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.
Doesn't linking users work differently here? I thought @ampersandrew@lemmy.world would be the canonical way to mention users, given that it includes their instance. I'm still fairly new to Lemmy, so maybe that's app/instance-specific
Oh yeah, my bad. Did that completely on autopilot!
It is the most wizarding friendly game FromSoftware has made.
Through their other games the pattern was for wizards: the level getting to the boss was tough managing your spell uses, but then the boss was easy if you reserved enough.
In Elden Ring there are less 'levels' and almost none of the classic 'runback' to a boss if you die. So you almost always can full power a boss.
Which feels easier in comparison. Though the Elden Ring bosses were designed around that more.
Imminent DLC will shake things up too.
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.
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.
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.
I'd have to agree with that. Sekiro has a lot of the trimmings of other From games while having a movement system much closer to the standard hack-n-slash adventure game like Assassin's Creed or Ghost of Tsushima most recently.
Elden Ring fans are salty at this comment lol. That does like it’d be better for my play style though.
I'm pretty used to it at this point. My best friend is a big Souls fan and is one of the many who refers to Elden Ring as the most approachable From game yet as well as Sekiro as possibly the hardest. The comments I'm used to seeing are ones calling X boss the hardest they've ever gone against and those are consistently the easiest for me. Personally, I'm terrible with the bosses that have a wind up for their attacks and make you wait for the timing as opposed to the ones where it's almost pure reflex. If that sounds more your bag then I'd say Sekiro is your thing and you likely won't enjoy DS or ER. Bloodborne is somewhere in the middle, debatably closer to Sekiro though I've seen arguments for both ways.
Came to make the same recommendation. It depends on what aspect of the games you find intimidating. Most people recommending Elden Ring will likely be assuming that you mean mechanical difficulty, but in my case, the openness, variety, stat numbers etc of ER are all intimidating.
Sekiro is more approachable in this regard, the way forward is mostly clear, and the mechanics are clearly communicated, so you're just left with practicing them until you're good enough to progress.
I'd say that most people who say Sekiro is one of the hardest fromsoft games probably came from playing souls or Elden Ring and have the extra challenge of unlearning some of the foundations. I hadn't played any, and though Sekiro is hard as hell sometimes, it clicked with me pretty quickly. Completed 3 endings and most of the optional, hardest content so far
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
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.
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).
Demon's Souls isn't available on PC, but it is the original Soulslike game. Your best bet is to start with Dark Souls 1. They're not necessarily easy, but it is the origin to an entire genre, so I feel like those may be a better intro to Soulslike. Also, Elden Ring is too demanding - unless you have a good rig, in that case, you can pick that first. For a gothic vibe, you can go with Bloodbourne.
I primarily game on the steam deck and I think Elden ring is one of the top played games so I’m sure it works well on that.
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.
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).
Dark Souls 1. It's not impossible and it has some of the best level design in the genre.
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.
Oh I already own this one somehow haha. Prob humble bundle. I’ll have to check it out
Blasphemous is not too hard and has a great story. Just don’t go to the mountains first.
Tunic! Bonus points for being one of the best games of all time.
Dark Souls 1, but play it almost like you're studying for a test. Research and plan your build in advance. Go to the wiki early, often, and with wanton disregard for spoilers. Use every cheese and glitch to your advantage. If all that makes it too easy, then you can still go blind into anything else in the genre.
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.
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.
I recommend Code Vein. Then just jump into either Elden Ring or DS3.
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?
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
If you have a PS4/5, Bloodborne has the most simplified mechanics of the From Software Souls style games.
Sub for any gaming related content!
Rules: