Which of the major Soulsborne titles do you think is the hardest overall?

[Chopchop]

Sekiro definitely felt like it demanded the most from me. It also had a much longer learning curve than the other games. I felt like a bumbling idiot for like a whole third of the game before it clicked.

Dark Souls 3 gets incredibly cheap and stupid near the end (especially when you count the DLC). Sekiro is the "hardest" in the classic sense of rote memorization, though. Sekiro is either you can do it or you can't, there is no room for alternate strategies or builds.

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I agree about the builds and I originally thought the playstyle stuff was very strict too, but from watching videos of other players, I'm not so sure anymore. I see people taking on attacks very differently from how I did them. Running away from certain attacks when I tried to punish them, or dodging and punishing attacks that I parried. There's more variety to the combat than I originally thought.

 

[Bee.Cups]

If we're including dlc then it's either DS 2 or DS 3. Priscilla, fume knight, blue smelter, and every boss from ringed city are insane, and most of the dlc areas are pretty rough.
If we aren't including dlc, (or chalice dungeons) then surely it's sekiro or DS 3.
For me personally everything past the midpoint of Dark Souls has always been a breeze, bloodborne is pretty easy overall, and I haven't played Nioh but I heard the combat is pretty different.
If we're asking which one is the easiest I'd say bloodborne 100% minus the flaming cleric beast guy. Screw that fight.

 

[LazyLain]

Out of the three that I"ve played (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne), I'm gonna have to go with Dark Souls.

 

[ScOULaris]

I continue to be utterly gobsmacked by these poll results. Like I can understand the perspectives of everyone saying that Sekiro is harder because you can't over-level or do cheese builds, but the actual game design of Sekiro feels far easier to me.

Hell, it was the only game among all of these that I managed to beat! I felt that Sekiro was markedly easier than all the others. That's why I knew this thread would yield some interesting results. What's easy for one person is insurmountable for another and vice versa.

 

[Astral]

Wow I'm surprised at all the Sekiro votes. I was wrecking fools on NG+ in Sekiro much more easily than I did in most Souls games. I think the hardest for me would be Bloodborne if you include some of the optional battles, especially the dlc. I never played Ringed City.

 

[Belthazar90]

Hard to say, but to me it'll always be DS1 as it was the first and I was caught off guard with the difficulty. For the other ones I went in expecting it to be like that and being ready made the experience more manageable (not to mention getting used to the combat style)

 

[ThreepQuest64]

Sekiro is another level of stress compared to regular souls games

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This. I didn't feel so much pressure from enemies in any other SB game I've played before (Demon's, DS1 & 3, Bloodborne).

There were so many bosses I've managed to kill on the first try in DS3 and Bloodborne (can't remember Demon's and DS1, it's too long ago). In Sekiro there were like three or four only and any boss usually took me 30 to 60 minutes on average to beat. This is nothing compared to most of Bloodborne's and Dark Souls' bosses. Also you can't grind and powerlevel your character in Sekiro as you can do in those other games to give you an edge in fights.

I can't say anything about Nioh, though. Haven't played it.

 

[Odeko]

Bloodborne's opening is the meanest especially to new players, but the difficulty curve of the rest of the game really evens out.

Nioh is the only one I "temporarily put down" and still haven't returned to due to difficulty so that gets my vote. I'll beat you one day!

 

[Bruceleeroy]

I continue to be utterly gobsmacked by these poll results. Like I can understand the perspectives of everyone saying that Sekiro is harder because you can't over-level or do cheese builds, but the actual game design of Sekiro feels far easier to me.

Hell, it was the only game among all of these that I managed to beat! I felt that Sekiro was markedly easier than all the others. That's why I knew this thread would yield some interesting results. What's easy for one person is insurmountable for another and vice versa.

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Isn't it fascinating what clicks for some people and not others. Poll is spot on for me. All the Souls, Borne and Nioh had difficult moments but I eventually felt I mastered them. I never beat Sekiro and it's the only FS game in their whole catalogue I haven't. I got to the dream City and was just over it. It is just a punishing pain in the ass.

 

[Morrigan]

Is it though?

