Hardest Soulsborne game for the initiated?(not the first one you played)

I always find NG+ to be easier in those games than standard new games. You're usually all decked-out and you can upgrade your gear to maximum level very quickly and dish out shit tons of damage. Not to mention you're also stocked on items that easily slaughter bosses like Gold Pine Resin in Dark Souls or Fire Paper in Bloodborne.

Demon's souls is not like Dark souls. Trust me. Go try it. The Dark Souls NG+ doesn't even fit in the same category as Demon's.

Demon's Souls is the only game I haven't done in NG+. DkS, DkS III, Bloodborne are all way easier in NG+. How is Demon's Souls different? Aren't enemies just buffed up? It's not like they get new abilities or new more powerful baddies roam the landscape now is it? They hit harder and tank more damage but what else?

That is very true but it does not apply to Demon's Souls. Demon's is harder on the 2nd PT. These are the things i'm starting to notice and miss with every new Souls entry. NG+ becomes a joke and the only reason to do it is to get the +2 - +3 rings...

It's basically like Dark Souls 3 and 1 NG plus, but the changes to enemies and bosses are extreme in magnitude the first time around. Even if you didn't use hit and run tactics in NG, you'll quickly learn to be very cautious about even the tiniest mistake.

You'll die more often (you will), leading to black world tendency, which will spawn more enemies. This will add to the difficulty you'll experience. Pure Black also spawns special black phantom npcs, who basically all kill you in one hit if you run a medium to light armor setup. It kind of makes it like Dark Souls II NG+ and NG++, which change the amount of enemies and placements a little. It's way harder thugh.

Nioh. I've played and finished every Souls game, and that one kicks my ass.

But Dark Souls. Yes, the first one I played was the most difficult. Bloodborne was different, combat-wise, but I didn't have too much trouble with it.

Demon's Souls is the easiest.

Man that game is awesome.

Bloodstone is the hardest, are you kidding me. The hunter ax was OP by itself. It could stagger even bosses by its extended version causing ton of damage against individuals or group of enemies. I finished 90% of the game only using the hunter ax. In Bloodborne you barely need to worry about upgrading your weapons or armor sets.

In my experience,

Dark Souls 1 > DS3 > Demon Souls > Bloodborne > Dark Souls 2

I only played bloodborne and dark souls 1 bloodborne was harder

@LegatoSkyheart: DS2 is a cake walk compared to the rest.

Unlimited effigies.

Enemies stop respawning.

Life rings (this completely breaks the game by nullifying all deaths)

Life gem candy.

Warp out of danger at any point.

Bonfires every 10 steps.

Fast travel from the beginning.

I loved the game but it was casualized to be easy AF.

Bloodborne has by far the hardest bosses with Ludwig, Lawrence, Orphan of Kos, Darkbeast.

Nioh will probably turn out harder than any of them based on the 3 demos and what reviewers are saying, Polygon can't even finish the game. You can probably cheese the game with ninjutsu though.

@X_CAPCOM_X: By then Flamelurker could kill me in one hit and I had to use an enchanted meat cleaver to kill it...also by then I was basically a god in the game and I could avoid every hit and win. Dark souls abyss boss was a pain in the ass at ng++

I recently beat DS3 and I honestly thought it was the hardest soulsborne game thus far. Some of its bosses were just... brutal. They required lots and lots of deaths until you memorize their attack patterns... I dont remember having so much trouble in so many bosses in any souls game save a few ones on DS1... Pontiff Sulyvahn, the twin princes, Nameless King, soul of cinder, dancer of the boreal valley... jesus, so many bosses that gave me such an hard time...

when it comes to difficulty I would rank them the following:

Dark Souls 3 > Dark Souls 1 > Demon's Souls > Bloodborne > Dark Souls 2

this is my personal take

Yeah these bosses were definitely a pain in the ass. Pontiff is actually easier if you don't get rid of his clone.

For boss fights some in DkS III are pretty hard but the game is so damn easy. Bonfire galore, plenty of available extremely powerful weapons/armor and a lot more forgiving. I rocked my knight armor and sword the entire game lol.

These days no bosses in DkS gives me any shred of difficulty except Ornstein and Smough.

