Of the ones I've played, Elden Ring. The biggest aid for new players being that if something's too tough, you just go somewhere easier and come back later. The opening area has a boss roaming a field designed to teach you exactly that lesson.
I’ve also heard the magic in Elden ring makes it easier than the others. Any thoughts on that?
The magic is similar to Dark Souls 3. I don't know that it's any more overtuned or anything, but there's a lot of fun in finding broken builds, and there are tons of them.
I hate other souls like games but managed my way through Elden Ring because of this and what /u/ampersandrew said about going away and coming back after exploring and leveling a bit more.
Cool. How’d you like it?
I had a great time with it (mostly) but I don't want to play it again... If that makes any sense? Ha ha.
It's too big. Simple as that.
You could try "Another Crab's treasure". It even has accessibility options to make it easier if it's too intimidating.
Ah yes.
The game that just straight up gives you a giant handgun if you simply ask.
lol that’s hilarious
Elden Ring is the best one for beginners, because if you get stuck at a boss you can just leave that area and go somewhere else. You are very rarely ever "stuck". That is not the case with any of the other Soulsborne games.
In addition, it has spirit summons which make the game significantly easier.
And since it's the newest one AND has a DLC coming out soon, it's also the most played one right now. So finding other players for co-op is easy.
I also consider the bosses, on the whole, to be the easiest of all of the FROM Software games.
I second this, one of my good friends only started gaming over covid. We were all hardcore souls players and helped her get through bloodborne and ds3 but she was basically just letting us handle most of the fighting. But when ER came out she got really into it and has played through solo several times. From Software took a lot of the pain points out of the format while keeping it challenging and fresh. Elden ring also has great online, I wasn't a huge fan of the game (I prefer Bloodborne, Sekiro and AC 6) just I spent hundreds of hours just running around the Lands Between with my friends during covid.
Also the biggest positive is the capability of fast traveling from your map from anywhere as long as you aren't in combat.
It removes the hesitation to explore areas from which you can't return easily.
That's the biggest thing that made Elden Ring significantly less stressful for me.
Plus you don't have to worry about weapon durability.
Darksouls 1 makes the most sense, it’s where most fans started.
No way lol, dark souls 1 is likely the most difficult in the series because it doesn't hold your hand at all, and it's very easy to get lost. There's a reason it people kept comparing any super hard game to dark souls despite the fact that DS2 and DS3 were fairly accessible.
The combat is very slow im ds1 compared to other games which makes it far easier. People say dark souls meaning the whole series not specifically ds1.
I haven't played ds2 or 3 yet, but found ds1 to be easier than fallen order / sekiro with how you can level up your way through tough enemies even if you dont take the intended route
Fallen order. You can adjust the difficulty!
Fallen order has this magnetic attraction between you and the enemy when swinging that really urked me. Felt likes souls on rails. Beautiful game though and nice levels
I'de just jump on elden ring. Get some experience before shadow of the eartree comes out.
I'd avoid non-DS1/3/ER souls-likes to start with, because they tend not to have multiplayer.
There's nothing wrong with summoning a friend or stranger to help you get through a difficult bit.
elden ring probably. like you i found souls-style games scary. i think i installed dark souls 3 and quit before getting anywhere but i managed to beat elden ring even though I did initially refund it :D
Honestly, I disliked Souls-like games until I played Hollow Knight (at that point, I tried Dark Souls but didn't get very far). It isn't a Souls-like game (2D Metroidvania), but as it shares some of their themes and elements, after finishing it I was motivated to try Dark Souls again (and ended up doing a full playthrough).
Start with the one you want to play most. That's the one that will get you hooked. There's so many now if you figure you don't like it you can play another one. The feeling everyone is telling you to chase with starting at demon souls or dark souls 1 isn't as it was back then. I play through them every other year and its fun but the grand reveal on reality has been had and is done. My favorite souls like I have played recently is Hellpoint, it can be janky and doesn't hold your hand at all but I love it.
Dark Souls 1. It's not impossible and it has some of the best level design in the genre.
Lies of P is fairly easy in comparison to the FromSoftware souls games but it’s still a lot of fun. Great worldbuilding and some interesting mechanics too
I found Lies of P much more challenging than any of the FromSoft games I've played. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for an easier introduction to the gameplay.
It's got a huge focus on parrying, but it's very forgiving on timing so it can be easy if you get that down. (But I'd still probably suggest starting with Elden Ring or Dark Souls 1).
