I've been reading a lot of articles around the internet talking about how Dark Souls 3 is not "hard," that it is "easier" than its predecessors, and how terrible that is, blah blah blah.

I can definitely that, yes, they are correct: Dark Souls 3 is the easiest installment of the franchise so far. I'm no Dark Souls expert or anything, but I've played the SHIT out of Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, and this is most certainly not nearly as difficult as the past iterations. I'm happy about that, and yes, there is a part of me that is sad. I'll get to the latter, but first, the former must be addressed.

Dark Souls 3 is not necessarily an EASIER game in my eyes, but rather a more EXPLAINED game. In the first two, you had to jump through hoops to learn how to do damn near anything. Crafting? Figure it out yourself. Half of the controls? Try shit out and see what works. Covenants? Hell, I still don't know HALF of the damn ways to get into covenants. That's not even talking about how to get to specific places, illusory walls, items, etc. Even the story was fairly shrouded in mystery.

With Dark Souls 3, the game goes out of its way to explain things quite a bit more. The blacksmith will tell you exactly what each menu option is meant for, and what you need to use them. The handmaid that sells you stuff? Same thing. The chick that levels you up? Same thing. The basic parts of the game are laid out in front of you. Even the story is fairly explained for you, with only the characters themselves being something to dig deeper into. Fundamental things that allow you to progress through the game are easier.

The enemies are still difficult, and the bosses are the same mixture of hard and not-quite-so-hard as before. How you interact with them, through spells and weaponry, is the thing that has changed, allowing you to progress in a more natural sense. You aren't struggling to figure out how to get a +10 weapon, but rather you are celebrating every time you get the upgrade you've been wanting. You aren't stuck trying to find the one corpse laying around that has the one piece of Titanite Chunk that you need, but rather you are swimming in the stuff and getting to have fun with a wide array of weaponry.

Dark Souls 3 is easier, but only because the parts that were clunky and undefined are now clearly defined and something fun to engage with. I'll take fun over crushing difficulty any day of the week. You are still dying because of your own mistakes in 96% of the occasions. You just aren't beating your head against the progression wall, wondering why the hell you can't get a stronger piece of gear or level up as quickly as you'd like.

Now, as for the part where it makes me sad, it's simple: there is no "Sen's" in Dark Souls 3, and the amount of linear level design I've seen feels like it butts against what I expect of Dark Souls. Sen's Fortress in the first Dark Souls is, single-handedly, the greatest level design I've ever seen in a video game, and the lack of anything that can even compare to it in terms of risk/reward is a bit tragic. I've only gotten to the Grand Archives so far, slightly past that. Maybe I haven't reached it yet. I thought that maybe the Catacombs of Carthus would be it, or even Irithyll Dungeon. Nothing has had that same feeling yet, and it's a little...saddening. As for the linear level design, I feel like everything is a fairly straight path with little deviation available. A secret area there, an illusory wall here, but other than Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, nothing has felt as free form as the areas of the previous two games. This is a thing that greatly irritated me about Bloodbourne, which felt like very straight-forward level design. The first Dark Souls had that interconnected feeling, where you always felt like you were part of the same world. The levels were fairly free to roam around in, and it all felt very connected to itself. Dark Souls 2 also had a fairly open-ended design with its levels. Dark Souls 3 just feels like "push forward and look around a corner once in a while." Part of that may be because of the way Firelink Shrine essentially feels like the Nexus from Demon's Souls, which gives it a very disconnected feeling.

Overall, though, Dark Souls 3 is pretty incredible, I'm having a ton of fun with it, and for once in a Dark Souls game, I don't feel like I'm fighting against the mechanics (except that damn lock-on system) but instead fighting against epic enemies and an excellent story.

I think they struck a better balance with this game by diverting more of the challenge to the optional areas and bosses. I do think some of the earlier bosses were a bit too predictable but like it's been said numerous times that can be attributed to my experience with the previous games. The thing with the Souls games that's fantastic though is you can choose your difficulty, if you're finding it too easy you can simply not level anymore and choose to spend your Souls on other things, then the game becomes a lot more challenging.

I will say I do think DS2 is still an easier game. The bosses in that game gave me hardly any issues whatsoever and most of the challenge came from trying to keep Lucatiel alive before they patched her.

