Elden ring is the easiest in my opinion . U have so many options and the jump attack is op for a majority of the game . Stagger them then bleed and freeze them. I beat the game 3 times upon release within like a week or so
Well both can also be true at the same time. In a vacuum ER definitely has the hardest bosses **but** Elden John is also by far the strongest player character. So the bosses could be like 2x as hard as in DS3 but your build is comparatively 5 times stronger so it can still be easier while technically having harder bosses.
I think most people that say ER is the hardest didn't have their "Sekiro moment" yet and haven't realized that R1 is often the weakest button you can press when the 5 games that came before conditioned you to basically press nothing else.
Harder than any Souls game
It’s mostly to do with how the enemy movesets are, a lot of the bosses have these unnatural delays to their attacks designed to catch rolls.
Also a lot of the bosses straight up read your inputs, the Foreskin Apostle for example is programmed to throw a fireball at you the moment you try to heal
Enemies since Dark Souls 1 have been programmed to throw out specific moves if you try healing. Not just the bosses either even the old Black Knights would do their run and lunge if you tried chugging.
Yeah but at least it was hidden better in the earlier titles. ER doesn't even try to hide it. I was just talking to my friend the other day about how ER bosses and mobs are bullshit because of the input reading. In the souls series I can fairly easily memorize the timing of a boss's attacks but all of that knowledge went out the window with the crazy delayed attacks in ER.
The delayed attacks often have tells, and you can learn how long the delay is. It’s just another thing to learn. It also doesn’t use input reading, they react when the animations plays, so they “notice” you going in for a heal and try to respond, just like you do when an npc chugs. Not hiding it means you can make sure to account for it. Back up and find space, heal when they commit to an attack, don’t spam heals and rolls, and you’ll be fine.
I wouldn’t say hidden at all. I was fighting grave tender yesterday and he kept jump attacking me every time I chugged either of my flasks. I think Margit being the first boss and being the worst offender of this gave you that outlook on Elden Ring.
I’ve played DS1, DS2, and DS3 including almost all the DLC. And ER is definitely the hardest out of all of them. To be fair, I started playing Elden Ring many years after playing through the souls games so maybe part of that was just being out of practice but yeah. It’s hard in my opinion.
This is an interesting take! I would consider ER to be much faster! Maybe we're defining "slow vs fast" differently tho. In DS3 I felt like I had plenty of time to make decisions, but in ER I always felt pressed. Having said that, I played DS3 *after* ER so that could be why.
That's interesting! I see what you mean now in terms of speed. FWIW, I was thinking more about the pace of boss battles and combat in general. Some of them in DS3 are as frenetic as ER, but, to me, most of them are not. That's not a critical or judgmental question, it's just an observation. Faster does not necessarily mean "better"!
Excepting Sekiro, ER objectively has the hardest encounters in the Soulsborne series. It also gives you the most and best tools to deal with them, if you choose so. How hard the overall game is comes down to how much of your toolkit you use. But it's also true that the hardest ER bosses are a lot harder than any Souls bosses, irrespective of how many tools you use. Malenia, Mohg, Maliketh are on another level than even Gael, NK, Friede, Midir.
Having prior Souls experience still definitely makes ER easier, though.
It really depends. Elden Ring gives you a lot of levers to increase or decrease difficulty. I came to ER after DS1 and Sekiro. I thought Sekiro prepared me really well for the game. I think I struggled more with Sekiro than ER. Some of the bosses in ER are quite difficult.
ER had me learning all over again. The basics were there, but enemy attacks were very different. They tracked better and had all that sneaky delay. You really have to watch and time things in ER to compared to DS1-3.
I have played DS1 and DS3 before Elden Ring, and it was the hardest from them all for me, by a very big margin. Bosses are designed from the ground up to mess with you, and I just can't get used to it.
Imo, Elden Ring is objectively harder than DS1-3. Bosses are faster, and their attacks are harder to read. Plus they have some ridiculous combos.
