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FromSoftware, Demon’s Souls to Nightreign

Sixteen years of one studio arguing with itself about the same handful of ideas: a bonfire, a walk back to your corpse, and a boss who is not going to explain anything.

Recommended first play

What to play first, and in what order, if you are starting cold.

A curator’s claim about what to play first, not a fact about the series. It moves 5 entries out of release order, and each one says why.

Only the three Dark Souls games share a story, and the lore view shows just those three. The rest share a vocabulary and a maker, which is a real connection and not a chronology — the recommended order below is about what makes the others legible, not about what happens when.

  1. 1
    Elden Ring

    2022 · FromSoftware

    The one that lets you leave. Every other entry answers a wall with "get better at this"; this one answers it with "come back later", which is why it is the door in even though it is seventh out of the shops.

    Entry point6 places earlier than release
  2. 2
    Dark Souls

    2011 · FromSoftware

    The one the others are in conversation with. Its argument is the map: a single interlocking world where a shortcut you open is worth more than a level you gain.

    Entry point
  3. 3
    Dark Souls III

    2016 · FromSoftware

    The end of the story that began in Dark Souls, and half of it is callback. It is the one entry here that genuinely loses something if you have not played the first.

    2 places earlier than release
  4. 4
    Bloodborne

    2015 · FromSoftware

    A separate world with no link to the others. Take it after a Souls game and the inversion lands — healing by hitting back punishes the shield-first caution the others spent forty hours teaching you.

    Entry point
  5. 5
    Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

    2019 · FromSoftware

    Shares the shape and none of the escape routes: no build to fall back on, no summon, one correct answer to every fight. Best once you have the habits, because it is going to take them away.

    1 place earlier than release
  6. 6
    Demon’s Souls

    2009 · Bluepoint Games

    The prototype. Everything the others refined is here in a rougher form, including a world tendency system none of them kept — which is why it reads better as an artefact once you know the finished version.

    5 places later than release
  7. 7
    Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

    2014 · FromSoftware

    The outlier, made by a different team. Second in the story and last but one here on purpose: its differences are interesting once you have the other two to measure them against, and merely confusing before.

    4 places later than release
  8. 8
    Elden Ring Nightreign

    2025 · FromSoftware

    A co-op roguelike built out of Elden Ring’s parts. It assumes you already know what those parts do, so it is the only entry here with a genuine prerequisite.

The same games, ordered by a different question

A ladder claims one game prepares you for the next, which is not the claim this page makes. Where they overlap they disagree, and the disagreement is the useful part.