Ranking the Soulsborne Games by Difficulty! 

Hey all, I just want to say thank you so much to everyone tuning in to this video. It's a very personal topic for anyone attempting to rank it - My experiences won't match yours, and that's okay. Loving all the good-hearted debates in the comments, and I appreciate all of your support. It's my most viewed video on my channel, and doesn't seem to be slowing down. So if you're interested in more Soulsborne stuff, I've got a whole playlist's worth! Consider subbing, we're trying to reach 20,000 by Summer!

sekiro was my first ever souls game- it was beyond brutal, and still my favorite game of all time by a mile

Sekiro is a weird one because up until Genichiro it was easily the hardest FromSoft game I played. But that was the moment it clicked for me and it became a completely different beast. Once you gitgud it becomes an absolute blast.

I think Elden Ring is always going to be difficult to rank difficulty on because, in strict inverse to Sekiro, it has *staggering* levels of player choice in terms of build and playstyle that will dramatically affect difficulty to a point that it can be considered very honestly for *any* spot on this list, and figuring out how to get the "average difficulty" from all that variance is tricky!

The hardest souls game is your first souls game

The hardest Souls game is your first Souls game. That being said, Sekiro is the most difficult to brute force without the requisite combat skills

Elden Ring having the crimson/cerulean tear scarabs, and open world clusters of enemies likewise refilling your flasks were cool ways of maintaining Bloodborne's style of getting back healing as you explore without all of the drawbacks of healing being a consumable item.

I think the summoning in Elden ring not raising the bosses HP make it objectively not the hardest in addition to being able to over level so easily but Melania, pre nerfed radhan, the black blade, and the final bosses in general are so impressive and challenging.

Even now bloodborne is my favorite in the series. Fun bosses, each weapon feels fun and unique. That’s why I love its quality over quantity for weapons. Also it was my first souls experience and it was amazing.

I think Elden Ring can be summed up as, “You basically have a difficulty slider in this game”. My first play through I used all the Items and summons i could, i made it as easy as possible but then on my 2-4th play throughs I tried harder builds, without summons, and didn’t cheese any bosses (even the horrid duo) and i must say it was pretty hard that way. But it really just depends from player to player.

Hey all, I'm pretty busy over the upcoming weeks, so I won't have as much time to interact down here right now, but I'd just like to stress that this video specifically is about my PERSONAL experience with each Soulsborne game - Difficulty is subjective, there is no wrong answer, I'm just sharing how I find these games easiest to hardest from my playthroughs. Please feel free to share your own personal rankings and experiences down below, and please be respectful of each other. I know when the games themselves get ranked for whatever reason, people get VERY heated.

I love that you brought up your DS2 build. I always wondered why in nearly every clip you use of DS2 gameplay, you are always using a big club.....until I tried it myself. Flattening enemies with a big bonker is so damn satisfying and will always be my go to main weapon from now on. I also like keeping a raw rapier on the side because the quick stabs+low stamina cost just melts through boss health bars

That's a solid list, from my pov (having played all but DS2 and 3) Elden Ring was the one I had a smoother time with. It is huge compared to the rest and you have the opportunity to explore and do something else if you've reached a wall. Also, some mechanics make it easier (ashes of war, spirits, etc) shall you choose to use them. In Bloodborne and Sekiro, once you learn the parrying system it makes combat much more forgiving, which is what I like about em: you master it, you're rewarded; you don't, you're punished.

This was such an amazing breakdown! It's a well-worn topic but you raised so many great points that it felt fresh. The DS3 placement and the DS1 discussion was particularly fascinating because I would have reversed them but you make a great case.

Thank you for all the work you put in. You been getting me through the day lately.

The cool thing about Elden Ring is that it’s by far the hardest in terms of boss movesets, but From gave the player loads of ways to defeat them. If you choose to not make your character OP, all the main bosses after Rennala are unbelievably difficult to fight perfectly, so there’s something to enjoy for both beginners and masters.

