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[SkylineRKR]

The game is easier.

There are stakes (which reload you next to the boss door), and lots of graces. And you can use spirit summon during most challenging battles. You can also have lots of flasks rather fast. The golden seeds are out in the open and hard to miss. You can run away on horseback. You can respec lots of times (I have about 15 and never searched for those items).

 

[MadPanda]

Pretty low after around 60+ hours and 3 major boss defeated, i didn't grinded for levels once and i'm like level 80 with +4\+5 weapons, +4 summons and no op skills or magic at all, and my build is a shitty one all over the place.

sorry but I don't believe you.

 

[rofif]

I don't see how people call it easy.
it is the most anime, bat shit crazy spam unfair aoe bosses. It continues the trend started with bb and ds3 ringed city - the armor means nothing, enemies are super fast and spammy.
This is not what the game should be about. Dark souls 1 was never about just making everything hit like a tank and tank damage...

I am speaking from melee build perspective who finished the game in a week. It is roll spam galore and last bosses made me grow grey hair
But the shield counter is good, Jump attack is good. You just need to grind a lot.
Anyway - It's the best game of last few years but imo worst souls because it's least focused with uneven difficulty curve. I hate the spam anime crazy bosses trend

 

[Vaelka]

The same for the most part, I don't think that more grace = easier.
That's just less tediousness it doesn't make the fights easier lets be real here in the old Souls games we just sprinted through enemies to the boss again regardless.
It was just boring and took forever you spent so much time just wasting it running back to the boss.

What I will say tho is that Elden Ring has significantly more bosses that felt like complete bullshit to me, and also way too many double bosses or even double bosses + respawning adds.
There were definitely more times in Elden Ring that I felt like the bosses were unfun because the devs artifically made it more difficult by just throwing two aggressive bosses at me or adds.
I remember how much shit people gave Dark Souls 2 for this but I think Elden Ring is worse with it.

I don't see how people call it easy.
it is the most anime, bat shit crazy spam unfair aoe bosses. It continues the trend started with bb and ds3 ringed city - the armor means nothing, enemies are super fast and spammy.
This is not what the game should be about. Dark souls 1 was never about just making everything hit like a tank and tank damage...

I am speaking from melee build perspective who finished the game in a week. It is roll spam galore and last bosses made me grow grey hair
But the shield counter is good, Jump attack is good. You just need to grind a lot.
Anyway - It's the best game of last few years but imo worst souls because it's least focused with uneven difficulty curve. I hate the spam anime crazy bosses trend

Wtf does fast attacks have to do with Anime rofl.

 

[TonyK]

Malenia, the two heads dragon and the jelly final boss are only comparable to Dark Souls 3 expansions. All three main souls and Demons Souls are easier that those bosses.

However, Sekiro is still the king (of frustration) regarding difficulty.

 

[NT80]

finally beat the game tonight. despite it being an open world game, I found the boss fights to be much, much more difficult than the other Souls games I've played. granted, I've only played Demon Souls and DS3, but with those games I was able to beat most bosses in 2-4 attempts. some I would beat my first attempt, but I don't think it took more than a handful of tries to beat any boss really.

in Elden Ring, I've spent hours to days on bosses. Melania took me about 2 days, Draconic Tree Sentinel took me almost a full day, final boss took me several days.

and yes, this is even using ash summons. I stopped using co-op pretty early in the game after realizing that it tends to be disadvantage. the boss gets a lot tougher and more often than not, the person you summoned dies pretty quickly leaving you alone to fight a much harder boss.

given that I've only played 2 other Souls games, I'm curious how people who've played more of them would rank ER. which Souls game would you consider having the hardest bosses?

side note, Sekiro is on sale on XSX so I'm thinking of picking it up. I know it's not a Souls game, but I heard the difficulty is on a different level.

Demon Souls bosses are the most limited/simplistic in the series and the hard bosses in DS3 are in the DLC or secret. Did you do all of the DLC and secret boss in DS3?

 

[rofif]

The same for the most part, I don't think that more grace = easier.
That's just less tediousness it doesn't make the fights easier lets be real here in the old Souls games we just sprinted through enemies to the boss again regardless.
It was just boring and took forever you spent so much time just wasting it running back to the boss.

What I will say tho is that Elden Ring has significantly more bosses that felt like complete bullshit to me, and also way too many double bosses or even double bosses + respawning adds.
There were definitely more times in Elden Ring that I felt like the bosses were unfun because the devs artifically made it more difficult by just throwing two aggressive bosses at me or adds.
I remember how much shit people gave Dark Souls 2 for this but I think Elden Ring is worse with it.



Wtf does fast attacks have to do with Anime rofl.

you look at few last bosses and they slash 30 times in the air, jump around whole arena with shit exploding around.
It is ANIME as much as it can be and it started gently with BB, way more with Maria and Koss in the DLC, then again okish with ds3 and more aggressive with ds3 dlc.
It's not only speed. It's the craziness. Bosses have no stamina, do huge aeo explosions or area magic, constantly attack, read your inputs, rotate on the spot, stop in the air to delay the strike.
They are making every shit move to make the game harder... but I don't think it's the right direction at all. The game is far from what it was in des, ds1, ds2 and even a bit more than ds3.

This is a good video. It's hard to argue with his points even though it is my GOTY...
1:20 on bosses


Edit: To clarify - I finished the game and everyday I am still jumping in to help other people as a summon. It's a great but flawed game

 

[Keihart]

considering that every souls game can be made piss easy, i would only rank them as hard if you play them naked without leveling on dificulty and in that sense, Elden Ring is probably the hardest with these SNK bosses.
The game can be made super easy, but let's be real, what souls game can be not?
If we don't count the bosses, maybe Bloodborne or Demon's are the hardest because of the checkpoints and limited healing.

 

[Captain Toad]

Elden Ring's difficulty is just more tied with the order you take the open-world. If you just follow the main path, you'll likely run up into some walls. If you keep banging your head up against them, the game will seem much more difficult than if you leave, get stronger and come back later.

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[lillars]

you look at few last bosses and they slash 30 times in the air, jump around whole arena with shit exploding around.
It is ANIME as much as it can be and it started gently with BB, way more with Maria and Koss in the DLC, then again okish with ds3 and more aggressive with ds3 dlc.
It's not only speed. It's the craziness. Bosses have no stamina, do huge aeo explosions or area magic, constantly attack, read your inputs, rotate on the spot, stop in the air to delay the strike.
They are making every shit move to make the game harder... but I don't think it's the right direction at all. The game is far from what it was in des, ds1, ds2 and even a bit more than ds3.

This is a good video. It's hard to argue with his points even though it is my GOTY...
1:20 on bosses


Edit: To clarify - I finished the game and everyday I am still jumping in to help other people as a summon. It's a great but flawed game

Haha the poor guy in that video seems like he's way too upset. The one thing I'll agree with him on (and my only real negative for the game) is the repetition of bosses and general enemies throughout the game. That was one area where From was king in the past. I always looked forward to new levels before because they never got old and were encapsulated so well with new challenges. It's clearly an aspect of the open world design in which they probably bit off way more than they should have chewed this go around. Not saying I didn't love the game, because I absolutely did. It's my GOTY (so far) too. I just prefer the more intimate attention to detail of the older games.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

If you think it’s not borderline insane in some instances, you’re crazy. Or you’ve just played a little too much FS in the last decade and can’t remember your first Souls game.

I could say the game is more affordable than the previous ones, if it was somewhat balanced and bug-free. What you actually have is a game that’s hell for melee builds (unless you can make a build with truly outstanding damage output and stagger capabilities) and almost a cakewalk for well-built ranged characters, with bosses spamming multi-hit combos they can extend at a whim, and ridiculous AOE attacks with insane range and multiple hits, sometimes with virtually zero charge time or cues for the player.

You have the worst camera problems a Souls game ever had, in spite of people lamenting camera problems since that centipede in DS1. No, From just had to make their biggest bosses yet, whose attacks are factually completely invisible in most instances if you’re within melee range, and so many gang/duo bosses with BS attacks in small rooms. The hitboxes of some enemy attacks are just completely made up, too - curious how that never works in reverse.

You have some enemies that blatantly read your inputs when you go for plunge attacks or try to heal, yet they somehow thought “You know what people will love? TWO Crucible Knights in the same room! We’re fucking brilliant!”

The horse brings its own series of issues - let’s just say its endurance and hitboxes are all over the place and sometimes it’s just impossible to understand what the hell happened, but you, guess what?, died again.

Ash summons and other exploits aren’t in the game to make it easier, they’re re in the game to even things up a bit. But of course as soon as people find something that makes life a little easier, From are sooo quick to patch it. At least it seems this time they’re nerfing ridiculous stuff like Radahn, but the game is far from a fair challenge in many places.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

you look at few last bosses and they slash 30 times in the air, jump around whole arena with shit exploding around.
It is ANIME as much as it can be and it started gently with BB, way more with Maria and Koss in the DLC, then again okish with ds3 and more aggressive with ds3 dlc.
It's not only speed. It's the craziness. Bosses have no stamina, do huge aeo explosions or area magic, constantly attack, read your inputs, rotate on the spot, stop in the air to delay the strike.
They are making every shit move to make the game harder... but I don't think it's the right direction at all. The game is far from what it was in des, ds1, ds2 and even a bit more than ds3.