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Yes

 

[Deleted member 25799]

Nioh shouldn't be there alongside those amazing games in the poll IMO. I never saw the appeal for it, my experience with it was extremely underwhelming and I think the game is pure trash. How and why it got so popular is beyond me.

On topic, though, the mere fact that it's an strict single-player experience makes Sekiro the hardest game out of those on the list. I'd probably put Nioh after it, and then the original DS.

 

[Kattlauv]

I've beaten every game including DLC at least once, except Sekiro. That game is just to fucking hard.

 

[Deleted member 16908]

Really? Interesting.

I got 20 hours into sekiro struggling but getting better each time. But I have always been intimidated by Dark Souls 1 2 3 and Bloodborne bosses and difficulty. I never played those other games because of that fear

I find it interesting that folks say those are all easier. It cannot be by much.

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They are easier by a lot actually. In my opinion Sekiro is the only From game where you have to master the mechanics if you want to beat it. Contrast that with Dark Souls, which is totally possible to beat simply by blocking, rolling and hitting the basic attack button.

 

[R0b1n]

Bloodborne's opening is the meanest especially to new players, but the difficulty curve of the rest of the game really evens out.

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Until you hit Orphan and Vicar 2.0

 

[AllChan7]

I've played Nioh, BB, Sekiro and over half way through DS3

Sekiro is by far the hardest based on my personal experience

 

[Dominic Decoco]

No way in hell was it Sekiro, though I will say Sekiro is the only game to give me wrist strain learning those parry mechanics.

Nioh isn't too bad until the DLC, then you just get your ass kicked > Dark Souls 2 > Dark Souls 3 > Demon's Souls > Sekiro > Dark Souls > Bloodborne

 

[Apathy]

I'm just surprised at the sekiro votes. I found it to be one of the easiest ones.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

This game straight-up kicked my ass up and down the block when I first played it. It was demoralizing at times.

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Haven't played Nioh DLC but some of the abilities like Sloth and one of the summons trivialized almost 90% of that game for us to the point where the first main boss was the only challenge for the next 20 hrs or so.

 

[Rommaz]

I still have no interest in legit fighting Maneaters or False King. Its DeS for me

 

[Pineapple Pizza]

I continue to be utterly gobsmacked by these poll results. Like I can understand the perspectives of everyone saying that Sekiro is harder because you can't over-level or do cheese builds, but the actual game design of Sekiro feels far easier to me.

Hell, it was the only game among all of these that I managed to beat! I felt that Sekiro was markedly easier than all the others. That's why I knew this thread would yield some interesting results. What's easy for one person is insurmountable for another and vice versa.

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Sekiro is much more dependent on reaction speed and timing than other Souls games, so the difficult varies a lot from person to person. I wouldn't be surprised if certain bosses are literally impossible for some people.

 

[The Mango Sentinel]

For me it was Demon's Souls since it was the first one. That game was a struggle.

The Gargoyles in Dark Souls 1 were brutal for me, but other than that it wasn't too bad.

Dark Souls 2 was kinda difficult because I felt like I never knew what kind of build I wanted, so I just kinda did jack of all trades and it was fairly difficult.

Dark Souls 3 was easy shit

Bloodborne was initially hard because I was so used to having a shield, so that too a while to get used to, but once I did it wasn't too difficult

Nioh is really fucking difficult at times, much more than the other games. But if you just abuse certain builds, then it's easy.

I actually found Sekiro to be the easiest.

 

[Minthara]

I think Sekiro is the most difficult, but I find that From's balance was off on the game as a whole, as a lot of the mechanics within the game were difficult for reasons that I felt were out of my control or were difficult for the sake of being difficult. I found a lot of the enemy design and mechanics as a whole to be a step down from the rest of their recent action titles.

Nioh, on the other hand, was "hard" because of awkward level design and some weird enemy design choices but things like magic being completely broken took a lot of the difficulty away. I also thought the fact that the game could be played without needing to use the stance system to be a positive and negative on the game itself, as I feel like it threw off the entire game balance if you mastered stances and KI pulse.

TLDR: Sekiro was the most difficult game for me and Nioh second hardest, but they were also less enjoyable than the rest of the games because I felt like they suffered from worse design choices.