Your thoughts felt focused and fine to me. Well done! My list would be almost identical, just a few switches between the DS titles. Otherwise, you invoked exactly how I felt about the games when I played through them. Thanks for the video :)

I’m surprised by the critique on DS2, I thought reaching place like the gutter and the giant memories were pretty well communicated to the player, and I never had a problem with the enemy placements outside of old iron keep, just taking your time and fighting through felt really satisfying, it hurts to hear people talk about DS2 in such a negative light when I found it a genuinely fun game (And no, this is not nostalgia talking, DS2 was one of the last games I played cause everyone said it was awful, and I was surprised)

Binged a ton of your videos today, fantastic work! Love em

Great breakdown really! I think you did a fine job with this video. I agree 100% with the list :D

Having only played through each game once this is my exact ranking myself. Sekiro is hard to get in tune with but it turned out to be my favorite! Each boss was just another ceiling to my skill level. The final ishin destroyed me so much but when I finally beat him you'd have argued I was a pro. I love the natural growth vs Elden Ring being as difficult as you make it.

This past year I have played Elden Ring and Sekiro, with ER being the first.While Sekiro is considered the harder one of the two, there was a learning curve to both and by mid game I had figured out their flow and just had a great time until the end. I want to continue by playing Demon Souls, DS 1, 2 and 3 and Bloodborne and I am kinda stuck on which to tackle first. While Bloodborne is the one I am eager to start the most, a voice in the back of my head is saying that I should start from the beginning with Demon Souls and my mind is in a constant struggle over this 😂

the algorithm sent me here and I'm happy it did! very enjoyable content, subbed!

I honestly think the difficulty ranges on which games you play in what order. For me I started with Elden Ring and It was way too hard so I transitioned to games like Bloodborne and Sekiro and DS3 and found them to be easier. For the longest time Dark Souls 1 was harder to me than most of the games until I got the groove of it. Elden Ring in my opinion is still the hardest game for me where as Bloodborne for me is the easiest since I can pound through that game in one sitting. Same with DS3

For me the hardest game has to be DS 1. It was my first Souls game, so I had a lot less experience, not to mention that when I played it the curse effect could stack! ANd I had no idea how to cure it, so that's two bells I had to ring at a quarter of my hp.

Its crazy how on point this is. There's a lot of different angles you can take and I feel like this considered and balanced them all well.

Great video as always!

It’s so interesting to me that you ranked dark souls higher than I thought. For me it’d be easiest or second (haven’t played demon souls). It’s entirely because of the fact when I found a boss I found difficult I just put on heavy armor and threw out learning anything

watching these ranking videos is always interesting to me, from my experience i think i would place every single game differently, but i love listening to other peoples experience, it allows for you to look at the games differently, and brings a whole new appreciation to what these games are, how how they impact everyone

Excellent video sir! I’ve made a lot of souls content recently and was planning a break but now obviously I need to play them all again and make my own list 😂 Liked and subbed 👍

if i were to make a list like you did (and i played all the games, just finished DS2 yesterday) i would pick the exact same order. Great job!

"You never have to worry about going black"

Dark souls 3 is the same as Elden Ring, in that the boss movesets are quite a bit more difficult to dodge than their predecessors, but the game makes sure that the player is plenty OP for basically everything. In fact, in DS3 you don’t even have to go out of your way. Just upgrade your weapon to the point it’s supposed to be at for your progress in the game, and you’re doing chunks to everything.

Perfect list honestly well put !

This is amazing! I was thinking just yesterday, how would I rank souls games. And yours matched with mine. I’m thinking exactly the same way :D

Pretty accurate list, and I agree with it from the perspective of a player having never played - because usually, the hardest game will be the first one you get into, so those points apply when you are fresh without experience. A great breakdown of points and what makes each game hard. Just a thing I will add though, regarding DS2 - I think it also has its difficulty in knowing levels, like DS1. Honestly, while some enemy placement is bullshit in Scholar, I wouldn't say all. Like Alonne Knights in Iron Keep, there is actually a path that you can go through, and if you do, the only moment you will have to fight more than one enemy at a time, is the two anime guys, one in front of the Smelter Demon gate, and the other on the opposite side. It takes time, yes, but it can be beaten without getting ganked if you know to approach it slowly. I think the opinions are a bit exaggerated regarding the placement of enemies, the only really bullshit place I can think of is the moment you open that door in Lost Bastille, before Ruin Sentinels, or the Heide Tower, with the knights aggroing when you kill Dragonrider. Ganks are also made easier to handle with bows, since those are better in DS2 than in other Souls games (and poison is fantastic if you're willing to go that route). Builds are generally more balanced though, even the most broken builds in DS2 don't feel as busted as the most busted builds in other games. I don't think this changes DS2's placement on the list, but I just thought I needed to throw that out there. Other aspects (like healing that's not just a get out of jail free card, more harsh stamina management, hollowing) keep it in that placement in my opinion too.

I'll do my own ranking according to my own set of rules: - I rate difficulty based on amount of deaths overall - I base the ranking on the second playthrough, because the order in which you first experience the series affects the difficulty of your first playthrough of every game alot, and everyone experienced the series in different order - no summons or cheese of any kind are allowed - nothing is optional From easiest to hardest: 1. DS1 2. BB 3. DS2 4. DS3 5. Sekiro 6. ER

Really lovely video, had to subscribe ^w^

Thank you for pointing out the glaring issue I also have with dark souls 2 scholar enemy placements

One thing I love about souls games is how replayable they are, demon souls came out in 2009 and the graphics are still good enough to take seriously

Ranking Elden Ring is hard IMO, it has a lot tools and mechanics you can use to make it easier or harder. Without summons or looking at a guide it's very difficult.

I agree 100% with your list. And I'm glad I've plat'd the top 2. Let's goooo

Love the video! Where would you put Lies of P?

My first souls game ever was Sekiro, quickly followed by Bloodborne! I beat Mergo and Lady Maria without realizing you could equip runes/rings 😢 I wouldn’t trade my perspective for anyone’s though!

Elden ring, no summons, leveling naturally without rune farming, and no using DM greatsword or blasphemous blade is actually pretty hard especially at the end game. Unless you’re fighting them with a broken build and summons, the bosses at the end game of elden I personally think are the hardest they have made

Pretty good list...I'd agree with the placement of all of these pretty much 👍

I think for me the easiest to hardest list is -Demon Souls -Dark Souls -Elden Ring -DS 3 -DS 2 -Sekiro -Bloodborne

Sekiros linda weird since it comes off very hard at first, but once you realize how to game the parry system it becomes a joke. Hardest part for me was the two samurai guys right before isshin

Dark Aouls 3 tortured me the first time I played it (my second soulsborne right after Dark Souls). I loved every second of it but it was incredibly hard. I never defeated Friede, Midir and Nameless King and moved on to the other games. Not too long ago after having mastered every other soulsborne i came back to Dark Souls 3 for my second second playthrough. I first or second tried every single boss including the ones I haven’t beat before and Dancer and Dragonslayer Armor before even defeating Vordt. I always thought the game is the hardest in the series but it was just one of my first ones. Elden Ring without summons and overleveling improved my reflexes so much that Dark Souls 3 feels like a slow tutorial. And on top of that every boss does nearly no damage and has incredibly less amounts of HP compared to the ones from Elden Ring. Don’t get me wrong, I dislike mostly Elden Rings bosses when it comes to those aspects and I like Dark Souls 3s approach of ”fair“ movesets and balancing better, but these games got so much harder over the years without me noticing it at all.

I'm finally able to enjoy more of your videos now that I'm playing Elden Ring

Great Video!

You’re hands down the most underrated RU-vidr making this kind of souls content and my favorite out of all of them, keep dropping bangers bro

I mostly agree with the ranking, but I agree even more with the arguments behind the placement, very good video 😊 For my it would be like this: 1. Sekiro 2. Bloodborne 3. Dark Souls 1 (Even though it's the one I've played the most, I still think is harder than DS2 and DS3, specially of we're talking about the first playthrough of each game) 4. Dark Souls 3 5. Dark Souls 2 (I have played 60 hours of Elden Ring, but I haven't finished it)

I think using guides reduces difficulty on each game by varying degrees, so i wouldn't even use that as a factor since that heavily skews the results. I hate the idea that people spoil themselves before reaching their first ending. Sekiro is by FAR the easiest imo. It gives the player far too much lee-way in combat and also easy methods to retreat if you feel the need. Everyone screams "super fast-paced combat", but that doesn't matter when you can block all attacks that don't have a loud SFX and VFX that indicate they are unblockable. As soon as I fought Lady Butterfly and she beat the game's system into my head, i swept through the game and was a little disappointed by the lack of any ramping difficulty. Though I will say I had fun with bosses like Great Shinobi Owl and True Corrupt Monk... Obviously, everyone's perspective is going to be different based on what type of games they are used to, but for me, DS2 was the hardest on a first run on the basis that the journey was pretty long before ever reaching Drangleic Castle and a lot of the bosses were fairly tough on a first playthrough. In my opinion, from easiest to hardest: Sekiro, DS1/DeS (toss up based on multiple factors), DS3, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and DS2.

