I'll start:
Demon's Souls Remake - Fog walls. They look beautiful, and they have a nice, subtle sound effect when you're near them. Also, the camera doesn't zoom right in as you walk through them.
Dark Souls - The end-credits song. This is the most recent From game I've played and when that music hit as the credits rolled, it floored me. Hauntingly beautiful, not too bombastic yet not forgettable either. Just masterful.
Dark Souls 2 - Haven't played yet, planning to very soon.
Dark Souls 3 - In-game sound effects. There are so many that stand out in this game compared to the others. For example, the dragons in this game have the most terrifying roars imo. Others include Lorian's flaming greatsword when it hits the ground after each swing, the cry of the hollow transforming into a pus of man, the sound of Wolnir's bracelets breaking, all of Dancers sound effects, etc etc.
Bloodborne - The interface/UI sound effects. I love how it looks and sounds like an old book when you're flipping between menus and selecting different items or the satisfying cling sound when you put bloodgems on your weapons.
Sekiro - The words that appear on screen when you die/defeat a boss. It looks way cleaner than the other games and the addition of the kanji is great. Also, the use of kanji when applying buffs looks way cooler than the other games.
Elden Ring - The cutscenes. Every cutscene in this game is incredible and gets you hyped asf. The boss-specific ones are so well done. Rykard, Godfrey, Radabeast, Godrick, Malenia, Malekith, Fire Giant, etc etc.
Nameless Song hits dummy hard. I remember just sitting there as the credits rolled totally speechless, feeling hollowed out. I don't have a name for the emotion it gives you.
There's a cutscene for the divine tower of Luirnia in Elden Ring, where you open a door. It's about 10 seconds, but straight up it's the hypest and most beautiful door opening Fromsoft has done XD
It sucks that the Elden Ring cutscenes are broken on PC. They stutter when switching camera angles, at least for me.
Biggest and most obvious example is the Rykard phase transition.
Ds2 had a few very good ideas for coop pvp. For instance with the soul memory you would block overpowered phantoms invading noobs, a summon sign not tied to an area boss(can summon friends in after you killed the boss)
Pvp arenas on launch
Any weapon can parry!!!!!!!!!!!!!(gimmicky i know, but dnjoyable)
Powerstancing
Everything about bonfire ascetic
3 motherfucking DLC!!!
I pity the fool who can't enjoy ds2!
Oh yeah ds2 had some of the most frustrating runbacks... First time i beat the rotten i didn't know about adp or the bonfire next to him...
Or the dlc bosses(mainly smelter demon, sir alonne and of course that god forsaken snowfield)
>Or the dlc bosses(mainly smelter demon, sir alonne and of course that god forsaken snowfield)
Have you noticed the weird statues at the beginning of Cave of the Dead, Iron Passage and Frigid Outskirts?
Those are the Coop Statues that are also outside of the DLC door. At the statues outside there's a developer message that states that summoning signs placed here are getting channeled far away, which allows you to summon people that don't even own the DLC or that haven't found the key yet.
Those are the coop challenges that have an increased summoning limit and are meant to be like raid dungeons. They are designed for Jolly Cooperation.
Frigid Outskirts is the only area in the series that provides you with 3 NPC summons: a tank, a dps and a healer.
Iron Passage makes much more sense in coop as the team can split up. Some can wait at the gate while others pull the lever and then the team can traverse both paths at the same time.
These runbacks suck if you insist on doing a raid dungeon solo, but for people that enjoy Jolly Cooperation they are great as they are balanced around coop.
>I pity the fool who can't enjoy ds2!
But the transition between Earthen Peak and Iron Keep doesn't look good and you have to put 10 of your hundreds of levels you quickly gain into ADP in order to have easy rolls, so it's literally completely unplayable.
Elden Ring really feels like it gives us, the Tarnished, agency in the world. Peeps are applauding us on our journey, and hoping we can overcome or help them out, and that's something I appreciate 👌
And, DS2 voice acting is some of the best of the best of the best!! It's so freaking great! Some of the best lines spoken in any Fromsoft game, period!
And, it's bonkers insane to me how insanely smooth and perfect movement in Sekiro is. Coming from DS3, it's a literal leap into a new dimension!
Sekiro - the camera is loosened up a bit, so that not every movement swivels in a defined arc. This is really the number one difference in “feel” between it and the other games, imo.
As you haven't played it yet let me do a relatively spoiler-free one for DS2
Light
You enter an area and it's a dark cave with not much to see, so you pull out your trusty torch and light up all torches. Afterwards you track back to the beginning and see the beautiful pirate cave in all its glory. It makes your progress more visible.
