My boyfriend. He’s been playing Elden Ring since its release and back then, I used to find the photos from its steam page intimidating and lowkey creepy but also, beautiful. It stopped from there but eventually, come 2024, I started becoming more curious about the game. I’m the type of person who, if I want something, I’ll do everything I can to get it so I did everything I can to get enough money to buy it 😂.

And from then on, I started exploring the genre itself and got myself a few games on sale over the time

My friend in high school let me borrow his PS3 copy of DS1, telling me it was one of the best games ever.

I died to the skeletons in the graveyard around ten times (trolled lol) and promptly put it down.

Cut to much later, Elden Ring comes out and one of my friends is so excited that he gifts me the game at full price so I can experience it too.

And here comes one of the few times I’m braggadocious about gaming

For I say, “No, I have unfinished business first.”

I buy Dark Souls Remastered and start a Sorceror INT/DEX build. It’s tough. I recommend STR+Zwei instead for a first playthrough. Managing casts during runbacks is especially brutal. I die to the Capra Demon way too many times, git gud, and fight my way all the way to the edge of Blighttown, where I decide to stop for the night.

The next day, I boot up the game, hit Continue, and a message pops up saying, “The save data is corrupted.”

But when I read it, my brain sees, “YOU DIED.”

What am I going to do, go hollow?

So I start another save. Back to Blighttown. It’s not easy, but it’s something I just did. This time I keep playing. Get to that bonfire, kindle it, and save for the night.

The next day, “The save data is corrupted.”

I’m just infuriated at this point. Really Darkin’ my Soul rn.

But I restart again. Grind for the Balder Side Sword as soon as I get to the Undead Parish. Git gud. Now my level 11 character is doing as much damage as my previous level 20 character. Get to the Capra Demon. Steamroll. He should have got gud. Get to Sen’s Fortress. AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHH. Ornstein & Smough. Steamroll. Stuck on the fucking Four Kings of all bosses. Go beat Seath, get my OP magic from Logan, game over.

I beat Gwyn with 2 casts of Dark Bead, rekindle the First Flame, and immediately start a new playthrough.

I’m hooked.

I first heard about Dark Souls 1 over a decade ago, years before DS3 was released, and I thought it looked neat. My nearest gameplay comparison was Monster Hunter. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a PC or Console at that time that could play it, so I forgot about it. Years later, I got third or forth hand PS4 from a family member either for free or for years of IT support. I heard that Bloodborne, a game by the same developer as Dark Souls, was a must-play for the PS4 and worth even buying the console for. The GOTY edition of Bloodborne was for sale for 20€ at that time and I thought, “Why not? Might as well buy it.” And then… I played hundreds of hours of Monster Hunter World and forgot I about my purchase. Over a year later, I had lots of time on my hand and remembered that game. I after booting it up, being slightly confused and drinking in the atmosphere I got beat up by the townsfolk. I took me half a dozen hours to just get past the pyre. But I presevered! Central Yharnam: best tutorial level of all time!
Bloodborne has IMO still the best atmosphere of any game I ever played. Gameplay wise? I still love Bloodborne and have to replay it for Xth time, but I’m currently hopelessly addicted to Elden Ring. Elden Ring has in my oppinion by far the best gameplay of any game in the Souls series.

After Bloodborne was released , everything I saw and read about it online made me feel very curious and drawn to it, specially some of the concept art. It stayed with me for a long time. I wouldn’t get to play it until like 3 almost 4 years later, when I had the chance to borrow a friends console for an extended time.

I was a very on and off “gamer”, and had never been hooked by a game that way before… I didn’t know much about the genre and it was monstrously hard for me in the beginning, but It was also different from everything I had played until then, to me, this was what was missing from gaming before. I got through it and I loved every second of it.

When I got a console of my own I really got into the game in depth, but I didn’t play any other soulslike until Elden Ring came out, and after SotE, I started playing other titles in the genre, so recently-ish… And I’m slowly but surely making my way through the catalogue.

Demon’s Souls imported Japanese copy OG release

I came to the series probably around the release of DS3, or slightly before. I’d heard that they were supposed to be super hard but excellent games and wanted to see what the fuss was all about.

I got a copy of Demon’s Souls from GameStop for probably like $14, but didn’t start it for probably another few months to a year.

When I finally did start it, I started as a knight and ragequit pretty early into it as many of us probably did - maybe not even past Boletaria 1-1 - and told myself that I’d never play the game again.

A month or so later, however, the game wouldn’t get out of my head. I just kept thinking, “What could I do to do better?” and before I knew it, I had started another character.

I remember that my wife came downstairs and said “Isn’t that that game you got mad at and quit playing like a month ago?” And I was like “yeah, but I think I can do better this time”.

I played as a sorcerer because that’s what all of the websites said was the strongest class, and I played through the game constantly terrified. I remember that I got the Lava Bow to cheese as many regular enemies and bosses as I could, and I inched my way through the game super slowly and carefully.

