Bloodborne is a lot more faster in general play, but it does offer a good entry into the series. The story is great too, if you're willing to do a little bit of detective work...and don't mind the odd grim discovery

Better off starting with Dark Souls 1 or Demon Souls since it is the og. I'd recommend Dark Souls 1 PC since it still has thousands online.

Listen to my story Phil:
I tried Dark Souls 1, three or four years ago. Sold it the same evening after getting my ass handed too me about 40 times. Wrote the game off as crap and ignored the series.

Last year, I was recovering from a subdural hematoma (brain bleed) and had nothing better to do, but I was reading a bunch of posts about how excited everybody was for BloodBorne. So that night before release.. since I was super bored, I went and purchased it on the Playstation Store and set it to download.

The next day, I woke up at 7am and proceeded to... die. Lots. In the first 3 or 4 hours, I probably died about 300 times, maybe 400. Yes I sucked that bad. I was thinking "wtf did I buy this piece of garbage for" and walked away and took a couple hour break, less I suffer another brain bleed...

Then I came back to the game and tried again, except this time I noticed I was actually more relaxed and getting a bit further along each time. After another couple hours, I made it to the first boss and died a couple times, then I killed him and crapped my pants. This kept me going actually...

Then a magical thing happened... the game "came together". It just "clicked" in my head on how I had to play, and in the next week I blew through the entire game and finished it, and a half the bosses I killed in one or two shots.

A few weeks later, I tried Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the Sins edition on the PS4 and... tossed the joystick into the garbage and said never again, until a few weeks ago when I was bored one night and pulled it out again, because the Dark Souls 3 hype got to me.

Guess what? In ONE single life, I made it half way to the first boss in Dark Souls 2, then after a couple hours, I killed the first boss in one try. The second boss (pursuer) took about 40-50 tries for me to figure out, but then the big "click" happened again and I was off to the races, blowing through the entire game with maybe 3 or 4 more bosses that gave me grief. Hell I think the "tough fire forge boss" only took me 3 or 4 tries to kill him.

Basically, the game is not just hard, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE until you figure out how to play it, then it becomes a very awesome and amazing game. You just have to realize that this isn't a game where you push buttons and hope you kill something, you just need to actually research a bit into what your doing, then you will become awesome and explore very amazingly detailed worlds that pull you through with an awesome sense of discovery.

I have not played Dark Souls 3 yet, probably saving it for the fall, but I got it on the PC and look forward to it in 60FPS glory on my 1440p 980 Ti Gsynched system.

These games should NOT be missed. YOu just need to figure them out.

Have fun.

I had that down on the list but given it was made by From Software it felt like a cheap pick. There's a fair few emulators that run it nicely for those curious though

Ring of Eternity on PS1 is like a lite version of kings field - a good entry, too

''The open world MMOish nature of the game may not seem like it has much similar to Souls, at least at first. As soon as the big creatures start to appear, and combat is in full flow, suddenly things start to feel slightly familiar.''

That's litteraly straight from the post lol

Salt & Sanctuary isn't exactly a rip off given it does some things Dark Souls does not. For a game made by two people, it puts most actual rip offs (sup Lords of the Fallen) to shame

You're welcome to make your own list. All i ever see you post in negatives or attempts arguments. You tried it on my Doom post yesterday as well, though that one was really bizarre. You even said Dragon's Dogma's combat has a similar vibe, hence its appearance on the list.

Also by your logic anything that uses the Metroid-like design is a 'rip off'.

But aye, i'd more than welcome you to post your suggestions and expose games to people :)

like i said, nothing stopping you from posting your own list here. I posted mine ,gave reasons for the choices. Given our previous encounters i don't think we'll ever agree :)

As for Salt, have you played it? are you ignoring the skill system? the platofrmer mechanics? the whole 'Metroidvania' theme? rip offs don't do anything different, they're just straight up imitations. That would make about 95% of games on the current market a rip off by your view

And if you want to go more old school, I highly recommend the Soul Reaver series, although not as difficult, the bleak world and excellent quasi-apocalyptic storytelling are similar and both deal with souls and strategic weapon combat, although not as polished.

Not even close

Souls I didn’t thankfully but Sekiro I did.

mh ur right actually.

dark souls plays around with horror themes without being a straight "horror" game.

bloodborn definitely starts out as that haha.