 

[salary0n]

It's Nioh for me, enemies move faster and deal more damage especially on the harder difficulty. Sekiro while pretty hard too, is a bit more manageable when you know the battle rhytm of when to deflect enemy attacks.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Sekiro has a really binary difficulty, where if the combat doesn't click with you, you'll struggle a lot, but if it does, it's probably easier than most of the other games. There's just generally less to manage, and dealing with attacks usually just comes down to "parry/block if not perilous, judge the tell and Mikiri or jump for the perilous". Compared to some Dark Souls bosses where dodging can be a lot more complicated due to the more complicated attack patterns.

I really liked Sekiro's system, so I'd probably rank Dark Souls 3 higher on the difficulty curve. Some of those bosses seemed designed for a faster paced game than Dark Souls 3 actually is.

 

[Roshin]

For me, it's a toss up between Sekiro and Nioh. They were also the two games I found the least interesting and I never finished them.

 

[Dr Pears]

I'm gonna go with Sekiro because if u can't get used to the combat system, then you're gonna have a really bad time.

At least in all the other games u can try different builds like ranged magic builds or summon other players to help you out.

 

[Gparan]

Dark Souls 3 is my pick. I didn't play Nioh or Sekiro so I can't comment on them.

I played the rest and I while I would probably count Bloodbourn as a harder game overall I still give it to DS3 thanks to the last dlc bosses. Ludvig from Bloodbourne damn near broke me but I got him in the end while I still haven't beaten the last boss from the DS3 dlc and I probably never will.

 

[JudgmentJay]

There are so many conditions to this question. Are we talking first playthrough or which one remains the hardest after mastering them all? Do we include DLCs? Optional content? Different builds? Do we factor in the ability to summon help?

For a newcomer to the series I'd say Bloodborne is the hardest. Mainly due to the fact that you can run out of blood vials, and probably will if you're new. It also has some extremely hard DLC and Chalice Dungeon bosses.

However, I think Demon's Souls remains the hardest after reaching mastery with the Soulsborne-style games. Some of the boss runbacks are extremely long with no shortcuts, and death by jank is a very real possibility at any point. Also Flamelurker and Maneaters still intimidate me even after 15+ playthroughs.

If you take the ability to summon into account then Sekiro is automatically the hardest since summoning help in any of the games completely nullifies any semblance of difficulty.

Honestly I find Sekiro to be one of the easiest games on the list. For the first playthrough I'd put it somewhere in the middle of the pack, but once you master the combat it becomes by far the easiest. I surprised myself when I picked the game up ~6 months after launch for a replay and breezed through with a total of 3 deaths... not even enough for Dragonrot to take effect.

 

[Nessii013]

Thought DS3 was much harder than Sekiro tbh

 

[Snagret]

I had the hardest time with Nioh. Feels like there's just so many different systems you have to juggle at once, a lot of times I would just die because I forgot about certain abilities.

 

[b3llydrum]

and the massive hint that is dropped just before the boss.

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Is this massive hint the master swordsman that FORCES you to fully grasp parrydancing? Because I almost laughed when I realized how direct the game was being with me

 

[DvdGzz]

Whichever one you played first. Soulsborne's difficulties thrive on you not knowing how to handle situations, so the more you play the more you know what to do and the easier the genre becomes.

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This, I don't think anyone can accurately give a correct answer.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Nioh gets my vote. While the regular game might not be that hard, the bosses are definitely higher than even Sekiro IMO since there's never as much room for a cheese tactic there. While with Sekiro you have a lot of space most of the time if you want to play the long game of poking. The only outlier is if you summon a nioh pro during a boss fight.

 

[Mugman]

I understand where people are coming from with Sekiro, and I mostly felt the same for the majority of my first play through, but while fighting Owl something clicked with me, and I ended up playing the whole game through like three times last year.
I still haven't played Demons or Dark Souls 2, but nothing else listed gave me trouble the way the second Dark Souls 3 dlc did.

 

[Aztechnology]

Wow people thought Sekiro was the hardest? That's crazy to me. I didn't have any problem plantinuming it and didn't have much problem on most bosses. Where on some in souls I more or less got help.

 

[Deleted member 8852]

It's easily Sekiro, I didn't even finish it. (though I got to the final boss) No cheesing possible, quick reactionary combat required, you're mostly stuck to having to approach encounters the way From expects you to as you don't really have different playstyles available.