This is a good video. It's hard to argue with his points even though it is my GOTY...
1:20 on bosses


Edit: To clarify - I finished the game and everyday I am still jumping in to help other people as a summon. It's a great but flawed game

Yup, the part of that video you linked is my thoughts EXACTLY.

 

[KàIRóS]

Easiest, especially considering we come from their Hardest one (Sekiro)

Very accesible and probably why it's been so succesful

 

[nemiroff]

Uh, Sekiro is a lot harder than Elden Ring, at least to me.. Elden Ring is the easiest because you have so many options to choose who, where, when and how.

 

[GymWolf]

sorry but I don't believe you.

When i said that my build is all over the place it's because i have like 10-15 points wasted between arcane, dex and int, but i still have like 40 str and 15 faith and a +4 gold halberd (now +5), pretty good armour and a gigantic shield, i can assure you that is more than enough to beat radhan after the nerf and the first 2 major boss are not that hard, also a lot of exploration so like 12 fairly upgraded flask and some talisman to boost my stats.

My to go summons are the rotted dog +4 and the lucaria 3 soldiers +4, but yesterday i found that yeti thing with the bow after defeating a magic moose.

I have no reason to lie dude, the game being on the easier side doesn't mean that i didn't died like 200+ times already, also i still have to play the final part that from what people says it's much harder so a respec and some serious upgrade it's gonna be necessary.

People on yt beat this game as a level 1 wretch dude, what i did is not even in the same realm of some monsters out there.

p.s. i did a mistake in my previous post, i thought i was 60 hours in, but they were like 72 hours when i checked, time flies with this damn game.

 

[LazyParrot]

Easiest one if you use ashes or player summons, one of the harder ones if you don't.

 

[DavidGzz]

Depends on how you play it. I've seen streamers make it the hardest one by far by rushing the story and dying for 8 hours to a single boss. The way I am playing it, exploring everything, and clearing as much content as possible, it's probably the easiest. You can choose how hard/easy it is.

 

[Bartski]

Not for a second did I feel I need to farm levels in this game, which I can't say about any other FROM title on my first playthrough.

I did make the mistake of trying way too hard to beat a boss I was not ready for a couple of times, even one that is widely considered easy... As opposed to doing what I knew was the intended way to play according to Miyazaki - if you're getting your ass beat, go explore somewhere else. Think of smart ways of using options the game gives you on your way there, upgrade your arsenal, your ash summons or respec and try a totally different playstyle.
Eventually, it always worked and I never felt stuck nor had to retry a boss fight remotely as many times as in earlier souls games.

I think the difference is Elden Ring is designed more so it's ok to "give up".

I see people complaining about difficulty spikes, I think in many examples I've seen it's a misunderstanding. It's how the game steers you off the path of grace to go discover more of the land come back later when you're strong enough.

 

[Stuart360]

I think its slightly easier than DS1 and 3, and slightly harder than DS2 (although i grinded a lot in DS2 so i could be wrong overall).

 

[Haggard]

Dead easy..... Minus the issues with the camera on the bigger bosses.
The easiest From Souls game so far. So many tools to make you op from the moment you start.

 

[SpokkX]

Played and beat every souls since demons in 2009

It is easily the hardesr if you are going solo/no summon

of course mimic tear slashes the diff in half if used haha

 

[worldwithpyramids]

I didn’t use any summons, I didn’t farm once, I played through pretty much the entire game with a two-hand colossal sword and I would say it’s probably the easiest or second easiest. The only exception is Malenia. But overall, it’s by far one of the easiest games they’ve released, in my opinion.

 

[Filben]

How would you guys compare this to Fallen Orders difficulty?

FO is definitely easier although it's, on hard, still way more difficult than your traditional action adventure/ARPG. Many bosses can easily kill you in two or three good hits, which makes it almost in the same ballpark as Elden Ring. Though the amount of bosses that wipe the floor with you is ten times higher in Elden Ring.

 

[V4skunk]

ER is hard. Some of the later bosses are brutal! But at the same time there are more tools than ever like ashes that make the game less forgiving.

 

[skneogaf]

It's by far the easiest as you have so much choice on who to murder first, plus using the bell for the summons gives you that distracted enemy that means you can heal, hit, escape without being attacked.

Sekiro is the most difficult.

