Now that Elden Ring has been out for awhile, where do you rank it among Souls games?

[Disco Infernal]

I'm at 120 hours and Elden Ring is easily superior to every other game they've made. I no longer care if there's. Bloodborne sequel or remaster, as I'd rather just replay ER. Sekiro is easily their second best game. I'd definitely play a sequel to that.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

I finished ER after 92 hrs and immediately started a second play through.

ER is a distant 1
2. Sekiro - remove if you don't want to count it.
3. BB
5. DS - DS3
6. Demon's - even the remake
7. DS2

 

[Schierke Mori]

Coming towards the end now...

1. Bloodborne
2. Dark Souls
3. Elden Ring
4. Dark Souls III
5. Demon's Souls
6. Dark Souls II
7. Sekiro

I mean - if I were to play DS1 for the first time right now, I'd enjoy Elden Ring more, but I remember enjoying DS from start to finish consistently. ER is starting to show a bit of fatigue as I approach the end.

 

[Sande]

Below Sekiro and Bloodborne

About equal with DS1 & 3

Above Demon's Souls and DS2

For me the novelty of the open world wore thin halfway into the first playthrough. Second playthrough I was riding past everything as fast as I could. And the sheer amount of dungeons and bosses they've cranked out to fill the world has brought the average quality down.

 

[Ronin | Rin |]

Bloodborne is still the king/queen. I was hoping Elden Ring would claim or sit besides the throne. Perhaps the eventual spiritual successor to BB might do that for me. Trick weapons, combat, healing mechanics, bosses and chalice dungeons are too hard to beat. I enjoyed the chalice dungeons way more than the mini dungeons in Elden Ring - even though the rewards in ER were not RNG based and straightforward. Both are incredible games in their own right.

Bloodborne >>>>>> ER=DS1=DS2=DS3=DmS=Sekiro. Haha, I love them all. DS2 definitely wins my vote for being creative and trying lots of new things. Besides being Open world/field, I can't think of anything interesting and new that Elden Ring has going for it. It's a great mix of a lot of wonderful things from the previous games though. I will surely be playing it for years to come!

 

[mho79]

1. Bloodborne
2. Elden Ring
3. Dark Souls 3
4. Demons' Souls (PS5)
5. Dark Souls
6. Dark Souls 2
----
7. Sekiro (it's not a souls game - stop telling yourself it is :-P)

 

[AndrewGPK]

Bloodborne is still the king/queen. I was hoping Elden Ring would claim or sit besides the throne. Perhaps the eventual spiritual successor to BB might do that for me. Trick weapons, combat, healing mechanics, bosses and chalice dungeons are too hard to beat. I enjoyed the chalice dungeons way more than the mini dungeons in Elden Ring - even though the rewards in ER were not RNG based and straightforward. Both are incredible games in their own right.

Bloodborne >>>>>> ER=DS1=DS2=DS3=DmS=Sekiro. Haha, I love them all. DS2 definitely wins my vote for being creative and trying lots of new things. Besides being Open world/field, I can't think of anything interesting and new that Elden Ring has going for it. It's a great mix of a lot of wonderful things from the previous games though. I will surely be playing it for years to come!

Click to shrink...

Interesting. While I prefer BB to ER, I find the caves/catacombs of ER to be much better than the chalice dungeons because they are hand crafted and not so repetitive. I do have a preference for BB's bosses because I'm not a big fan of the spirit ash mechanic - it feels necessary to use it so as to not get bogged down in a game this massive, but sometimes it trivializes boss fights and/or encourages you to beat bosses in ways other than learning the boss.

 

[TGB86]

I'd probably rank it third, behind DaS1 and Bloodborne. But that's with a couple of caveats: 1) I haven't finished ER yet (I'm through Mountaintops of the Giants); and 2) I haven't gone back to play any of the earlier games yet. It's possible the refinements introduced in ER will make those games more difficult to return to now.

I love Sekiro, but I can't really rank it among the Souls games. It's just way too different.

 

[Not Spaceghost]

It was a lot higher but the final part of the game felt like it was barely play tested, all the good elements the game introduced just kind of fade away and it becomes really tedious.

I'd say.

1. Dark Souls
2. Bloodborne
3. Elden Ring
4. Demon's Souls
5. Dark Souls 3
6. Dark Souls 2

Dark Souls 1 is still the most cohesively designed of these games and bloodborne felt like the natural next step in refining the experience. I didn't really like Dark Souls 2 or 3 but at least 3 had more better moments. Demon's Souls oddly enough still holds up really really well, I think it's because of the stage select nature of the game that it makes it much easier to experience the entire game without feeling like you did anything wrong.