interesting, i mostly agree with your list. I do think that difficulty is hard to measure in these games, as some of the games such as ds1, and elden ring, can be trivialized by scrolling the wiki. And also games like ds3 have an obvious meta, so for my first playthrough of that game where i used katanas, it was a cakewalk, but then i tried it again with a miracle playthrough and the game became like 10x harder

A friend of mine is actually struggling a lot in DS3, altough beating all the bosses in DS1 in just 2 to 4 attempts. The poise and setup made it actually one of the easiest game ever, but as poise is non existant in DS3 she died like... 17 times just in the first area. Every game changes in a significant way, and I like that, because I never feel like I'm playing the same game all over again with a re-skin (even when sometimes feels that way).

Sekiro was the easiest for me, bc/ I find that souls/bloodborne require you to understand direction as well as timing when you roll. You have to know when to roll into someone, when to roll out, when roll to the right/left. In sekiro, there is no directionality, just paarrying. So it's pure timing. Also, recovery time on parries is way faster than on rolls. I never got parry-caught, but I constantly get roll-caught.

Dark Souls 1 really wasn’t tough depending on your build either though. You can actually just face tank everything with havel set and turn your brain off. I think a lot of the difficulty comes from the sluggish controls. That being said it’s still one of the best games I ever played

I agree with what you said about Dark Souls 3. That was my first foray into the Souls series. I then went back to Dark Souls 1 and found that a cake walk in comparison and 1 shot some of the toughest bosses the game throws at you. I'd switch DS3 and DS1's placement due to my experience.

I was scared he was gonna put Sekiro at 6 when he started showing sekiro gameplay 😂

Sometimes I can’t believe how Sekiro was my first Souls game :,) I agree 100% with your list, I have the same issues with DS3 and Elden Ring, specially with Elden Ring. Is absurd how easy and early you can become OP with multiple buffs at the same time, upgrade weapons, spirit ashes, good armor sets… Even farm rare items is easier compare to the other games, while Sekiro is you and your sword and that’s it, is the ultime challenge and peak of their combat systems. Love your videos, you’re the best Souls channel 🩵

DS3 was my first, and strangely enough I don't remember it being THAT hard, maybe it's because before it I was a fanatic of very difficult games (like Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Metal Gear Rising on their hardest difficulties)

Sekiro is my favorite fromsoft game by a mile. I know it wasnt the most popular game and many people who liked dark souls did not like sekiro - but for the people who did enjoy it that game is a transcendent experience. Would love for them to revisit that combat style with a sequel or spiritual successor

I think the hardest Soulsgame will always be the first one you ever played. You know nothing, get rect by simple enemies and going in areas where you definetely should not be. You dont understand core combat styles or see similarities to attacks of prievious bosses. All that "skills" will grow when you finish the first game and in the next one you start to adapt to what you have seen before. Of course experience in one game does not make the others a cake walk but the feel of "This feels similar" or "It is like..." gives you an advantage that you just dont have at the first game you ever played. I would count Sekiro out of my arguement because its the most different game out of all of them. In fact it was so different and hard to learn that people quit the game very early. This is why I think it deserves the title of hardest because no experience in the other games prepared you for it no matter how often you finished the other games and that being said while you can literally revive yourself multiple times in Sekiro

Elden ring was my first FromSoftware game, but I did watch my uncle play through the dark souls trilogy, so I am mixed whether or not Elden ring should be ranked higher.

