Every Dark Souls Game, Ranked Worst to Best
Elden Ring is the newest (and best) entry in the wildly popular and terribly named SoulsBorne series, and for good reason. It is the culmination of decades of experimentation and polish by the fantastic minds at the From Software team and Hidetaka Miyazaki, and combines the best parts of nearly every game in the series. If you’re one of the millions of new players to the series and are likely finishing up your first or second playthrough of Elden Ring, you might be looking for where to go next. So to help guide you to your next site of grace, here’s every Dark Souls game from worst to first.
But first, some context. This ranking will only include Dark Souls one through three. While Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro are all fantastic games in their own rights and undoubtedly contributed to the masterpiece that is Elden Ring, they aren’t actually Dark Souls games. Demon’s Souls was the OG, the progenitor of the series (unless you want to count King’s Field, but no one really considers them part of the “Canon”), and as such has arguably the largest impact on the games that came after it, cementing the core gameplay concepts like the stamina bar, experience as a universal currency, and the dark aesthetic and lonely world. Bloodborne, on the other hand, is considered by many to be the game that brought us into the modern Soulsborne era by introducing cosmic horror and body horror elements to the series, moving away from the sword and board style in favor of a more aggressive “A good offense is the best defense” style, and ramping up the speed of combat considerably, which is reflected in each game in the series to follow. Sekiro... introduced a jump button. It’s really the outlier of the series and is part of the reason that it’s not included in the naming convention like Bloodborne, but that’s not to say it’s a bad game, just that it is the most unique of the lineup and is more of a cousin than a sibling to the others.
Worst, but certainly not bad
First up is Dark Souls 2, a personal favorite, but unquestionably the least beloved game bearing the Dark Souls moniker. It introduced some of the staples that would stick with the series like unlimited fast travel from the beginning of the game and torches and the importance of light, as well as a few mechanics that didn’t appear again, or at least not in every game, such as a unique new game+ cycle with new enemy placements and mechanics, Bonfire Ascetics, which allowed you to put selected sections of the game into the next new game+ cycle, and the power stance system, which was improved upon for the paired weapons in Elden Ring. DS2 had a stand alone story and lore, only being hinted at in a few armor pieces in Dark Souls 3, but otherwise seemingly disconnected from the universe of Dark Souls one and three. Because of this it may seem like the best place to start after an Elden Ring playthrough, but buyer beware, 2 certainly has its warts. Enemy placement is sometimes confusing and even nonsensical, with mid- to late-game enemies appearing in an offshoot of the main path before you even get to choose your character’s name and in the main path itself of one of the first areas you’re intended to complete. The layout of the world is decidedly non-euclidean, with a long elevator ride up from a cliff face somehow taking you to the inside of a volcano-entrenched castle. But probably the most common complaint is the repetition of enemy types, with so many different variations of “large knight with big sword”, until you get to the DLC.
The solid middle option
Dark Souls is considered by many to be the best game in the series, and understandably so. It was the first widely successful game of the genre, selling over 5.5 million copies, second most in the series behind 3. Dark Souls is arguably the most punishing of the three, requiring a slower and more deliberate playstyle than later entries. It has the most cohesive world, with paths looping back onto themselves and each other naturally and almost seamlessly. There’s a real feeling of finding familiar ground after having been lost in a new, dangerous place when you realize you’ve just dropped onto the road you ran down a half hour ago, and that there’s a bonfire just around the corner. This is also the place to go to become “grossly incandescent” by meeting Solaire, the long-time pseudo mascot of the series and fan favorite character. Unfortunately, you’ll likely fail his and many other questlines you embark on unless you’re following a detailed walkthrough, as Dark Souls has the most inscrutable and obscure progression triggers of any game you’re likely to have played. You’ll also be hoofing it through the first half of the game or so, as fast travel is locked behind story progression. While this can make the beginning of the game feel like a bit of a slog, it also forces you to learn where everything in the world is and how to get there, giving Firelink Shrine (Dark Souls’ fantastic main hub) an undeniable sense of home.
And the winner is...
Finally we come to Dark Souls 3, the most recent and likely final Dark Souls game, and the best of the series by far. It is, without a doubt, the most polished, expansive, and fluid of the available options, and introduced the FP bar, a mana-like system for the new weapon arts feature, and to replace spell charges. Let’s not gloss over that last bit there - Dark Souls 3 introduced the weapon arts feature, adding a new layer of depth and individuality to every weapon in the game, and paving the way for the fantastic variation we now have in Elden Ring. This system on its own is one of the best arguments for declaring Dark Souls 3 the best game in the series, but it doesn’t stop there. Lothric, the country in which the game takes place, is home to some of the most beautiful and harrowing vistas imaginable between the unforgettable approach to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, the toxic depths of the Farron Keep, and the corrupted familiarity of Anor Londo. Aside from what you’ll find in the game originally, Dark Souls 3 also has a deep and dedicated modding community who has added small quality of life changes and complete reworks of the world and story as options to enable nearly unlimited replayability.
Farewell, and don’t you dare go hollow
While that same modding community may now be moving on to Elden Ring to enhance and expand the Lands Between with undoubtedly fantastic new content and features in the future, you can now revisit the past to see the seeds and roots of the Erdtree-like impact the series has left on the gaming landscape.