Elden Ring is really good but it's also really bad lmao, the home stretch isn't fun, it's not really challenging it's just this uneven mess, the boss design in general is the weakest out of all the games in Elden Ring even if you're just looking at the major bosses. The game is just all over the place, the pacing is messed up past a certain point and the game drags HEAVILY because of it.

 

[WildGoose]

I did literally everything possible in my first Elden Ring playthrough and didn't even go for NG+ since I was so burned out. At times I was thinking "this is the best thing I've ever played" and other times I definitely wasn't thinking that. It's right up there but the more I mull it over in my head the more I feel that there are things I disliked about it. Like the progression and pacing being all out of scale, certain bosses being overtuned if you're not using spirit ashes, things like that.

My Souls list is something like this (haven't played Demon's unfortunately):

Bloodborne - still the GOAT, after Elden Ring I went and played it again and I blasted right through to like NG+4 in no time. I love it more than ever
Sekiro
(small gap)
Elden Ring / Dark Souls 1 / Dark Souls 3
(big gap)
Dark Souls 2

 

[Merton]

1. Elden RIng
2. Bloodborne
3. Demons Souls
4. Demon Souls Remake
5. Dark Souls
6. Dark Souls 2
7. Dark Souls 3
8.Sekiro
But all of them are some of my favorite games of all time, so it's tough to number them, because they are better than 99% of games I have played since C64 for me. Demon's Souls when it came out was like a dream.

 

[Igniz12]

No ranking but I think its a great action RPG, but not so good Souls game. Game feels like it needed a difficulty pass or two to even out the overall experience.

It fluctuates from amazing to ho hum over and over the entire time and then the final stretch is a shock to the system but not in a good way.

 

[werezompire]

My ranking:

Elden Ring - It's Dark Souls but it's huge & far more accessible. Feels like there's more than a game's worth of traditional Souls content in here, in addition to the open world stuff.
Dark Souls 1 - A true classic.
Sekiro - An amazing spin-off. Grappling hook, stealth, great & unique combat. Only downside is the RPG elements are way down.
Bloodborne - This would be higher up but the load times really kill it. Also wish there was more build variety like the main Souls games.
Demon's Souls remake - Fixes major problems with the original (load times, performance) and looks great and is a classic, but it's missing all the design experience they gained from making later games.
Dark Souls 2 - Amazing build variety & huge, but more janky than most of the other games.
Dark Souls 3 - Felt superfluous coming out at around the same time as Bloodborne, while not having as much fun build variety as Dark Souls 2.
Demon's Souls original - Was fantastic at the time, but surpassed by all the later games IMO.

 

[Arithmetician]

Would anyone be interested if I collected all the responses in this thread and ran an IRT model to get the Era consensus ranking on FromSoftware games? Also, would that be ok? I'm quite interested in doing it, as it's hard to get a clear picture from the many different responses, other than Bloodborne clearly looking like number 1

 

[Cogg]

Having finished ER its clearly the best. It became painfully apparent how much better it was after deciding to play DS3 right after ER

 

[Poutine]

1. Elden Ring
2. Bloodborne
3. Dark Souls 3
4. Dark Souls
5. Sekiro
6. Demon Souls
7. Dark Souls 2

 

[nelsonroyale]

I've only played Demon Souls Remake, Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring.


So far, Elden Ring>>>Demon Souls Remake>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 has really poor sense of weight. Much prefer how Demon Souls Remake feels to play. Luckily Elden Ring feels much weighter than Dark Souls 3, and you can jump.

 

[Joker Code]

Above all souls games and just behind Bloodborne.

 

[SirKai]

Better than literal "Souls" game, and up there with Sekiro and Bloodborne. All three are so close in terms of quality for me it's tough to truly rank them.

 

[Scarface]

DeS, BB, DS1, ER - I love each of them for different reasons. Theyre all my favorite!
---------
Sekiro

Dark souls 3
Dark souls 2

 

[Necron]

Bloodborne
Sekiro
Demon's Souls (Remake)
Elden Ring
Dark Souls
Dark Souls 3
Dark Souls 2
Déraciné

Eh, somewhere in the middle 🤷‍♂️ I love all of them for different reasons... I think the list speaks for itself: FromSoftware's pipeline is extremely efficient and brilliant.

