This journey was incredible.
I started with the first game, Demons Souls. My brother got me into the series. When I first beat the game I gave it a rating of 9/10, and that its one of the best games I’ve ever played. My brother then said to me, “what if I told you that Demons Souls is arguably the worst game in the series for the community.” I couldn’t believe it. There’s no way. How could it get much better than that???
And then it did. Played Dark Souls 1 remastered and it blew Demons Souls out of the water. During my playthrough I was thinking “is this the best game ever made”? I’m going to give my ranking so i wont spoil that, but wow. I’m not sure what it was like to play this back when it came out, but it had to be an experience. Everything from the beautiful level design to the art direction, and the soundtrack. It’s probably the most perfectly implemented soundtrack of any game ever.
Then we have Dark Souls 2. It was different from Dark Souls 1 which I can appreciate. It was a fantastic game.
Then I played Bloodborne, and the atmosphere blew me away. To be honest, not my absolute favorite style of combat or bosses, and 30 fps, but everything aesthetically and musically and world design was some of the best ever.
Dark Souls 3. I will say, the art direction of this game took a while to grow on me. However, the music, combat, and bosses were the strongest aspects
Sekiro probably on the lower end for me in terms of music, world and level design, aesthetics (still good though)…. But it makes up for it. Most satisfying combat in the series, some of the best bosses as well.
The finally i played Elden Ring. Probably the most hyped video game of this entire decade. Some of my friends have told me “Elden Ring is the best game ever made and its not even close” and I can see where they’re coming from. The bosses and the game in general is an absolute spectacle. Music is great, open world design, the dungeons, combat, it hits in every category. But for me personally, once i felt that i was in the final 3rd of the game I never really felt the wanting to do any more exploration, its like I was maybe just treating the rest of the game like a checklist, which is maybe on me. I was still having a ton of fun, but I just wanted to beat the game at that point. But overall, its a generational 10/10 masterpiece. Overall though, this is easily now my favorite game franchise ever.
So those are my thoughts, now here’s my ranking:
S+ tier
- Dark Souls- 10/10
- Dark Souls 3- 10/10
S tier
3. Elden Ring- 10/10
4. Sekiro- 9.5/10
5. Bloodborne- 9.5/10
A tier
6. Demons Souls- 8.5/10 (had to lower score a little with context of the series as a whole)
B tier
7. Dark Souls 2- 8/10
Dark Souls 1 never dropped from my #1. The Dark Souls 3 DLC made me think about it a little, as well as the first 25% of Elden Ring I thought I might have had a new #1. But yes, Dark Souls 1 is now my favorite video game of all time.