I used Flame Pillar cheese to beat Allant because I was so terrified of him.

I moved on to Dark Souls, becoming more and more confident and aggressive the more I played. Ten-ish years later I’ve beaten every modern game From has made, SL1’d multiple games, and even gone back to play King’s Field. As many others have said, Fromsoft has basically ruined all other video games for me save a few similar experiences like older Monster Hunter.

Unfortunately I think the FromSoft games are also slowly losing what drew me to them in the first place, but they’re still amazing games, and I always look forward to seeing what From comes out with next.

Overall ranking for anyone interested: DeS > Sekiro > DS1 > BB > ER > DS2 > DS3

My friend in college had a copy of Demon’s Souls around the time of its release, and I was really impressed with it. It was one of the first games I picked up when I got a PS3 shortly thereafter.

Started with Demons souls; I saw the cover art, was like ‘huh’, and decided to buy it; the cover looked generic and yet something about it made me want to buy it.

I played it and had a genuinely fun time, but as much as I enjoyed it I never got the ‘OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER I NEED MOOOOORE!’ feeling that apparently tons of other players got. I enjoyed it a lot, don’t get me wrong, but the hype that exists today I never felt myself about the genre. Also Demons souls felt the easiest of all the titles I played.

I also remember feeling the game felt kind of generic but still provided a fun experience; I had no idea the studio that made it was so big (I mean they made armored core, and I LOVED armored core). I remember when I entered those hallways in the tower and seeing those mindflayers (cause obviously they’re mindflayers), I thought to myself ‘are these guys gonna get sued for this?’

Also some of the bosses in that game? I don’t think they ever recreated that sense ever again, and instead focused on just straight up boss fights with no gimmicks.

Take the blind monk for example; he literally can’t see you and has to find you via sound. Also you had the flying manta ray boss fight that they coincidentally left a sword that fires air blasts in the same general vicinity. You also had the boss fight where you would be going down a flight of stairs trying to avoid getting struck while doing so. You also had the tower knight boss fight where you had to go up the walls and take care of the ranged enemies first, or the lance boss that you fight in a tight corridor that best suits HIM. You also had the boss fight where you could be summoned into another person’s world to take the role of the boss there.

I recall when I was summoned into another player’s game as the boss; it took us forever while fighting because clearly we both had giant stores of healing herbs, so I basically whittled him down to him nearly needing to heal up; he had low-ish health and NEARLY needed to start worrying about dying…I put my arms down and just let him come at me…yeah…come on, get closer, you see my guard down, you know you can do it, you know you want to, just make a strike, just try and hit me, go on, do it…and he lunges at me and I PARRY and RIPOSTE! Now THAT was a thrill!

Although I hated the gem geckos; they only appear once and if you don’t kill them you don’t get to see them again until the next playthrough? When I first started playing I didn’t even know what those things were. Lousy idea honestly.

I never did like the open world aspect; I liked the Demons souls hub area, and I liked that every area had its own theme.

I was there… 3000 years ago…

When I was younger, a friend passed me a copy of Demon’s Souls for the PS3 when it came out in Europe. He said this game sucks and that I can keep it for now. This was before this franchise had any popularity at all, I didn’t even know anything about it before playing aside from what’s on the back cover.

Played it, hated it because I had no idea where to go or what to do. Gave it a try a month later and it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time. Been a day-one fan for the whole franchise since then. By comparison to everybody else, it’s wild how coincidental my introduction to Souls was.

Friend dragged me kicking and screaming through Dark Souls 3. Must’ve clicked along the way somewhere.

Demons Souls on the PS3. I recall there was some internet rumblings about it being a big deal that Altus was going to publish it and we would see it in the states. On a whim I ordered a copy.

All those years ago I had some friends over and showed it to them. It was almost unanimously regarded as unnecessarily difficult and stupid. That same set of friends now love all of these games.

DS1 on the PC was on sale for like $4 a decade ago. The rest is history.

I saw all the talk and hype about Dark Souls 1, watched some gameplay and immediately knew the difficulty was going to primarily be memorization/pattern recognition but didn’t think it would have anything memorable after a run through. Then I was hit with the vague story, the lack of direction and the kinda deep but entirely obtuse mechanics. At some point it clicked that I had played ganes like this once before, but long ago when games were still 2D and I started treating it like Castlevania and loved it.

I was planning on buying a PS4 to play FFXV but it was still a few months out. I saw a used PS4 on sale for a good price and bought it and thought “I already have a good PC, so what exclusives can I buy for this until FFXV comes out?” I settled on Bloodborne and it is still to this day the greatest game I have ever played. It took a while to transition from the fast paced combat of Bloodborne to the slower pace of DS3 but it eventually clicked. Then I played DS, tried DS2 but it never clicked, Demon’s Souls, and then Elden Ring. I’ve tried DS2 a few times since but it never clicks.