 

[Nere]

I find it really hard to rank the rest of them, but I know Elden ring is at the top and demon souls is for sure at the bottom.

 

[Man with Knife]

Bloodborne
Elden Ring
Dark Souls III
Sekiro
Dark Souls II

 

[Deleted member 17860]

It's their best game, followed by Sekiro.

Click to shrink...

this... but i still looooove bloodborne. but will never replay it until it gets re-released if it ever does.. but id be fine if er2 is after BB2 but i doubt its happening becasue from wont do it for one console/ platform.
elden ring is the game of my dreams... though.<3 i just wish it had infinite dungeons or something so i could never be done with it.

 

[Deleted member 15240]

I'm further in now and honestly, the game is slipping in my ranking. I just don't see what the open world adds. It's mostly exhausting. I'm still loving the core gameplay and it is cool how much of it there is but navigating the open world does not add to my enjoyment. Frankly, I prefer the way the chalice dungeons worked over having to find dungeons tucked away in a large open world. The amount of content also means there's a lot of reuse. Now, I don't really mind but it sucks when those reused fights get worse just because they keep adding more bullshit to them.

All in all, the game is a clear improvement is some ways. I love the spirit ashes, ashes of war, jumping attacks, and such. But I very much prefer the more linear design of their previous games. That said, I'm far from done (not even halfway probably) so maybe I'll turn around on the open world with later areas.

 

[T.Rex In F-14]

Bloodborne and Demon's Souls (remake) are still on top for me. Bloodborne has the better vibe and atmosphere on top of the faster combat with the trick weapons. Demon's Souls is sorta like preferring the debut album of a band, it is rough around the edges and they would improve a lot of things in later releases, but there is something about the raw energy of it and how it lays the foundation so well (plus you add how incredible the remake looks). Tower of Latria has yet to be topped.

Elden Ring and the Dark trilogy all occupy basically the same tier for me, maybe ER at the top of the tier and 2 at the bottom but they could all shift.

 

[NewtonNextDoor]

Would anyone be interested if I collected all the responses in this thread and ran an IRT model to get the Era consensus ranking on FromSoftware games? Also, would that be ok? I'm quite interested in doing it, as it's hard to get a clear picture from the many different responses, other than Bloodborne clearly looking like number 1

Click to shrink...

That would be great!

 

[Kaitos]

1. Bloodborne
2. Elden Ring (but it's a VERY close #2)
3. Dark Souls
4. Dark Souls 3
5. Demon's Souls
6. Dark Souls 2

But all are fantastic in their own way.

 

[Swiggins]

Finally finished Elden Ring

1. Elden Ring
2. Bloodborne
3. Dark Souls
4. Demons Souls
5. Dark Souls 3
6. Dark Souls 2

Sekiro I don't really count as a souls game, but if I were to put it anywhere I'd probably put it between Dark and Demons Souls.

 

[FFNB]

Hmm, my rankings after sinking 158 hours into ER and beating it:

1) Bloodborne
2) Elden Ring
3) Demon's Souls
4) Dark Souls 3
5) Dark Souls

Not a fan of Sekiro and Dark Souls 2, so I'm not ranking them. Elden Ring still feels to me like an evolution of Dark Souls, and didn't really feel like enough of its own thing mechanically (the weapon arts and spirit summons are great, but they still felt like something that could naturally fit into the Dark Souls world). With all that said, I can eventually see myself going back and playing through it again, but unlike Bloodborne, I didn't immediately jump into a NG+ playthrough, because the game is massive, daunting, and the final boss made me so heated that I was too relieved to finally be done with it to jump into NG+ right away lol.

Bloodborne remains the GOAT From game for me still. ER is definitely a top tier From Software souls like, though.

EDIT: Ah, the screenshot in the OP was broken for me, so I didn't see tier rankings. Um, I guess I'd tier rank them:

S: Bloodborne, Elden Ring
A: Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 3
C: Dark Souls 2, Sekiro

No B's and D's for me lol

 

[diablogg]

7. Sekiro (it's not a souls game - stop telling yourself it is :-P)

Click to shrink...

Sekiro is more Souls than Dark Souls 2 =p

Personally I only count games Miyazaki has directed.

 

[Muffin]

1. Dark Souls 3
2. Elden Ring
3. Dark Souls & Dark Souls 2
4. Demons Souls Remake
5. Bloodborne

Elden Ring is at rank 2 despite being worse at bosses than DS1 and DS2.