My list from Easiest to Heardest 7. Dark Souls 1 ●First ever play through was this October and I really enjoyed my time with it but I was never stuck in this game didn't find any real challenge from any of the bosses. 6. Demon Souls ●With the dark and light tendency thing without knowing about it that was a slight announce but unlike Dark Souls 1 there where a few bosses that I was genuinely stuck on. 5. Bloodborne ●After adjusting to the more aggressive nature of the combat I had blitzed through this one what puts this above Demon Souls for me was the fact that it's not very well optimized the game targets 30fps but it almost never hits that mark also the start of the game was a struggle. 4. Elden Ring ●Maybe because I have played other souls like this was not as hard as others I had played with the amount of builds available in this game is insane I loved the open world and the sheer amount of bosses to tackle my only real grip was if you missed a dungeon that was intended for a lower level it doesn't scale with you so when you back track and run through the dungeon it is a absolute breeze. 3. Dark Souls 3 ●After finishing Demon Souls (ps5) my roommate would not stop saying "you need to play Dark Souls 3" "Did you start Dark Souls 3 yet" and so on when I finally started it the game was a huge jump in terms of difficulty. 2. Sekiro ●I was dieing left right and center for regular mobs until I got down the perry system and a friend of mine told me don't play it like an action game it's actually a rhythm game in disguise however Isshin was an absolute nightmare 1. Dark Souls 2 (sotfs) ●I heated every second of this game I had to play it because it was the only game left in the series and I had to have it under my belt it was my buddies favorite Souls games and he gave me so much grief for not loving this game.

I feel like DS2 is really the only game on this list where the difficulty often just feels unfair to the player. I remember leaving the Old Dragonslayer until very late in my first playthrough because killing the dragon in Heide's Tower while all the Heide Knights were aggro'd onto me felt nigh impossible. Then there was the sudden gank after opening a door behind a stone statue in Lost Bastille, being zerg rushed in the keep, etc. And any time you die, the game punishes you for being bad by taking away your health and making the game even harder. DS2 always felt like it got its difficulty not because the game was designed in a challenging way, but because there were just problems in the game design

I recently tried playing The Surge and it has multiple issues that make it difficult compared to the FromSoftware games and unless you are playing an early unpatched version, you can't glitch your way to success. First of all, it is single player and there are no NPC helpers for boss fights. The bosses act as gates on progression, so even if you grind regular enemies and get the best possible gear before the area boss, you can't upgrade your armor or weapon above the current zone level. When you die, there is a timer for retrieving your currency; you can extend the timer by killing enemies, but then increase the risk of dying before you reach your "bloodstain." Except for bosses, you generally can't fight "unlocked" because the main mechanic in the game is targeting specific body parts. In addition, you need to use a different button than your basic light and strong attack buttons as a special finishing move to dismember enemy body parts. This can be quite annoying when you are having to deal with multiple enemies at once, which happens fairly frequently. The zones are literal mazes that require you to unlock multiple shortcuts to progress and anyone that is spatially challenged will probably fail or be hopelessly lost most of the game. Key pieces of gear are often tied to unique enemies, that once dead, don't respawn. These missables are sometimes available much later in the game, similar to Black Knight gear in Dark Souls, but other times, if you fail to get something, you're out of luck. The weapon types have proficiency as well as needing to upgrade individual weapons, so you end up needing to do a fair amount of grinding, especially when swapping weapon types after focusing on another for most of the game. Enemies hit hard, so even a tanky build isn't that tanky and even basic enemies can kill you pretty easily. BTW, if you decide to try it, then turn off the Medbay Music or you will hate the game before you even finish the first boss ;-)

Oh damn this is the first time someone has had the same thoughts as me about dark souls 3. It was a very fun game but aside from nameless king and the dlcs it was one the easiest due to its combat speed and responsiveness to the roll button being clicked. I personally found elden ring to be harder than ds3 not because of all the extra mechanics but simply because the roll was not as responsive and you also couldn’t roll out of any attack at any point like in DS3, also lmaooo that’s hilarious finally someone who thinks ds2 is harder than 1 and 3

As someone who played all the Souls starting with DS1 -> DS3 -> Elden Ring -> Sekiro -> DS2 -> Bloodborne, I think they're are two Souls games who are the hardest depending of context. Of course the first Souls game is the hardest, but I think Bloodborne is the hardest of all the Souls as a newcomer. The limited munitions and flasks can be so difficult to handle. I destroyed the game in 20 hours because I played many Souls game before, and still needed to farm Blood flasks and munitions, so I can't imagine my experience if BB was my first Souls. In the other hand, I think Sekiro is the hardest as a veteran because of how the gameplay is different. I got wrecked many times and I think it was the hardest to me because of that. I don't know if Elden Ring is considered hard even if you play without a broken build or summons. At the release it was definitely really hard, but now that much people know how to deal with the bosses by using the stance break mechanic, I think the game is not so hard. FS still need to show us this stance bar DS1 was my first experience so I got wrecked but the second part was a cakewalk in the comparaison. After beating the wall O&S, I feeled like there is some click

