OK, so for a change I thought I would do something a little different but with a familiar theme as I thought just for fun that I would rank the Soulsborne games and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in a listing to see which ones I liked the least and the best. And I figured given the amount to cover in each game that I would split this up into two separate posts.
Now before I go on, I would just like to say that I really like all of these games so there are none on this list that I hate at all, which is why I decided to title the post without saying which is best and which is the worst.
Also I would like to point out that this list will omit Demon's Souls simply because I haven't played it as it was a PS3 exclusive game and I no longer own a PS3 and haven't done so for several years. I could however try and download a PC emulator version of the game and might still do in the near future but until then I will need to unfortunately leave it off this list.
So, with that all said let's take a look at these games and how I think they rank.
5. Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin Edition)
So, at No.5 is Dark Souls II, the Scholar of the First Sin edition, which was the remastered version of the original Dark Souls II game and came out for the PS4 with an impressive visual overhaul and a somewhat changed layout of the game from the initial release. And the reason why I have put the Scholar version on here is simply because its the only version of Dark Souls II that I have played and despite the stick some fans of the series give this game, I still really enjoy it myself.
Dark Souls II storyline follows a similar pattern to its predecessor where you play a nameless human undead who is set on a path to try and break the undead curse and obtain four souls of the Great Ones in order to do so. The player is guided along the way by Emerald Herald, a mysterious figure who can upgrade your character's stats along the way (such as strength, endurance and vigour). Emerald also tells your character to seek King Vendrick once they have obtained the four souls, which will ultimately lead them toward their destiny to replace Vendrick as the King of Drangleic.
Dark Souls II had quite a job ahead of itself with trying to better its remarkable predecessor and for the most part DS II goes a pretty good job although it does ultimately fall short of reaching the great heights of the original game. Still that aside there is plenty going for Dark Souls II as it filled with fun combat, great ideas as well as some pretty challenging enemies and boss fights.
What Dark Souls II did well for me personally is that it was a game of fresh ideas such as the inclusion of bonfire ascetics, which allows for you to essentially reset an area and strengthen enemies as well as reset boss fights but the only difference is they are now stronger than before. The upside to this though is that it allows you pick up more of the original items that were there and you can even farm for a tonne of souls in certain areas particularly if you fight the Giant Lord boss you can keep using ascetics to kill him over and over again and earn a tonne of souls! Its almost like a cheat code for the game!
The game also introduced some pretty cool weapons and spells and it greatly improved on sorcery in the original with a greater inclusion of Hexer spells (which is basically dark magic) that allowed you to spam some very cool spells in enemy's faces! It also helped that the casting speed in Souls II is WAY faster than it was in the original, which leaves you less vulnerable than before. Weapons wise there are also some cool ones that include the redesigned Greatsword, which looks amazing and rather than the skinny looking blade we saw in the original Souls, its now a big thick blade that must about 7 feet long! The game also improved greatly on the move set of the weapons here as if I had one criticism of Dark Souls it was that some of the weapon's combos and moves felt pretty underdeveloped.
Dark Souls II also did a very interesting thing with your character's hollowing and the curse status, which no longer kills you outright but instead it just lowers your health by one level (up to 10 times) and turns you from human to hollow form. So, I thought it was a good idea to actually change the whole idea of curse just outright killing you but instead it more kind of continues to impose the undead curse on you further by making you more hollow in appearance. I also liked the idea that when you turn hollow in this game that you don't suddenly look incredibly skinny like you did in Souls I and III but instead your skin is green and scabby but your body weight remains the same, so you remain in proportion rather than suddenly turn horribly anoxeric looking.
The PVP for Souls II was also a big improvement in that you had the option to burn a human effigy (which is the equivalent of the humanity items you used in the original Souls game to return you to human form) to prevent being invaded for a time (up to 30 minutes or so). This was especially a good thing as random invasions often prove to be a real pain in the ass with the Souls games, especially if you have a lot of Souls on the line!
Where Dark Souls II does fall down however is with its lack of memorable bosses as most of them are frankly pretty forgettable and boring to fight and this is pretty unfortunate given that the boss fights are one of the main staples of the series. However in Dark Souls II there were 41 bosses in total, which include 9 bosses from 3 DLCs and that is simply too many! What also made things worse were that they kept recycling the same bosses over and over again (I mean who's bright idea was it to put Dragonrider in the game four times over?!) which showed the developers were lacking ideas.
However that's not to say that Dark Souls II had no good bosses at all as there will still a handful of good ones such as Sir Alonne, Fume Knight (my personal favourite of Souls II) Sinh the Slumbering Dragon, Vendrick (yeah I kind of like this fight), Burnt Ivory King and of course the original Smelter Demon. Its just a pity that the game decided to waste its time on developing so many mediocre boss fights that could easily have been scrapped especially ones like Dragonrider, Royal Rat Authority, Royal Rat Vanguard and not to mention maybe the worst of the lot: the Covetous Demon, a Jabba the Hutt rip-off attempt!