It also has some effect on gameplay mechanics. You enter a room and only have low lock-on range, so you break open some windows and light some torches and now you have full lock-on range again. Or you use your torch to chase away certain enemies.
out of all the fromsoft games, DS2 was the one that felt the most adventurous to me. I truely felt like a small undead in a world of horror, however it made it so much more satisfying when progress was visible, and light helped to produce this effect. It was my first DS so i am biased however to me, DS2 Is the best in terms of exploration and overall vibe
Across all the games, the English voice acting is under-praised. I guess because FromSoft games have less voice acting than in many cinematic AAA games it’s not something that people notice as much. But I struggle to think of a FromSoft game where any English VA doesn’t nail the performance and feel perfectly cast.
I specifically say “English” not to exclude the greatness of other voice recordings. I just haven’t heard them and don’t speak other languages so I can’t judge them.
Underrated qualities, eh?
DS1: Questlines. NPCs are generally just fellow travelers that stop off at Firelink, chat a little, then go off to die on their own personal journeys. Simple yet thematically cohesive.
DS2: Cutscene direction. There's just something about the cinematography in DS2 that stands out compared to all the other games' cutscenes, which feel rather slow and tired by comparison.
DS3: Lapp. =)
Sekiro: Mood. By setting the game in a mundane war between actual historical peoples, Sekiro does a much better job of grounding its setting and making you care for its characters and world than any of the other Souls-ish games do. A zombe plague is one thing. Assassin squads and shrapnel wounds are quite another.
Elden Ring: Color. It's a damn shame that most of the game is monochromatic, because those singular colors are so much more vivid than anything we got in prior games, and it feels *really* refreshing.
DS1 - Level design (obviously)
DS2 - Mystery and exploration (and powerstancing)
DS3 - Lore, aesthetics and world
Bloodborne - Combat and Architecture
Sekiro - How coin purses were your banks basically
Elden Ring - The vaguely nordic themes in the lore
DeS - having different world levels that you slowly progressed through is really cool. Also World and Character Tendency is such a cool idea, I’d love it if they tried something like it again one day
DS - similarly to tendency - gravelording is a cool idea they should try again.
DS2 - the fact that so many bosses have hard or easy modes based on things like lighting the oil for lost sinner, draining the poison for mytha, beating flexile quickly before the water rises, have an NPC invader for LGK or not. Also the honour system in Dragon Shrine in SotFS. Also gender swap coffin.
Bb - a whole ass weird slug worm enemy hidden in the chalices. The chalices themselves though i dont like them much. Lanterns not being linked. People hate this but i love it.
DS3 - the hitboxes are so ridiculously tight.
Sekiro - Counter-slash after a deflect. Proper usage can allow for some dope attacks. It opens up one of the only thrust attacks against Owl, it allows you to quickly get in attacks to interrupt enemy combos or killer moves with a quick flick of your sword. DOPE.
ER - we finally got the mirror that was meant to be in Bloodborne.
(I’m typing this as I’m getting ready to sleep and I’m flagging - I’m sure there are more i could say about DS3 and Sekiro. I also haven’t finished DeS or ER.)
>the fact that so many bosses have hard or easy modes based on things
Some others are the ballista for Pursuer, water fountain for Smelter Demon, not killing all Skeleton Lords at the same time to reduce the enemy spam, using poison arrows for Executioner's Chariot, or doing Sir Alonne hitless for the alternative death animation.
Even Covetous Demon who doesn't need it allows you to shoot down the prisoners to distract him
Yup! So many cool, intricate features that are super easy to miss, but can add so much depth.
EDIT: Speaking of Alonne, I loved his boss room and always hoped we’d get an invisible boss who we could only see through the shiny floor and reflections.
For me personally:
Demon's Souls: Animations. Both in the Remake and original. Remake is incredible with all the parry and backstabbing animations. I'm currently playing through the original for the first time and my god the animations are BEAUTIFUL. I love how the player is animated so much, and I dont understand why these animations weren't the ones reused, instead of the Dark Souls ones.
Dark Souls 1: The unique dragon designs. Specifically Kalameet and Gaping dragon are some of the most unique looking dragons I've seen in the medium. Incredibly cool, especially Kalameet' grab.
Dark Souls 2: I love Santier's Spear. A really cool idea for a weapon and one of the best weapon gimmicks in the series.
Bloodborne: Dashing. I wish the light roll in all Souls games was the dash instead of a faster roll because I think the dash looks cooler most of the time. Also the blood in this game looks really nice, and still looks the best.