I don't count Sekiro as a Soulsborne. If I had to, it'd rank at 2 probably.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

This is the general question that made me decide to play through their catalogue again. Elden Ring is intended as the magnum opus, but the open world is such a dramatic design change that it's really hard to evaluate it properly based on years-gone memories of their games. I'm just about done with Dark Souls 3 now, and although my gut-feelings have proven to be correct, it does give me more nuance and understanding of the reasons behind my personal preferences. I will say it's pretty funny going through the games back-to-back and seeing how the general story/environmental beats are sometimes copied verbatim (Dragonpeak and Azula might as well be twins).

For me, the linearity is just too essential to the core gameplay loop and they're not doing anything with the open world that adds some unique twist or mechanical depth to it that justifies the switch. I think ultimately it's going to be considered a purely one-off experience or a novelty; on replays people will just skip engaging with it and proceed in a very linear fashion. And that's in part because all the best things about Elden Ring are those linear moments/areas when you're in the traditional From space.

I'm not a huge fan of direct ranking lists, but I do like more subjective unranked categories. As stand-alone experiences I'm still not sure how I would rank them, but in terms of replayability:

Can Replay Anytime:
Bloodborne

Fun to Replay every now and then:
Dark Souls 3

Fun to Replay every now and then, but not the whole game:
Dark Souls 1
Demon Souls (Remake)
Elden Ring

I'm okay never playing this again:
Sekiro
Dark Souls 2

 

[SystemBug]

1) Sekiro
2) Elden Ring

The rest I just don't really care about 🤷🏽‍♂️

 

[Big G]

Now that I've finished Elden Ring after 150 mostly glorious hours...

1. Elden Ring
2. Bloodborne
3. Dark Souls
4. Sekiro
5. Demon's Souls (remake)
6. Dark Souls II
7. Dark Souls III

Elden Ring has clear separation over the rest. Bloodborne, Dark Souls and Sekiro are all squarely in the "excellent game" camp. The others are varying degrees of "very good" (I used to have DS3 ahead of DS2, but all these years later DS3 has proven to be a much more forgettable experience outside of some truly excellent boss fights).

 

[TetraGenesis]

Count me among the people that still rank Bloodborne #1. Just beat ER last night after 200 hours and it's definitely the "most fun", but the world, lore, aesthetics, and combat of BB comes out on top to me. While it pales in scope to Elden Ring, it's an incredibly tightly crafted experience with an endless supply of standout moments. Don't get me wrong though, Elden Ring is my number 2, and the margin is relatively narrow. I'm incredibly excited to see what From does next.

(Btw, did Elden Ring make anyone else's "Bloodborne 2" thirst even stronger? I have never wanted it more than now.)

 

[Vigamox]

1. Bloodborne
2. Demon's Souls
3. Dark Souls
4. Elden Ring
5. Sekiro
6. Dark Souls 3
7. Dark Souls 2

 

[hydruxo]

When I first posted in this thread a few weeks ago I was only halfway and ER was already my favorite, but after fully beating it this week I'm 100% confident in saying it's my favorite From Soft game by a landslide. I put in 138 hours into my first playthrough and I immediately felt the urge to do NG+ with a new build. A lot of the time if I spend that much time on a single player game then I'm usually ready to move onto a new game by the end, but I didn't feel that way at all with this.

The Dark Souls trilogy didn't do much for me at all. Honestly not a fan of those. Bloodborne, DeS, and Sekiro were all great but ER just appealed to me way more.

 

[Tunichtgut]

I played about 130hrs, and i have to say, it's one of my least favorite souls games, i would rank it same as DS2. Bloodborne will stay forever nr.1 for me.

 

[Apathy]

Bloodborne
Sekiro
Elden Ring
Dark souls 3
Dark souls
Demons souls
Dark souls 2

And ER and DS3 can swap places at any moment. I like the world and traversal if ER but the bosses of 3 outshine ER.

 

[finalflame]

1. Elden Ring


































2. Dark Souls 2
3. Dark Souls
4. Bloodborne
5. Demon's Souls






























6. Sekiro

 

[emiliolargo]

1. Bloodborne
- not too much distance -
2. Elden Ring

 

[Kevin360]

Elden Ring
Bloodborne

Demon's Souls

Everything else.

