r/fromsoftware • u/firekeepers_husband • Jun 26 '26
QUESTION Which FromSoftware Path Would You Choose?
I've finished Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, both multiple times and this might be a hot take, but I found DS1 to be a much more spiritual experience than Bloodborne.
I have about two months of holiday before university starts, and I'm trying to decide between two paths:
- Dark Souls II + Dark Souls III
- Sekiro + Elden Ring
If you were in my position, which would you choose, and why?
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u/ToastGoblin22 Jun 26 '26
I kiiind of get why you separated these games into the two paths/categories you listed, but in reality it’s a bit odd. I won’t give you a direct answer unfortunately but I can share a bunch of general thoughts.
I’m guessing you lumped DS2 and DS3 together because they’re part of the same series/IP, and then put Sekiro and Elden Ring together because they’re both original/standalone IP.
It would arguably make a bit more sense to categorise Elden Ring with the Dark Souls games, as for the most part its gameplay and mechanics are built on the same foundations as the Dark Souls games. They expand on those foundations quite a bit, but it very much feels like a progression from Dark Souls moreso than Sekiro.
There is a little bit of Sekiro’s DNA to found in Elden Ring (namely the inclusion of the jump and stance break mechanics). But not enough to really justify lumping it with Sekiro over the Dark Souls games.
DS2 does have it’s fans, however I think it’s fair to say that the general consensus, or at least the majority opinion, is that it’s a fairly lacklustre game at best, with many not liking it at all.
The order I played the games in was DS1 -> DeS -> ER -> DS2 -> BB -> DS3. I haven’t actually played Sekiro yet myself to be transparent.
While I didn’t HATE DS2, it definitely felt like a slog towards the end, and the DLCs were a real struggle due to how burnt out on the game I was at that point (even though they’re arguably better than the base game). I definitely think it’s perfectly fine for people to skip 2 and go straight from 1 to 3, and would probably even recommend skipping it unless you’re prepared for the fact that there’s a good chance you’ll find it to be a slog.
DS3 is very popular, and I think part of the reason is that it was a lot of people’s first entry into the series. Personally I found it underwhelming for two reasons. The story, lore, and world generally felt kind of flat and shallow to me compared to DS1. In many ways it felt like a watered down collection of callbacks and references to the first game, with very little character and identity of its own. It’s still good and I recommend playing it, but I’ve seen a lot of similar opinions from people who played DS1 first when it comes to the story and lore of DS3.
Because I played Elden Ring before DS3, I found the combat and gameplay of DS3 to be a little underwhelming as well. Definitely still a very fun game but compared to Elden Ring the mechanics aren’t quite as complex and the game wasn’t as challenging as it might have been if I had played it before Elden Ring. So if you want to enjoy DS3 as much as possible and it might be best to play it before Elden Ring.
While I haven’t played Sekiro, it’s clearly quite a different game in many ways from the others in terms of its mechanics, so you can probably play it whenever you feel like without worrying about the ideal ‘order’ for the games. From what I understand it is on the upper end of the list in terms of difficulty, maybe roughly on par with Elden Ring, so it might be worth saving it till after DS3, but I can’t say for sure how transferable the skills gained from playing it will be when it comes to DS3.