 

[balls of snow]

Easier than Sekiro for now. Faith/Dex build with a variety of weapons im switching every few hours. You get your flasks up, have the constant heal spell going and its easier on the exploration side. Fighting bosses is not so sweaty now with the respawn point being so close.

 

[bbeach123]

Difficulty HUGLY vary depend on your build , and how much you explore the world .

I didnt use any OP shit like the moonveil or sword of night and shit , or hoarfrost stomp or bleed . I use a classic 2H GS build WITHOUT summon because I didnt read anything on the net (and in the game too apparently...) .

It was miserable , I had to rebuild my char halfway through the game (after dying for 40 time against the godskin in the tower) .

So after I respect into heavy shield + barricade + cross-Naginata +Black Knife Tiche, hide and poke style I think I died to mob more than died to boss .

 

[Portugeezer]

The hard stuff is about the same as other souls games to me, but it you can just skip past a lot of the bosses if it's too hard. So I get stuck on a single boss less and less, and then come back later to kick their ass.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Easiest one besides Demon's boss wise but Demon's has more challenging areas.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Only played this and Sekiro, and Elden Ring is definitely much easier.
Used a STR melee colossal sword build and only had any real difficulties at the beggining when i was learning the ropes, rest of the game was quite a breeze. Some of the final areas like the Haligtree or Crumbling Farum Azula were a bit tricky at times but nothing unmanageable or hair-pulling. Even some infamous bosses like that Godskin duo ot Malenia i was able to defeat in just a few tries.

I think this game can be very difficult or very easy depending on how you approach it. A pragmatic approach makes the game much more manageable, on the other hand if you try the old-fashioned way, thinking everything can be resolved by remembering move-sets and patterns like you would in Sekiro or - i'm guessing - older souls games (and refuse to use summons for that matter), you'll suffer.

 

[M1chl]

With what I played so far, from the easiest:

Lords of the Fallen
Bloodborne
Elden ring
...
.
Dark Souls 3

 

[nominedomine]

I have no idea how i'm going to beat Malenia. I don't like spells but I migth have to cheese her.

I think Elden Ring is all over the place when it comes to dificulty and your build has a big effect on what is going to be easy and what is going to be hard.

When playing Bloodborne or Dark Souls every boss seemed beatable no matter the build I was going for. Not the case in ER.

 

[John Bilbo]

Elden Beast was the only boss which gave me any serious trouble. Jesus that boss is poorly thought out.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I have no idea how i'm going to beat Malenia. I don't like spells but I migth have to cheese her.

i beat her using Mimic + Wave of Destruction skill from the Ruin Greatsword. It was quite useful since the attack would stun her. Took me about 4 tries.

 

[ClosBSAS]

40 hrs in. Easiest of the lot so far.

If you explore area before tackling bosses, you automatically level up enough to make them manageable. And exploring is must / fun.

This could change towards the end though.

Lol when u get to end game...write me. First part is easiest souls yes...but as ppl say, that endgame with the optional bosses can be brutal.

 

[nominedomine]

i beat her using Mimic + Wave of Destruction skill from the Ruin Greatsword. It was quite useful since the attack would stun her. Took me about 4 tries.

I can get to the second phase with my Mimic consistently, then he dies, she focus on me and I'm done.

My mimic is better than me lmao, he doesnt die in one hit.

 

[Roberts]

I haven’t played DS2 much and haven’t played Demons Souls at all, but I found it way easier than Sekiro. Some of the Sekiro’s bosses gave me really tough time - sometimes it took me probably around 50 atempts to get them down. On the other hand ER bosses were comparably easy thanks to summons.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I can get to the second phase with my Mimic consistently, then he dies, she focus on me and I'm done.

My mimic is better than me lmao, he doesnt die in one hit.

Its hard to say since i don't know your build, but what i essentially tried to do was kill her as fast as possible with whatever most powerful attack i had (might be a good time to consider using rune arcs too).
If you're dying in one hit you might be in need of better armor or more life (or unequipping the soreseal/scarseal if you're using them)

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Lol when u get to end game...write me. First part is easiest souls yes...but as ppl say, that endgame with the optional bosses can be brutal.

Finished the game already.

Didn't had trouble with any boss. Only with Malenia i had to come back next day. Most other bosses did in 3-4 attempts.

Some fights are just superb.

 

[existensmaximum]

Compared to Demon's Souls remastered, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne it is by far the easiest game for me.

I've only played melee in all the games though, offline, and never summoned any help so I can't speak in general terms.

Definitely the least frustrating of the above mentioned games, and the most accessible when it comes to gameplay. I still think Dark Souls and Bloodborne are better games though. But it's fun!