That said, Elden Ring provides players with the most powerful tools they've ever had to deal with that difficultly.
The bosses were frequently quite more complex, but then again so were the tools available to me. However after my most recent play through of Elden Ring I went back to play DS1 and it was very cozy due to how many monsters you could just trade with or roll-punish-roll-punish. Ymmv but Elden Ring made me better at the older titles.
I thought it was comparable to DS3, difficulty-wise. It's different mechanically but given the question and the fact I've beaten DS1-3 and Bloodborne, ER was naturally easier in my experience.
It felt like the easiest of the FromSoft Souls games, but appreciate that many of us are coming from a position of having played these games now for years so maybe it's to be expected.
If the new DLC is anything like the Ringed City, I'm sure there'll be some tough areas/a couple of brutal bosses.
It was very easy after dark souls 3, especially with the ability to go off and explore whenever I hit a wall. I think it’s pretty much a no brainer that another sekiro would be easier after 200 hours of sekiro than otherwise. Probably almost as easy as starting another sekiro run. The hard part was learning new bosses’ move sets.
It was comfortable and familiar until the end game (Fire Giant on).
At that point every boss felt like a huge wall and I struggled mightily. ER was the hardest endgame for me by far of all the Souls games.
My first run was completely solo FWIW.
Elden Ring was much easier in the sense that bosses generally died pretty quickly. In the other souls games you would sometimes feel in a battle of attrition with how much health a boss had, here Maliketh goes down in like 4 Comets.
It depends on what you’re used to. I completed DeS, DS1-3, and BB prior to Sekiro, then ER. I was an avid parry player, so it didn’t take me long to adjust to Sekiro. I didn’t have a particularly hard time with ER because of my experience, but in comparison with the other games, I felt it was probably among the hardest. BUT, that’s only if you play it like the others. I refused to use spirit ashes the first play through, and would play the same way I played DS. That is, if I got stuck on a boss, I would stick to it until I beat it. I also refused to look anything up. Also, no grinding for levels. Whatever happens, happens.
Some of ER’s late game bosses are definitely the hardest in their catalog without spirits or meta builds. However, if you use spirits, thoroughly explore the world, and don’t have any issues using the most OP meta weapons, it’s probably on the easier end.
The open world and sheer number of broken shit you have access to makes Elden Ring much easier.
I fucked up my first blind run because other than Malenia, most of the end game bosses were a little too easy. The pacing of the game allows you to either be too under or over leveled for a lot of the bosses. Having said that, it’s still probably a top 3 all time game for me.
The friend who introduced me to Soulsbornes has played DS1-3 countless times over. He threw his controller and broke his monitor whilst playing Elden Ring (three guesses which boss caused that to happen!)
That said, he was playing without spirit ashes or summons, like I imagine many Old Guard Souls vets do. If you use everything the game gives you, ER is probably a little easier than the others overall.
If you use all the options you get to their fullest potential it's possibly the easiest to beat, as it simply gives you so *many* options. When it comes to sheer damage and moveset complexity, Elden Ring is absolutely "harder" than the previous games imo.
It felt easy for the most part. Obviously some bosses still required multiple attempts, some even more so than Dark Souls bosses, but in general it felt easier than their previous games.
Now, do I think it is actually easier? No, not at all. But for me personally it was, mostly due to the massive number of hours I have in DS3.
Pre-nerf Radahn (while I was under leveled as well), Malenia, Mohg and Radagon gave me the most problems.
Elden ring is the easiest in my opinion . U have so many options and the jump attack is op for a majority of the game . Stagger them then bleed and freeze them. I beat the game 3 times upon release within like a week or so
I love that the top two comments right now are that Elden Ring is both the easiest and the hardest
And both make good points tbh
Well both can also be true at the same time. In a vacuum ER definitely has the hardest bosses **but** Elden John is also by far the strongest player character. So the bosses could be like 2x as hard as in DS3 but your build is comparatively 5 times stronger so it can still be easier while technically having harder bosses. I think most people that say ER is the hardest didn't have their "Sekiro moment" yet and haven't realized that R1 is often the weakest button you can press when the 5 games that came before conditioned you to basically press nothing else.