For me the souls series have never been particularly hard just really obtuse, there are only a handful of bosses over the entire series lifespan I would honestly consider hard and once you have a grasp on the basics of how Fromsoft design these games they become exponentially "easier".

Edit. misspelling

Dark Souls II is by far the easiest one in the series but I agree I don't relaly feel all that challenged by Dark Souls III so far

I'm still not too far into DS3, but it definitely feels the easiest. I agree, I'm ok with side stepping a lot of the esoteric menu stuff for this outing. It just doesn't make sense to keep that going when the series is what it is today. That said, I do wish it presented more of a challenge in gameplay, though I'm not sure how it could for veterans/fans of the series outside of the player forcing themselves to be handicapped. It is impossible for me to forget lessons learned from the previous games - lessons that drastically change how I approach scenarios or enemies, so is it really easier or is it just because I know what to expect?

Guys, keep in mind that a lot of us have played three or four of these games now, we know their ins and outs pretty well at this point. I can easily see a newcomer having some real trouble with the first boss.

The difficulty is gradual unlike past souls games. Wait until you get to the mid point - end game. Large bosses are actually more enjoyable to face here. The game has plenty of bosses that are the classic souls difficulty, and some beyond. It's struck the perfect balance for me so far.

I don't agree that Dark Souls 3 is easy at all. I have found it to be significantly harder than both Demon's and DS2.

I'm getting nowhere whith the tree. I keep practicing as a summoned phantom and I'm just not able to close the book on this one.

So far I also think it's easier than previous games, but I don't know if it's because I'm overleveled for the four bosses I've fought so far or the game in general, or even the fact that i've played multiple of these games. One of the reasons I like to play completely different builds in each new Souls release is to create a new challenge for myself. I'm learning to rely on dodge instead of constantly hiding behind a shield, and take more risks where I see an opportunity.

@skullpanda1: There's a trick to that boss, just circle around it to find its weakness. It can be a rather slow fight if you know its attack patterns. Hope I'm not revealing too much!

I'd agree with you that this game seems easier, though I think they things do some things to make the game easier intentionally, as opposed to just less obscure design. Bonfires/shortcuts are more prevalent and you accrue a ton of estus shards and estus ugprades. Those have all become the mainstays of the latter souls games, but it still shows how much of an impact it has. The game is challenging to start, but once I reached a critical mass of stats, equipment, and estus I felt like I was steamrolling through given that I had 10+ estus to fall back on and enough knowledge to build a good character.

It got to the point where I would generally expect three or four major groups of enemies before I found the next checkpoint, and I was almost never at risk of running out of estus. And the later bosses I was able to one shot fumbling through them instead of learning and having to perform nearly perfectly because I could only heal up a few times. There are a few highlight bosses and some of the optional bosses were challenging, but otherwise there was little having to master a boss or enemy, or feeling that crazy sense of accomplishment at beating something after tons of effort and learning. And you rarely feel like you're just scraping through or having to make the decision between retreating with your souls or forging on with no healing given the major design decisions around healing and bonfires.

It's still a fairly challenging game, but they've tuned it to feel just right.

I've only beaten Bloodborne and spent maybe 20 hours total with the previous Souls games (just over 10 in this one). So I'm not super well-versed in these but I find it to be easy to follow. It's an absolutely awesome game and I spent far too much of my weekend with it.

I'll echo the sentiment that it's less about this game being easier (I've beaten a few of the bosses on my first try, but I think the levels are as hard as any given game in this series has ever been) and more that I've just played 4 games like this one already.

I think it's by far the hardest of these games, but that's not saying much. There were very few actual hard moments in the previous games once you learned how the games were supposed to be played. Everyone kind of has their approach by now.

I may be in the minority here, but so far, I'm finding this one to be the most difficult, followed perhaps by Dark Souls 2. I thought the first Dark Souls was by far the easiest one I've played. As a matter of fact, I'm only at Farron Keep and I think I've already died in this one more times than I did in Dark Souls (including the add-on) or Bloodborne. The three bosses I've beaten have been easy, compared to some of the enemies in the areas that preceded them. The difficulty hasn't been frustrating or anything -- I'm enjoying it in fact.

Edit: I just made it past Farron Keep and my Hollowing is currently at 99.

