I finished dark souls 1 and dark souls 2 not real problems few bosses alot of bosses i died once tops. Demons souls seems alot harder and less forgiving. This one this is no bonfires and alot more back tracking to each boss if you died at it or on way there. Enemies seem harder maybe im using item weapon or lvling wrong not sure.

I've beaten both Dark Souls 1 and 2, and I agree. NOTHING can prepare you for the stupid dogs in the second stage of Boletaria, they were practically a boss in themselves... Ugh. I'm sure if I went back to play it now though I'd find it easier, since it has been quite a while since I touched it, but I remember it being very unforgiving, even more than Dark Souls was.

I think it's by far the easiest. I beat it in 8 hours after not touching it for years.

I guess it depends on player and how there playing. Im trying to play as pure melee class and i think magic is just better in this game you can one kill bosses in few hits without magic.

Im thinking of doing new game as royal and just going heavy magic with some melee.

It is the hardest in it's general encounters. Giant doggy dude group while you are stuck in mud and can't move? What's that? Your world tendency is bad so there is a red phantom too? The fact that NPC reds aren't a joke in Demon's Souls doesn't help either.

On the mechanics level it is no harder than the other two though. There are simply many many more tough encounters that test you and lots less reliance on paper then walk ways, dudes shooting from off screen, or heat seeking magic missile gimmicks.

Demon's Souls is way harder, in many different ways. Shortest by far, yes, but still harder. Rolling skeletons that track you to the end of the Earth and travel faster than you, laser ghosts, levels becoming harder the more you die, extremely limited "restore me to full max-health" items (until you unlock the vendor that sells them, which you probably won't until very late-game if at all), and -- despite there being actual "levels" in the game -- you can straight up not know where to go at a couple points very early on, and it's the most daunting of the Souls games in this regard.

Demon's Souls is the most broken. Certain boss weapons have S scaling in like 3 or 4 stats and some of the spells and miracles are just OP.

I think its the easiest of the 3, and i played them in order of release. Totally people will find a different game more difficult than the others, but none of the are WAY harder than the others.... they are all pretty comparable in difficulty I think.

You have to realize that a large group of people who refer to Demon Souls as the hardest one are spoiled by the fact that they played them all when they came out in order. Dark Souls was inherently much easier because you had a general feel for what the game was and how stats could generally work. Mechanics like stamina management, weight management, general build ideas and things like these were already decently well known by players by the time Dark Souls came out. In the same vein I have seen a lot of people say Dark Souls 2 was the hardest one for them. The catch? They played the games in reverse order after they became popular. As others have mentioned Demon Souls is also pretty buggy in a ton of ways but also had way more imbalanced items and equipment if you knew what to look for.

tl;dr Most people I have met irl have seemed to be of the mind that the first one they played was the hardest and the last one they played was the easiest. Knowing the baseline game mechanics (which have not changed too drasitically IE blocking, rolling, weight levels) is much more important than knowing the specific things of each game in my personal opinion.

EDIT: Some people who randomly lucked into the most OP builds (or played Royal from the get go) would probably also say the first game was super easy and might not know why at the time if they only played through the game once or twice.

Do it.

I remember getting really frustrated with it my first time even though i was also fascinated with the concept. Think it was mostly the boss that one shotted me and then having only half health, as well as being a bit bewildered with the gameplay. Might not be so now with having played Dark Souls and Dark Souls Dos.

Seems easier at least from videos i looked at of people killing bosses in 1-2 hits. I guess magic sucks in pvp tho but i just want finish the story.

Demon's Souls is only harder than Vanilla Dark Souls in PBWT, even in PBWT it's easier than Dark Souls 2. The DLC is much harder in both games. Demon's Souls is also the only Souls game with an "I win" class in the form of Royal; if you picked Royal you'll probably beat the game in sub 40 deaths having never played a Souls game before, if you have then maybe like 5-10.

Difficulty depends largely on your playstyle - there are comparatively easy ways to get thru the game. If you just finished DS1 and DS2 then you are bringing a good knowledge base to the table. If you want to make it easy just read a couple faqs ( there are a few weapons you can get as soon as you get past 1-1 that trivialize much of the early content) - though it may be more fun to figure it out on your own.

My suggestion is to have a plan for what type of build you are going for - game rewards specializing.

Just replayed Demon Souls myself recently - game holds up :)

It depends on which order you play them I guess. I had more trouble with Demon's Souls, did fine in DS, and fucking walked through DS2

Demon's is either the hardest or easiest. Pure melee, it's the hardest game in the series. Include any magic and it's a cakewalk. it's still my favorite though.

@bcooper21: Getting to the boss is harder for me. Once you do, typically it comes with a shortcut and makes a boss run real easy. Also, the bosses themselves were harder in DS to me, but not DS2. The hardest part in DS for me was Anor Londo; in DS2 it was the Dragon Shrine (because I insisted on killing that stupid dragon); Demon's Souls' toughest part was Latria to me. Again, I think that this was harder than DS2 (thanks to the despawning enemy mechanic), but less so than DS.