Ornestein and Smough must be the boss I died the most times with in any souls game 1st playthrough... funny enough, I beat it 1st try on my second playthrough. I still had their/his attack patterns memorized so well after dying so many times on the previous playthrough... lol

but thats it, besides Ornestein/Smough and Gwyn I didnt have any hard time in vanilla DS1 (if we count the dlc then artorias and Manus also gave me some trouble). In Dark Souls 2 I only struggled against Darklurker (and thats because the fight had an horrible camera and it was a cheap fight overall). In Bloodborne I honestly cant find a boss I struggled with in the main game (though the defiled dungeons bosses were a fvckin nightmare. Never played the old hunters dlc so I cant comment on that). On Demon's Souls I remember having trouble with Flamelurker until I found a way to cheap the fight. But when it comes to DS3... damn, way to many 2nd phase bosses that I had tho repeat over and over again, especially in the later game... definitely the hardest game in the series for me

The hardest bosses in Bloodborne are all from the DLC's. People generally consider Orphan of Kos and Ludwig the hardest bosses with Lady Maria as third. I just finished The Old Hunters this morning. Ludwig was to me fairly easy but Orphan of Kos was pretty damn hard. He's reminiscent of Knight Artorias except much more aggressive and with a far more erratic and unpredictable move set. Maria is a human hunter and is parriyable and I always find these type of bosses laughably easy.(Gwyn, Lady Maria, Gerhman etc).

Did you beat Ebrietas? For some reason I always got her down to around 20% of her health but then she'd spam charge attacks and A Call Beyond and kill me every time. Took me like 20 tries to kill her.

But yeah overall Nameless King, The Princes and Pontiff are probably harder than any DkS/DkS II bosses except maybe O&S and Fume Knight/Flamelurker.

Bloodborne to me has some of the hardest bosses and enemies but many bosses such as One Reborn, Celestial Emissary, Living Failures, Amygdala, Moon Presence, Mergot's Wet Nurse, Micolash and The Witch of Hemwick were a farce. Way too many gimmicky bosses.

bloodborne > demon's > dark souls 3 > dark souls 2 > dark souls 1

i'm tempted to call dark souls 2 the hardest soulsborne game just because the difference in combat throws me off and the neutering of rolling kills my playstyle. also the stupid enemy placement and cheap bosses. but the overabundance of healing items and strength of ranged options (miracles and bows especially) make the game a lot easier. very few areas outside the DLC are truly hard by design.

demon's can be called the easiest in the series if you're using magic but otherwise it has some of the most brutal level design and boss design in the series. 5-2 is notorious for its long path to a difficult boss without any shortcuts.

dark souls 1 caters the most to people who master soulsborne mechanics. if you're fast-rolling the game becomes a joke. and of course there's the generous parry window and backstab fishing.

dark souls 3 felt almost perfect for me difficulty-wise with some genuinely challenging areas and tough bosses, but i was never truly stumped by a boss or area.

bloodborne has the most consistently challenging difficulty and the DLC is definitely the hardest (and best) additional content across the series (ludwig is my favorite boss in any soulsborne game). i feel like the focus on a specific playstyle really allowed from to dial up the challenge. there is pretty much no way to cheese the game; even if you get an early whirligig or stick to a hunter's axe or ludwig's build you have to get good at the game.

The chalice dungeons can be insanely difficult in Bloodborne. I took 3 full days to beat the fire watchdog in the defiled chalice.

Not on Champions Covenant. Enemies infinitely respawn and not only are they harder and smarter, you cannot summon.

1 demon souls 2 bloodborne 2 dark souls 4 dark souls 3 5 dark souls 2 for me

The bosses aren't what makes ng+ and beyond hard in Demon's. Even getting to the boss in the huge areas requires a radical change in your strategy. Enemies still die in one hit in NG + Dark Souls, making the levels nothing really challenging once you've played through it already. In Demon's, NG+ renders your massive damage backstab no longer a tool to take some (even mook/zako weak enemies) enemies out of the equation. It really forces you to change your strategy in a way the Dark Souls games don't.

Dark Souls is only really hard on your first playthrough. NG+ and ++ can't trick you like the first time you play through it.