This reminds me I didn't play the dlc in Dark Souls yet! I need to catch up with all that money sucking DLC someday!

Demon's Souls was the first love. It definitely changed my taste as a gamer. Showed me how that a good challenge can be so satisfying. Honestly, it made me appreciate and respect the art of video games more than ever before. Now I almost always play games on hard difficulty. I got it upon release, I remember that I watched some gameplay footage and I felt that the gameplay seemed tight, and that every attack counts. I felt like there was a great weigh to the combat... And I wasn't disappointed.

I love how the world is connected in the first Dark Souls, the lore was strong and well presented throughout the world and atmosphere. the main bosses were introduced properly and were given great back stories, unlike the other two games. So many great bosses, Ornstein and Smough boss fight is the best and most epic I've ever experienced in a video game.

Dark Souls II gameplay in general is better and much more balanced (especially online PvP). The way how the moderated backstabbing is brilliant. For someone who has to suffer from lag, the ring that protects you from backstabbing was God sent. It made the multiplayer much more fun. Stats, scaling, element infusion / upgrading and so on all were more refined.

i bought both Demons Souls and Dark Souls at the same time in 2012, and at first i thought i was going to enjoy Dark Souls more than Demons Souls, so i played them in order of release (that way i would save the best for last) but for my surprise Demons Souls just absorved me in its atmosphere, with those incredibly designed worlds those epic bosses and the lore that appears to be very simple but there is actually more to it present in items descriptions and even on the proper levels in a very subtle way, i ended up getting the platinum for Demons Souls and beating the game 10 times (i had 9 new game plus playthroughs), before i even started Dark Souls.

And for my surprise i didnt enjoyed DaS as much as DeS, yes it was open world but there was a clearly intended path that you had to follow, the base speed movment of the character was a little bit slower (which isnt really a problem since its just a minimal difference but the fact that DeS felt a little bit faster was for me an actual difference since i like fast paced games), it had some artificial difficulty in it (like finding your first mimic or riding sens fortress elevator to the "third floor") the archers of anor londo were though guys but that wasnt really artificial difficulty so i wont mention them there despite how annoying they could have been, but the thing that really didnt grabed me on DaS was its lore and how it handled it, you see in DaS for the first half of the game all you know is that you got out of your prision cell and that you have to ring some bells and so little of the story is given to you by the end of the game that you dont know if your decision to link the fire again is the right thing to do or not, and yes i understand that part of the enjoyment of this games is finding out the story on your own with item descriptions, and both DeS and DaS had a lot of their lore behind such item descriptions, but the difference between the two is that DeS gives you the main plot from the get go:

"Kill all the arch demons to lure the old one and then put it back to its slumber"

its pretty straight forward, which leaves the Item descriptions as a way to know more about the lore instead of how DaS handled it which was more of a way to actually understand what was going on.

the final thing that i wish DaS would have done in a more similar way to DeS was the bonfires, i thought they were pretty close to each other, as you people know in DeS when you die you have to start at the beggining of the level but in DaS since its open world you start at the bonfire which normally isnt much of a difference except when you realize that some bonfires are really close to the actual Boss Fights and the level design is so open that you can just run through from the bonfire to the bossfight every time you die at set bossfight, eliminating part of the challenge of the game.

And all those are the reasons why i ended up liking DeS more, BUT Dark Souls did do a lot of great stuff:

1) it fixed the healing system which was kind of broken in DeS

2) it did had the harder Boss Fights (Ornstein and Smough are still the hardest foes ive ever faced on a souls game)

3) it had a lot more to the multiplayer side of the game.

4) it implemented the covenant system

so yeah Dark Souls is still a freaking amazing game and i can understand why some people liked it more.

Finally i cant wait for Bloodborne, not only is Miyazaki taking inspiration from Demons Souls to make this game but its also the most fast paced game in the series and its set in a gothic enviroment... and i love gothic stuff.

also Wright you were complaining about this gen not having many "must have" games, and after seeing how much you like the soul series i must ask, will you finally make the jump to "next gen" for Bloodborne or not?

and finally i must say Congrats Wright for this awesome Thread!.

I would be interested in a new King's Field with much harder than Bloodborne. :P

I've had Bloodborne on my sight ever since it got announced

yeah forgot to mention it but the combat was also the reason why i bought the games in the first place, it looked really satisfaying and it didnt dissapointed me as well, and good to know they fixed the backstabing problems that the games had on the online department, (that was my majore gripe with both games online component).

Good to know, let hope it turns out even better than we are expecting it to be.

I still remember when I saw the first Demons Souls trailer and lukewarm Japan reviews ,I thought it would be terrible. Now after more than 300 hours of pain, excitement, tears and exhilaration spent on all three games combined, I have to say its my favorite series of all time.

And although my gaming skills are totally mediocre I still managed to solo every boss in NG, which means there's hope for everyone.

The toughest bosses in my opinion were:

Demon's Souls: Flamelurker, I almost quit the game because of this boss and finally downed him by poking him with a moon spear while hiding behind pillars :p

Dark Souls: Has to be a tie between Ornstein and Smough and Manus (because of my terrible reflexes). The toughest fight in the game for me was the one against Lautrec and his bros (I hate pvp)

Dark Souls 2: Well it was initially Smelter Demon mainly because of his difficulty spike and then came FUME KNIGHT :O (I actually did quit the DLC because of him, however after a month's break and lots tears of frustration I managed to beat him :D )

I have Dark Souls installed, but I haven't had time to play it. Seems like the kind of game I will enjoy.

1. Dark Souls 2
2. Demons Souls
3. Dark Souls

All three are great