All Dark Souls Games in Order — and Where to Start with FromSoftware's Soulslikes

Dark Souls isn't one game — it's a whole series, and a small family of related games grew up around it. Newcomers keep asking the same things: how many games are there, do you have to play them in order, and where do Elden Ring, Bloodborne and Sekiro fit into all of this. Let's sort it out.

The Dark Souls series is a trilogy: the first game, the second and the third. But FromSoftware made four more big games in the same mould that constantly get lumped in with it. Technically these are separate universes, yet they share a design lineage, a taste for high difficulty and a distinctly FromSoftware feel. Below is the full release order, how the stories connect, and where to start in 2026.

If you just came for the list, here are all of the studio's soulslike games by year:

Now let's break it down branch by branch: first the Dark Souls trilogy itself, then the rest of the soulsborne family.

There are exactly three Dark Souls games. You don't strictly have to play them back to back: there's no direct story continuation between them — each is a separate era of the same dying world. But going in release order is the nicer way to do it, since you get to watch the series grow and change.

The game where it all began for most players. Gloomy Lordran, bonfires instead of save points, bosses you learn by heart, and interconnected level design where a short side path suddenly drops you right back at the very first bonfire.

For many players, Dark Souls was their introduction to a mechanic established in Demon's Souls: die, lose your souls, and try to reclaim them without dying again on the way. In 2018 the Remastered edition arrived: the same game with a cleaner picture, steadier performance and smoother online play on modern platforms. If you want the classic in a convenient form, that's the one to grab. The original 2012 PC port was another story — our Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition review didn't go easy on it.

The most divisive entry in the trilogy. Hidetaka Miyazaki didn't direct this one — he served as supervisor, while Yui Tanimura and Tomohiro Shibuya ran the project. The second game has its own character: different level logic, slightly different combat, more enemies on screen at once. Fans still argue whether that's a step forward or a step sideways. Either way it has its own devoted following, and the Scholar of the First Sin edition (2015) bundled the whole game with its DLC and reshuffled the enemies — effectively the best version for a first playthrough.

The finale of the trilogy and of the whole "Age of Fire". The third game has the fastest, most responsive combat, borrowing a little from Bloodborne, and at the same time it's a grand farewell: it's packed with callbacks to the first game, and the ending hits you right in the nostalgia. If you want to close out the Dark Souls story on a high note, this is it. Play it after the first game — a lot of the callbacks simply don't land without it.

These aren't Dark Souls, but they come from the same bloodline. Story-wise they have nothing to do with the trilogy: separate worlds, each with its own mythology. What they share is the genre, the high difficulty bar and that unmistakable FromSoftware signature style.

This is where everything actually started — two years before the first Dark Souls. Demon's Souls set the formula: a central hub you branch out from into separate worlds, slow and dangerous combat, and the famous online system of hints and invasions. The original launched on PS3, and in 2020 Bluepoint Games put out a remake on PS5 — the same core gameplay, modernized controls and completely rebuilt visuals. It's still one of the prettiest ways to get to know the roots of the genre.

A gothic nightmare: a Victorian city, a plague of beasts and a heavy dose of Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Shields are almost useless here — the game pushes you not to turtle up but to lunge in, dodge, and regain lost health by striking back quickly after taking damage. Plenty of people still call it the studio's best game, and Yharnam's atmosphere grabs you and won't let go. The one catch: it's a PlayStation exclusive and never made it to PC. Why that is, and whether it's still the studio's finest, we dug into in our feature: 10 Years of Bloodborne — Still the Best FromSoftware Game?

The least Dark Souls-like game on the list. There's no familiar stat allocation and no builds the way there are in Souls: you raise vitality and posture by collecting Prayer Beads, boost attack power with the Memories of defeated bosses, and unlock moves on a skill tree. There's no souls-as-experience currency either. It isn't a build-focused RPG so much as a story about a single shinobi with a prosthetic arm. Combat is built less around dodging and more around well-timed deflections: you cross blades with an enemy and break their posture. The entry barrier is high, but once the system clicks, nothing else feels like it. If you're into samurai settings, our best samurai games list has more where that came from.

Souls unleashed into an open world, and also the most accessible way into the whole lineup. The Lands Between were built together with George R.R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, and the world is a genuine joy to just wander. The key thing for a newcomer: you can ride around a tough boss, level up somewhere else, and summon a partner or a spirit ally. The game took the top prize at The Game Awards 2022. The big Shadow of the Erdtree expansion followed in 2024, and in 2025 the studio released the co-op spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign — a standalone game about runs you can tackle solo, in a duo or as a trio. We broke it down in our Elden Ring Nightreign review.

Short answer: the only real connection is inside the trilogy, and even that isn't direct. Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 are tied together by a single idea — the cycle of Fire and Dark, one world seen at different points of its decay. It's not "part one, part two" with a continuing plot, but three windows onto the same dying universe in different eras. The second game stands apart: different geography, different characters, almost no direct callbacks. The third, on the other hand, deliberately echoes the first — locations, characters, ending — which is exactly why it plays best after the original.

Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring have no story connection to each other or to Dark Souls at all. They're standalone worlds, each with its own mythology. Fans do love to spot shared motifs and theorize about a single "FromSoftware universe", but on the level of plot these are separate games. So the order here isn't dictated by story — it's dictated by comfort: whichever one you'll enjoy easing in with.

There's no one "correct" starting point — it depends on what you want.

By how hard they feel, the games line up roughly like this (from easiest to brutal, and this is very much up for debate): Elden Ring with its summons and open world is the most forgiving; then Dark Souls 3 and Dark Souls: Remastered; Dark Souls 2 is a touch more awkward; then Demon's Souls and Bloodborne; and at the peak sits Sekiro, where you can't summon anyone and everything rides on clean, well-timed deflections. If you're new, work your way up to that last one.

The questions people ask most often about the order of the Dark Souls games and FromSoftware's soulslikes.

Three main ones: Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3. Plus a re-release of the first game (Remastered) and an expanded edition of the second (Scholar of the First Sin).

No. There's no direct story continuation between the games, so each can be played on its own. But release order is more rewarding — you get a clearer sense of how the series evolved, and you won't miss the callbacks in the third game.

Only through a shared idea and world, not a direct plot. The first and third games echo each other the most; the second stands apart.

No — they're separate FromSoftware games set in different universes. What they share is the genre, the difficulty and the studio's signature style, but not the story.

Elden Ring if you want a gentler way in, or Dark Souls: Remastered if you'd rather start from the roots of the trilogy.

So how did you get into the genre — through the original Dark Souls trilogy, Elden Ring, or something else? Let us know in the comments.

If you've cleared everything FromSoftware has to offer and still want to suffer, we have a big list of games like Dark Souls — from famous clones to underrated gems. And if you'd rather see exactly how a run ends before you commit, our guide to all endings of Elden Ring lays them out.