Soulslike Tier List

I'll justify this from the bottom up, skipping the "never played" section.

The Surge, thematically, is EXTREMELY interesting. The level design was just too barren for me, and the mechanics clunky. I don't remember a parry system, a thing I need in this kind of game.

Dark Souls 3, they clearly needed to pay the bills for Eldenring coming down the pike, so they made a mostly linear game with recycled plotpoints melded together. Technically, Eldenring is looking like it's also heavily recycled and combined together, but in an extremely open experience. The big appeal of these games is, if you're stuck in one part, you can just adventure off elsewhere entirely. There's nearly none of this in Dark Souls 3, it's a straight line. Additionally, the dogs are extremely jank and teleport everywhere. Hard no.

Nioh, a fun game, honestly harder than Souls outright. Problem is, the levels were disconnected and a bit small feeling for me, and the mechanics were over-complicating things for how many buttons are on a controller. The loot system was also pretty much just like Diablo 2's, which I don't enjoy in the Soul's format where normally loot is a touch unlikely, but usually very good, instead of mounds of trash with occasional gems.

Dark Souls 2, The first Souls game I beat after Bloodborne, this game gets a bad rap. Yeah, it's clunky. Yeah, the world is connected in a totally insane way that makes barely any sense. But the world was still amazing for me, and unlike DS3, I had a ton of choice in how to handle the game. Parrying sucks at first, but once you understand the ADP stat, this isn't a big issue. To be fair, this game has some genuine terrible sections and bosses, and it's absurdly huge, likely twice as big as Dark Souls 2. But I still think it's an overall worthwhile time (NOT THE SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN EDITION, THAT'S A HELLISH REMIX AKIN TO MARIO LOST LEVELS, ONLY PLAY IF YOU HAVE SERIOUS ISSUES).

Sekiro, I still need to beat this but sadly only have it on PS4, and my PS4 is the base model. Likely riddled with dust too. Runs bad. However, I'd say this is Fromsoft's best Zeldalike souls game, in the way the RPG mechanics were scaled way back. As a result, player choice is narrowed down quite a bit, and the playstyle this game requires isn't one I slip into easily, but I recognize this game is absolutely amazing. Choice of where to go is very open, the combat is fast and intense, the hookshot is a good time. Shame about the lack of multiplayer, though.

Bloodborne, the first Fromsoft game I beat. They made parrying easier to grasp with the gun system, which also made it more forgiving an option than in prior soul's games. The range of parry-able enemies is massive as well. The lovecraft theme is perfectly represented, and there are MANY unique tricks Fromsoft pulled in this game alone, which really helps set Bloodborne apart from the rest. While the game is a touch more linear than the other Souls games, it's much more open than 3. The only problem overall is that the game is PS4 exclusive and runs bad on base hardware.

Demon's Souls, the first project Miyazaki got full control over, and inspired partly by the King's Field and Shadow Tower games Fromsoft made before, along with other inspirations, led to this fantastic game. The world is quite disconnected into five big sections, but one can swap levels pretty freely throughout. The game is absolutely confusing, unfair at times, and the bleak theme crushes down on your mental state the whole time. I can feel where the game was rushed/cut at points, sadly, due to the nature of the whole project. What we got, even as I occasionally question it strongly at points, is genuine gold.

Top of the list, Dark Souls 1. While this game has it's problems in the latter half, there's nothing close to the feeling of the first half. This makes Ocarina of Time look like a garbage tech demo. Dark souls takes the same act structure of OoT, of only a few easy dungeons, followed by a big midpoint, and then more difficult/literally more dungeons after, but it's constructed like a metroidvania. With far more freedom of where you can actually go, so much freedom. One can beat all the bosses in nearly any order, or if you get good with the glitches, literally any order. The combat is well refined from Demon's Souls, and I never get tired of the combat. I'll bully enemies by parrying them until they eventually get pushed off a cliff at times. Frankly, I should tie up this post now before I write double the number of characters describing Dark Souls 1. Dark Souls 1 is a must play for anyone who plays games, end of paragraph.