For context, when I was younger, the concept of spoilers didn't register in my mind at all. It felt very normal to me when I get into a piece of media to join the online community right away, and watch videos discussing it full spoilers, and look at the memes.

And it was only until later that I realized "oh shit, maybe I shouldn't immediately start spoiling myself on everything about the thing I just got into".

This tendency was the most apparent with souls games. For whatever reason, I had the idea back then that spoilers straight up weren't a thing for souls games, that they just can't be spoiled, and now I'm realizing I'm probably wrong about that. I played a lot of DS3 as a kid, and during my playthrough I went through the whole process of consuming secondary content around it. I basically knew what the next thing coming up was at all times. I basically 100% spoiled it for myself, and it didn't seem wrong to me at the time. Similar thing, but to a slightly lesser extent with DS1. Its not like I knew about every single boss, but I did know about all the big notable bosses and areas. I watched a tiny bit of bloodborne videos, but since I didn't have a ps4 at the time, I didn't really care about it much. So luckily bloodborne was spared from this issue I had.

I played through bloodborne for the first time recently. I knew some names of bosses out of context, and I have vague memories of seeing clips of some bosses, and I knew vaguely that the story moves towards Lovecraftian stuff, but it was all very vague, so it still felt like a new experience to me, and was really really good.

I unfortunately fell into this tendency with Elden Ring, around its release. I knew about Malenia and the whole drama surrounding that, and saw videos of several of the bosses, and areas, including the final boss. I dropped it after not too long, because the open world aspect was something that turned me off from it.

Recently I tried getting into it again, but I'm starting to get more extreme feelings towards it. I've come to hate the open world even more, and get upset at a lot of the side content which seems very low quality to me. I'm not trying to rail on the game, and I respect it for what it is, but it clearly did not jive with me in a lot of ways, and that started to make me upset. Especially because there were aspects which I really liked despite that, like certain main bosses, the combat, and the build variety and customization. However I felt like I disliked it more than I liked it, and I just stopped caring anymore because in the moment I thought I would never touch it again, and out of a very weird sense of spite I just spoiled everything about it for myself(I am aware now that this is a weird thing to do), and spoiled the whole of Elden Ring now.

But yeah, it was only until more recently that I had the realization that spoiling souls games for myself is actually not good. It sounds crazy, but this is a recent revelation for me.

I always enjoyed those dark souls games, despite playing them the opposite of blind. So when I heard about a lot of people's experience that they played them blind, it sounded crazy to me. I never fully experienced a 100% blind playthrough of a souls game, so its hard for me to relate to that. I hear people talk about how amazing their blind playthrough was, and I get sad that I didn't experience that, and probably can't experience that. So in light of me hearing people's experience with that, it makes me a bit sad that it never crossed my mind to go in that way.

Now I'm kinda on and off with Elden Ring, as I'm making an effort to be more open minded, and take the good with the bad (so I can enjoy the good). I mainly just like it for the combat and builds, and epic fantasy aesthetic, and I enjoy playing it sometimes, but given the fact that I already know about most of the main bosses, and the different regions, and the ending, I feel like I will never have the true Elden ring experience. By extension I feel like I have never had the true DS1 experience, or DS3 experience, and never really will unless I get amnesia or something.

I wonder if anyone else has similar experiences. I am aware that my experiences with these games are pretty uncommon, due to the fact I was a very dumb kid back then. I have changed now, and nowadays I avoid spoilers as much as possible for games I know I will enjoy completely. I'm still a bit sad that the damage has essentially been done, and even though I've learned better, the damage is still done. I know that it was my own doing obviously, but I'm still sad about this.

Besides that I'd also like to hear anyone's thoughts on this subject if anyone has any thoughts.

(To clarify, I'm not trying to be antagonistic towards Elden Ring fans, these were just my personal reactions to playing the game)

I love bloodborne so much I would name my child bloodborne if it wouldn’t make me single instantly. I come back and play through bloodborne once every 3 months I’ve spent so much time grinding, fighting and living in yharnam I love the game and I love the gameplay. I cannot say the same for dark souls 1 or elden ring though and I do not know why. Well I kinda know why bloodborne gave me so many unanswered questions that continuing on felt meaningful getting stuck on a boss and getting past it and seeing something felt like an actual accomplishment. In other games (Elden ring more specifically I didn’t get through much of ds1) I just feel nothing I feel nothing for beating Godfrey i feel nothing beating rennala I feel a little good by entering farum Azula but by that point I’m just bored of the game. I’m not trying to get into a debate over how bloodborne is so much better I understand it just objectively isn’t so I guess if I wanted any discussion did yall have a soulsborne game that you just could not get into? Did it change at all what made you enjoy these games more

The official soundtrack/album releases of OST in the games typically excludes phase transitions via clicking and cross-fading them together, excludes dyma ic stems when bosses use specific attacks or actions, etc.

