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Dark Souls 3 v. Bloodborne: Which is more difficult?

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
One of them has Orphan of Ko—OHYOUCUN——.

samshtastic_nqpkah.gif


I know it’s a football game in the gif. Feeling was the same.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Bloodborne is definitely harder and people who say otherwise are not putting themselves in the shoes of a player new to the series, or someone who just isn't very good. The health items don't automatically replenish, one of the hardest required bosses is very early on (FG), and in general the opening section is a lot to deal with for someone who's just learning the systems. If you can make it past the hump or take a natural shine to its systems, Bloodborne is not that difficult in the context of all the Soulsborne games, but as an entry point it's arguably the toughest one of them all.

On the flip side I played all Souls game, and platinumed BB before getting to DS3, and still found Souls 3 more difficult So no, it's not definitely much harder. I'd say Dark Souls II also has a harder beginning than BB. The stretch up to Lost Bastille is tough as nails.

One of them has Orphan of Ko—OHYOUCUN——.

That gif is me when fighting Laurence though.
 
Dark Souls 3 was more difficult for me. I was never the best at Dark Souls combat but Bloodborne, something just clicked, I think it was the faster pace to combat and the health regain mechanic that made it easier for me.
 

Novocaine

Member
I’d go with Bloodborne being a little easier overall. But it does have a couple of steep difficulty curves at both the start of the game and the start of the DLC.

Dark Souls has more options in the way you can play though, so maybe a different way to take on enemies (like with a shield) will be the thing you need to get through.
 

Floody

Member
hum, when you re reaching the beast you should have flame paper and blood lure in your inventory. from then you don't even need to deal with any of his mechanics until its suuuuper low hp

It was my 3rd boss I believe (if you don't include the Hunters). Only had a handful of paper and didn't know about bait. It would kill me with it's opening combo most of the time, or get me low enough to where the posion would, which made me spend all my echos on the posion stuff and just rinse repeat until I got good at dodging it's attacks.

It's a piece of cake once you know the bait makes it completely harmless, but I didn't when I first met it. I loved that From just throw one in a random cave in the DLC though, was great to see how far my Hunter had come when I was able to beat it first try.
 
DS3 was easy for a souls game, still a hard-ish game.

The leveling is really easy and you can make your HP very high in just a few levels.

For a player who played all souls games, I don't think they will step up the difficulty in the next games. Got used to it.
 

Sami+

Member
I feel like I got stuck on bosses more often in Dark Souls 3, plus some of the DLC areas could get really hairy. They're close though.
 

TheModestGun

Neo Member
I think they both have their ups and downs in difficulty spikes. Personally I think Bloodborne is really hard to start and end but the middle becomes a little more even, and Dark Souls III has certain sections that were very difficult for me but they were more strewn about and a little less even difficulty curve wise. The last few sections of bloodborne had me tearing out my hair though. I've beaten Dark Souls III, I'm on the last boss of Bloodborne and have struggled to complete it.
 

Gbraga

Member
I don't like counting the half HP dungeon bosses because they're just gimmicks. The Defiled Watchdog was hard as hell to me, but it's the exact same fight as the regular Watchdog, but with a fuckton of HP and killing you in one hit (two if you have enough fire defense or a lot of HP).

Play Dark Souls 1 with a Broken Straight Sword and 1HP and suddenly every enemy is a Defiled Watchdog.

It's dumb. A fun challenge, but dumb. It's more comparable to the numerous challenge runs the community comes up with than a regular playthrough.
 

Egida

Neo Member
Played and beat both. Dark Souls 3 was "easy" for me BUT I think I'd had a much tougher time had I not played Bloodborne before.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Dark Souls 3 had a couple of hard bosses, ESPECIALLY Nameless King, but was generally "easy" whereas Bloodborne was relative challenging all the way through.

And Orphan of Kos...
 
One of them has Orphan of Ko—OHYOUCUN——.

samshtastic_nqpkah.gif


I know it's a football game in the gif. Feeling was the same.

My logical "writing a post on GAF" side wants to be like yeah this guy should've thought this through bla bla, but my true self wants to high five him since I don't have to pay for that shit.

EDIT: Speaking of, for some inexplicable reason Aldrich, Devourer of Gods was nearly impossibly damn hard for me. Nobody else seems to even consider this one particularly hard but it actually made me drop DS3 for a while (well, combined with the irritation of endless recycling).
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Dark Souls 3 is the hardest game in the series by far due to the bosses. Some of the bosses are ruthless (Sulyvahn, Aldrich, the Princes, the final boss)

BB has a rougher start with the mob in Central Yharnam, the werewolves on the bridge and Father G.


