Favorite Soul-Borne game?

[RepresentingWrath]

I loved "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Nioh," which is ironic because I wasn't a big fan of either of the sequels.

Didn't play SW, but I have the same opinion about Nioh. If the question was my favorite soulslike, I would've definetely picked Nioh.

 

[Anonjohn20]

Didn't play SW, but I have the same opinion about Nioh. If the question was my favorite soulslike, I would've definetely picked Nioh.

That first Nioh game was spectacular.

 

[Deleted member 146224]

Bloodborne. Nothing beats Bloodborne.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

Mine is Sekiro. That's the only one I have played lol.

"sadist author" right above Sekiro as your favorite is pretty telling lol

 

[Bartun]

Little Witch Nobeta

I loved Little Witch Nobeta, but my favorite Soul-like game would be Made in Abyss: Binary Star. That game is just sick. Never played a game so challenging and yet so fun. enjoyed every bit of it.

 

[NoodleCrow]

Dork Souls 3! Though I do love Elden Ring

Elden Ring is probably the best. But Dark Souls 1 if it got a remake would be the king. It’s so good for a blind play through and the way you discover stuff is just *chefs kiss*

Dark Souls 1 Remastered is pretty good tho

 

[John_Owl]

not a huge fan of the genre (I prefer Zelda-esque adventure games and FF-like JRPGs), but I had fun playing Mortal Shell, which is supposedly a soulslike game.

 

[georgelee5786]

Bloodborne, ER sucks

 

[HungrySheep]

Bloodborne 2. So eldritch it's not even real.

 

[Gray_Mann]

My favorite is Bloodborne. My second favorite is Elden Ring. It WOULD'VE been a tie for 1st, but the ending boss fight for the DLC lore-wise, ruined it for me and cost it the 1st place tie.

Loved the lore to all three Dark Souls games, but they were too hard for me. Elden Ring and Bloodborne were easier. Wouldn't touch Sekiro or Demons Souls with a 1,000 foot pole for the same reason. Never played either Nioh or Wo Long, but my father has 2,800+ hours on Nioh 2 so....I'm assuming that is his favorite.

 

[Anonjohn20]

My favorite is Bloodborne. My second favorite is Elden Ring. It WOULD'VE been a tie for 1st, but the ending boss fight for the DLC lore-wise, ruined it for me and cost it the 1st place tie.

Loved the lore to all three Dark Souls games, but they were too hard for me. Elden Ring and Bloodborne were easier. Wouldn't touch Sekiro or Demons Souls with a 1,000 foot pole for the same reason. Never played either Nioh or Wo Long, but my father has 2,800+ hours on Nioh 2 so....I'm assuming that is his favorite.

If you beat Bloodborne then you can beat Sekiro. They're both parry simulators, its all about having the right timing. I'd say the easiest are Elden Ring and DS2 (DS2 spamming spells strat was so OP it got multiple nerfs).

 

[Gray_Mann]

parry simulators

Lol parry. Never been good at parrying. On bloodborne, I was just good at rolling and dodging and learning how to use certain combinations of weapons/gear.

I'm TERRIBLE at parrying. I almost quit Elden Ring because of those damned Ancients or whatever in the DLC since I could only defeat them by parrying. It took me AN ENTIRE WEEK to finally kill all 6. I think it was 6? Can't remember now. I had it easier fighting Midra!!!

So no, I don't parry. I have no timing, and I'm not into all of that technical babble bullshit of learning the "windows" of each and every weapon in order to properly time parries. People have made shit too mathematical and too technical. I mean dudes are making SPREADSHEETS for stats!!! It's a game, not some fucking statistics homework. Honestly, I'm beginning to lose interest in gaming altogether. Every new game of practically any genre, is beginning to get numbers heavy. I hated math in school. I don't want to see it anywhere else. If I had to start doing calculation in my head, or even CONSIDERING the idea of getting a calculator, it's gone too far.

