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Demon's Souls>Dark Souls 1> Bloodborne> Dark Souls 2/Dark Souls 3

Don't freak out about my list. I enjoy all the games tremendously, however, I really didn't like the speed and offensive style of Bloodborne. I didn't HATE Bloodborne at all, but I felt like it didn't do enough to seperate itself from Souls games and it was a bit halfway in-between something new and something old, thus I got a bit of dejavu with the game flow as I was playing it.  I had the same issue with blood viles at first, but then I became really aggressive and was able to just stock them rather easily towards the end of the game, but I would have preferred the estus system. The lack of weapons builds also made me want to replay it the least of all the souls games. I absolutely loved the atmosphere of the game. It was definitely designed to appeal to me, and I would rate it higher for that alone, it is just a beautiful ugliness. I mentioned in the past that I enjoy the slow turtle approach to souls games, and being forced to play in one specific style annoyed me more than anything, which is the only real gripe I had with it. Again, I love all the games, but if we are being nitpicky and explaining ourselves, thats how I feel about the games off the top of my head. At this point I really want something new. I don't want remixes of souls games. I'm ready to move on to something new. Maybe Nioh, or that scifi souls coming soon. 

I hear you - my complaints are really just trivial gripes in the end. I love Bloodborne just like I love all the Souls games. The offensive play style of Bloodborne definitely clicked for me. Once I went through Oolacile and fought Artorias and Manus, I realized that the slow turtle approach has its limitations. By and large, I found that sparingly using a shield was much more effective (for me) than hiding behind it, like I had done in my first playthrough of Dark Souls. Since then I've found myself playing all of the games in generally the same style as Bloodborne forces.

Which leads into your other point about Bloodborne feeling like a step between something new and something old. I generally felt it was actually not new feeling at all (outside of the lore/world). Basically the game chooses your build for you and forces a certain play style. Outside of the trick weapons, it's basically like playing a Souls game with a quality build and two-handing your weapon/only using your shield for parries.

I'm open for something new as well - as long as we get solid mechanics that have some weight and great level design, I'll be happy. Nioh looks cool, I wish I didn't miss the alpha. I downloaded it, but didn't realize it was only open for a limited time. Hopefully they do a beta or something because I'd love to try it out.

Bloodborne is a pretty long game, as most of the souls games are, but having that agressive style for that much time felt overwhelming. It's not so much that I dont like offensive play, I love DMC and Ninja Gaiden, but those games are limited to short stages. Its a gripe. The game is enjoyable, but I still prefer the previous games for offering play options. Plus I enjoy magic and ranged combat too. I honestly hope they remaster Demons Souls or give us a sequel to that or at least a ramaster of Demons Souls. 

A remaster of Demon's Souls would be awesome. I was desperately hoping they announced that at E3. If they do it, I hope they do a deeper remaster of the game and really get the menus and models and everything looking like they do in the newer games.

Nick, you are objectively wrong about the theme. It's fucking awesome. Hang your head in shame.

 The rest are perfectly valid criticisms though, especially the blood vials and lanterns. I hate the lack of build variety, though the dlc helps somewhat, the problem is you still don't get most of the good weapons until the end, when they're practically useless.

 That said, I love this game for it's theme above all else. I love the way it tricks you into believeing it's a werewolf story when really it's a lot more bizarre than that. It also feels like the story had a lot more thought put into it than Dark Souls, and the DLC ties it up so perfectly.

 My ranking is Dark Souls > Demon's Souls > Bloodborne > Dark Souls 3/Dark Souls 2. DS3 is okay, but none of it surprised me in the way that the other games did. It felt very safe, whereas Bloodborne felt somewhat new and risky.

 I really hope Miyazaki moves away from the Souls universe though. I'd love to see his promised sci fi game, or any other setting he'd like to work on. I think Dark Souls is done, honestly, and would rather see Bloodborne 2 than Dark Souls 4.

Hahaha, I figured you were going to tell me that. I remember your review of the game gushing over all the Lovecraft references. I don't hate it or anything, I'm just not into the whole Lovecraft thing. I do think they built a really cohesive world and story though. There's a lot less ambiguity than in the Souls games and putting all of the pieces together has been intriguing at least. I also agree that they did a good job setting you up to believe that you understood the world, but then pulling the carpet from beneath you and showing you that there's so much more. As you get toward the end of the game you start to realize just how much was hidden in plain sight.

The DLC does do a good job of bringing some weapon/build variety, but as you said, by the time you get that stuff it's basically useless. If I ever go at NG+, I'll have to give some new weapons a shot. I've ran the whole game with the stupid Hunter's Axe and frankly I'm sick of using it.

I would agree that Dark Souls 3 felt safer than Bloodborne, but I think that it did a number of things that made me really love it. I think it mined all of the good stuff from Bloodborne. I think it encouraged playing less defensively, though still made shields useful (I know you disagree, but mine came in handy for numerous boss fights where I could tank a hit if necessary - especially the GD Nameless King). It also took a cue on enemy designs and made them much more interesting than in past Souls games. Additionally they did a much better job of making the world feel more alive (just like it feels in BB). I think that a lot of the lore/story from DS3 is pretty phenomenal and does a great job of making all 3 games in the series feel cohesive.

My only real complaints with DS3 are the invasions and the covenants. You are constantly walking into a fucking gank squad when you invade and that sucks. The covenants work better by making them equippable items, but half of them just don't work. Maybe they've patched it and made some of them more functional, but I gave up on the Blue Sentinels and the Watchdogs of Farron after NEVER ONCE getting summoned. The Aldritch Faithful dealt with the same gank squad bullshit as well, so that was a miserable waste of time.

As far as Bloodborne 2 or DS4 - I wouldn't mind either. There's something very comfortable and familiar about the Dark Souls world and I just like being in it, moreso than Bloodborne. But I think that being that there's only one Bloodborne, there's more potential for variety and growth. I do wonder what Miyazaki has in mind for the Sci-Fi Souls game (because BB is kind of sci-fi, if you think about it) and I also hope he explores that concept.

Not having played the Souls games, i had no issues with any of your complaints.  Yes,  I may have though that there could have been a better way, but they didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the game.

Generally, I'd agree too. They're more minor annoyances that are likely amplified for Souls veterans only. Overall, they didn't impede my enjoyment much, but I think those changes would've definitely streamlined the experience.

If you enjoyed BB, you should definitely take a stab at Dark Souls 3. I think you'd enjoy that as well. There's some subtext to the story/lore that you'll miss and some of the moments that are surprising and awesome won't strike you quite the same, but it's a very solid game that draws quite a bit of influence from the design decisions of BB.

I loved Demon's Souls, and it's probably the one I played the most, but I appreciate it isn't as well constructed as the others.  Dark Souls has such good level design it's kinda insane. 

I haven't played 3 or Bloodborne, but I'm gonna pick up the latter some time soon.  

Demon's Souls is still a really solid game. Getting through the first couple levels is really the worst part of it. At the very least, once you can manage to clear out 1-1 it's a lot easier going because you can at least level up and make the game a bit easier. But yeah, that level design in Dark Souls is pretty much unparalleled.

Both DS3 and BB are great games, you'd be well-served be either. If you like Lovecraftian stuff and classic horror, I think you'd really dig BB.