I actually really enjoyed Demon's Souls' archstone checkpointing. It was like running a gauntlet through enemies until you reached the fog door and got a shortcut which (usually) gave you a simple path to the boss. It was like the game recognized that you clearly had the skill to take what it could throw at you, so now it wasn't gonna waste your time and just get right to the main event.

Thing was i try to do it blind i did not want look up whats best but i guess i did now lol/.

I don't think so personally. I kinda suck at the Souls games in general but am definitely better at Demons Souls, though that might be because I played it first and prefer it or maybe my playstyle just suited it a little better.

I've only played through Demons and Dark Souls once though and haven't played Dark Souls 2 yet so can't comment on that.

@bcooper21: If going just for the story then go Royal all the way. IF you want a challenge do a pure melee character. I was kind of disappointed that Brad ended up choosing Royal but in the end I guess it was for the best. No idea why Patrick chose royal in his playthrough as well, unless he just wants to blow through it for the sake of saying he did. I mean it's still an accomplishment but royal honestly does make the game so so so much easier.

Demon's Souls is a very easy game to exploit. Knowledge of how its various spells and weapons work lets you make use of many very overpowered weapons regardless of if you're playing melee or ranged. Demon's Souls is difficult if you approach it not knowing much about its systems, but even then, most difficult feels a bit like a stretch.

I've only played Dark Souls and Demon's, and I'd say Dark is harder.

I think your first souls game you play is the hardest. Knowing the mechanics from the other games will give you a leg up on it.

I would say Demon's Souls has a much tougher ramp, but once you get over it I think it can be a a lot easier than Dark Souls. I beat the last six bosses in the game on a single life without looking up any guides and basically going into each fight blind.

At pure black world tendency I think it might be the hardest, otherwise I think it's probably the easiest - especially the bosses. There is only a few that aren't total pushovers. I probably had the hardest time with Demon's Souls as far as first playthroughs are concerned since I played them in order, so it's hard to judge in that respect. If I judge them all as if I were to play them now, I think Demon's Souls would be the easiest.

@bcooper21: Just go as Royalty and soul arrow your way through. It's practically cheat mode.

One of the most effective Souls tactics, especially for newcomers, is to load up on armor, equip a sword 'n shield, and endlessly stab things in the back. Bulking up worked wonders for me in previous Souls games, but in the interest of trying new things, I wanted a fresh approach. Outside of the occasional fire spell, magic has never been part of my repertoire. The royal class sounded interesting because it's a magic-friendly user from the very start. A change of pace!

It's so easy to stick with what you're used to, and I've found this to be rotten and pervasive. It's why we play the same kinds of games over and over again. It's why we approach games the same way over and over again. I try to push back on this. So even though I had a tried-and-true strategy for the other games, it seemed the right time to do something different. Maybe I'd learn something about Souls' design. At the very least, it'd be possible to accidentally build a character ill-equipped to beat the game, which would result in my dying a lot. You know, entertainment.

There's some history behind this, of course. Magic has slowly but surely been pushed out theSouls series. It's overpowered in Demon's Souls, slightly nerfed in Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, and appears to have been minimized completely in the upcoming Bloodborne. I knew this coming into Demon's Souls, and the idea of a helping hand through an otherwise difficult game was appealing. I was more interested in finishing Demon's Souls than the purest experience.

Apparently I'm not Playing Demon's Souls the Right Way - Patrick Klepek

Meat cleaver is still technically pure melee and that is one broken ass weapon

I feel like Dragon Bone Smasher is broken too. After I got it I could just one shot everything pretty much. Even bosses were going down in seconds.

Play Demon's Souls with no magic and have a really bad time.

I remember playing Demon's Souls just before Dark Souls 2 was released, and I didn't have much trouble with the game, barring a couple of bosses. I don't think I ever used magic either, I think I purely used a halberd until getting Demonbrandt. I think I even beat Firelurker on my first try. That's not to say the game isn't challenging, or that I'm especially good, but I'm of the opinion that your first Souls game will always be the hardest.

I don't count the Meat Cleaver since it does magic damage. Pure physical probably would have been more accurate. Just a little magic damage cuts through pretty much every enemy in the game.

It does absurd damage and blows over humanoid enemies, but it still requires it's own finesse since the lack of poise means that you'll get hit out of attacks if you are off on your timing. That's what makes the Meat Cleaver so nuts; you can absorb attacks with it and still swing (plus the healing and scaling).

Unless the Dragon Bone Smasher can do that too, in which case swing away. My memory is a bit fuzzy on which weapons can. The only one I remember for certain is the Crescent Axe because it's rad.

beat the final bosses and demon's souls and dark souls 2 on my first try

i felt like dark souls was the hardest so far

I didn't use any magic in my first playthrough because I didn't know how. I remember finding it easy and hard.

When I played it again last year, I decided to make a dexterity character without magic. I wore the plated armor and used a tearing broad sword, sharp winged spear, sticky compound short bow and heater shield. I felt the game was better balanced that way. I like the upgrade system better than in the sequels. Even though my weapons were all designed for dexterity, I used different materials for each. Suckerstone for the sword, spiderstone for the bow, bladestone for the spear and hardstone for the shield. And rightfully, armor isn't upgradable.