Elden Ring is the only game I've played in the last 2-3 years, and I only have around 700 hours in it. My interest in gaming is waning as everything becomes so....not gaming. And I'm not interested in PVP either so the fact that invaders always appear when I'm co-oping with someone, which is rare since I don't want to see anyone in my games most of the time, means I won't be playing much longer and my gaming journey will likely end soon. Also, considered all of the political nonsense, mostly of the Leftist sort, that is infecting games lately, its as good a time as any to drop out of the hobby. I read more often than I game anyway.

Also, I DESPISE the "gitgud" culture that has begun sprouting up even in games that aren't supposed to be difficult like soulsborne/souls-like, and I actively block anyone on any platform that dares to type "gitgud". I'm serious. Also, the new-ish one, "its a skill issue." Blocked. Brag if you like, but keep the arrogance and measuring dick sizes to yourself.

Gaming culture has just out-grown me I guess. Lol, I'm only 30 too!

 

[Bobple]

Mine is Sekiro. That's the only one I have played lol.

Same. I just have too many good memories of the game itself and the experience around it.
About five of my friends and myself were all playing at the same time and after class we were comparing deaths, times, and all that each day. Good times.

 

[CodeCrisis]

King's Field. Everyone always forgets King's Field. But, a close second would have to be Dark Souls 3.

 

[Romeru]

Most probably Bloodborne, it's the only one that I repeated several times. Then next is probably DS3... I still haven't actually finished Elden Ring yet T_T.
The most difficult game has caught up to me, Life.

 

[owotrucked]

I'm 1000% certain that everyone who picked Bloodborne, Sekiro or Nioh over other souls game have mainly experienced games as single players, or played the other souls game waaaay past the release date.

Everyone got brainwashed by the "muh difficulty" elite bragging meme and the "correct" way to play is to solo bosses while being naked with a unupgraded club. While it's true that the difficulty ceiling can be as high as you want, it's an absolute travesty to play souls game offline.

Did devs spend a significant time implementing netcode and many online features (often at the cost of refining the single player aspects) just so they can be completely ignored? That is obviously not the case. If someone plays a game while ignoring/disliking half of the mechanics, it's no surprise that they don't like the game.

The truth is that souls games are ephemeral pieces of art that can never be experienced ever again once the player base has moved over to other games. Each release is a firework of peak cinema and janky unpatched mess, and playing without online features is akin to visit an empty club room with no music at 10 am.

Souls games are comedies within tragedies, filled with humor and wit. The desolate loneliness of the world purposefully elevate the meaningful encounters with NPC and strangers. The cold and harsh design is there to funnel players towards multiplayer and make them huddle together against adversity.

Moving through the environment automatically replay the death sequences of other players who died near that spot (and can be reactivated with bloodstain), orange messages display advices or shitposting leaving you with a fulfilling joy whenever someone rate up your shitpost, miracle resonance lets you experience the feeling of cooperating with other player even when you're not directly together like leaving bridges in Death Stranding for other players.

Of the three Dark Souls, DS2 made the most polarizing decisions for the sake of multiplayer and was severely held back by jank mechanics and player hostile designs.

Did you know that DS2 has a fucking voice chat? It's like Lethal Company, you never get tired of getting summoned by a random and hearing them screaming at a trap, an ambush or when they fall from a ledge. But you can't experience that 10 years after the game when there's no clueless beginner anymore. Try playing Lethal company solo or with a bunch of overly serious tryhard, and you're guaranteed to have a completely different experience than the initial playerbase.

You'll never have the full experience of covenants 10 years after release. There's a covenant to invade, another one to call help when invaded, and another one to help the invaded. There's no shot any player is still available to experience the chaos of seeing a blue guy chasing a red guy chasing another guy. There's a covenant that lets you get equipments and spells by helping other players to kill bosses, but after the playerbase has moved, no one will ever request your help, and you'll never unlock Solaire's equipment.