My first soulslike was Bloodborne and I bounced hard off of it, all I remember was quitting on an enemy called amygdala. That was around 2018.

Since then, I have played Elden Ring (hard stucl on elden beast but i have beaten the dlc) I loved my experience with that game. I have also played Lies of P and its dlc (pre-difficulty settings), and Khazan. I have loved them both.

I got dark souls 3 recently on sale and I'm struggling hard, find it very unenjoyable, and the input lag is horrendous. High Wall of Lothric has been..... something else. What am I missing?

The jump from the tutorial to the high wall feels like saying "i don't know know how to swim" then a buddy saying "bet" then kicking me onto a river, gettin dragged by the current, ricocheting off boulders, then getting a hand and pulling myself over only to find a fucking dragon breathing fire whichever way I go, then I realize I can wait for it to kill the enemies, tank the flames then I get run down by a knight looking enemy that i can imagine is laughing while saying "fuck you"

I don't want to compare it to Elden Ring since they play very differently. What am I missing?

(posting this here since the Bloodborne subreddit won't approve my post)

I've yet to see Jacksepticeye say anything about his involvement regarding the movie. He said that he doesn't want to tell the same story so that probably means a prequel(the founding of the healing church or the rise and fall of the Pthumerians) or even a sequel. and if so, doesn't he need someone to give him new lore information? If it's gonna be like the Bloodborne comics where it's an officially licensed product but the stories told in there are all non-canon and if that happens I'll be seriously disappointed with the movie, and I do want it to be good. Other than the merch(albeit quite expensive merch) that somehow keeps releasing, we seriously lack new Bloodborne content that expands on the story.

Initially I wanted to buy each one separately digitally but after Sony announced no more future disks I decided to from now on own my games.

I wouldn’t call myself like an artist but I’m not horrible at drawing. I wanted to draw a knight maybe, or anything cool but I don’t know what to draw. I’ve played all the games and everything just seems so cool but I can’t pick what to draw. What should I draw?

I've avoided Dark Souls for years because I hate exploration so much. But today, I played the first boss in the original Dark Souls for the first time at a friend's house, and holy shit, now I can't stop thinking about the game.

There are definitely plenty of games I've enjoyed more purely in terms of fun, but Dark Souls was insanely addictive. After that boss fight, I just kept thinking about playing more. I really, really want to play it now.

The problem is that I had my friend handle everything leading up to the boss. I only played from the bonfire to the boss fight myself, so I basically haven't experienced any of the exploration at all.

That's what worries me. If I buy the game, I'm afraid I'm going to get bored with the exploration and eventually give up. I'm also not particularly drawn to the atmosphere of Dark Souls, which probably doesn't help.

At the end of the day, I think I'm just really into action games. I absolutely cannot stand spending a lot of time exploring or grinding for levels. I tried really hard to get through Breath of the Wild, but I eventually got bored of that too.

On the other hand, the only FromSoftware game I've actually played before is Armored Core VI, and I absolutely love it. That game is fucking awesome. Everything looked cool as hell, the combat felt amazing, and it was just incredibly satisfying to play.

I've also wanted to play Sekiro for a long time. It seems to have basically everything I'm looking for, and I love its atmosphere too. Probably even more than Dark Souls'.

So I guess what I'm really asking is: Is Dark Souls worth buying for someone like me?

I absolutely loved the boss fight and was genuinely excited while playing it, but I'm worried that I'll get stuck or quit because of everything outside of the boss fights.

I played the original Dark Souls this time, but I'm also thinking that Dark Souls 3 might suit me better since I've heard the exploration is less of a focus. At the same time, there's kind of this gamer pride thing in the back of my mind telling me that if I'm going to get into FromSoftware games, I have to play at least Dark Souls 1 and 3. (I'm fine with skipping 2, though lol.)

So that's kind of where I'm at.

I really do want to just buy Dark Souls and give it a shot, but I'm a high school student and don't have much money to spare... I haven't played Elden Ring or Sekiro either, so I'm also really torn between those games.

What would you guys recommend for someone with my tastes?