Comparing base games, haven't played the Dark Souls 3 DLC yet.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
I have been playing through Sotfs recently because I never played the DLC in 2 and for some reason it does give me a bit more trouble than the other souls games. Also just finished Demons Souls a couple weeks ago for the first time and found it the easiest of all the Soulsborne. The bosses were all pretty easy in that game

DeS had a lot of gimmick bosses so once you figure them out it becomes easier to take them down. Plus it probably had the lowest number of bosses in the series.

My boy Larry? Yeah. Fuck that guy too.

Hey, fuck you. Laurence was a saint! A saint >:O
 

Akai XIII

Member
I solo'd every boss in BB... Even the chalice bosses.

I struggle with some of the bosses in DS2/3.

So DS2/3, for me. Could be that I just clicked with BB though.
 

Akki

Member
Dark Souls 3 was my first souls game and it was a tough time in the beginning because it a took me a while to adjust and not play it like Bayonetta. (haven´t done the dlc yet)

I was disappointed how easy Bloodborne was compared to Dark Souls 3. I killed probably 80% of the Bosses in the 1st or 2nd try. Took me around 28 hours to finish game including the dlc (no help, everything solo)
 

Giever

Member
Bloodborne, definitely. I was surprised by how many bosses I beat in 1-2 tries in Dark Souls III. I can't speak to the DLC, though.

I had way more trouble (first time through) with Father Gascoigne, Shadow of Yharnam, Rom, the Vacuous Spider, and Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos than I did with basically anything in Dark Souls III.
 

Struct09

Member
Bloodborne, especially because of the defiled chalice dungeons. I didn't have very many problems with DS3 outside of the
Nameless King
 

Mazumdar

Neo Member
My logical "writing a post on GAF" side wants to be like yeah this guy should've thought this through bla bla, but my true self wants to high five him since I don't have to pay for that shit.

EDIT: Speaking of, for some inexplicable reason Aldrich, Devourer of Gods was nearly impossibly damn hard for me. Nobody else seems to even consider this one particularly hard but it actually made me drop DS3 for a while (well, combined with the irritation of endless recycling).
You're not alone. Aldrich had me too surprisingly. He probably took me the most tries to beat outside of Nameless King and the DLC bosses.
 
I found Bloodborne to be considerably harder. You're way more vulnerable than you are in DS3, and boss battles seem to go on for a lot longer. Haven't played DS3's DLC though.
 

De_Legend

Banned
I’m not going to answer your question.

I’m just going to tell you that you better get past that bridge, you don’t even have to fight the werewolves, at all.

I believe in you.
 

Truant

Member
Come on now. It's faster and more action oriented but BB doesn't compare at all to a character action game.

I'm exaggerating how limited the early parts of the game are, but my point still stands. I'm saying it does by comparison to the more RPG-centric Dark Souls games. You can't even level, barely change weapons. You have very few ways to impact the gameplay besides your actual skill, where as Dark Souls allows you to level or start with very different classes.
 

Hobbes211

Member
My first foray into the Soulsborne world was BB, and it was a rough start. Since then, I've played DS1 through DS3 with multiple NG+ runs in each. Just yesterday I bought the DLC for BB and have started a new game to replay everything, and BB is easier than pretty much all of them in retrospect.
 

Egida

Neo Member
NeighboringThoseEsok-small.gif

Nothing in DS3 comes close to this fucker. Learning to beat him felt akin to learning the ropes again, like playing Demon's Souls for the first time.

It was so satisfying finally getting to smash is head in.
 
Not counting chalice dungeons, Dark Souls 3. Very little in Bloodborne compares to the struggle of fighting Pontiff Sillyvan or Abyss Watchers for the first time, especially since so many of the bosses in Bloodborne can be parried/ riposted and then hit with a charged R2 when they get up. Dark Souls 3 DLC makes it even worse with 2 of the hardest bosses in the series, (spoilers for both)
Sister Friede and her bullshit 3 phase fight where the third phase can kill you instantly, and Swole Gael with his enormous health pool

Chalice Dungeons, well, there's a lot going on there.
 
NeighboringThoseEsok-small.gif

Nothing in DS3 comes close to this fucker. Learning to beat him felt akin to learning the ropes again, like playing Demon's Souls for the first time.