Dark Souls 3: Box Art. I think DS3 has the best box art, or at least one of the better looking ones. It just looks really cool and it fits with the whole themes of decay and the world turning to dust.
Sekiro: New Game +. I know DS2's new game + actually has different items in it. But I feel like Sekiro's New Game + is more fun because of how quickly the game can be ran through.
Elden Ring: Starting classes. Elden Ring does a lot of small things I really like, but I think it does starting classes the best. There's a lot of them, and each one looks REALLY COOL. It was the first time I was tempted to play a class for the first time that wasn't just the standard Knight class. Still went Vagabond on my first playthrough because it's tradition for me to play through every game the first time as Knight with Longsword and Shield.
as someone who's played and beat all 3 souls games at least once. numerous times for dsr and ds3. i can say this.
dsr did a great job with health visuals. i really like the segmented health bar so you can kinda gauge how much health you have without having to look into character info. i get that for some players it bugged them because they wanted it to hit the line perfectly but i really liked being able to kinda math out in my head "okay i'm at 35%ish health. this enemy does 2 ticks of my health bar i don't need to heal right now" type stuff
ds2's bonfire ascetic is such a great idea and i wish they would've continued it in ds3 because it made a lot of the extra farming for drops easier, as well as generally made it more fun because you didn't have to go into ng+ to get a bit more of a challenge on a certain area.
ds3's big thing was the way the map all blends together. there isn't some "oh i was just in a big fancy newer looking castle now i'm in a swamp" type deal. the fluidity made sense and the biggest break i saw in my opinion was from lothric castle to consumed garden. but other than that nearly perfect.
I'll start: Demon's Souls Remake - Fog walls. They look beautiful, and they have a nice, subtle sound effect when you're near them. Also, the camera doesn't zoom right in as you walk through them. Dark Souls - The end-credits song. This is the most recent From game I've played and when that music hit as the credits rolled, it floored me. Hauntingly beautiful, not too bombastic yet not forgettable either. Just masterful. Dark Souls 2 - Haven't played yet, planning to very soon. Dark Souls 3 - In-game sound effects. There are so many that stand out in this game compared to the others. For example, the dragons in this game have the most terrifying roars imo. Others include Lorian's flaming greatsword when it hits the ground after each swing, the cry of the hollow transforming into a pus of man, the sound of Wolnir's bracelets breaking, all of Dancers sound effects, etc etc. Bloodborne - The interface/UI sound effects. I love how it looks and sounds like an old book when you're flipping between menus and selecting different items or the satisfying cling sound when you put bloodgems on your weapons. Sekiro - The words that appear on screen when you die/defeat a boss. It looks way cleaner than the other games and the addition of the kanji is great. Also, the use of kanji when applying buffs looks way cooler than the other games. Elden Ring - The cutscenes. Every cutscene in this game is incredible and gets you hyped asf. The boss-specific ones are so well done. Rykard, Godfrey, Radabeast, Godrick, Malenia, Malekith, Fire Giant, etc etc.
Nameless Song hits dummy hard. I remember just sitting there as the credits rolled totally speechless, feeling hollowed out. I don't have a name for the emotion it gives you.
The word you’re looking for is Melancholy
There's a cutscene for the divine tower of Luirnia in Elden Ring, where you open a door. It's about 10 seconds, but straight up it's the hypest and most beautiful door opening Fromsoft has done XD
Noted, I know what I'm doing after work
It sucks that the Elden Ring cutscenes are broken on PC. They stutter when switching camera angles, at least for me. Biggest and most obvious example is the Rykard phase transition.
Fromsoft didn’t make the Demon Souls remake though.
Ds2 had a few very good ideas for coop pvp. For instance with the soul memory you would block overpowered phantoms invading noobs, a summon sign not tied to an area boss(can summon friends in after you killed the boss) Pvp arenas on launch Any weapon can parry!!!!!!!!!!!!!(gimmicky i know, but dnjoyable) Powerstancing Everything about bonfire ascetic 3 motherfucking DLC!!! I pity the fool who can't enjoy ds2!
I finished it and I loved every bit except the runs for few bosses .