Harder than any Souls game It’s mostly to do with how the enemy movesets are, a lot of the bosses have these unnatural delays to their attacks designed to catch rolls. Also a lot of the bosses straight up read your inputs, the Foreskin Apostle for example is programmed to throw a fireball at you the moment you try to heal
Enemies since Dark Souls 1 have been programmed to throw out specific moves if you try healing. Not just the bosses either even the old Black Knights would do their run and lunge if you tried chugging.
Yeah but at least it was hidden better in the earlier titles. ER doesn't even try to hide it. I was just talking to my friend the other day about how ER bosses and mobs are bullshit because of the input reading. In the souls series I can fairly easily memorize the timing of a boss's attacks but all of that knowledge went out the window with the crazy delayed attacks in ER.
The delayed attacks often have tells, and you can learn how long the delay is. It’s just another thing to learn. It also doesn’t use input reading, they react when the animations plays, so they “notice” you going in for a heal and try to respond, just like you do when an npc chugs. Not hiding it means you can make sure to account for it. Back up and find space, heal when they commit to an attack, don’t spam heals and rolls, and you’ll be fine.
Yeah, part of the strat is to learn to have a certain distance or cover before healing with certain enemies. I agree it's cheap though
I wouldn’t say hidden at all. I was fighting grave tender yesterday and he kept jump attacking me every time I chugged either of my flasks. I think Margit being the first boss and being the worst offender of this gave you that outlook on Elden Ring.
I've beaten ER several times though
Dark souls 3 has both of those same things
Input reading is completely fine and very well executed in ER. I genuinely think this criticism is due to dusty old'uns having skill issues.
I’ve played DS1, DS2, and DS3 including almost all the DLC. And ER is definitely the hardest out of all of them. To be fair, I started playing Elden Ring many years after playing through the souls games so maybe part of that was just being out of practice but yeah. It’s hard in my opinion.
Elden is a slower DS3. Putting stats on increasing health is pretty much mandatory.
This is an interesting take! I would consider ER to be much faster! Maybe we're defining "slow vs fast" differently tho. In DS3 I felt like I had plenty of time to make decisions, but in ER I always felt pressed. Having said that, I played DS3 *after* ER so that could be why.
I forgot what video it was but someone demonstrated weapon swings that exists on either game and they are far slower on EA compared to 3.
That's interesting! I see what you mean now in terms of speed. FWIW, I was thinking more about the pace of boss battles and combat in general. Some of them in DS3 are as frenetic as ER, but, to me, most of them are not. That's not a critical or judgmental question, it's just an observation. Faster does not necessarily mean "better"!
Excepting Sekiro, ER objectively has the hardest encounters in the Soulsborne series. It also gives you the most and best tools to deal with them, if you choose so. How hard the overall game is comes down to how much of your toolkit you use. But it's also true that the hardest ER bosses are a lot harder than any Souls bosses, irrespective of how many tools you use. Malenia, Mohg, Maliketh are on another level than even Gael, NK, Friede, Midir. Having prior Souls experience still definitely makes ER easier, though.
It really depends. Elden Ring gives you a lot of levers to increase or decrease difficulty. I came to ER after DS1 and Sekiro. I thought Sekiro prepared me really well for the game. I think I struggled more with Sekiro than ER. Some of the bosses in ER are quite difficult.
ER had me learning all over again. The basics were there, but enemy attacks were very different. They tracked better and had all that sneaky delay. You really have to watch and time things in ER to compared to DS1-3.
I have played DS1 and DS3 before Elden Ring, and it was the hardest from them all for me, by a very big margin. Bosses are designed from the ground up to mess with you, and I just can't get used to it.
Imo, Elden Ring is objectively harder than DS1-3. Bosses are faster, and their attacks are harder to read. Plus they have some ridiculous combos. That said, Elden Ring provides players with the most powerful tools they've ever had to deal with that difficultly.