I haven't played Dark Souls III yet, but I would still like to make one comment. Keep in mind that a lot of the difficulty of the early dark souls game was simply never having played a game like that before. I do feel the later ones are probably overall easier, but honestly a lot of the difficulty of those games was simply learning the style of them. Heck if you started at an easier one of those, and went to one of the more famously difficult ones, you would find those more notorious difficult ones probably incredibly easy and not feel they are that difficult.

I would say that there are plenty of challenging enemies and bosses, but parts of the game are very giving with short-cuts and bonfires. So far the only point I've felt that "Oh my god, oh my god, please tell me a bonfire is close" has been in the Catacombs of Carthus.

I truly believe this game is easier because most of us have played a fair number of these by now. I convinced a friend of mine to buy Dark Souls 3, and he has no prior experience with the series whatsoever. He is struggling just as hard as I did when I first plaTed Demons Souls. I think this game only appears to be linear and obvious to people who know what to look for.

Friend of mine picked it up as his first souls game and is having alot of trouble with the mechanics,I think those who played the rest of the souls series by now will find it easier.

A lot of people claim this and then proceed to showcase they die a ton more in DSII and/or didn't finish it or weren't capable of getting past sections without summoning. Not accusing you of this, I'm just seeing a whole lot of 'DSII is easier' when it isn't really for most people.

I definitely think DSIII is easier. I died less, lost Souls I think pretty much never so far and never died more than 3ish times on bosses. It was the same with Dark Souls for me. I actually think DSII was harder. It had a couple of bosses where I died like 10+ times. Some sections were certainly very easy though. To be fair, if we count Bloodborne, that wins the piece of cake easily. I'm not sure I even died more than 15-20 times total on my first run. Beat two thirds of the bosses on the first try, none made it past attempt 3.

I don't think Dark Souls 3 is easier, its just that we are so used to the games now, that it feels easier.

I actually think its harder than Dark Souls, the enemies feel way more aggressive.

However, I feel there are way more bonfires and shorter distances between them, which can make it feel easier, but I think the enemy design isn't.

All Souls games are the same, you have to make your own challenge. If you want it hard, never summon ever, level very sparsely, try to use some weapons that are fun rather than the absolute best. If you just want to beat it, you can overlevel, summon and get a very easy time.

Demon souls is the only one i completed and i soon got tired of the others. The difficulty of 3 seems on pair with Demon souls combatwise but there are much more generous savespots and also whenever you die and lose souls it feels like less of a burden. They are also throwing a myriad of interesting weapons and armor on you wherever you go and i havnt decided if thats good or bad yet. With that said Dark souls 3 still has my interest after a good 10-15hour and that the longest i played a soulsgame since Demon souls.

Dark Souls III sounds like it succeeds at fulfilling all the promises Lords of the Fallen wanted to make.

Nameless King is really hard. T.T

There is an optional late game boss called The nameless King and he was the hardest and most rewarding boss fight in the series for me personally.

@a_turtle: @tobbrobb: Beat that mofo on Saturday and was shaking for like 5 minutes afterwards. Such a good boss, definitely on that "beating S&O for the first time" level of rewarding.

I haven't really looked up how many bosses there are or who they are, so I'm not sure when this Nameless King comes up. I just finished Ocieros (whatever his name is) earlier, and that was a pretty cool fight. Simple, but effective in terms of both lore (the way it links to Seath the Scaleless) and overall atmosphere (him constantly searching for his child). I wouldn't have even known about the Untended Graves if it hadn't been for messages on the ground! THAT WAS AN AWESOME AREA! I don't know if I'm done with it or not. I killed Champion Gundyr, and I really want to dig into the lore of that whole area.

So I'm guessing that I'm pretty close to getting to this Nameless King, and I'm pretty stoked if the fight is on par with S&O comparisons!

@uninvincible: Yeah for sure!

@jakob187 The boss in question can be a bit hard to find, he's in a side area (kind of like this games painted world).

Its not easier, everyone just gitted gud. From Software, players, everyone, but not Bandai Namco.

Systems and game design evolve. I wouldn't say they are "easier" as much as they control better and they have a better grasp on older ideas.

They give you more, faster and I think that's where a lot of the sense of it being easier comes from. Much quicker than in previous games, you are given access to new weapons, sorceries, pyromancies, miracles, even weapon infusions. I also love what they did with covenants and being able to switch between them easily.