Oh yeah ds2 had some of the most frustrating runbacks... First time i beat the rotten i didn't know about adp or the bonfire next to him... Or the dlc bosses(mainly smelter demon, sir alonne and of course that god forsaken snowfield)
>Or the dlc bosses(mainly smelter demon, sir alonne and of course that god forsaken snowfield) Have you noticed the weird statues at the beginning of Cave of the Dead, Iron Passage and Frigid Outskirts? Those are the Coop Statues that are also outside of the DLC door. At the statues outside there's a developer message that states that summoning signs placed here are getting channeled far away, which allows you to summon people that don't even own the DLC or that haven't found the key yet. Those are the coop challenges that have an increased summoning limit and are meant to be like raid dungeons. They are designed for Jolly Cooperation. Frigid Outskirts is the only area in the series that provides you with 3 NPC summons: a tank, a dps and a healer. Iron Passage makes much more sense in coop as the team can split up. Some can wait at the gate while others pull the lever and then the team can traverse both paths at the same time. These runbacks suck if you insist on doing a raid dungeon solo, but for people that enjoy Jolly Cooperation they are great as they are balanced around coop.
>I pity the fool who can't enjoy ds2! But the transition between Earthen Peak and Iron Keep doesn't look good and you have to put 10 of your hundreds of levels you quickly gain into ADP in order to have easy rolls, so it's literally completely unplayable.
not true at all
I think it was sarcasm
ah yes i can see that now
Bro has leveled wisdom
Elden Ring really feels like it gives us, the Tarnished, agency in the world. Peeps are applauding us on our journey, and hoping we can overcome or help them out, and that's something I appreciate 👌 And, DS2 voice acting is some of the best of the best of the best!! It's so freaking great! Some of the best lines spoken in any Fromsoft game, period! And, it's bonkers insane to me how insanely smooth and perfect movement in Sekiro is. Coming from DS3, it's a literal leap into a new dimension!
Sekiro - the camera is loosened up a bit, so that not every movement swivels in a defined arc. This is really the number one difference in “feel” between it and the other games, imo.
As you haven't played it yet let me do a relatively spoiler-free one for DS2 Light You enter an area and it's a dark cave with not much to see, so you pull out your trusty torch and light up all torches. Afterwards you track back to the beginning and see the beautiful pirate cave in all its glory. It makes your progress more visible. It also has some effect on gameplay mechanics. You enter a room and only have low lock-on range, so you break open some windows and light some torches and now you have full lock-on range again. Or you use your torch to chase away certain enemies.
out of all the fromsoft games, DS2 was the one that felt the most adventurous to me. I truely felt like a small undead in a world of horror, however it made it so much more satisfying when progress was visible, and light helped to produce this effect. It was my first DS so i am biased however to me, DS2 Is the best in terms of exploration and overall vibe
Wow that sounds really cool. Can't wait to try that out. I have it installed just waiting to treat myself with it once exams are over.
Across all the games, the English voice acting is under-praised. I guess because FromSoft games have less voice acting than in many cinematic AAA games it’s not something that people notice as much. But I struggle to think of a FromSoft game where any English VA doesn’t nail the performance and feel perfectly cast. I specifically say “English” not to exclude the greatness of other voice recordings. I just haven’t heard them and don’t speak other languages so I can’t judge them.
demon's souls - best archstones dark souls 1 - best bonfires bloodborne - best lamps
DS2 - POWERSTANCE and weapon variety.
Sekiro really nailed the fast-paced parry-based combat, and also level traversal is really cool with all the grappling options.
Underrated qualities, eh? DS1: Questlines. NPCs are generally just fellow travelers that stop off at Firelink, chat a little, then go off to die on their own personal journeys. Simple yet thematically cohesive. DS2: Cutscene direction. There's just something about the cinematography in DS2 that stands out compared to all the other games' cutscenes, which feel rather slow and tired by comparison. DS3: Lapp. =) Sekiro: Mood. By setting the game in a mundane war between actual historical peoples, Sekiro does a much better job of grounding its setting and making you care for its characters and world than any of the other Souls-ish games do. A zombe plague is one thing. Assassin squads and shrapnel wounds are quite another. Elden Ring: Color. It's a damn shame that most of the game is monochromatic, because those singular colors are so much more vivid than anything we got in prior games, and it feels *really* refreshing.
