're having a hard time anywhere.

[@jojo_enjoyer4866]

Beat bloodborne as my first souls and Then Played all the others and i thought bloodborne Wanst that Hard and i always thought that bloodborne that was a harder souls Game as my first souls was Kinde Impressive and i thought it Wanst that Hard but After all i tried the dlc on NG7 and i Perished at Ludwig so hard i gave up 🙏🙏🙏

[@zeroborne]

i hate how people dick ride bloodborne so much i find it much easier than all the souls especially if it isn't ur first souls shrine of amana alone is harder than everything in bloodborne and ds3 dlc bosses is harder than all bloodborne bosses

[@epsilon1372]

@@zeroborne my problem with bloodborne is that so many bosses in the base game are complete garbage. its a great game but having to fight rom, one reborn, and micolash back to back to back was one of the worst experiences ive had in a video game and the worst ive had with a fromsoft game. and outside of the dlc, it doesnt even have any amazing bosses apart from maybe gherman. thats why the dlc is so amazing though because it gives you multiple amazing S tier boss fights

[@aganbraganca4156]

@@zeroborne ya honestly such an overrated game the game has so much flaws especially easy bosses in base game and people blindly overhyped it

[@liszt646]

​@@aganbraganca4156Every game has flaws dude. ER has fcking 9 unique bosses out of almost 200 and a lot of reused catacombs and areas and people praise it to high heaven lol

[@aganbraganca4156]

@@liszt646 ya i agree another overrated game but exploration is the best part of it tho honestly only ds3 and sekiro has best and most fun bosses

[@endarius1992]

People can mention sekiro's learning curve, DS2 roll being trash, but more people have on average died to radahn and melania. I didn't even know how to mikiri counter (i thought it was lift shift due to how it looks on pc) my first playthrough, and isshin was still too telegraphed and a rollover compared to owl v2.0 or demon. Elden ring even with summons etc etc still more difficult.

[@superpower-_-1231]

So Elden Ring is the hardest considering that Sekiro IS NOT a souls like, it's an ARPG .

[@SpartanS1ayer195]

Finally someone says it

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Agreed. People that lump Sekiro in any Souls ranking are weirdos. It makes me wonder if they even played all games.

[@superpower-_-1231]

@@jarlwhiterun7478 Exactly.

[@keegswl5119]

It definitely a souls-like but not a soulsbourne its gameplay is far too diffferent to be lumped together with the others but it has similar mechanics such as bonfires, souls, consequences for death ect

[@superpower-_-1231]

@@keegswl5119 Hey I didn't classify it. It's classified as an ARPG by critics, search on internet.

[@MrBenigi]

The problem i have with elden ring that makes it so difficult for me is the insanenly long attack combos and the delay of attacks. Im old school dark souls player and thaz threw me off

[@ErosXCaos]

I firmly believe that Dark Souls 2 bosses must be compared on ng+ to the ng bosses of the other titles, for one huge reason: Bonfire Ascetics. No other game has them, or does what they do, which is to raise the local area around a bonfire up to the next higher ng+ cycle. The devs want, even expect, you to engage with their groundbreaking mechanic. Fighting a boss and respawning it even multiple ng+ cycles during the same run. They tune the difficulty of ng bosses slightly down from what they could’ve been if you only have one shot. Unlike other Souls, cranking the boss difficulty to the max goes against the grain of the game. Players won’t be incentivized, even unable, to engage with Bonfire Ascetics if DS2 made every boss as hard as it could be, like other Souls. In other words, DS2 bosses would’ve been equivalent to their ng+ iterations in difficulty if not for Bonfire Ascetics, so they were tuned down to engage and incentivize players to employ their genius and groundbreaking new mechanic.

[@reiswoodard6630]

But I don’t understand. If elden ring has the highest difficulty ceiling, then it has the highest difficulty ceiling. Who cares about “all the extra tools” it’s still the hardest it’s just means it’s the best designed.

[@trutyatces8699]

Having all the extra tools is neither irrelevant or proof Elden Ring’s the best designed. Difficulty born of making the game intentionally harder for yourself (i.e, ignoring all the exploitable mechanics you come across) doesn’t count and that is the “highest difficulty ceiling” you refer to. And the imbalance between play-styles is proof that the game is the *worst* designed if anything.

