[Nyx]

-snip-

The thing about 2 that annoys me and most people is the enemy placement, you will often get ambushed and killed in scenarios where it would have been impossible to avoid without prior knowledge. It feels unfair at times but i still really like it. I did not finish Elden Ring when i played it after it first came out so i need to replay it, right now DS3 is my fav in the series.

Absolutely agreed. The world itself in Dark Souls 2 is just constantly trying to kill you without much relenting even once you start learning the areas I find. Elden Ring is definitely worth a finish though I had an absolute blast going through that adventure.

[Selmavw]

-snip-

The thing about 2 that annoys me and most people is the enemy placement, you will often get ambushed and killed in scenarios where it would have been impossible to avoid without prior knowledge. It feels unfair at times but i still really like it. I did not finish Elden Ring when i played it after it first came out so i need to replay it, right now DS3 is my fav in the series.

Absolutely agreed. The world itself in Dark Souls 2 is just constantly trying to kill you without much relenting even once you start learning the areas I find. Elden Ring is definitely worth a finish though I had an absolute blast going through that adventure.

Elden Ring is worth multiple finishes haha. A different build makes it a completely unique experience everytime.

[Nyx]

The thing about 2 that annoys me and most people is the enemy placement, you will often get ambushed and killed in scenarios where it would have been impossible to avoid without prior knowledge. It feels unfair at times but i still really like it. I did not finish Elden Ring when i played it after it first came out so i need to replay it, right now DS3 is my fav in the series.

Absolutely agreed. The world itself in Dark Souls 2 is just constantly trying to kill you without much relenting even once you start learning the areas I find. Elden Ring is definitely worth a finish though I had an absolute blast going through that adventure.

Elden Ring is worth multiple finishes haha. A different build makes it a completely unique experience everytime.

Will be doing another playthrough at some point but I pretty much 100%'ed my first run short of doing all the endings so I want to wait a bit to forget a lot of it.

[EquitableEngineer]

DS1/DSR would be a bad choice for a new player. Rolling is worse, there's no warping until later in the game, some boss run backs are terrible, and the map is a giant loop which will be confusing. The only reason I played it first was because I had constant guidance from a friend of mine. He told me to play it first because I would gain a deeper understanding of the lore, and experience the mechanics before they became easier.

I get what you are saying and initially I wanted to say go with DS3 first but because it is so much more polished than 1 id hate for someone to play 3 and then give up on 1 because its a bit more janky. I had the best/worst time of my gaming career while playing DS1 and when i finished it i felt more pride than when i got any of my degrees. When i recommend the series to people i want them to have a similar experience to me having started from 1, its really cool seeing the games progress graphically and in terms of gameplay across the series.

Absolutely agreed. The world itself in Dark Souls 2 is just constantly trying to kill you without much relenting even once you start learning the areas I find. Elden Ring is definitely worth a finish though I had an absolute blast going through that adventure.

The weird thing about 2 is 90% of the changes make the game more difficult but then there are things like how enemies stop respawning after you kill them X amount of times which makes it both harder and easier. Easier because if you are struggling with an area and have restarted multiple times then eventually all the enemies in your path will be gone but harder because if you are trying to farm in a lucrative area the max you can farm is capped. I will definitely go back and finish Elden Ring, hopefully before they drop the DLC. From software always seem to step up the difficulty for DLC which i love, the DS3 DLC made me rage quit and come back like a year later. Currently playing the DS2 DLC and boy is it tough.

Elden Ring is worth multiple finishes haha. A different build makes it a completely unique experience everytime.

Absolutely, using different builds give the game so much replayability as well as taking a different route from the route you took on initial runs. It makes it so that an area that might have kicked your ass the first time is an absolute breeze the second. This happened for me with DS2 and the No Man's Wharf area, literally took me hours and countless deaths the first time yet on the second run it took me under 30 min and did it in 1.

[Jacob Harlon]

I love Dark Souls.

The most paramount reason is aesthetics, the world is inscrutable and incredible, and there is a special melancholic resplendency to it. The atmosphere is very well-built and I feel plenarily immersed in it. Last, but not least, the gameplay and the thrill of exploring and never feeling plenarily "safe".

[EquitableEngineer]

I love Dark Souls.

The most paramount reason is aesthetics, the world is inscrutable and incredible, and there is a special melancholic resplendency to it. The atmosphere is very well-built and I feel plenarily immersed in it. Last, but not least, the gameplay and the thrill of exploring and never feeling plenarily "safe".

I agree the exploration and environments in those games are amazing, for me this is the main reason that the Nioh game series falls short of what DS has done but it might have DS beat on combat.