You'll never experience again:
-summoning a white phantom and him spontaneously teaching you secret passages on the map with emotes because no mic
-snipe your friends and invade them instead of helping them (like Mildred NPC from DS1)
-getting invaded during mirror knight boss
-getting invaded by a moving crate (chameleon spell)
-getting beaten up by an invader with a laddle
-invading cosplayers (communists with hammer and shotel, capitalists whiping peasant with pitchfork and miners with pickaxes)
-seeing the ground littered with summon signs and holding fight clubs
-getting stunlocked by a spin2win beyblade
-expecting honorable duels and ending up farmed by a gank squad

DS2 has a harsher penalty when dying (losing max hp and the ability to summon help), and in single player there's no other way but to spend limited humanity items which is punishing. But in multiplayer, you can restore humanity by:
- killing an invader (if you have a friend with a red soapstone, you can farm humanities by holding duels with them)
- invading a poor lad
- leave your small soapstone, get summoned by someone and survive 8 minutes (you don't even need to reach the boss.)
- leave your white soapstone, get summoned and kill the boss
- getting summoned and beg the host for humanities in voice chat (just to receive green moss instead)

As such, summoning other players, even when you didn't need them, was an act of kindness. Moreover, each ally increases the hp of enemies, so summoning clueless beginners actually make the game more difficult but more meaningful to carry.

While dying as host is very punishing, dying as white phantom has NO consequence. There's nothing funnier than playing with other white phantoms recklessly. And before you know it, you've mastered the map and got over leveled.

Multiplayer pervaded so many aspects of DS2 that you can't help but be impressed by the devs' commitment. For instance, there's the pursuer, a boss that presents a sudden difficulty spike to the player. But the game foreshadowed the use of ballista, and that it can damage both players and enemies. With a bit of observation, you notice that there's a ballista in the pursuer's room, and that an obvious solution is to bring a white phantom so that one can lure the pursuer to the right spot and have another operate the ballista. But if you fuck up, you can friendly fire and kill your friend instead.

DS message is "you can overcome anything with the power of friendship," and the "the real kings are the white phantoms you met all along"

Now, the player base has moved to Elden Ring. You get invaded by drip inspectors who judge how cool you look with a binocular, and you get help from legends like Let me solo her and Let me tank him. And that's something you won't be able to experience once these guys stop playing.

Multiplayer in souls game is a live beast that can't be replicated. You actually have no choice but to hop on the latest game to chase after it if you want to experience those unforgettable memories. Remove it and all you're left with is a scuffed single player action RPG.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I'm 1000% certain that everyone who picked Bloodborne, Sekiro or Nioh over other souls game have mainly experienced games as single players, or played the other souls game waaaay past the release date.

Everyone got brainwashed by the "muh difficulty" elite bragging meme and the "correct" way to play is to solo bosses while being naked with a unupgraded club. While it's true that the difficulty ceiling can be as high as you want, it's an absolute travesty to play souls game offline.

Did devs spend a significant time implementing netcode and many online features (often at the cost of refining the single player aspects) just so they can be completely ignored? That is obviously not the case. If someone plays a game while ignoring/disliking half of the mechanics, it's no surprise that they don't like the game.

The truth is that souls games are ephemeral pieces of art that can never be experienced ever again once the player base has moved over to other games. Each release is a firework of peak cinema and janky unpatched mess, and playing without online features is akin to visit an empty club room with no music at 10 am.

Souls games are comedies within tragedies, filled with humor and wit. The desolate loneliness of the world purposefully elevate the meaningful encounters with NPC and strangers. The cold and harsh design is there to funnel players towards multiplayer and make them huddle together against adversity.

Moving through the environment automatically replay the death sequences of other players who died near that spot (and can be reactivated with bloodstain), orange messages display advices or shitposting leaving you with a fulfilling joy whenever someone rate up your shitpost, miracle resonance lets you experience the feeling of cooperating with other player even when you're not directly together like leaving bridges in Death Stranding for other players.