[@reiswoodard6630]

@@trutyatces8699 How can the game with the most effective playstyles be the worst designed? Accounting for the immense amount of playstyles is obviously a better designed experience for following playthroughs, and even if some playstyles are less effective than others, thats true for every game and are usually the reason people choose those playstyles in the first place, because they are not as effective. And the difficulty ceiling is not ignoring all mechanics. A difficulty ceiling is what the player has to reach or beat, and Elden Ring has the highest of any souls game (the bosses). You are describing certain steps a player can ignore to increase their struggle in reaching the difficulty ceiling (I.e. no summons). It’s just crazy to me that people who play video games these days state that varying playstyles have varying effectiveness and thus the game is poorly designed. In an rpg too. Most confused generation of video gamers ever.

[@trutyatces8699]

@@reiswoodard6630 “even if some playstyles are less effective than others, thats true for every game” isn’t an excuse for a game being an imbalanced mess. The fact remains that a clear-cut way for lobotomy patients to beat the game with minimal effort discredits any of the difficulty Elden Ring claims to have. It should be noted that all skill ceilings are nearly infinite. The *skill floor* is what matters and this is why what I say here matters. The floor required to beat Elden Ring is low and the game is therefore easy.

[@reiswoodard6630]

@@trutyatces8699You’re right that the skill ceiling is low if the game has playstyles that ruin the game. But it’s not true that Elden Ring is an imbalanced mess, especially after patch 1.13, and those playstyles that ruin the game can only be found through experimentation and increased skill in the game, whether the skill is in creating builds or executing dodge rolls. The people that beat the game easily did find mimic tear, bleed builds, and poise destroying builds, but not by themselves. Seriously, this difficulty debate is the same as 5,000 before. Obviously the game has broken items, and looking up where to find them and using them specifically to beat the game and then calling the game easy like you are because of those items is just hilarious. You can cheese any souls game dude. It doesn’t change the fact that if you use the same playstyles for Elden Ring and for example Bloodborne, Elden Ring is always the more difficult game and with the Bloodborne stunning chain? You make me laugh. I mean seriously, Dark souls 1 and demon souls are harder than Elden Ring? What a joke.

[@trutyatces8699]

@@reiswoodard6630 the joke is that you genuinely think a great deal of experimentation is required to find one of the many methods the game has to break it in half. The Mimic Tear is not genuinely hidden and plenty of alternatives exist. Most people can and do end up doing it by themselves. There is a way for every starting class to invalidate the difficulty of the game be it with Bleed, Night Comet, overpowered weapons or anything involving shields. When those methods are so readily apparent, any difficulty becomes self-imposed. Other games, for example Bloodborne, are far less exploitable in their progression and have far more balanced weapons than what Elden Ring offers. Most of all, the overpowered options that exist don’t invalidate the game to where you no longer think. No one playstyle in Bloodborne beats the game for you.

[@rohamk]

sekiro was my first souls game when i beat it i tried to play elden ring and dark souls 1 and was shocked with how much easier it was

[@fitmcdeezy8778]

Sekiros boss gauntlets are rough. Gotta go with sekiro

[@leckey119]

Laurence the first vicar automatically puts Bloodborne straight to the top for me personally. Never struggled as much on any other boss in gaming, soulsborne/ soulslike or not

[@piipoovv6267]

Most games get easier when a 2nd or 3rd are released because more mechanics and physics an so on are added in. But in FromSoft all those mechanics and physics go to the bosses not to us💀

[@gmarie40]

I'll die on the hill that Sekiro is easily the most difficult to master, but once mastered becomes the easiest FromSoft game out there. A lot of people seem to drop it because of that reason, but I think it's part of what makes Sekiro arguably the best FromSoft game. Getting through that roadblock of everything whooping you and barely being able to parry than all the way to you making Isshin Sword Saint & Owl Father look easy is one of the best feelings in gaming.

[@RevPerdueJosh]

DS1 Difficulty.= Brand of Sacrifice Evening. E.R. Difficulty. = Barney the Dinosaur.