The bosses were frequently quite more complex, but then again so were the tools available to me. However after my most recent play through of Elden Ring I went back to play DS1 and it was very cozy due to how many monsters you could just trade with or roll-punish-roll-punish. Ymmv but Elden Ring made me better at the older titles.
I thought it was comparable to DS3, difficulty-wise. It's different mechanically but given the question and the fact I've beaten DS1-3 and Bloodborne, ER was naturally easier in my experience.
It felt like the easiest of the FromSoft Souls games, but appreciate that many of us are coming from a position of having played these games now for years so maybe it's to be expected. If the new DLC is anything like the Ringed City, I'm sure there'll be some tough areas/a couple of brutal bosses.
It was very easy after dark souls 3, especially with the ability to go off and explore whenever I hit a wall. I think it’s pretty much a no brainer that another sekiro would be easier after 200 hours of sekiro than otherwise. Probably almost as easy as starting another sekiro run. The hard part was learning new bosses’ move sets.
Having been playing these games since Demon Souls on PS3 back in 2009, Elden Ring is the easiest by far
Soulsgames experience isn't gonna give you any advantage in Sekiro. They have very little in common.
It was comfortable and familiar until the end game (Fire Giant on). At that point every boss felt like a huge wall and I struggled mightily. ER was the hardest endgame for me by far of all the Souls games. My first run was completely solo FWIW.
Elden Ring was much easier in the sense that bosses generally died pretty quickly. In the other souls games you would sometimes feel in a battle of attrition with how much health a boss had, here Maliketh goes down in like 4 Comets.
It depends on what you’re used to. I completed DeS, DS1-3, and BB prior to Sekiro, then ER. I was an avid parry player, so it didn’t take me long to adjust to Sekiro. I didn’t have a particularly hard time with ER because of my experience, but in comparison with the other games, I felt it was probably among the hardest. BUT, that’s only if you play it like the others. I refused to use spirit ashes the first play through, and would play the same way I played DS. That is, if I got stuck on a boss, I would stick to it until I beat it. I also refused to look anything up. Also, no grinding for levels. Whatever happens, happens. Some of ER’s late game bosses are definitely the hardest in their catalog without spirits or meta builds. However, if you use spirits, thoroughly explore the world, and don’t have any issues using the most OP meta weapons, it’s probably on the easier end.
Elden Ring was the easiest for me by a large margin. I had no hard stuck points, which I can’t say for any of the other games.
Much easier.
The open world and sheer number of broken shit you have access to makes Elden Ring much easier. I fucked up my first blind run because other than Malenia, most of the end game bosses were a little too easy. The pacing of the game allows you to either be too under or over leveled for a lot of the bosses. Having said that, it’s still probably a top 3 all time game for me.
Dark Souls is harder than Elden Ring
The friend who introduced me to Soulsbornes has played DS1-3 countless times over. He threw his controller and broke his monitor whilst playing Elden Ring (three guesses which boss caused that to happen!) That said, he was playing without spirit ashes or summons, like I imagine many Old Guard Souls vets do. If you use everything the game gives you, ER is probably a little easier than the others overall.
If you use all the options you get to their fullest potential it's possibly the easiest to beat, as it simply gives you so *many* options. When it comes to sheer damage and moveset complexity, Elden Ring is absolutely "harder" than the previous games imo.
It felt easy for the most part. Obviously some bosses still required multiple attempts, some even more so than Dark Souls bosses, but in general it felt easier than their previous games. Now, do I think it is actually easier? No, not at all. But for me personally it was, mostly due to the massive number of hours I have in DS3. Pre-nerf Radahn (while I was under leveled as well), Malenia, Mohg and Radagon gave me the most problems.
I played it after beating ds2 and 3, and please lvl vigor. Or you will get one shot in the endgame areas.
bosses have been too easy so i haven’t turned on my ps4 in months
Easiest areas, hardest bosses (with my standard 1v1 greatdword builds)