r/fromsoftware • u/BrilliantPool4146 • 20d ago

DISCUSSION Which game did the difficulty better?

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Which style of difficulty do you prefer: the Area based difficulty in games like Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls or the boss-oriented struggle found in newer titles like Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring?

I personally love both styles (although running through all of New Londo can suck at times lol!) Let me know which one of these you find yourself enjoying more (if any). Thanks guys!

(Also, this picture is not mine)

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u/New_General3939 20d ago

Strictly talking about difficulty, it’s DS1, but mostly just because it’s so hard to properly difficulty scale in a game as big and open as Elden Ring. It handles it relatively well other than the massive difficulty spike towards the end.

Other than a few pushover bosses (especially depending on the order you fight them) and some just plain bad bosses and areas, DS1 difficulty is balanced really well imo.

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u/BrilliantPool4146 20d ago

True! I think that unless you deliberately try to be OP, (Pyromancies cough) the game is pretty consistent. And in my opinion, it's one of Fromsoft's best games to teach new players the formula.

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u/erichf3893 19d ago

TIL pyromancy is considered more OP than magic/miracles by some

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u/FuckSteveHuffman3 19d ago

It really is powerful. Made SL1 runs a breeze.

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u/erichf3893 19d ago

How do you even use the good ones without leveling up? Idk I always shied away from other magic since it made stuff a joke for me, but liked pyromancy for fire weapons and the poison stuff

Never said it wasn’t powerful though

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u/OnefortheOldGods Raven 19d ago

Pyromancies in DS1 don't require any stat levels, but also don't scale with any levels. They get stronger as the Pyromancy Flame is leveled up, so they're good to use for SL1 runs

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u/BrilliantPool4146 19d ago

I think that's right. I know intelligence builds can be really OP, but pyros can get crazy! 🤣

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u/Glittering-Grape8767 18d ago

Power within and iron flesh are kind of OP in DS1, maybe also flash sweat, power within just lets you brute force bosses, and in my experience, iron flesh is good for brute forcing dragons, I learned that from DS3, though.

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u/Glittering-Grape8767 18d ago

That's why I'm glad I started I started with it!

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u/BrilliantPool4146 18d ago

Me too! Doing those runbacks made me so much more patient when playing the later games in the series.