(I've only finished Elden Ring and Bloodborne, and about 5-10 hours of Demon's Souls on PS5 at launch)

Elden Ring was incredible. End the lack of boss runs made it my favorite by a country mile, but Bloodborne was a blast back in 2015.

 

[kiguel182]

I only played Bloodborne and Dark Souls and Elden Ring might be at the bottom. The game is too big and the quests are way too long and cryptic while, at the same time, hiding a lot of the game away. And it's a lot of game. Too much.

I also just got to the floating island and I'm underleveled with probably only secret stuff to do. But I don't know what are the areas for my level or anything.

I much prefer the more linear older games with fewer optional areas that were easier to reach.

 

[radiogra]

This is the general question that made me decide to play through their catalogue again. Elden Ring is intended as the magnum opus, but the open world is such a dramatic design change that it's really hard to evaluate it properly based on years-gone memories of their games. I'm just about done with Dark Souls 3 now, and although my gut-feelings have proven to be correct, it does give me more nuance and understanding of the reasons behind my personal preferences. I will say it's pretty funny going through the games back-to-back and seeing how the general story/environmental beats are sometimes copied verbatim (Dragonpeak and Azula might as well be twins).

For me, the linearity is just too essential to the core gameplay loop and they're not doing anything with the open world that adds some unique twist or mechanical depth to it that justifies the switch. I think ultimately it's going to be considered a purely one-off experience or a novelty; on replays people will just skip engaging with it and proceed in a very linear fashion. And that's in part because all the best things about Elden Ring are those linear moments/areas when you're in the traditional From space.

I'm not a huge fan of direct ranking lists, but I do like more subjective unranked categories. As stand-alone experiences I'm still not sure how I would rank them, but in terms of replayability:

Can Replay Anytime:
Bloodborne

Fun to Replay every now and then:
Dark Souls 3

Fun to Replay every now and then, but not the whole game:
Dark Souls 1
Demon Souls (Remake)
Elden Ring

I'm okay never playing this again:
Sekiro
Dark Souls 2

Click to shrink...

this is interesting! i like this approach.

i'm kinda the opposite.

elden ring is by far the most replayable to me due to its openness. i have six characters already. memorizing the world and being able to get a build going within 1 hour of playtime makes it so easy to replay, especially doing co-op runs. and trading 50k lord runes and boss weapons to your lower characters for an OP run is really fun too.

whereas something like bloodborne i played 3 times and have kinda lost interest, even going back now, right after beating ER. having to progress with the starting 3 weapons through a linear game to get to the weapon i want kinda drags down the RPG element to me. and doing a ludwig's holy blade playthrough hasn't felt too different from my kirkhammer one. dark souls also has this problem, but it has more variety in weapons and magic that help it; but nothing touches ER in making new characters.

wierdly though, i find sekiro pretty replayable, because it's just a different beast, not a kinda "halfway" between action and RPG/jack of all trades like bloodborne. sekiro's boss rush mode that they added also really helped though. being able to play the best bosses in the series at a whim is amazing.

basically i think elden ring is their best RPG and sekiro is their best action game. and those focuses--the sheer build variety of ER and the lazer focus on action of sekiro--draw me back to those two games more.

it used to be DS1 on the "best RPG" side, but i think ER might've dethroned it. it's april and it's already my second most played game on modern consoles, ahead of rocket league and only behind apex (by like 11 days playtime lol but still). and i just want to play more tbh haha.

 

[Freeglader]

I would still put Bloodborne at the top because I love the transforming weapons, regain system, visceral attacks, and quickstep dodging in addition to the cosmic horror setting and lore.

Elden Ring is definitely somewhere close to the top, but I have a hard time putting it over Demon's Souls or Dark Souls. I have such fondness for those titles and I have to give credit to the games that started it all. However, I do really love the build variety in Elden Ring in addition to the more high fantasy setting as opposed to the strictly bleak and drab fantasy settings most of their older games have. I also think that Elden Ring might be too big of a game and has some fat that can be trimmed to enhance the overall experience.

 

[DC5remy]

Goat

 

[Deranged Hermit]

I need to digest it more but it's either #1 or #2 behind Bloodborne.

 

[Cugel]

ER
DS1
BB
DES
DS3
DS2
Sekiro

 

[Darkwing-Buck]

80+ hours in I still think Bloodborne is the king.

My top 3 goes:

1. Bloodborne
2. Dark Souls 3
3. Elden Ring