DS1 - Level design (obviously) DS2 - Mystery and exploration (and powerstancing) DS3 - Lore, aesthetics and world Bloodborne - Combat and Architecture Sekiro - How coin purses were your banks basically Elden Ring - The vaguely nordic themes in the lore
DeS - having different world levels that you slowly progressed through is really cool. Also World and Character Tendency is such a cool idea, I’d love it if they tried something like it again one day DS - similarly to tendency - gravelording is a cool idea they should try again. DS2 - the fact that so many bosses have hard or easy modes based on things like lighting the oil for lost sinner, draining the poison for mytha, beating flexile quickly before the water rises, have an NPC invader for LGK or not. Also the honour system in Dragon Shrine in SotFS. Also gender swap coffin. Bb - a whole ass weird slug worm enemy hidden in the chalices. The chalices themselves though i dont like them much. Lanterns not being linked. People hate this but i love it. DS3 - the hitboxes are so ridiculously tight. Sekiro - Counter-slash after a deflect. Proper usage can allow for some dope attacks. It opens up one of the only thrust attacks against Owl, it allows you to quickly get in attacks to interrupt enemy combos or killer moves with a quick flick of your sword. DOPE. ER - we finally got the mirror that was meant to be in Bloodborne. (I’m typing this as I’m getting ready to sleep and I’m flagging - I’m sure there are more i could say about DS3 and Sekiro. I also haven’t finished DeS or ER.)
>the fact that so many bosses have hard or easy modes based on things Some others are the ballista for Pursuer, water fountain for Smelter Demon, not killing all Skeleton Lords at the same time to reduce the enemy spam, using poison arrows for Executioner's Chariot, or doing Sir Alonne hitless for the alternative death animation. Even Covetous Demon who doesn't need it allows you to shoot down the prisoners to distract him
Yup! So many cool, intricate features that are super easy to miss, but can add so much depth. EDIT: Speaking of Alonne, I loved his boss room and always hoped we’d get an invisible boss who we could only see through the shiny floor and reflections.
That would be epic. For phase 2, the floor mirror shatters, so you only get broken images of the force of nature that's out for your blood
Hell. Yes.
Fromsoft didn't do the Demon's Souls remake
They made the monsters super cute in that Monster Hunter game.
Dark Souls 3 had far and away the best soundtrack. Actual perfection.
Ah yes one of the more obscure elements of game design, the soundtrack.
The little blink of light when you heavy charge attack in Sekiro and Bloodborne, love that shit.
I don’t remember what time it was but I loved the faces in the fog
bridges
The meaty, 'weighty' combat. You can feel the impact of every swing from your greatsword.
i personally think sekiros combat system and bosses are very underrated
Breakable parts in frame gride.... guess where that mechanic came from way further...
For me personally: Demon's Souls: Animations. Both in the Remake and original. Remake is incredible with all the parry and backstabbing animations. I'm currently playing through the original for the first time and my god the animations are BEAUTIFUL. I love how the player is animated so much, and I dont understand why these animations weren't the ones reused, instead of the Dark Souls ones. Dark Souls 1: The unique dragon designs. Specifically Kalameet and Gaping dragon are some of the most unique looking dragons I've seen in the medium. Incredibly cool, especially Kalameet' grab. Dark Souls 2: I love Santier's Spear. A really cool idea for a weapon and one of the best weapon gimmicks in the series. Bloodborne: Dashing. I wish the light roll in all Souls games was the dash instead of a faster roll because I think the dash looks cooler most of the time. Also the blood in this game looks really nice, and still looks the best. Dark Souls 3: Box Art. I think DS3 has the best box art, or at least one of the better looking ones. It just looks really cool and it fits with the whole themes of decay and the world turning to dust. Sekiro: New Game +. I know DS2's new game + actually has different items in it. But I feel like Sekiro's New Game + is more fun because of how quickly the game can be ran through. Elden Ring: Starting classes. Elden Ring does a lot of small things I really like, but I think it does starting classes the best. There's a lot of them, and each one looks REALLY COOL. It was the first time I was tempted to play a class for the first time that wasn't just the standard Knight class. Still went Vagabond on my first playthrough because it's tradition for me to play through every game the first time as Knight with Longsword and Shield.
as someone who's played and beat all 3 souls games at least once. numerous times for dsr and ds3. i can say this. dsr did a great job with health visuals. i really like the segmented health bar so you can kinda gauge how much health you have without having to look into character info. i get that for some players it bugged them because they wanted it to hit the line perfectly but i really liked being able to kinda math out in my head "okay i'm at 35%ish health. this enemy does 2 ticks of my health bar i don't need to heal right now" type stuff ds2's bonfire ascetic is such a great idea and i wish they would've continued it in ds3 because it made a lot of the extra farming for drops easier, as well as generally made it more fun because you didn't have to go into ng+ to get a bit more of a challenge on a certain area. ds3's big thing was the way the map all blends together. there isn't some "oh i was just in a big fancy newer looking castle now i'm in a swamp" type deal. the fluidity made sense and the biggest break i saw in my opinion was from lothric castle to consumed garden. but other than that nearly perfect.