Topic: How difficult are the Souls games?

How difficult are the souls games? With Elden Ring approaching fast, I’d like to ease into the Souls games. For comparison, the hardest games I’ve played were Hollow Knight (at least beating the Hollow Knight & Grimm) and Uncharted 1-3 on Crushing difficulty. How hard would the souls games be from 1-10, if I would rate HK and Uncharted 1-3 a 6? Thanks!

If Grimm in Hollow Knight is a 6 for you then the Souls games would probably be a 4, with Sekiro being a 6 or 7. They aren’t ‘hard’, per se, you can grind in the games and the right approach makes them always surmountable. Sekiro is quite a bit harder.

@Just2Milky Having just completed Demon’s Souls and also played Bloodborne a couple years ago, I can say that even though I’m merely an average skilled gamer I beat both of them. I also beat Returnal this past year and from a skill requirement standpoint, it was harder than Demon’s Souls.

But where the FromSoftware games get you is with the cryptic mechanics for things like character building and world navigation. If you’re new to the series, I’d recommend you liberally use a guide, a wiki, or a walkthrough along with plenty of YouTube. It makes the game much more enjoyable as a newcomer to not feel so lost. The game world and mechanics can be pretty complicated.

And the Soulsborne “easy mode” is just to grind and over-level. If you do that then the encounters can often be pretty easy.

@Just2Milky Honestly.... really not that hard!

I have only recently returned to gaming in the last year, and was fearful of engaging Souls-games due to the incredibly threatening rhetoric surrounding them and 'Git Gud' associations etc

IMO, the challenge is that they require preparation and some pre-play 'homework'. The mistakes that new players make is going in completely blind, with no research regarding mechanics and/or build strategy.

The key to success is just having an idea of the build/play-style you are shooting for, and then attributing your stats and loadout accordingly. Many new players go for an 'equal spread' of stats across all areas, which is a recipe for disaster. Ideally once you understand your build, you should be focussing on probably 3 (or max 4) fields to dump your stats - also being aware of soft-caps and diminishing returns (eg Vitality/health may have a 'soft-cap' at lv50, so it makes sense then to dump your levelling up into one of your other chosen fields).

@nessisonett is right, Sekiro is probably hardest of the bunch as there is little scope of level up or mix up your build... you purely have to get better with your skills. @Th3solution makes a good point also, Returnal is probably much harder that most Souls games for a similar reason. Short of a few weapon upgrades, you basically have to learn to become more skilled.

From everything I hear about Elden Ring, supposedly it will be the most accessible From game for newcomers... and the hype will be amazing.

The difficulty is vastly overstated. The only one that I would say is really hard is Sekiro because you can't brute force that one. You have to actually just be good at it. The others you can just overlevel yourself and summon help and you'll get by. You might run into some problems in the chalice dungeon bit in Bloodborne if you do that going for the Platinum.

@Just2Milky yeah as others have mentioned, they’re not overly difficult. They are a bit of a shock to the system when you first try one… but you quickly acclimatise.

@Just2Milky I think it’s the adjustment to the slower paced nature of the Souls games that takes some getting used to as well. I preferred Bloodborne out of all the games because of the faster combat.

The other thing is that there’s no hand holding or guidance at all so it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed with the opaque systems and a bit lost if you can’t figure out where to go next.

Most of these things are design choices though. But the one I really hope they’ve finally addressed is that almost all of the other games have respawn points miles away from the boss fights. Chances are you’ll take quite a few goes at the bosses and having to slog your way back to them is just not fun.

Finally, if you are struggling with one part of the Souls games, you always have the option of summoning another player to come help you. The purists will look down at you but who cares?

Not too difficult, there is a learning curve mechanically and an adjustment to your feelings around death/loss of progress but once you're over the hump they are the most consistently rewarding gaming experiences out there right now.

@Just2Milky
It can be as hard as you want it to be (e.g. play naked with a club) or you can level up and use all the tools the game gives you (some players look down on using range attack 🙄)
End of the day difficulty can vary a lot depending on your approach and strategy. Also a few bosses are jokes or gimmicky like picking up a special weapon to destroy them easy)
That is for DS games. I think Bloodborne and others rely more on skill.

My apologies for interrupt this topic, but I need help from you, because I never play "souls" game and I will be very happy if you answer to my question, because I read a lot of your comments, and I think that you are the real guy for this question:
Which game from the "Souls franchise" should I embark my adventure that I will be ready, by the summer, for the Elden Ring (when I planned to buy LG OLED 55 C12LA TV)? Is it enough good choice to start with "Demon Souls" which I bought with my console or there are some "easiest" game from this franchise?
Thank's a lot...

Start with Dark Souls or Bloodborne. Demon's Souls has a really irritating checkpoint system that might put you off and the level design is fragmented rather than connected like in later games. Personal pick - start with Bloodborne.

@Just2Milky they’re not more or less difficult, they’re different difficult. To be less cryptic you won’t have to spend an hour wittling away at a boss with a huge hit pool, while never making a mistake. It isn’t like you have to do the trick or there is just one gimmick to beat them. The games just want you to learn from mistakes and feel good about overcoming challenges.

@AngryChainsaw_ After playing the Elden Ring network test, I’d say that the best one to get you ready is Dark Souls 3. It plays pretty similarly, minus the open world!

@johncalmc I'd definitely say Bloodborne was a better starting point personally. Dark Souls was my first FromSoftware game and some things are aggressively beginner unfriendly. There are lots of mechanics the game flat out refuses the explain, the movement is deliberate yes but sometimes just too clunky, and I hate how the game says to go "above and below" with the bells of awakening, potentially sending new players to either the graveyard or new londo ruins, absolutely wrecking them and being the wrong place to go. I still really love Dark Souls and think it's fantastic, but Bloodborne doesn't have any of those problems, plus a more exciting combat system in my opinion, cooler boss design, and a world unlike most others in video games.

The hardest element in my opinion is not the combat, you get used to it ala Monster Hunter, but the exploration. I make mistakes because I get annoyed and fatigued having no clue where to go and end up making mistakes. It doesn't need way point markers of course, but Bloodborne in particular is just one continuous labyrinth.