Souls like games are my favorite. I currently have beaten ds1, ds3, elden ring, sekiro, and bloodborne. Here is my opinion of each.
Dark Souls 1: Remastered
Dark Souls 3
This was my second souls like game. I picked it to be my second because I researched and decided this was the most similar to Elden Ring. I was right. I actually think that my choices for order in the games I picked was perfect and so far, I wouldn't change a thing. I will start off that this has been my least favorite souls like game I have played. HOWEVER, I will also say that the bosses in this game are one of the coolest looking bosses. The duality of Pontif's weapon,the aura of Nameless King, and the chaos of the Abyss Watchers are unmatched.
The reason that this game was my least favorite was because of the difference of difficulty between the areas versus the bosses. I thought all the bosses were very easy. Almost disappointedly so. Dying to all the small jimmies, countless of times, was so defeating and then getting to the boss to first try it, left out the feeling of accomplishment that the Elden Ring bosses had provided. I struggled the most with the Twin Princes and I honestly think I struggled so much with them because of the dread I had to just finish the game. The end felt very boss rushy to me that I was looking forward to just checking it off the list. While objectively, it's still a great game, I personally prefer to struggle fighting the bosses rather than fighting the unmemorable enemies in the areas.
The Ashes of Ariandel DLC was a little disappointing at first because of the lack of content but getting to the final boss completely made it worth it. The Sister Friede fight made me so incredibly happy that I didn't want it to end. I even died a few times after I could have beat her, because I was enjoying it so much. I was one of the first dual boss fights that made so much sense to me and felt fair (which I hadn't really experienced too much with the massive distain that the Godskin Duo left). Overall, this DLC still felt like it captured the story well and I would recommmend to anyone playing.
The Ringed City DLC was definetly better in terms of areas and content; however, the bosses felt cheap. They relied on ailments, which I honestly hate, rather than movesets and it is something that I don't like when FromSoftware does. The dual demon fight wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. Most of the bosses, were quite forgettable and average in general. And then you got the Gael, who I think was the same affect as Sister Friede, where no matter how bad the DLC could have been, the final boss made you forget about the whole experience and love the game again. Gael was a great, fast paced, rewarding, and the right amount of challenging fight. Everything about it was great, and I honestly couldn't have asked for a better fight to end the Dark Souls trilogy.
I will credit the game by saying that at this point of my FromSoftware run, I was still not a good player. I bet if I replayed this game, I wouldn't think the areas are as hard as with my first playthrough. BUT as a bad player, I should not be first trying bosses. I think these bosses must've rewarded patient fighting more so than they should have and there wasn't a lot of variety in terms of the "trick" to the boss. All bosses were turn based and their moves were pretty basic so as long as you weren't greedy (which I tend not to be as a player, I enjoy the fights so I don't really rush them) then the bosses were easy. As strange as this is, despite this game leaving me with such negative feelings, it was the first game where I wanted to do NG+. I'm not sure if it's because I liked the concept but wanted more of a challenge, or if it's just Stockholm Syndrome, but something about it had me playing NG+.
Elden Ring
This was my first souls like game. I played it a while after it came out but it was a 10/10 game for me. It was the game that got me into single player games. Before, I had played a small pool of games, all of which were online multiplayer games. Having picked up this game, and getting a taste for a video game that didn't take as much commitment daily to be good was so refreshing. It bothers me when I'm bad at something, where I want to not be, so multiplayer games became overwhelming for me. While I still have over 160+ hours on this game, I didn't feel like not playing a day would set me behind. It was a pace that I can integrate with my life in a way that made me happy.
The game itself is phenomenal. The feeling after beating a boss was amazing, and I explored so so so much. It gave new players so many valuable tools to not get frustrated, which I didn't even realized until I played the other games. Without having much game sense, I had a little bit of trouble finding the main story and spent a lot of time wandering in Limgrave but the amount of things to do and take in was enjoyable rather than annoying. The game itself is so pretty, where some areas you enter, and physically stop to admire it. Also, I liked the "easter eggs" that the game had. The dungeons with puzzles, having to break the Carian seals to get into the rises, the walking masoleums being a mystery for so long, and the invisible creature only revealing footprints. Each of these things added some spark into trying to figure out this world.
The main story line bosses offer a great variety of movesets. Each boss takes a learning curve to learn the move set in a fair and rewarding way. My favorite bosses were Margit, Malenia, Messmer, and Consort Radahn. I tend to enjoy bosses where it feels very "turn based", meaning they attack, you attack, they attack, and onwards. Bosses like dragons, and other creatures that are large in size feel like "quick he stopped get as many hits as you can" while battling with the camera. I do appreciate the variety in the bosses where different bosses reward different play styles/builds, but personally I gravitate towards those. However, every main boss (besides the fire giant and the god skin duo, which I probably died the most to) were so exciting to fight. Even through the all of the stages of fighting a souls like boss - anger, despair, improvement, and success, the bosses pulled you towards them. The music, the presence, and the fight made you love the game a little bit more everytime. I fought every small and big boss, besides the Magma Wyrmes, I couldn't stand those stupid ass buggers, and even the repeat bosses were done in a way that wasn't annoying.
Then, after loving this game so much, the DLC came out. The DLC that FromSoftware produces are additions that make the player feel like the company is doing it for them. The DLC was incredibly cheap for the content that it provided. It didn't feel rushed or just like a money grab like a lot of games like to produce (ehem Blizzard). It felt like they made this game because they love the art and that is a major pull for me towards these games. And while I don't know what the creators true intentions are, to me it doesn't matter as long as it feels like they're not just trying to increase their profit with stupid shit.
Overall, this game is a masterpiece. The affect it had on my hobby of video games was very altering and it made me embark on other single player games like Skyrim, along with now going through each souls like game from FromSoftware. I have watched so many videos on the side characters, and lore, and secrets of this game that it really sparked the super fan in me.
Sekiro
This was my third FromSoftware game. My boyfriend had this game already bought, and since we steam shared, I figured why not. It was a great decision. After playing DS3, I felt pretty burnt out. I didn't play the DLCs for DS3 until after this game because the base game left me in a state where I didn't want to commit to a new game. I knew this game was the most different from the other games so after playing Skyrim in between, I picked this up. I feel like I'll say this about most of these games, but I loved this game.