I did a no-vitality, no-armor melee/dodge build for DS3 and Elden Ring and actively avoid over leveling. I can safely say Elden Ring is much harder in this way. The bosses are much more built around their weaknesses so they're MUCH more durable against other forms of damage. Many of ER's boss attack combos feel more oppressive, drawn-out, and tightly chained together.

I personally, put ds1 up higher because of the reasons you mentioned, the wold building often puts you on cat walks constantly though the a very good chunk game and it's super easy to find yourself fighting on a "tightrope" and very quickly turns into a panic struggle to not fall off and die

Sekiro is totally the correct choice in my mind. The only game I was not able to beat. I finally just gave up, tossed the controller, and gave the game the middle finger. 🤷‍♂️

Sekiro was my first FromSoft game. I liked it so much I platinumed it. I tried to play DS3 afterwards and dropped it after getting to the first bonfire lol Not sure if it was fatigue or if I didn’t vibe with the slower, defensive combat, but I haven’t picked it back up since. Maybe I’ll try Bloodborne next.

Once he get a grip of parrying and mikiri countering also light countering you feel incredibly powerful. REally high skill ceiling but also high rewarding

Sekiro is a masterpiece. Anyone who has completed a playthrough was in awe at how the game felt at the beginning vs how it feels when you get to Sword Saint. It makes you feel how far you've come. It's the best feeling in gaming.

I just started playing Dark Souls for the first time (I know, I'm a heathen). It's surprisingly harder than I thought, though mainly due to the four way dodging. That and the remaster has weird hitboxes and huge invisible walls when trying to run past enemies. The controls and mechanics make it more difficult since they're a little archaic. I do agree that Demon's souls in the easiest. What makes it difficult is understanding world tendency and the stupid long runbacks. Bloodborne is tough, but the combat is so much fun that I sometimes don't notice the difficulty. Plus, parrying is so satisfying. But also Orphan of Kos exists. I will say Elden Ring gave me trouble, though mainly to bosses. Some world bosses, too. But traversing the world is surprisingly easy for me. But Malenia was the hardest boss I've ever gone against, especially with my build. Don't go after me when I say i haven't played DS2, DS3, or Sekiro. Here's my limited list from easiest to hardest IMO. 4. Demon's Souls 3. Elden Ring 2. Bloodborne 1. Dark Souls 1&2 can switch for me.

For me honestly Bloodborne has been the easiest SoulsBorne

congratulations! this was my exact ranking. therefore, good video.

I found Bloodborne way more difficult than Sekiro.

Interesting - I would have said 3 is harder than 1 because I got stuck on the hard bosses in 3 a lot longer than I ever did in 1, but your reasons about the area difficulties and the navigation makes a lot of sense too! I love how it's so different for everyone~

I agree 100% with your number 1. I’ve been saying this!! Nice vid

Based on deaths needed to platinum:: ER > DS3 > BB > DS2 > DS2:SOTFS > DeS > Sek > DS1. Based on "feel": Sek > BB > DS2:SOTFS > DS3 > ER > DS2 > DeS > DS1. Elden Ring being much longer meant I died in it more than any other, but those deaths were to a few specific bosses and a lot of exploration/gravity deaths. I played Sekiro SUPER carefully because the penalty for death seemed almost unfairly brutal with NPCs becoming unavailable, so I rarely died, but it was hella stressful to play it that way.

For me, going easiest to hardest: 7-Demons souls(man-eaters where the only boss that killed me more than once) 6-Dark souls 1 5-Elden ring(also quite difficult to rank due to it being open world) 4-Dark souls 2(this one I find the most difficult to rank as it has some of the easiest bosses in the series but it also has bosses like the ancient dragon and Fume knight so it could be 4 or 5) 3-Dark souls 3 2-Bloodborne(especially if your use to the dark souls style combat) 1-Sekiro

Using “Feel” from Lies of P for your intermission was perfect! That game is great!