Most of the other Souls games I platinum'd.

 

[Gelf]

Once Sekiro clicked it became by far the easiest of the bunch for me so certainly not that. Dark Souls 3 probably gives me the most trouble now.

Dark Souls 1 killed me the most but that was more the trial of being a beginner and I wouldn't count it as the hardest anymore.

 

[Fatoy]

Bloodborne has the steepest initial learning curve and it also features Oprhan of Kos, so yeah, that one.

 

[Bansai]

For me it was DkS2 with all of the DLC, but mostly because some of the enemies and their tracking was badly designed.

And while it was hardest, it's still a relatively easy game to get through on your own if you don't rush.

 

[The Silver]

I'm much much better at fast paced combat that slow paced. Once Sekiro's combat clicked I was good, NG+ was a cakewalk.

Dark Souls 1 remains the hardest for me.

 

[Zampano]

I don't know how people are saying Sekiro. I beat all the bosses in that but some of the Souls bosses feel forever out of reach. Last boss of DS3 felt like some kind of joke with all his health bars. Summoned about three helpers.

 

[Ikuu]

Nioh is easily the easiest game out of these, on the normal difficulty at least. So simple to abuse the various systems to kill bosses in a few seconds.

 

[Imran]

I think Sekiro is way easier than Nioh. Sekiro I can learn. Nioh I always feel like I got screwed by an enemy tossing shit at me I couldn't see or circle-tracking me out of nowhere.

 

[Legacy]

Sekiro, I'm surprised a poll is even needed for this. It is widely considered the hardest game out of the lot

 

[Stickman]

I'd have to replay them all. The struggle got smaller and smaller for me with every game, Demon's Souls almost had me quitting a couple of times, Dark Souls 3 felt almost too easy but that could just be an experience thing. Haven't played Sekiro yet.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Although Sekiro gave me some trouble I haven't played it enough to give it a proper judgement. I haven't played any DLCs for the Dark Souls series, but out of the vanilla experiences I played I think Dark Souls 2 gave me the most trouble, mostly because of the many multi-entity bosses or bosses with mobs. 3 had some tough moments too, but it felt like an overall smoother experience to me.

 

[chechi]

Played every single one of them since the first release of Demons Souls and for me its undoubtedly Sekiro.

The boss-runs are shorter, the "normal" enemys are kinda just there and the level design is less convoluted BUT the gameplay itself expects much more from the player: No leveling/grinding, no co-op and much more reflexes necessary.

Love them all but Sekiro is the hardest of the bunch imo.

 

[iiStryker]

Sekiro is not a soulsborne its an action game.
Not trying to start an argument just stating a point of fact.

Soulsborne's are RPG's that let you completely customize your builds and accommodate multiple play styles. Eventually, if you're willing to grind enough you can over level yourself and become pretty OP and there's co-op help you can summon.

Sekiro does none of this. In Sekiro you must understand the games mechanics and master them on your own or you'll fail every time.

To answer your poll - Sekiro

 

[Haze]

Sekiro isn't a soulsborne game but subjectively beyond that, I found it to be the easiest of the series.

It has an initial learning curve which requires you to NOT play it like a soulsborne game. But once you've done that, it spends dozens of hours refining the same gameplay loop. By the end of the game, I was steamrolling bosses until the final, who was admittedly very difficult.

 

[p3n]

The Souls (DS, DS1, DS2, DS3, BB) games are only "hard" in the beginning. And even then the difficulty requires the player to lack any knowledge about the games' mechanics. The difficulty curve drops a lot past the early game.

For me Nioh (1) is a much harder game than any Souls game. At least until NG+ and the Diablo-esque random loot comes into play. From that point on it is just pure fun and the game's mechanics suddenly start working. You can make some INSANE builds and the game feels more like an ARPG hack & slay.

Sekiro is a mechanically much simpler game than the Souls games. Because of that it managed to have a more consistent difficulty curve across the whole game. And that curve just never drops. I'd say it is the only game on that list you cannot "cheese" with stats and gear, only through clever use of the general mechanics. You have to learn the mechanics and timing and what each enemy type or boss can do.

So Sekiro by a long shot.