Out of the first three Dark Souls, which one had your favorite game progress route? (2024)

Stream of consciousness:

Dark Souls 3 is 2 but smoother in how the game starts, but quickly f*cks with your head by introducing just as many branching path rabbit holes as 1 in terms of goal progression and like a dozen npc assholes to visit and keep track of. At least three of these assholes are also vendors (it is great having them all in one place after rescuing them) who can go off and die without much warning - some warnings can be fakeouts. The levels are really god damn big and a slog to get through. You can teleport at least. Boiled ash lake is the worst area in the entire souls series, per square ft.

Dark Souls 2 (vanilla) is a straight shot from beginning to end with only one side character I can remember having obtuse requirements to get their gear. Its hard to miss significant side content. The most gear can be farmed with ascetics, and only a few pieces of gear are NG or NG+ and beyond. Bosses can be fought again with aescetics. Teleport anywhere. Blacksmith and a vendor introduced after a 5-15 min tutorial. The start is actually not too dissimilar to Demons', but with less mandatory frustrating sh*t in the way. PvP can be tackled in lots of ways, with only one bad one (let's charge a rare item for to the 'good guy's' sparring club, very cool). The whole path of the Shrine of Amana and its adjacent areas can be really tough to fight in, but it's an open view, you can literally see the endgame. This is a comfy game to hang around in a few areas after unlocking all pathways. Mejula would be a nice seaside community place to live with fun neighbors if that little pig gremlin and that house skeleton (and that big well) didn't exist 😠.

In DS1, a starting gift can wildly change a player's first-time experience, good and bad. You lose access to a bonfire at a certain point if you're not paying attention. Curse and a glorified lice infestation can f*ck up your game. The cornucopia of 's

can waste your time with at least 3-5 very different seemingly viable pathways before the correct path toward anor londo and fast travel (getting down to ash lake is hard and really jank, going back up will make you want to quit). Going back to the giant bird is its own adventure in f*cking around (and getting stuck), if you even find out about it. You can miss the Rite of Kindling very easily for a long time because getting to Pinwheel f*cking sucks, and there's no indication going that way is important. Right after you pass him there's a whole other pitch-black area that can only be navigated with 2-3 items in the whole game, without these you can get stuck in this area. Another area down here is also blocked off by anor londo progress. There is a place in this game with WINDING INVISIBLE WALKWAYS OVER A DEATH CHASM. The first vendor is off the beaten path an hour into the game after many a thorough ass beating, and the first blacksmith is almost 2 hours in after a lot more bullsh*t. No boss backtracking, PvP is tied to bosses. Lots of NPC quests to start, but almost all are difficult to finish. This game is f*cked up in terms of progression, the only other game that's more f*cked up is Demons' (don't get me started).

If someone asked me what game to play if they wanted to keep their hair, I'd tell them to pay extra for Vanilla 2 easily. OR to skip every souls-borne-kiro game and wait for Elden Ring. Elden Ring (based on the beta) tutorializes EVERYTHING. Elden Ring appears to be a game where sequence breaking is the point, AND the game accounts for it and doesn't rake you over the coals at the same time. Important vendor stuff is a 5 minute run from the starting tutorial, of which is also optional. You can get a horse 10 minutes in and do anything. Do (almost) everything from a site of grace. Jury's out on how many NPC a-holes you have to babysit, hopefully not many.