I'm nearing the end of my first playthrough of Elden Ring (Started with Bloodborne, then all 3 Dark Souls games +DLC). It's funny, but i like playing as a lone and stoic knight wandering the world and fighting whatever i come across... So you describing the no broken playstyles, no summons is exactly how i beat Malenia yesterday (and all previous bosses) and how I'm taking on the Beast Clergyman/Maliketh now. It's definitely a struggle as i get closer to the end

I'm replaying Sekiro after 3 years and it's literally so freaking easy so far. The first time I fought lady butterfly it took me 8 tries just to get her to phase 2. This time it took me 2 tries to beat her completely. It also took me only 4 tries to beat Genichiro, 1 try to beat Gyoubu and 1 try for almost all the mini bosses, including the chained Ogre. I wasn't expecting the muscle memory to be there after 3 years, but it is.

Hearing Feel during when you were talking about Subs earned you a like and subscribe. My easiest to hardest list is the same as yours. Bloodborne is my favorite game but I'll recognize Sekiro as the hardest.

DS2 (the original) was the very first souls game I ever played. It made me rage, break a new controller, made me happy, made me laugh, then took all the emotions away again only to be back to anger. DS2 will always be special to me, it's what made me start the souls games. Loved the game so much went back to the store; after breaking my new controller. Bought a new controller, demon souls, and dark souls. Then they amped it all up and came out with DLC and then later came out with DS2:SOTFS

I haven't played Demon's Souls yet because I don't have a PS3 or PS5 but my ranking of the other games is as follows, easiest to hardest with my reasoning for each: Dark Souls 3 - The viability of panic rolling makes most areas in this game relatively easy. The average boss is harder here than the average boss in DS1 or DS2, but because of the faster paced combat and variety of viable builds, most still won't take too much time to defeat. Dark Souls 2 SOTFS - This is a hard one to rank due to its difficulty coming from badly placed enemies rather than the combat itself. But lifegems and the mechanic that deletes enemies after they're killed a certain number of times makes this a more tedious game than a difficult one in my opinion. And difficult bosses here are a dime a dozen. Elden Ring - This one places near the middle of the pack because the difficulty is almost entirely dependent on your build and style of play. But going on my first playthrough, even though I explored as much as possible, my build was nowhere near optimized and most bosses gave me a run for my money. I also take into account the massive difficulty spike that occurs once players reach the Mountaintops of the Giants. Dark Souls - This was my first Souls game, so I may be a bit biased with this one, but the level design in this game is genuinely clever and will lead to a lot of deaths for players who don't know what they're doing. Areas like Anor Londo, the Catacombs, Tomb of the Giants, and New Londo Ruins all give me trouble to this day as they encourage mastery of the game's mechanics to get through them unscathed rather than relying on hordes of enemies to overwhelm the player like in the sequel. Bosses are almost a non-factor here since most of them are pretty easy compared to the other games, but the infamous O&S and the DLC bosses definitely elevate the difficulty to another level. Bloodborne - As you mentioned, it is hard getting used to the aggressive playstyle that Bloodborne forces onto the player, even for a series veteran. Enemies and bosses in this game are far more aggressive than in Dark Souls 1 or 2 and unlike Dark Souls 3, you can't rely on spamming the dodge button to avoid every attack. You really have to get up in bosses' faces and put yourself in harm's way in order to take back lost health, only taking the time to dodge when absolutely necessary. The area and enemy design harkens back to DS1 where it feels designed to challenge the player in a fair way given the mechanics, which makes sense considering this is the game Miyazaki worked on directly after Dark Souls. Sekiro - This should be self-explanatory. A game that requires players to conform to one 'build' and one style of play gives the developers the chance to fine-tune the difficulty as every player has to tackle challenges in the same general way. It also helps that the style of play in question requires ingraining the patterns of enemies into your mind so that you can perfectly deflect every attack. And still every attack is well telegraphed to make those patterns learnable. The ganks accompanying some mini-bosses, and main bosses like Isshin the Sword Saint and Owl (Father) that have tons of mixups and difficult patterns, make Sekiro an incredibly difficult game to learn. But once you do, the feeling is euphoric (spoken as someone who now finds this game easy after having played it for over 400+ hours over countless playthroughs). And the only other souls-like I've played, Lies of P, is harder than all of them.

