Karkarov

You should probably know that Dark Souls is just Demon's Souls 2 but oops no Sony license so we have to call it something else. They play exactly the same way, they have almost identical mechanics. If you could do it in Dark Souls, you could do it in Demon's Souls. Also yes, most "good" Demon's Souls players will tell you that dodging is better than a Shield. People keep forgetting most of the "pro's" played Demon's first or just read advice from someone else who did.

Demon's does that (and multiplayer) better than both of them though, which is probably why it is still my favorite.

It was fine. It could have been done better but jesus the game is old, things have made progress since then. MGS3 is still the best MGS of the entire series and while some parts of it "could" have been better I have to say... I can level that same comment at every game ever made so it doesn't really mean much.

If the game is no longer available as anything other than a used game and no digital store anywhere sells it? Then no not really, don't see a problem. It isn't like paying an insane premium for some rare cart is putting money in the hands of people who made the game. Some stuff you may not be able to find otherwise period. Also if you own the game in question... well you own a legal copy there so no there is definitely no problem with having it.

Some games you can get on emulators were also never legally made available in the US for example to begin with. You want to play original Persona 2 in english? Well you can emulate it with a fan patch.... or not play it in english. Your call. That said is it okay to emulate some old Genesis game like Landstalker because you are too cheap to buy it on Steam for like a dollar? No.

Well by that standard all the souls games world building are pretty average to poor because they don't measure up the King's Field 4: The Ancient City. Of course most Souls fans don't actually know anything about the series the souls games are spiritual successor to in the first place, or that From Software was making first person RPG's before they ever made the first Armored Core. So I don't really hold that against anyone.

I will say this, Dark Souls 1 world is well put together and is contiguous in that nothing overlaps. That is pretty much the only compliment I will give it. Well I do really like Sen's Fortress actually so there is that. DS1 world is not "well designed" or laid out in any sort of logical way. It is actually kind of all over the place for the most part, but everything "fits". Much of the level design was extremely annoying though, required too much back tracking, it was far to easy to miss certain paths, and many areas were laid out to be ninja gaiden level cheap.

As for puzzle bosses I am not "gloating" I am just pointing out a fact. I admit calling them puzzle bosses is probably the wrong word though, really I should have said Gimmick Bosses. Because once you learn their "trick" you have basically won the fight. In DS1 case it is Bed of Chaos who is not a fight at all unless you count chopping down tree limbs and overgrown roots.

The next time a sports fan tells you that you are wasting your time playing a video game ask them how much money they made sitting on the couch eating chips watching that football game.

It is a video game taking place in a dark fantasy world that you entered by jumping in a massive black pit inside a lake. Think about that for a minute. So you expected the geographical layout to make perfect logical sense? Of all the chintzy low ball complaints Dark Souls 2 gets this is A number 1 the biggest. If the "world design" really makes the game that much lesser for you I cant imagine how you play any video games at all. Demon's Souls is still my favorite game in the series and it doesn't even attempt to connect any of the maps.

The story is also much worst and doesn't resonate with the same thematic consistancy.

What? There is no "story" in Dark Souls 1. Your motivation for the game when it comes down to it is "I got thrown in prison if I want to really ever escape I gotta link these fires and fulfill this prophecy (or do I?)." Gwyn doesn't have a heart to heart with you before you fight to the death. No ones motivations are ever explained in any meaningful way other than a couple side characters. You don't even know why you are doing what you are doing other than a couple people basically told you to go do XYZ for no real defined reason. At least in Dark Souls 2 the game makes some attempts to explain why you even went there in the first place and why you have to do what you are doing. Dark Souls 1 has a lot of backstory and lore.... but it has no actual narrative. Dark Souls 2 isn't a ton better but it does actually have a narrative of some kind, you can actually talk to Vendrick at one point, the final boss has an actual motivation beyond "Don't let this f'er light that fire!" If anyone tries to attribute any motivation beyond that to Gwyn, they are just making it up cause the game certainly never gives him one and he fights you just because he has got to not because he or you even really have any motivation to do so.

Sure, there were a few fun core gameplay improvments in 2 but they don't have time to shine outside of PvP because of bad enemy, level and boss design compared to Dark Souls.

Uh the level and boss design is no worse in DS2 than in DS1. In fact it may be the best any of the games ever had overall. There was no "puzzle boss", there were far fewer bosses you could just pure cheese or trick into suicide, I don't recall any archers who were so far away they wouldn't even spawn on my screen shooting arrows at me, can't say I remember any horrible near game killing lag or frame loss in DS2 that needed patching out either, now that I am thinking about it I don't remember a huge reliance on paper thin instant death drop platforms in DS2 either, or invisible walk ways that were a bitch and a half if you didn't play online. Maybe the "boss + adds" got a little over used, I know DS1 never did tha.... oh well there was 4 kings, the gargoyles, Nito, Capra Demon, technically O&S, oh and pinwheel.

No I think DS2 was pretty much a step up in all respects.

Personally I really dig the souls games. Demon's Souls was my GOTY when it released, Dark 1 and 2 were both top 5 for me and 2 was almost #1. I will admit the games have issues though and will gladly point them out where I see them. What bothers me though is mostly the blind Dark Souls 1 love and insane concept that Dark Souls 2 is somehow insanely worse when in actuality it is an improvement on just about every single front. Listening to a DS1 fan just trash DS2 for the most petty nonsense like the map not making sense just blows my mind every time I see it.

To answer OP I am more excited for Bloodbourne than I am for any of the other Souls games except Demon's the original. I am hoping that they bring back the much more versatile and easier to control multiplayer quite a bit, also I am excited to try these new "random" dungeon areas.

Anyone who answers your question OP with anything other than, "All of them." is a soulless husk and you should ignore them. If you want a "start" point I suggest either Kiki's Delivery Service (since I am pretty sure it was chronologically first or really close) or Nausicaa In the Valley of the Wind.

Well they didn't remove it, I just think some enemies are mostly immune to it. I think the game is okay on special zombies though, I just wish the giant goliath things weren't so common once you get to a certain point. The Virals are annoying at first but are you progress they become less and less of a threat. By the time I was done with the game Virals might as well have been biters to me, they took no more effort to kill. The only special zombie I wish they didn't remove but seriously toned down was the exploding ones. Seriously the "one shot kill" range is wayyyyyyy to huge on them, and having them show up 1-3 in tight halls all back to back is just annoying as holy hell. It would have been nice if they did more with bolters as well, in the end they are nothing but a hard to catch resource you can use for a high end weapon upgrade early in the game.

Lol funny yours is a persona 3 issue OP. Mine is a 90+ hour save on Persona 1 (yes the original PS1 US release with the "westernized" characters) where I was literally about to fight the true last boss and some sort of power outage happened. When everything recovered the save file had become corrupt and could no longer be read. That kept me from playing the game for again something like 2-3 years :P.