It was so satisfying finally getting to smash is head in.

That boss was freaking cake. His pattern is easy, as long as you're patient, he's not a challenge. Yet you say nothing in DS3 compares. Have you fought Unnamed King or Midir?
 

napata

Member
NeighboringThoseEsok-small.gif

Nothing in DS3 comes close to this fucker. Learning to beat him felt akin to learning the ropes again, like playing Demon's Souls for the first time.

It was so satisfying finally getting to smash is head in.

But he has tons of downtime between attacks and has very obvious telegraphs. He was only somewhat hard because they cut your health in 2 so most attacks are one shots.
 
But, guess what? The hardest enemy that I've faced in all of the Souls games and Bloodborne wasn't even a boss, it was these fuckers from the DLC.
maxresdefault.jpg

Fighting 2 of them at the same time is a real pain in the ass. You will DIE by default.


The feeling fighting these guys was the same.

After being so close to beating them straight up, I said f it, bypassed them, took the long way around, and cheesed the heck out of them from the cliff above.

Screw those guys.
 

CAR105 3

Member
My logical "writing a post on GAF" side wants to be like yeah this guy should've thought this through bla bla, but my true self wants to high five him since I don't have to pay for that shit.

EDIT: Speaking of, for some inexplicable reason Aldrich, Devourer of Gods was nearly impossibly damn hard for me. Nobody else seems to even consider this one particularly hard but it actually made me drop DS3 for a while (well, combined with the irritation of endless recycling).

I feel this way about Pontiff Sullyvahn. Fuck Ponty Sully...

This guy kills me just for the shits and giggles.
 

Catvoca

Banned
Both on the easier end of the Souls games. I'd probably put Bloodborne above DS3, especially with the dlc. The Nameless King is harder than any base Bloodborne boss though. It's close.
 
It really depends. For some people Bloodborne can be considered harder because you have no shield while Dark Souls 3 does and you're also faster in DS3 compared to DS2.
Then you look at how tough the bosses are. For me Dark Souls 3 had harder bosses compared to Bloodborne in the base game, but the Chalice Dungeon bosses are MUCH harder than the bosses in the base as well. Watchdog of the Old Lords is clearly the hardest boss I've face in the Chalice Dungeon when you fight it a second time.

But, guess what? The hardest enemy that I've faced in all of the Souls games and Bloodborne wasn't even a boss, it was these fuckers from the DLC.
maxresdefault.jpg

Fighting 2 of them at the same time is a real pain in the ass. You will DIE by default.

The ones with the anchor are pure bullshit. So much tracking on all of their attacks.

I feel this way about Pontiff Sullyvahn. Fuck Ponty Sully...

This guy kills me just for the shits and giggles.

It's pretty frustrating that he can vary when he ends his combos so much, but if you cling to him most of his attacks will miss you. It's unfortunately(?) a viable strategy against a couple humanoid Dark Souls 3 bosses.
 
I personally had absolutely no issues with any main-game boss in DS3. I beat the first 5 or 6 on my first try. That being said, I think BB is significantly more difficult.
 
NeighboringThoseEsok-small.gif

Nothing in DS3 comes close to this fucker. Learning to beat him felt akin to learning the ropes again, like playing Demon's Souls for the first time.

It was so satisfying finally getting to smash is head in.

To be honest the main enemy of the entire Dungeon where the boss is located is the Health Penalty and not the boss itself and the boss have one single one hit kill move which use three times as much as announcing its Phase is over
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
Bloodborne definitely starts the hardest.

Gascoigne is probably the hardest first boss in any of the Souls games, and BSB is up there too.

As I recall, only about 30% in does BB get easier.
He's not the first boss is he? Am I remembering wrong?
 
I've had Bloodborne for a couple months now, and I just picked up Dark Souls 3.

Bloodborne completely demoralized me to the point where I haven't made it past the first bridge with the two wolves

Is Dark Souls 3 as difficult and unforgiving as Bloodborne?

You don't need to fight those two wolves in the beginning! Just run past them because there's a shortcut nearby that will make your life a lot easier.
 

GOOCHY

Member
OP, if you want to get past those wolves just aggro them and run down the stairs through the doorway. They can't get through the doorway but you can still hit them. Easy peasy cheesy.
 
Dark Souls 3 < Bloodborne < Bloodborne DLC < Dark Souls 3 DLC?

They're roughly the same difficulty wise once you've adjusted, most of the challenge from both games comes from optional bosses. It also depends on your playstyle.
 
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