In the time since its release, Elden Ring has become a gaming powerhouse. Elden Ring has been incredibly successful in terms of sales figures, critical response, and fan appreciation, seeming like a cert for Game of the Year. There are many calling it a triumph for FromSoftware and the best game they've ever made.
While few disagree that Elden Ring is a game of exceptional quality, there are those holdouts who still prefer the masterpiece that originally made FromSoftware a famous name in gaming: Dark Souls. Both Dark Souls and Elden Ring are unique experiences with their own strengths, each of which can mark them out as the best game in FromSoftware's library.
8 Elden Ring: Brings Souls' Gameplay Into An Expertly-Constructed Open World
Part of the selling point of Elden Ring is that it takes the previously reasonably-linear gameplay of the Souls games and puts it into an open world. This has become one of the most popular parts of the game since its release, with many singing the praises of areas like the introductory Limgrave, the beautiful Liurnia of the Lakes, and the nightmarish Caelid.
In particular, many consider Elden Ring to be one of the best open worlds in gaming. Bursting with content and deliberately eschewing many of the conventions of modern open-world games, Elden Ring creates something new and different. This is something that fans are deeply appreciative of.
7 Dark Souls: Has Some Of The Most Beloved Boss Fights Ever
While the levels and regular enemies are by no means afterthoughts in the Souls series, the games have often been defined by their bosses. They boast some of the most iconic boss fights of recent years, and Dark Souls has some fights that fans still love dearly and consider to have never been topped.
In contrast to Elden Ring, many of the bosses in Dark Souls are fairly simplistic, to the point that some seem basic. When that simplicity takes a step back, however, fans consider battles like Ornstein and Smough or Artorias the Abysswalker to be some of the finest in gaming, perfect challenges that aren't hard for the sake of it. By contrast, boss design is an area that Elden Ring faces some criticism in. Despite also having some beloved bosses, some think certain bosses are overstuffed and too involved.
6 Elden Ring: Far More Coherent Mechanics
Part of the notorious impenetrability of the Souls series is that the games often throw a lot of mechanics at players (some of which are very far-flung) without much in the way of explanation. Although beloved, Dark Souls can resemble a mess of mechanics between its several types of weapon upgrades, miscellaneous modifiers, Covenants and sin, Hollowing, bonfire levels, and more.
By contrast, Elden Ring takes a far more coherent approach to its design. Although it isn't a simple game, it has few mechanics that feel unnecessary or complex for the sake of complexity. Half-baked mechanics have been removed or expanded, and new mechanics have been well-integrated.
5 Dark Souls: Its Unique, Interconnected World
Dark Souls is by no means an open-world game. Its areas are as linear as they can be while encouraging exploration, and the player is often curtailed as to where they can go at any given moment. The world of Dark Souls stands in firm contrast to the open world of Elden Ring but also has a uniqueness of its own, even when compared to other games in the series.
The world design of Dark Souls is strange, sprawling, and incredibly interconnected, but also makes a great deal of sense. To players who know the world, they can navigate a huge number of areas from the start of the game, and navigating the world is almost a game in and of itself. As a design achievement, few games ever can top the design of Dark Souls' world.
4 Elden Ring: It Emphasizes Player Agency
The Dark Souls games have varied in how much control the player has over where they go and what they do. An experienced player can turn the Lordran of Dark Souls into their personal playground, exploring half the map from the word go. However, less-experienced players can feel far more corralled from one area to the next.
By contrast, Elden Ring has a high level of agency for a FromSoftware game, even by the standards of other open-world games. Very few of its bosses, areas, or dungeons are mandatory to complete the game, and alternate routes and areas abound. From the word go, a player can go almost anywhere and take their own route in Elden Ring, with less expertise needed than Dark Souls.
3 Dark Souls: Its Minute-To-Minute Simplicity
While Dark Souls has more than its share of confusing, unnecessary, or underbaked mechanics, part of the reason it is such a popular and beloved game is its difficult but easy-to-understand gameplay loop. A player rises from a bonfire and explores the area around them, fighting enemies with their weapon of choice and either blocking, rolling, or parrying until they come across a boss.
It is simple gameplay that elevates the game's challenge, rewards mastery, and lets a player indulge as deeply as they want. Elden Ring, although its gameplay is adored, lacks this simplicity of its core gameplay loop by including more mechanics a player has or is pushed to interact with. As such, it can overwhelm some, while Dark Souls welcomes anyone.
2 Elden Ring: Brings Together The Best Of FromSoftware's Mechanics
DNA from almost any recent game from Hidetaka Miyazaki can be seen in Elden Ring. The game draws heavily on the company's previous successes, taking the bits that worked from each game and building them together into a coherent whole, only adding some new mechanics.
Elden Ring is less a revolutionary game and more of an evolution of everything players have loved about previous FromSoftware titles. Although it makes a few missteps here and there, it is clear where Elden Ring has iterated on the best parts of other games and worked to make the most satisfying game possible from them.
1 Dark Souls: The Largely Fair Difficulty
What initially put Dark Souls on the map was its difficulty. Although it has a great many strengths, its challenge is its unique selling point, standing out in a time when many thought games were getting easier. Despite being a challenge and despite how punishing it can be, many players view it as fair.
Although there are tricks, very tough bosses, and some bits that aren't perfectly thought out, players ultimately enjoy that the challenges in Dark Souls are not overly complex to overcome, and all are achievable regardless of how hard they are. Other games from FromSoftware have received more accusations of having 'cheap' bits, whereas those complaints are more limited regarding Dark Souls - outside of a few notorious missteps like the Bed of Chaos.