Also on the plus side, Dark Souls II also has a pretty killer soundtrack for the most part (although its not always regarded that way by the fans) with some great tracks by Motoi Sakuraba and Yuka Kitamura. The standout tracks here for me were the themes for Sir Alonne, Fume Knight, Vendrick, Skeleton Lords, Ruin Sentinels and Aldia: Scholar of the First Sin.
So all flaws aside, Dark Souls II is still a lot of fun to play and I've enjoyed doing alot of playthroughs of this game with a variety of different builds using various different weapons and spells. In fact I often found my choice of build was to either be a hexer or a cleric and both of which you can have alot of fun with but the possibilities within these games are limitless that's always the main fun of a Souls game.
So while it remains the weakest of the three games in the Dark Souls trilogy, Souls II is still a lot of fun and brought some fresh ideas to the table and is well worth checking out despite any hate it get's from certain fan groups.
4. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
So, in 4th place is FromSoftware's latest offering, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which recently won the game of the year award and its certainly a pretty damn good game. However for me out of all five games I have played of FromSoft while I do think Sekiro is a better game than Dark Souls II it still doesn't quite outmatch the other games ahead of it.
For those of you who might be unfamiliar with Sekiro, it is set in a fictitious version of Japan in the 16th century where you play as a Shinobi (essentially a ninja) named Wolf, who's young Lord, Kuro is kidnapped and Wolf fails in his attempt to save him as he loses his left arm in a duel with an opposing clan member, Genichiro. Wolf soon awakens in a delapidated temple and discovers that his severed arm has been replaced with a prosphetic one by a sculptor, who himself was once a shinobi. So, from here, Wolf begins his mission to save Kuro, who is an undying, divine heir and stop Genichiro in his plan to create an immortal army using Kuro's blood.
And Sekiro has plenty going for it with its intense combat as you clash swords with various enemies and rely on using deflect and parry techniques to take on your opponents, which ends with Wolf using a deathblow to finish off his foes. It also brings alot of other elements to the table that are appealing and unique especially the Shinobi prosphetic tools, which offer plenty of variety in how Wolf can take down his enemies as he can use makeshift spears, axes and other tools such as firecrackers, poison knives and even protective metal umbrellas!
Sekiro is also easily the most visually stunning game they have produced with its glorious graphics, which are rich in detail and the environments varied and above all very colourful, which is a breath of fresh air in comparison to some of the drab colour in their previous titles. The character models also look great here and are by far the best seen in a Fromsoft game so far although this relates primarily more to the main characters than anything else.
Its also fair to say however that Sekiro is very challenging game and its difficulty level is pretty punishing as Wolf can be wiped out by alot of enemies with just two hits! And I have to say that's mainly why I put this game further down the list as I initially found the game's difficulty quite alienating and it took using a PC mod to makes things a bit easier (but not too much honest as this game still gave me a hard time!). I have since replayed it on the PS4 Pro on its standard difficulty and it was quite a struggle to work through but I eventually managed to succeed in completing the game, so I guess I should give myself a pat on the back for that alone lol!
There are also plenty of bosses in Sekiro and in fact I really would ahve to say there are simply too many of them and some of them are even recycled just like they did in Dark Souls 2, which is not a good thing and makes gameplay a bit tedious at times. Infact anyone who levelled recycling bosses at Dark Souls 2 as a criticism should really take a closer look at Sekiro as it totally over does it here by recycling not only main game bosses but also mini bosses too!
However there are still quite a few bosses in the game that I really enjoyed taking on such as the Guardian Ape, Genichiro, Lady Butterfly, Demon of Hatred and of course the final and unquestionably the hardest boss: Isshin, the Sword Saint. In fact Isshin was so tough it took 3 days worth of attempts for me to finally beat him!
The game also has an excellent score by Yuka Kitamura, who worked on the Soulsborne games in the past and her music is typically very Japanese sounding and fits the period perfectly. The standout tracks for me here were the themes for Isshin, the Sword Saint, Emma the Gentle Blade, The Corrupt Monk, Guardian Ape, the Divine Dragon and the Great Shinobi Owl.
So, for me Sekiro takes 4th place on the list and even though it doesn't quite scale the heights of the games ahead on the list, its still a pretty damn good game in its own right. And Sekiro succeeds in providing a very challenging single player experience that will push and stretch players to the limit and despite its punishing difficulty, its one that I would still welcome coming back to in the future.
OK so that's it for now and I will be back soon with Part 2 of my look at my ranking the Soulsborne-Sekiro games.
Till then bye for now!
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