I think Elden Ring would be a good place to start since it's the one that lets you customize your difficulty the most. You can use spirit summons (both other players and NPCs) and vary up the order in which you do things, so if you get stuck on something, you can go do something else and then come back with more experience and better equipment
Seconding Elden Ring. It's also going to be more active since people are hyped for the new content - which means you're more likely to get help if you need it.
It has a handful of QoL features too that'll make the learning curve more manageable
Agree. Elden Ring is the only one I've liked personally. And a big reason is being able to fuck off and go do something else if you find a boss battle or section of the game too difficult. There's so much to do and explore and check out that it didn't feel like I was "grinding" ever.
Personally, I'd say Sekiro. You need to be good with timing but the experience is much more streamlined. There's no equipment system so you don't have to worry about finding what's good for you, let alone slogging it through the first however many hours to get whatever items get recommended in Top X lists. Also, I find the movement system is much more to my liking. It feels immediate instead of trying to sprint through a field of porridge. However, if porridge is what you're looking for, Sekiro is a poor pick for you.
Lies of P is also a good pick for having tighter movement and QoL upgrades over Souls games though I dare say a lot of fans will want to drag me across the coals for saying that.
I very much enjoyed Sekiro and it led me to Elden Ring that I then, in turn, did not enjoy at all. haha Sekiro feels much more approachable but it doesn't have the replayability of other Souls games.
Hm, what didn't you enjoy about Elden Ring? I started with Sekiro, finished it, and have moved on to Elden Ring (in co-op tho). I have very much enjoyed both.
I guess the tuning of the game. With Sekiro there was, for the most part, a general linear path that you did to complete the game. You could go in some different ways but for the most part it was linear. With Elden Ring you can go in any way and as people have said, if you get stuck, go somewhere else and get higher level and go back. But I don't like leaving so I would proceed to get dumpstered over and over and get frustrated which is entirely my own fault. But, in Sekiro it seemed like the difficulty of the encounters were created in regards to where you were in the story and even though they were hard, were better tuned to your character power. I bet co-op would be a ton of fun and could make my play through more enjoyable if I got back into it.
Elden Ring fans are salty at this comment lol. That does like it’d be better for my play style though.
Blasphemous is not too hard and has a great story. Just don’t go to the mountains first.
I say just dive into the real souls games. Like everyone else, I recommend Elden Ring or DS3 (don't worry about skipping the first 2 games, you won't get the story anyway, most people don't lol).
If you insist on trying something to ease you in, I actually recommend Tales of Iron. It's a 2D game but the combat is very souls like in the sense that it's challenging and you have to learn enemy timing and attack patterns.
How I did it may not be the best. But damn, did I feel accomplished afterwards.
I went into DS1 without any background. I only looked up things when I was 100 % stuck (I played with the broken short sword for far too long). I definitely used some summons (mainly the NPC ones), but you could also choose not to.
Beating O&S the first time after a week or so of trying was one of the best feelings ever (don't want to spoil anything hence the vagueness).
Elden Ring is definitely more beginner-friendly, but the sheer mechanics you can learn in DS1 will help in all soulsbourne games (maybe not Sekiro).
I have not played Demon souls, so maybe that's a better jumping off point?
Although all soulslikes are a bit difficult Grime would be my suggestion, a 2D platformer. It felt easy enough to me but I mainly enjoyed the aesthetics of it.
I recommend Code Vein. Then just jump into either Elden Ring or DS3.
If you have a PS4/5, Bloodborne has the most simplified mechanics of the From Software Souls style games.
Elden Ring! I think they really refined the formula, made it a bit more user friendly (I started with Dark Souls and it wasn't easy to know what to do), and is generally fun to play. Also the open world format means you can just go somewhere else if you're stuck, not just have to bang your head against the same boss over and over. Then you just come back when you're stronger.
Sekiro is not a bad option too, it's a bit more like a regular game than the others. You can pause! Imagine.
I haven't played DS2 or Demon Souls though
As the point of soulslikes is to overcome challenge, looking for something beginner friendly or easy is, in my opinion, not the right approach.
Play the fromsoft games in chronological order and skip the numbers entries if you are not interested in the stories.
So: Deamon's souls -> dark souls -> bloodborne -> sekiro -> elden ring
Dark souls 2 wasn't that great and has a lot of issues but it tried new stuff which I respect. Still wouldn't recommend it.
Dark souls 3 was darks souls best of which made it a disappointment for me. You kinda know what will happen next and there wasn't that much mystery because of that.
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