Awesome, lots of info - thanks!
Are the Souls games pretty similar to each other? Dark Souls vs. Dark Souls 2?
I may just end up waiting for DS3 to come out and play that. My gaming time is so limited these days, that maybe I should just get the newest one and benefit from the most modern technology.
Always glad to help. If it wasn't evident in my post above, I can go on and on about the Souls games.
Thematically, the three Souls games are quite similar to one another. However, each one has its own subtle differences. For instance, in Demon's Souls the amount of magic you can cast is limited by your MP and one of the classes starts you off with an item that allows you to regenerate your MP, albeit at a fairly slow rate; you also find consumable items that you can use in order to replenish your MP faster if required.
In the Dark Souls games, the amount of magic you can cast is limited by the "stock" of a particular spell. A simple spell similar to a magic missile may allow 30 casts before it needs to be recharged, but a stronger version of that spell may only allow 12 casts before it needs to be recharged. You regain charges when you rest at a bonfire, similar to the lamps in Bloodborne, and in Dark Souls 2 they added consumables that replenish charges.
Healing items are consumables in Demon's Souls, similar to Blood Vials, whereas it is once again a permanent item with a set amount of charges in Dark Souls 1 & 2 that is replenished when you rest at a bonfire.
Aside from that, there are subtle but noticeable differences between the two if you spend enough time with them. Many people felt the character to be a bit more sluggish in 2 and they made some changes to the speed at which you heal (almost instantly in 1 vs a gradual increase in 2) making it tougher to just keep attacking and heal through the damage.
A big part of the appeal of Dark Souls 1 is that the world felt interconnected. You would start in one area, make your way into another and by the end you've looped around back to the initial area but through a door that you couldn't open previously. In Dark Souls 2, you meet a lot of dead ends and for some it seemed more like FROM Software wanted to make interesting environments more than an interconnected world. In that sense, I feel like Bloodborne takes its cues moreso from Dark Souls 1. The director for Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and the upcoming Dark Souls 3 is Hidetaka Miyazaki, and he is often credited as being the one behind trying to make the "world" so interconnected. Since Dark Souls 2 was being developed at the same time as Bloodborne, it lacked that and many people would often dismiss it as being made by the "B" team.
Of course the differences above are far from being all-encompassing, but I'll stop there for fear of droning on way too much. If you have the ability to, I would suggest maybe looking into giving Dark Souls 1 a shot. Demon's Souls is a PS3 exclusive and shows its age a bit more than any of the other games, in my opinion. You can often find the PC version of Dark Souls on sale for around $5 and I think it's a great value for what you might get out of it. It's a lot cheaper than what you can find Dark Souls 2 for, and you can put the money you saved towards 3.