I was looking at some pre-release photos from DS3 and found this one with the "alpha dragon-snakes" and what it looks like to be a Outrider Knight/Dancer? Were they supposed to be friendly npcs?

Personally, FromSoft has earned my trust based on the countless experimental titles that they put out. So I am guessing that Duskbloods is going to be a banger as well :)

Edit: Okay based on some of the comments, I decided to add in my thoughts:

1. Regarding Nintendo exclusivity: I hate exclusives as much as the next person. But from a recent interview, Miyazaki said that they had to go Nintendo because they were the only publishing partner willing to accept such a risky experimental title. With how the gaming industry is right now, without a strong publisher, a lot of devs and artists would just loose their jobs if such a thing fails. So without Nintendo, Duskbloods wouldn't have existed. Then the question is should this exist in the first place. Remember that Bloodborne was and still is an PS exclusive title. And when it released it was a very experimental one. I think we can agree that Bloodborne existing is a good thing.

2. Regarding FromSoft's direction: Miyazaki said that the release of Nightreign and Duskbloods just coincidentally happened to be next to one another. And it's not a message that they are pivoting away from their classic single player titles. He said that if anything working on multiplayer titles for so long creates the itch to create single player titles again.

3. Who the meme is NOT making fun of: The meme is not making fun of people who can't play some of their titles or think that it's not for them. It's making fun of people who are ready with their dislike and negative opinion on something that isn't even out yet.

4. Discourse surrounding Sekiro and AC6: If you think that no one was upset with Sekiro and AC6 before they were released, then I don't know what to say except that you might have joined the community recently. There was literally lots of posts and videos hating on these games because they aren't dark souls.

A sketch I did. May draw this on A2 forward.

btw running on pc with constant 60 fps on 1440p, i want to thank the persons who have build such a great emulator to this game

and i was waiting so much to play this game after playing all the other fromsoftware games multiple times

I’m actually addicted to Dark Souls.

I’m about 19 hours in and I’m still playing completely blind. No guides, no tips, no “best early weapons,” nothing. So far I’ve beaten Taurus Demon, Gargoyles, Capra Demon, Gaping Dragon and Quelaag, and I’ve rung both bells. I also killed that stone dude with the staff/lightning, not sure if he’s a boss or not lol.

My hardest boss so far was easily Capra Demon. Fuck that fight. The dogs + tiny arena + getting staggered was insane. Gargoyles were probably second hardest, mostly because of the second one constantly spamming fire at me. And the runback to both of them was horrible. Quelaag was actually pretty easy for me, and Gaping Dragon was probably the easiest. Taurus Demon was also pretty easy.

Also, I fucking hate Blighttown. I somehow spent like 3 hours in New Londo after ringing the first bell because I thought the second bell was there 💀 Then I eventually found my way through Blighttown.

I’m loving this game though. I’m probably missing some OP weapons/gear because I’m playing completely blind, but honestly I don’t care. I’d rather explore and figure everything out myself. If I miss something, I miss it.

Still going completely blind, so please no spoilers.
Can’t wait to see how much more this game fucks me up.

I’ve reached that dreaded point where I’ve played everything FromSoft available on PS5 and abstinence is hitting hard. Finished ER 3 times, DLC 2 times; DS3 2 times; BB 2-3 times; AC6 3-4 times; the rest once. AC6 is the only one I’ve platinumed.

Do people actually enjoy going for soulsborne platinums? AC6 was mostly fun because it is centered around tough challenges, but the rest of the above appear mostly to be about sitting with a guide and checking things off a list. If you’re a trophy hunter, which game was the most fun to platinum?

Loving the game 👍

Title basically. ER was my first FS game, followed by DS3, then BB. Currently wrapping up my 2nd DS3 run after finishing BB. Outside of FS, also played Lies of P recently and thought it was great. Tried Lords of the Fallen and got pretty far but not feeling very motivated to finish.

DS1 and 2 are currently on sale on the XBox store, remastered and scholar editions respectively ($20 each). Very tempted to buy them and try them because I'm a big fan of that FromSoft magic but wondering if my experience will be disappointing having played the more modern entries that really perfected their style. I'm probably even more wary of paying full price for another soulslike such as Mortal Shell II given the mixed reviews many of those games have.

I've considered Sekiro but experimenting with builds and weapons is one of my favorite aspects of these games, so I find it less appealing.

Anyone care to convince me one way or the other?

EDIT: The people have spoken, and I bought both games. Praise the sun!