There's also the very nice lack of fights taking place on balancing beams

But as far as the actual gameplay and enemy difficulty goes, I don't know what they're talking about. Maybe it's just because I'm going with a spellcaster this time around and so are more squishy than in previous games, but I'm finding the game as a whole to be a more challenging experience than any of the previous entries (except maybe for Demon's Souls, but I can chalk that up to the lack of estus flasks and my refusal to grind for herbs). The enemy AI is smarter, more resourceful, there are more enemies to face all at once, and there are more variety in those enemies

Or maybe it's because Bloodborne trained everyone to live without shields, so they're just better at the game now.

I have never played a Souls game (Bloodborne included) and am kind of interested, though I think I might like BB better. It seems to have a more horror/gothic look to it. Is the gameplay fun/deep? Or is it just, evade, swing weapon, evade, swing weapon? Also, is it fast? Or is it slow/clunky?

Honestly, this is a big deal that has flown under the radar. My bread and butter in Dark Souls has been the sword-and-board approach, but after Bloodborne, I've been able to return to the original Dark Souls for the first time in years and breeze through it with a rolly, dodgy dexterity build.

Nah, because Bloodborne also trained me to press the wrong button to heal. You can give the enemies more aggression but they're still bound by patterns. You're just better at recognising that and the risk that comes with it.

@a_turtle: I figured out how to get there. It took a while. I actually had gone to a different area at first (where you fight Dragonslayer Armour), and as I was wandering around trying to find where to use the gesture, I eventually saw the spot in Irithyll Dungeon. Seriously, they did a pretty good job of hiding away the optional areas in this game!

I also wouldn't have figured out how to defeat the Ancient Wyvern easily if I hadn't summoned people in to help. I died the first time against him, and I was thoroughly tempted to just beat the hell out of his feet forever until he died. Glad I summoned poeple.

As for the comments on Bloodbourne, I just started that game again yesterday. When I originally went and played it, I hated it. The quickstepping just felt super awkward and screwed with the camera in ways I didn't care for. I decided to just persevere and push forward, and now that I've gotten the Kirkhammer, I'm enjoying it more. I still hate the quickstepping, and the lock-on system is just as wonky as Dark Souls. My biggest issue, as someone pointed out, is having to use a different button to heal. I keep accidentally trying to push Square when I'm fighting, and it's getting me fucking killed. Drives me insane. Nonetheless, I'm going to keep pushing forward. I have a feeling that I'll start liking it at some point. I just don't know when.

However, most of the time I spend in the Dark Souls franchise is putting a buff shield on my back and two-handing a big fucking weapon! I play warriors/barbarians in everything I do, so this is the only way for me to ever play. My play style is literally "charge in and fuck shit up," beating my head against the wall until I get it done. I dodge more than anything, and I rarely shield block something. The only time that wasn't the case was when I made the Greatshield of Artorias in Dark Souls. That thing was dope as hell, looked cool as fuck, and I wouldn't NOT use it. Then again, I also refused to stop using Quelagg's Furysword. It was just too cool.

I think you may have just sold me on the game. I really like the combat, art style and level design of Dark Souls but I also constantly feel like an idiot for not knowing what the hell is going on. I constantly feel like I'm making wrong decisions and making the whole experience harder for myself. And no, I don't like using guides.

Perhaps I should try this.

I think it's difficult to properly assess the difficulty of a Dark Souls game unless you come into each one fresh since having a lot of experience in previous souls games will just inherently make the next one easier. Even though there are clear differences between all three DkS games, the fundamental combat mechanics are very similar. For me Dark Souls III was an easier game for me simply because I've had so much experience with all the previous Souls games. I dunno if I could properly say that it's easier than DkS1 or DkS2 since there were very easy ways to become completely overpowered early on in those games. The bottom line is I don't think I'm able to fully assess the difficulty of these games for a new player since I'm not a new player to the Souls series so these games are just naturally going to be easier the more of them I play. Your first Souls games is always the hardest one regardless of which one you decide to play first. Any other Souls games after that are just inherently going to be easier.

I think Dark Souls 3 might have the best difficulty curve of the series. I can only speak for my own experience, but the way the areas and bosses gradually got more challenging as I went on felt very natural. At least, so as long as you're not counting the couple of bosses that rely on a gimmick. For the most past I didn't encounter any spikes or drops in difficulty, which I can't say the same for the previous games.