 

[nkarafo]

It's the easiest. I don't spend time farming for runes and i still got to level 170 near the end of the game, by just exploring everything in my path. The tools the game gives me (OP tank shield, summons) make it even easier, to the point where i have to gimp myself by not using everything i have, otherwise i steamroll everything. Near the end of the game i'm still getting too many runes and i decided i should just spend them elsewhere (like getting items i don't need) or waste them dying (i still die sometimes) since there is no point leveling up more.

The game was still challenging in the first half but being open world it assumes you will miss way too much, thus someone who likes to explore every corner of the map will get stronger at a faster rate and break the balance. And again, the summons are game breaking but i assume it's the same thing as having someone help you online (i only play offline so this is new to me).

Lol when u get to end game...write me. First part is easiest souls yes...but as ppl say, that endgame with the optional bosses can be brutal.

It's the opposite. I had trouble in the first 1/3 of the game. At 2/3 it was "normal" and now, in the last part, i destroy every boss on my 1st go. I beat Malenia on my 2nd try, only because i didn't notice her HP healing the first time. Every other boss, optional or not, i beat first try just by brute forcing, i don't even need to know any tactics. The only boss that gave me trouble was an optional assassin type who used a grabbing attack (making my defensive playstyle useless) and it was one of those bosses where you can't use a summon. So i had to learn every move to beat it. That was the only boss in the game where i had to do that.

 

[FingerBang]

It starts crazy hard but then it gets much easier with all the stuff it gives you. Summons, a ton of possible builds, respec and so on. I don't think it's the easiest though.

That is Sekiro, once you understand how to play.

 

[Mossybrew]

By far the easiest, it gives you the most tools to overcome fights. Enough levels, the right build, ash summons, most bosses become trivial.

 

[kingpotato]

Not the definitive answer but one data point to consider is the percentage of players who've unlocked the platinum trophy:

Demon's Souls PS3 - 3.2%
Dark Souls III - 5.3%
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin - 5.9%
Demon's Souls PS5 - 5.9%
Dark Souls - 6.3%
Bloodborne - 6.5%
Dark Souls: Remastered - 8.8%
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 9.7%
Elden Ring - 9.7%

 

[MiguelItUp]

I say it's one of the easier, but the thing is, with how it was developed being open-world and all the game is as easy as you allow it to be. Which, makes a lot of sense in a world an open-world title where you can approach SO many things differently.

So, if you buff your character a shit ton, use the right combos of weapons, gear, magic, etc. then your experience will be MUCH easier than someone that did the opposite.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Morgott was the first real wall, then Malenia and then final boss. Other than that it was pretty easy. Sekiro is probably the hardest so far, with Bloodborne and Demon's close by.

 

[Jadsey]

Malenia was tricky until Bloodhounds Fang with Fingerprint Shield +25 made her cry

 

[MISTER INVEIGLER]

It's the easiest. I don't spend time farming for runes and i still got to level 170 near the end of the game, by just exploring everything in my path. The tools the game gives me (OP tank shield, summons) make it even easier, to the point where i have to gimp myself by not using everything i have, otherwise i steamroll everything. Near the end of the game i'm still getting too many runes and i decided i should just spend them elsewhere (like getting items i don't need) or waste them dying (i still die sometimes) since there is no point leveling up more.

The game was still challenging in the first half but being open world it assumes you will miss way too much, thus someone who likes to explore every corner of the map will get stronger at a faster rate and break the balance. And again, the summons are game breaking but i assume it's the same thing as having someone help you online (i only play offline so this is new to me).


It's the opposite. I had trouble in the first 1/3 of the game. At 2/3 it was "normal" and now, in the last part, i destroy every boss on my 1st go. I beat Malenia on my 2nd try, only because i didn't notice her HP healing the first time. Every other boss, optional or not, i beat first try just by brute forcing, i don't even need to know any tactics. The only boss that gave me trouble was an optional assassin type who used a grabbing attack (making my defensive playstyle useless) and it was one of those bosses where you can't use a summon. So i had to learn every move to beat it. That was the only boss in the game where i had to do that.

I'm calling bs on this.

You're telling me you got to lvl 170 without grinding for runes?

I'm 130+ hours in at lvl 150 and at the final boss(stuck for 2 weeks try to win without summons) but I still had to grind for runes.

I've almost completed all of the side quest.

There's not enough bosses in the game to get you to lvl 170 without grinding.

I think leveling would cost around 200k runes at that point.

 

[Rickyiez]

Hardest without ashes summons , easiest with it .

From someone who have beaten all the Souls games solo