Of the three Dark Souls, DS2 made the most polarizing decisions for the sake of multiplayer and was severely held back by jank mechanics and player hostile designs.

Did you know that DS2 has a fucking voice chat? It's like Lethal Company, you never get tired of getting summoned by a random and hearing them screaming at a trap, an ambush or when they fall from a ledge. But you can't experience that 10 years after the game when there's no clueless beginner anymore. Try playing Lethal company solo or with a bunch of overly serious tryhard, and you're guaranteed to have a completely different experience than the initial playerbase.

You'll never have the full experience of covenants 10 years after release. There's a covenant to invade, another one to call help when invaded, and another one to help the invaded. There's no shot any player is still available to experience the chaos of seeing a blue guy chasing a red guy chasing another guy. There's a covenant that lets you get equipments and spells by helping other players to kill bosses, but after the playerbase has moved, no one will ever request your help, and you'll never unlock Solaire's equipment.

You'll never experience again:
-summoning a white phantom and him spontaneously teaching you secret passages on the map with emotes because no mic
-snipe your friends and invade them instead of helping them (like Mildred NPC from DS1)
-getting invaded during mirror knight boss
-getting invaded by a moving crate (chameleon spell)
-getting beaten up by an invader with a laddle
-invading cosplayers (communists with hammer and shotel, capitalists whiping peasant with pitchfork and miners with pickaxes)
-seeing the ground littered with summon signs and holding fight clubs
-getting stunlocked by a spin2win beyblade
-expecting honorable duels and ending up farmed by a gank squad

DS2 has a harsher penalty when dying (losing max hp and the ability to summon help), and in single player there's no other way but to spend limited humanity items which is punishing. But in multiplayer, you can restore humanity by:
- killing an invader (if you have a friend with a red soapstone, you can farm humanities by holding duels with them)
- invading a poor lad
- leave your small soapstone, get summoned by someone and survive 8 minutes (you don't even need to reach the boss.)
- leave your white soapstone, get summoned and kill the boss
- getting summoned and beg the host for humanities in voice chat (just to receive green moss instead)

As such, summoning other players, even when you didn't need them, was an act of kindness. Moreover, each ally increases the hp of enemies, so summoning clueless beginners actually make the game more difficult but more meaningful to carry.

While dying as host is very punishing, dying as white phantom has NO consequence. There's nothing funnier than playing with other white phantoms recklessly. And before you know it, you've mastered the map and got over leveled.

Multiplayer pervaded so many aspects of DS2 that you can't help but be impressed by the devs' commitment. For instance, there's the pursuer, a boss that presents a sudden difficulty spike to the player. But the game foreshadowed the use of ballista, and that it can damage both players and enemies. With a bit of observation, you notice that there's a ballista in the pursuer's room, and that an obvious solution is to bring a white phantom so that one can lure the pursuer to the right spot and have another operate the ballista. But if you fuck up, you can friendly fire and kill your friend instead.

DS message is "you can overcome anything with the power of friendship," and the "the real kings are the white phantoms you met all along"

Now, the player base has moved to Elden Ring. You get invaded by drip inspectors who judge how cool you look with a binocular, and you get help from legends like Let me solo her and Let me tank him. And that's something you won't be able to experience once these guys stop playing.

Multiplayer in souls game is a live beast that can't be replicated. You actually have no choice but to hop on the latest game to chase after it if you want to experience those unforgettable memories. Remove it and all you're left with is a scuffed single player action RPG.

 

[Paul__Michaels]

I think Demon Souls was pretty good

 

[Gray_Mann]

I'm 1000% certain that everyone who picked Bloodborne, Sekiro or Nioh over other souls game have mainly experienced games as single players, or played the other souls game waaaay past the release date.