That's because Dark Souls 3 is probably the most linear the series has ever been.

Are difficulty spikes really an indicator of how good or bad the curve is though, in a series that let the player go wherever they wanted to for at least 2 games? It's a different design approach but I wouldn't call it worse. For example, all you had to do in Demon's Souls before you got to go wherever you wanted was beat that first area and then the rest of the places opened up. Then in Dark Souls, you could almost literally access any area from the beginning. It lets the player figure out "I should wait until I go there" than the game laying it out for you. Dark Souls 3 is kind of a straight line.

Just a thought.

Maybe it's just because this is my first Souls game, but I'm finding it anything but easy.

Like, I'm making progress, but it ain't steady. I'm currently at the boss at the end of the undead village. I came pretty close to killing him a couple of times, so I know I can do it, but this game is not easy...

@jakob187: Cool that you figured it out!

I managed to get the ancient wyvern in a spot where he just kept breathing fire in a straight line with his neck exposed, so I just stabbed him in the neck until he was dead. But in general fighting dragons in any game where you are a small person doesn't feel great, you want it to be this cool fantasy battle with a huge monster but it often becomes underwhelming. Dark souls have had its fair share of bad dragon bosses especially in 2, I liked the fight against Kalameet in ds1 though. So bravo to game devs that get boss fights right I guess.

Fair point. I would argue that the linear design does make for a better difficulty curve because it's more controlled experience. It does however, as you said, come at the cost of player freedom. I think as a first playthrough, I personally prefer the linear approach Dark Souls 3 has taken because I was never worried that I'm in the wrong area at the wrong time. In the original game I ended up butting my head against the Catacombs for hours believing that it was the next part of the of the progression after reaching Firelink Shrine. I was never able to figure out that I should wait, probably because it was my first experience with the series, and it resulted in a lot of frustration. That said, I could see the argument that a more sandbox design works better in subsequent playthroughs because you don't feel locked into a signal approach and it offers up the potential variety that comes with completing areas out of the traditional order.

If it's your first Souls game, then it'll be hard. Nothing can compare to your first Souls game. I played Demon's Souls back when it came out and I'll never forget that first set of steps I walked up in the first area. Learning the mechanics is part of the experience.

This being my fifth Souls game, I found the game pretty damn easy.

This. I feel its rough for Souls veterans to determine difficulty, because we're onto the fifth game now, counting Demon's and BB. Many people have learned how combat flow works, and how to look for tells and have better judgement than someone coming in fresh. If From is going to give veterans the difficulty they crave, I feel they will need to add more side content and/or higher difficulty settings to accomplish it. TLDR: Souls games make you better the more you play.

It was easy at first, but in these later areas I'm having a much more difficult time than I did with Dark Souls 1 or 2. Maybe its just me, but I've never had issues with normal enemies in one of these games before. It was always the bosses that gave me trouble. In DS 3 I'm getting destroyed by some of the normal enemies. and the bosses like Pontiff gave me some serious trouble. (I ended up just summoning for him).

Like others have said, the bosses (pre NG+ at least) are definitely easier overall, so far. However, the levels themselves are more challenging than ever. I'm finding I have to be very careful when clearing areas trying to get all the loot, dying a bunch in that process, and then acing the boss in one try.

They all have their ups and downs, personally I found Bloodborne much easier than any of the actual Souls games and that often is said to be harder, just depends how you play.

It seems well balanced.

I think you're right. With the first Dark Souls I pretty much just ran through the game not really bothering with any of the online stuff or covenants. Didn't bother with any spells or crafting other than leveling up my halberd. Hell, I barely bothered with using humanity because by the end of that game I still didn't know what the point of it was. Dark Souls 2 I didn't play much of because I didn't like it. Dark Souls 3 does a much better job of explaining things and easing you in and its been by far the most enjoyable Dark Souls to me. All the bosses so far have been pretty damn easy(I felt the same about the first Dark Souls) but getting through the levels has been a challenge later on.

I don't think it's really easier in general but I do think there are parts that are. The general aspect of more explanations for the mechanics is positive for sure.

One part that I think is easier is that bonfires (at least so far for me) are closer together. Less really grueling runs. But I just like that more.