I felt Demon's Souls was fairer than Dark Souls II. Dark Souls II is harder, but mostly for dumb reasons. Since you can buy infinite life gems and heal endlessly, they put more enemies in the game that could deal more damage for more instant kills, but they didn't improve the targeting system and camera much to compensate, and it still takes too long to strike an enemy. Trying to perform another action like evading after you've pressed the attack button also takes too long. The combat isn't fast and flexible enough. It's better designed for fighting one or two enemies at a time. They should have improved the enemy AI and expanded their movesets instead of throwing more and more at you.

The carry limit never should have been dropped. I like managing my supplies and equipment. You can take a lot of healing items and heavy equipment with you, but then you might get to carry fewer arrows and pick up less crafting materials, weapons and armor. It was a nice balance. The system should have been improved.

Just finished 3/4 of bosses of archstone magic so easy its not funny spam all day buy mana item and regen.

So he's using it to just blow through the game a little quicker, and thats fine I get it. He's not playing the game wrong of course. I think every newcomer to the Souls series should on his/her first playthrough go the melee route just so they can experience the inherent challenge and thrill of engaging some of these enemies head on. Since Patrick has played both DS1 and DS2 he knows what that is all about so he's not missing out on the overall experience.

As a huge Demon's fan I guess it just sort of feels like he doesn't care to experience this game for real which is a shame because I feel it's still the best one. By playing Royal you really are bypassing a good 70% of the game design. Getting through 90% of the game by way of soul arrow means you won't really remember any one part of it because there is no struggle. Dark Souls fans recall Smough and Ornstein so well because it took a lot of time and energy to learn that fight and best it, and it was a feeling of immense satisfaction and achievement when you did so. No one would think that is an amazing boss fight if you could just run around and spam a single spell that did massive damage, side stepping the heart attack inducing head to head combat.

So I get it and I don't really hold it against him or anything. There is no right or wrong way to win at these games, a win is a win and I've cheesed my fair share of bosses in the past. It's just playing this way won't yield the best experience or memories, and it's not going to leave any sort of lasting impression on him.

I beat almost all the bosses on the first try which has NEVER happened to me in a Souls game before.

I played each Souls games multiple times in release order with both melee and magic builds. Demon's Souls is by far the easiest game in the series.

@humanity: That's the name of the actual article and not my own commentary. Though I think that the worst Souls' fans can be absolutely insane when it comes to how to play the game. One of the great things about the Souls games is that you can play them in so many different ways. Fans tend to think that there are only a few ways to truly experience the game like people saying that you need to use a melee character to go through Demon's Souls or that you should be ashamed to get the Drake Sword in Dark Souls. If that's the case the games are either designed poorly or people need to get over themselves.

That article and a second article was in response to PotatoMarshal and people like him who talk shit about his choice to play as a Royal.

@sethphotopoulos: I got that, I was simply stating my opinion on it. As I said I don't think it's wrong, just like using the Drake sword isn't some huge copout, but in the case of Demon's you really are missing out on a bunch by playing royal and yes thats because of imbalanced game design. But that was their first game of this kind so I kind of give them a pass on it.

I've been watching Patrick Klepek's playthrough and some of the enemies/bosses seem to be very meaty where Patrick was barely able to do any damage. Was he just not doing the right trick to deal with them or not using the right weapon or were they supposed to be that way? Old King Allant is one example and another one is the golden knight dude in the area of Maiden Astraea.

I've heard that Dark Souls is much harder than Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls was perceived as the hardest because it was new and not as refined as Dark Souls. But if you were to go back after playing Dark Souls, you'll have an easier time. Least that's what I've been told.

I still need to beat this game and Dark Souls 2. This game I just sorta started getting bored of. To me it just seems the most unrefined version. Dark Souls 2 I really wanted to get the Moonlight Greatsword and figured summoning in some people to help would make it easier. But for some reason everyone I summoned couldn't survive past like the first few seconds.

I played like 13 hours of it, and the fact that the checkpoint system is attached to beating bosses made it infuriating to play. It just felt unfair and unsatisfying. Bonfires in dark souls is a much better system that doesn't take away from the difficulty of the game, and makes it a more satisfying experience.

Demon's Souls was the easiest to complete for me. Dark Souls 1 is hardest.

if you play demon soul's offline it is easier. The skeletons are insane and the swamp is good place to die over and over again, good times.PS! pro tip i used the long bow on all the bosses and enemies sniping them. Cheesy as hell, but i beat it in 50 hours first time.

Good Luck duder!.

Finished it with full magic build very easy only died to 1-2 bosses. I finished off final bosses easily. The ones i died at were ones immune to magic.

demons souls is the easiest,and dark souls 2 is the hardest.thats with me playing the games in order as they came out.

Demon's Souls is probably harder if you play a non magic user and tackle the bosses straight up, no exploits. Dark Souls is a lot fairer in that regard. This thread has made me want to watch the Breaking Brad again and hear him yell "Jesus Fuck" and get trolled by Potato_Marshall over and over.