I love this games but when I want difficulty I prefer Lies of P, this is even harder than any of the games on the list. I'm new to this channel, keep it up! New subscriber (:

Totally agree with this ranking!

I think one of the things that most differentiates how difficult people felt the games were depends on how well you learned to parry..... or if you ever learned lol

the trick to sekiro is you have to die at least once to every boss so you can learn the attack patterns after that is a piece of cake, youl be looking for mods to make the game harder

I remember Sekiro coming out and everyone thinking it was the hardest game. I was of this mind at the beginning, but over time, I’ve figured out the gameplay mechanic, and now feel like it’s the easiest. The deflect in Sekiro makes the game very trivial once you have it down. Much more than the primary mechanics of the other games.

I have only played sekiro and Elden ring. The difference I found between the two is that while sekiro is wildly more difficult, it’s really fun even when you are dying (most of the time). And when you finally beat a boss or mini boss it’s the greatest high. But in Elden ring it almost feels like because the devs knew difficultly wouldn’t matter they chose to shift boss design to just bullshit. The entire farum azula area, mohg with his health drain, godskin duo, fire giant etc. Winning fights in that game felt more of relief than satisfaction. The only boss fights I really enjoyed were radahn, Margit and morgot, and Godfrey

In Elden Ring, once you obtain the mimic and have a good build, the game becomes incredibly easy.

I just started Sekiro 2 weeks ago. It’s challenging but I was having the easiet experience I’ve ever had with a Souls game. Took me 12 tries to beat Genichiro then laughed when I realized you had to beat him a 3rd time with no checkpoint. I haven’t played it since even though I like the game

hearing feel while you told me to subscribe made me subscribe

Most everyone I see rank ER as easy is a long-time souls player. I think knowing how to play a Fromsoft game going in makes a big difference on initial impression, which you can't forget when you go back to compare. Especially if you know where everything is and where to go already, the open world does make it easier. If you don't though, and you're a blind first-timer to FS games like I tried to be, you will likely get overwhelmed and potentially quit. It doesnt matter if you *can* go get awesome weapons/talismans/armor/smithing stones super early if you dont know how/where and you can barely get past the first soldier encampment. I knew I *could* go to other places, but I figured they would be even more impossible than what I was already struggling to do. The lack of quest tracking and very clear objective markers add to this struggle (I like it now, btw, but it was very foreign to me at first). I doubt ER is the hardest of course, but as a first time Soulslike player, I had tons of trouble in the legacy dungeons and minibosses. It only took me 6 tries to beat Malenia because I bullied her into a corner and repeatedly staggered her. The putrid avatar on the Halig Tree Brace (the one alone on the bridge) took me 30 tries (including rolling off the edge to my death more times than I'd like to admit). I almost quit ER starting out because it was so new and foreign to me, and I had no idea what to do. The easiest enemies were so hard to me. I had never played any game like it. I ended up using a guide to help figure out how to play the game and where to go and get good stuff. That made the game playable, albeit still hard asf. I then started working ahead and watching the guide to ensure I didn't miss stuff and for fun as well. In contrast, I started DS3 after. The opening was so much easier simply because I had some idea what to do. I knew roughly what combat was like, how to manage heals, etc. The game is very linear, which makes figuring out what to do so much easier. I learned how to explore areas, how to do combat, how to manage heals, etc in ER. The lower graphic fidelity makes it way easier for my eyes to see what is happening, and the clunkier animations allow me to see telegraphs and time perries/blocks/dodges more easily. To sum it up, I think ER being easy for a seasoned player makes perfect sense. I think for a blind first-timer, DS3 would be much easier starting out due to linearity and lower fidelity (although that may be because I now know what to do). I've heard many rate DS2 as the hardest, which makes sense from watching it be played. I've even see some people say Sekiro's style of of combat and general gameplay was easier for them than ER, BB, orDark Souls, so there is definitely a lot of individual gameplay style contributing to how easy or hard some of the games are. I'm excited to keep going in DS3. I wish I could try BB, but I am a lowly Xbox head. ER became my favorite game since in the last decade after 200+ hours on my first run. Tje wirld was just too beautiful amd the lore too interesting to quit on. I could not lay my foolish ambitions to rest.