Everyone got brainwashed by the "muh difficulty" elite bragging meme and the "correct" way to play is to solo bosses while being naked with a unupgraded club. While it's true that the difficulty ceiling can be as high as you want, it's an absolute travesty to play souls game offline.

Did devs spend a significant time implementing netcode and many online features (often at the cost of refining the single player aspects) just so they can be completely ignored? That is obviously not the case. If someone plays a game while ignoring/disliking half of the mechanics, it's no surprise that they don't like the game.

The truth is that souls games are ephemeral pieces of art that can never be experienced ever again once the player base has moved over to other games. Each release is a firework of peak cinema and janky unpatched mess, and playing without online features is akin to visit an empty club room with no music at 10 am.

Souls games are comedies within tragedies, filled with humor and wit. The desolate loneliness of the world purposefully elevate the meaningful encounters with NPC and strangers. The cold and harsh design is there to funnel players towards multiplayer and make them huddle together against adversity.

Moving through the environment automatically replay the death sequences of other players who died near that spot (and can be reactivated with bloodstain), orange messages display advices or shitposting leaving you with a fulfilling joy whenever someone rate up your shitpost, miracle resonance lets you experience the feeling of cooperating with other player even when you're not directly together like leaving bridges in Death Stranding for other players.

Of the three Dark Souls, DS2 made the most polarizing decisions for the sake of multiplayer and was severely held back by jank mechanics and player hostile designs.

Did you know that DS2 has a fucking voice chat? It's like Lethal Company, you never get tired of getting summoned by a random and hearing them screaming at a trap, an ambush or when they fall from a ledge. But you can't experience that 10 years after the game when there's no clueless beginner anymore. Try playing Lethal company solo or with a bunch of overly serious tryhard, and you're guaranteed to have a completely different experience than the initial playerbase.

You'll never have the full experience of covenants 10 years after release. There's a covenant to invade, another one to call help when invaded, and another one to help the invaded. There's no shot any player is still available to experience the chaos of seeing a blue guy chasing a red guy chasing another guy. There's a covenant that lets you get equipments and spells by helping other players to kill bosses, but after the playerbase has moved, no one will ever request your help, and you'll never unlock Solaire's equipment.

You'll never experience again:
-summoning a white phantom and him spontaneously teaching you secret passages on the map with emotes because no mic
-snipe your friends and invade them instead of helping them (like Mildred NPC from DS1)
-getting invaded during mirror knight boss
-getting invaded by a moving crate (chameleon spell)
-getting beaten up by an invader with a laddle
-invading cosplayers (communists with hammer and shotel, capitalists whiping peasant with pitchfork and miners with pickaxes)
-seeing the ground littered with summon signs and holding fight clubs
-getting stunlocked by a spin2win beyblade
-expecting honorable duels and ending up farmed by a gank squad

DS2 has a harsher penalty when dying (losing max hp and the ability to summon help), and in single player there's no other way but to spend limited humanity items which is punishing. But in multiplayer, you can restore humanity by:
- killing an invader (if you have a friend with a red soapstone, you can farm humanities by holding duels with them)
- invading a poor lad
- leave your small soapstone, get summoned by someone and survive 8 minutes (you don't even need to reach the boss.)
- leave your white soapstone, get summoned and kill the boss
- getting summoned and beg the host for humanities in voice chat (just to receive green moss instead)

As such, summoning other players, even when you didn't need them, was an act of kindness. Moreover, each ally increases the hp of enemies, so summoning clueless beginners actually make the game more difficult but more meaningful to carry.

While dying as host is very punishing, dying as white phantom has NO consequence. There's nothing funnier than playing with other white phantoms recklessly. And before you know it, you've mastered the map and got over leveled.

Multiplayer pervaded so many aspects of DS2 that you can't help but be impressed by the devs' commitment. For instance, there's the pursuer, a boss that presents a sudden difficulty spike to the player. But the game foreshadowed the use of ballista, and that it can damage both players and enemies. With a bit of observation, you notice that there's a ballista in the pursuer's room, and that an obvious solution is to bring a white phantom so that one can lure the pursuer to the right spot and have another operate the ballista. But if you fuck up, you can friendly fire and kill your friend instead.

DS message is "you can overcome anything with the power of friendship," and the "the real kings are the white phantoms you met all along"

Now, the player base has moved to Elden Ring. You get invaded by drip inspectors who judge how cool you look with a binocular, and you get help from legends like Let me solo her and Let me tank him. And that's something you won't be able to experience once these guys stop playing.

Multiplayer in souls game is a live beast that can't be replicated. You actually have no choice but to hop on the latest game to chase after it if you want to experience those unforgettable memories. Remove it and all you're left with is a scuffed single player action RPG.

Maybe this was your experience, but all I ever got was the "gitgud" assholes when I went on Facebook to ask for help. I literally only made a Facebook account to join a Bloodborne Help group. I admit I only went for help twice, but both times, I got the assholes which discouraged me from asking anymore. I shouldn't need to beg for assistance on a game that others are already playing anyway. So, I'm now left with a highly unpleasant view of the community and so I just don't bother with them anymore and I don't trust the moderation team of any community because they always seem to function like the same reddit rejects we all know and hate in my experience. Its not about right or wrong to them, it's about who you are and what you know/what history you have with the moderator personally.

Anyway, I ended up getting help from irl friends who were all playing Nioh 2 at the time. I seem to only meet irl people who loved the Nioh series more than any other souls-type. It's weird.

Must a peculiarity of where I lived at the time.

But the Bloodborne community was still active because people were talking and posting images and shit. This was in 2019-2020.

 

[owotrucked]

Maybe this was your experience, but all I ever got was the "gitgud" assholes when I went on Facebook to ask for help. I literally only made a Facebook account to join a Bloodborne Help group. I admit I only went for help twice, but both times, I got the assholes which discouraged me from asking anymore. I shouldn't need to beg for assistance on a game that others are already playing anyway. So, I'm now left with a highly unpleasant view of the community and so I just don't bother with them anymore and I don't trust the moderation team of any community because they always seem to function like the same reddit rejects we all know and hate in my experience. Its not about right or wrong to them, it's about who you are and what you know/what history you have with the moderator personally.

Anyway, I ended up getting help from irl friends who were all playing Nioh 2 at the time. I seem to only meet irl people who loved the Nioh series more than any other souls-type. It's weird.

Must a peculiarity of where I lived at the time.

But the Bloodborne community was still active because people were talking and posting images and shit. This was in 2019-2020.

Sounds harsh. Did you have to find help on message boards because playstation don't have any summon signs? Gitgud assholes go on message boards to brag. Forget facebook, reddit or 4chan, you'll just find basement nerds who don't have anywhere else to get validation.

I'd say, Bloodborne is a very hardcore game that was directed at the most tryhard part of the fanbase and a playstation exclusive. These guys are solo achievers. So no real surprise about your experience

You're supposed to form parties in game just by activating summon sign that litter the ground. Then, you part ways with the melancholic uncertainty that you'll never see them again, just to face them later on as enemies.

I don't know about bloodborne's multiplayer as it was a fucking playstation exclusive, but in the latest soul game on pc, the ground of bonfires is always covered in summon signs

If there aren't any summon sign, it means the game is already dead and you're experiencing the game more like a piece of history in a museum than the actual intended experience.

Right from Dark souls 1, the multiplayer is designed to transcend the boundary of language with its formatted orange soapstone or the rich amount of emote to wordlessly communicate. If you can't let these autists talk, you get to appreciate their good side.

As much I praise the helpful side of multiplayer, souls games are still a nest of griefers who love to invade people. Just like Mildred from DS1, the community is just one giant Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde