Skyrim or Dark Souls

[Finesthour 7,284]

Due to the massive amounts of mods that fully immerse me as my character, I have to go with Skyrim. It's impossible not to.

[Justin_Case001 4,857]

I love Skyrim.  Never played any "souls" game.  I want to, though, but haven't gotten around to it.  I will admit that Skyrim isn't that challenging.  It's challenging for a little while in the early stages if you play on the hardest difficulty.  Once I made my good gear, I don't think I ever died again, save for the Ebony Warrior, just because of how the lvl3 unrelenting force makes you slide down the mountain and you never stand up again and just lie there and watch yourself die.  Anyway, Skyrim isn't a hard game, but it's all about the ultimate escape to the most immersive, incredible medieval fantasy world.  But I understand wanting a proper challenge that test your skills and reflexes to the limit.  That's why I love God of War.  But I'm sure I'll get to the various Souls games at some point to see what all the fuss is about.

[Chacobos 160]

Came for the comments, stayed for the Sunbros. Will give Skyrim props for a immersive landscape to explore and plenty of mods. 

[Taviscratch 453]

I love Skyrim.  Never played any "souls" game.  I want to, though, but haven't gotten around to it.  I will admit that Skyrim isn't that challenging.  It's challenging for a little while in the early stages if you play on the hardest difficulty.  Once I made my good gear, I don't think I ever died again, save for the Ebony Warrior, just because of how the lvl3 unrelenting force makes you slide down the mountain and you never stand up again and just lie there and watch yourself die.  Anyway, Skyrim isn't a hard game, but it's all about the ultimate escape to the most immersive, incredible medieval fantasy world.  But I understand wanting a proper challenge that test your skills and reflexes to the limit.  That's why I love God of War.  But I'm sure I'll get to the various Souls games at some point to see what all the fuss is about.

Well if you are going to explore a Souls game then I would suggest the first Dark Souls. They built on and improved Demon's Souls and Dark Souls II kind of regressed. In DaSII they kind of created difficulty by adding lots of enemies instead of just having difficult enemies. Also the level design was nowhere near as good in DaSII. If you're planning on playing on PC I hope you have a gamepad because keyboard controls are terrible.

 

Also, drop me a PM if you try it and get stuck or need some help working out the best build. I've finished the game 8 times and currently have four characters on the go.

Due to the massive amounts of mods that fully immerse me as my character, I have to go with Skyrim. It's impossible not to.

The mods are the plus for Skyrim, I have to admit. I'm a dirty, console-playing scumbag though so that aspect is lost on me XD I don't count mods when I judge the worth of a game, though because it has nothing to do with the game itself. Bethesda are a mediocre developer who have trouble creating a game world where plates don't fly around the stores and kill you, your collection of gems don't explode across your house and putting a sword on a stand doesn't equate to flipping a coin to see if the game will eat your weapon. There's also the issue of the game world not even wanting to keep your character in it as I have fallen through the world on multiple occasions. +1 for horses and their ability to scale 85degree cliff faces though XD

Edited March 30, 2015 by Taviscratch

[Skeleton Kin 385]

 

 

Dark souls litle stupid game for my not much lore.It just sells on how game is hard

 

There is plenty of lore, it's that nothing is really given to you as there is hardly anyone sane enough to give it to you. Also, I think you should get other people on the forum to proof read your sentences as it seems that English isn't your first language.

 

Anyway, I prefer Dark Souls, when I finished the game I filled with excitement that I had finished the hardest game I had played to date. 

[Dark Horse 12,799]

I like Dark Souls, no disrespect to it, it's a fun game that pushes you harder then most. But a game like Skyrim is a game that keeps bringing me back to play it, even now nearly 4 years after it's release. Coupled with a very strong modding community and having always something new to talk about with every play-through, that's the mark of a classic right there!

[Snow Frostflame 3,567]

that's not even a real question.... Skyrim wins by a long shot

 

played Dark Souls once only because it was free for Xbox 360 at one point... I hated the game and haven't played it ever sense....

 

as for Skyrim my friend showed it to me back in 2011... it looked pretty cool so I bought it on my Xbox.... so far its one of the coolest games I have bought... my favorite thing about Skyrim is unless you have too much time on your hands there is always something you didn't know about... making it really hard to 100% the game

[Verily British 144]

Having invested around 150 hours into both games, I have to say I'm more in favor of Dark Souls than Skyrim.

 

The main reason for this is because of how different and refreshing it is from the majority of the games released today. It doesn't hold your hand through an unnecessarily long tutorial, it doesn't bash the story into your head like a double-handed Crystal Zweihander +5 heavy attack. Perhaps my most favorite reason is because it presents so many different factors into the combat that you can't just rush in mashing the attack button and win.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Skyrim. It has a winning mix of force feeding the story and making you find it out yourself. It's a rather rewarding experience to finally have reached 100 Blacksmithing after investing almost 48 hours of non-stop gameplay. There's a playstyle to suit everyone and it has a diverse and interesting world filled with equally interesting people and lore.

 

However, as Taviscratch has mentioned, the physics of the world are... haphazard at best. I've had weapons been consumed by the great void for simply trying to put them on display. I've gone to the basement of my home ready to do some smithing, only to find a very lost Imperial Messenger knocking over my bowels full of Jewelry. And I have been treated to the sight of a horse standing perfectly upright at near vertical angles.

 

If I want an immersive story then... well to be perfectly honest I'd play Mass Effect, but that's an argument for another day. However, out of the two, I'd choose Skyrim if I wanted a purely story based game session.

 

However, there comes a point in most gamer's careers where they've played enough games that nothing really stands out and challenges them anymore. This is where the 'Souls' franchise comes into play. These games offer a rich combat and control system where the only thing you can blame for messing up, is yourself. You have so many more things that you have to take into account if you want to have any chance of winning.

 

And then, after you've spent many, many hours fighting your way through the game. After Gwyn lies defeated at your feet and the credits have finished rolling. You feel so accomplished, like you could take on any game and win with your eyes closed.

 

Then NewGame+ happens, and you realize how terribly wrong you are.

 

"Try Tears"

Edited March 30, 2015 by British Brony

[1Bit 1,531]

Dark Souls is a much better game than Skyrim in my opinion...I just never enjoyed Skyrim while playing it and couldn't get invested in it, unlike Dark Souls which I've happily sunk hours into (on both games)

[Finesthour 7,284]

Well if you are going to explore a Souls game then I would suggest the first Dark Souls. They built on and improved Demon's Souls and Dark Souls II kind of regressed. In DaSII they kind of created difficulty by adding lots of enemies instead of just having difficult enemies. Also the level design was nowhere near as good in DaSII. If you're planning on playing on PC I hope you have a gamepad because keyboard controls are terrible.

 

Also, drop me a PM if you try it and get stuck or need some help working out the best build. I've finished the game 8 times and currently have four characters on the go.

The mods are the plus for Skyrim, I have to admit. I'm a dirty, console-playing scumbag though so that aspect is lost on me XD I don't count mods when I judge the worth of a game, though because it has nothing to do with the game itself. Bethesda are a mediocre developer who have trouble creating a game world where plates don't fly around the stores and kill you, your collection of gems don't explode across your house and putting a sword on a stand doesn't equate to flipping a coin to see if the game will eat your weapon. There's also the issue of the game world not even wanting to keep your character in it as I have fallen through the world on multiple occasions. +1 for horses and their ability to scale 85degree cliff faces though XD

I also gotta tie in that I hate Dark souls, so skyrim auto wins for me :^)

[Discordian 6,013]

Dark Souls, by far. I've never particularly been a fan of Bethesda RPGs. Their games don't function very well and their gameplay design is meh at best.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,293]

I prefer Skryim by far. While I definitely can see why Dark Souls is loved by many (my brother has been playing it so much lately) but I feel like the game rides too much on its difficulty. Skyrim, for me, provides far more immersion and a sense of wonder and adventure. It let's me get lost in its world which is a thing I love in games that do it right. Plus it has so much lore and worldbuilding which is another thing I really appreciate when done well. I also prefer the overall gameplay, setting, combat, and mostly everything else.

 

Skyrim gets my vote.

[Discordian 6,013]

I prefer Skryim by far. While I definitely can see why Dark Souls is loved by many (my brother has been playing it so much lately) but I feel like the game rides too much on its difficulty. Skyrim, for me, provides far more immersion and a sense of wonder and adventure. It let's me get lost in its world which is a thing I love in games that do it right. Plus it has so much lore and worldbuilding which is another thing I really appreciate when done well. I also prefer the overall gameplay, setting, combat, and mostly everything else.

 

Skyrim gets my vote.

"Difficulty". </elitism>

 

The difficulty is honestly the least important part of the Souls games. Some dig it for the gameplay, some for the PvP but for me it's the level designs. Where Skyrim has a bunch of dungeons that either look completely bland or copied from another dungeon in the game (something Oblivion had a problem with, too) the Souls games have very deliberately designed areas. From Boletaria's guard keep, city and throne room to the Dragon Aerie and Dragon Shrine they're never short of both atmosphere and clever designs that always feel like real places.

 

But maybe I'm biased because I think Bethesda is a piece of shit developer who squanders every bit of potential in their games with the laziest design choices.

[Creative 187]

Dark Souls is a lot more difficult and dosent really have much to offer. Skyrim has more to do and is more of an 'Open World'  experience (compared to Dark Souls) and has a more rich, casual experience for anyone who enjoys free roam RPG's. Where Dark Souls requires more patience to beat and is really more for serious gamers.

[Taviscratch 453]

This is a lot closer than I anticipated. I gotta say, I'm impressed with how much appeal Dark Souls has garnered considering it is for a very niche audience.

[TenorSounds 831]

I love both games and for different reasons. One of them isn't objectively " better" than the other, it's just down to what you're looking for in a game. What would be a more interesting conversation would be comparing and contrasting how the how the different games handle similar things, like character progression/environmental design/story and lore/etc.

 

One thing that I will say, though, is that while I like Skyrim I pretty much got more of the same experience as I did with Oblivion and Morrowind before it. Dark Souls was doing things I hadn't really seen in games for a long time, but with twists and modern design sensibilities that created something that was very engaging to me.

[Soul Flare 403]

I never managed to pick up Skyrim. Most of the time I would just end up walking for miles and miles facing a few enemies that a few left clicks would kill. I can see why people like it, but it's not for me.

 

Dark Souls, on the other hand, get me hooked nearly instantly. Also, it's far from difficult one you get the hang of it. Most of the "thrash mobs" can be killed by blocking one of their attacks and counter attacking immediatly after (and once you learn how to parry, it's going to be a cakewalk) and most bosses can be killed by staying behind them and mashing R1/RB (except some like Artorias, Gwyn and Ornstein+Smough. God those were actually insanely hard.)

 

But what got me hooked the most was the multiplayer. Having trouble with bosses? Summon someone to help. Want to help somepony out with a hard boss while gettig souls and humanity in the process? Drop a soul sign. Want to fight someone? Go to Oolacile Township and use a red eye orb. Some people say that invasions are unfair. That's true when you're just starting out and you meet people with barely leveled stats and maxed equipment, but once you get to level 100-120, PvP becomes fair.

 

I guess I just prefer Multiplayer games over single player.

[Lucky Star 971]

 

I prefer Skyrim. Skyrim has hours upon hours of sidequests, badass battles, great NPC's, amazing chracter customization and roleplay opportunities, some of the best DLC that's out there (Arguably the best, trust me the money for the Dragonborn and Dawnguard DLC is well worth it), more mods, and it always feels fresh. Dark Souls is a great game, but I just tend to enjoy Skyrim better for the hours of gameplay.

 

Dark Souls is more of a difficulty game as others have said; Skyrim is more of an exploration game that immerses you into the story with better and more three-dimensional and memorable characters. For example, Astrid is one of my favorite Skyrim characters for her impact on the Dark Brotherhood arc and I just think she's awesome. Seriously, I can barely name any memorable Dark Souls NPCs, but for Skyrim I can name quite a lot off the top of my head that stuck with me. (Ulfric Stormcloak, Astrid, Cicero, Lydia, General Tullius, Miraak, Aelea...)

 

OP, to be honest, from your comments I believe that you truly only dislike Skyrim from the fact that it's 'mainstream' and 'popular', and how you believe that most people prefer Skyrim over Dark Souls. I'm assuming that you like Dark Souls over Skyrim purely because it's the less mainstream option.

 

 

 

I 100% agree with what you've said.

 

___________________

 

Now, if I ever pissed off a magical being who decided to trap me in skyrim  forever, (with access to mods to be nice.) I'm fairly confident that many years would pass before I began to see it as a bad thing.

 

it's that type of game, it's so large with so many thing to do and see.

 

it's a game you can go back to over and over and get a new experience with each play through.

 

When I play an RPG, I want options and a land to romp about it.

since exploring is one of my most favorite things to do in a game.

and I really like the way elder scrolls build their worlds to have so many things to see.

 

most of which you wouldn't see if you went directly to your objectives.

if you wanna see the coolest things around Skyrim, you gotta explore.

 

that doesn't mean that dark souls is bad, it's just not my flavor of game.

 

 

so, that's my two cents on the topic. 

Edited April 2, 2015 by Lucky Star

[Screw Loose 156]

I enjoyed both games, but personally I like Skyrim much better, There's more to explore in the game, more replay value, longer game (since you will probably do side quests and stuff).

I've seen my roomate play Dark souls (both) over and over again and I don't understand how it keeps him hooked, the PVP is probably what Dark Souls has over Skyrim, but even so I didn't get hooked on the PVP.

[Raritas 6,820]

They're both completely different in my opinion. I much prefer Skyrim, but not because it's "Mainstream". It's a role playing game, you pick your adventure. Dark Souls is not like this. It's way more linear, and you follow the story without too much role playing. The role playing aspect is what I personally prefer in the games.

 

That being said, I did enjoy Dark Souls, I just prefer Skyrim.

[Unikitty 1,211]

Skyrim. I haven't played much of Dark Souls, but Skyrim always keeps me coming back. I love the lore, the atmosphere, the mod and community support. It's just so fun and I always feel like there's more to do. Also dragons. Like, big, varied, and glorious dragons.

 

On the other side, Dark Souls never really captivated me. I didn't really pay attention to it in development as it wasn't a game I was immediately interested in. I'm also not a fan of games that are hard for the sake of being hard. I like a good challenge, just like anybody else. But we a game's selling point is "We've made this game so cripplingly difficult, you'll spend a long time hating us!", if move on to brighter horizons.

[Omega Centauri 316]

Dark Souls has much more fun gameplay mechanics in my opinion. It's really not that hard, just unforgiving. If you know what you're doing, keep a level head, and don't get cocky, you can beat the game easily. I love the way the integrate co op and pvp with the singleplayer game, the way they did factions, and the scenery is just gorgeous.

 

Skyrim got boring to me after a while, the game is so simplified from the previous elder scrolls games. There is no attribute system, most of the choices you make in the game don't really matter, there's way too many fetch quests, and the weapon design is awful.

 

I like how most of the weapons and armor are relatively on par with each other in dark souls, because they all have their own set of perks and disadvantages, some of them are faster than the others, some deal status effects like poison or blood loss. Instead of just advancing up a tier of better and better weapons like skyrim, any weapon and armor set can be used throughout the entire game. Hell, you can play through the entire game half-naked, because that makes you a lot more mobile, and you can carry much heavier weapons without sacrificing your mobility.

 

Speaking of equipment, most of the weapons and armor in DS look like something that would actually be useful. like the basic rapier

 

It's not excessively large or flashy, and would be useful in a combat situation, but then there's this thing. Also rapiers are awesome

The fuck is this? It's bad enough the rest of the swords look like paddles, but this is just stupid. Having a curved sword (...curved... sword.) is one thing, but this is all jagged. It looks like it's either been used A LOT, or it's just really poorly made. And where's the hilt? If you crossed blades with this thing, your hand would be chopped off.

 

Also the armor. Dark souls has its share of weird-looking armor sets, but most of them are realistic looking, this is one of the heavier armor sets in DS.

 

This is what really heavy armor should look like. It has plating in all the right places, one could move enough in this armor set to stay effective, and it has ample head protection.

 

Now let's look at the heaviest armor set in skyrim.

 

All those spikes, why? that would get hung on things all the time, actually putting it on would be a nightmare. moving your arm to the side would result in that gigantic spike clanging against your helmet. Speaking of the helmet, what's up with the eyes? Why are there two giant holes for someone to stick a blade or arrow through?

 

 

 

Ok, now that I'm done with my rant on the aesthetics of the games, I'll actually talk about the gameplay.

 

The biggest thing Dark Souls has over Skyrim is the combat system.

 

In Dark Souls, there are a lot of things you have to consider in combat. How heavily armed and armored both you and your opponent are, and how quick you both are. If an enemy is blocking, wait for him to attack, and either block or dodge his attack, and then attack when he recovers from a miss or from a stagger. If the enemy won't lower his shield, break his guard with a kick. You can parry an enemy's attack and riposte for massive damage, you can maneuver around them and stab them in the back for massive damage, there are a variety of spells items you can apply to both melee and ranged combat. If you are low on health, step back and chug an estus flask, if you don't step back far enough, your enemy will take advantage of the opening you've given them.

 

The bosses actually feel like bosses. They are all uniquely designed, they all have their own set of devastating attacks that you have to memorize and work your way around, they all have their own unique music, and beating them actually feels like an accomplishment.

 

 

In skyrim, most of the combat boils down to hitting the enemy as fast as you can so that they die before you do, and pausing and chugging a bunch of potions when you are low on health, and that gets old really fast. However, I will admit that being a stealth character in skyrim is hella fun.

 

The main advantages skyrim has over dark souls is its immense lore, variety of races, and the fact that you can completely ignore the main quest, and go do whatever the hell you want. Some of the factions aren't as interesting as they used to be, and some of them don't seem to matter. For example, there is very little difference between the stormcloak and imperial questlines, and when you kill the emperor for the dark brotherhood, there is almost no effect on the rest of the world except for a few dialog options.

 

The emperor is not involved in any other quests, killing him doesn't lock you out from anything. Hell, you can kill the emperor and immediately join his army with no problem. Most of the people you assassinate for the dark brotherhood are useless, and getting rid of them has no real effect on the game.

 

There are really fun factions, however. The thieves guild questline is the fucking best, and despite my complaints, I really enjoyed the dark brotherhood questline.

 

 

I think I'm done. There's alot more that I could talk about but I've already typed WAAAAAY more than I planned to. I am open to discussion with anyone who has the patience to read this long-ass post.

[Poetic Stone 1,040]

Going to have to go with Skyrim for the win. I love them both, but Skyrim rules more.

[Child Of Darkness 285]

Now then, my two coins on the subject of Dark Souls vs Skyrim is a bit of a tough one. The two games are both RPG's, yes. But they are in two different styles of RPG. While Skyrim is a more western style RPG, which mainly focuses on fantasy elements and providing tons of content for the players while not really focusing on things like combat or actual difficulty, and wants to build a world where anyone can get invested in.

 

Dark Souls is much more eastern style mixed with the game play formula which was brought to mainstream media by FromSoftware in The King's field games and Demon's Souls. Which focuses more on the combat, actual difficulty and play style, while having characters, the world and story not at the primary focus, but still their to enjoy for people willing to dig for it. Dark Souls makes you work for answers and struggle to get them, and because most of the lore of the game is just pure speculation and theories, it opens up a much larger window of interpretation to the story than being told all the details directly until their is minimal room for interpretation of lore. I may be a bit bias as a person who loves to crawl through item descriptions and read everything their is in the game to learn as much as I can. And after playing 1000+ hours of Skyrim and Dark Souls each, their is not much that is not known to me as a player. Skyrim's world is very established, as being the 5th game in a series, the world it has I much more developed and solid than Dark Souls, which only has one game to explain the lore of that worldly cycle due to the curse of the undead and the repeating cycles cause the undead/ Hollows to be caught in a never ending cycle of death, revive and death. At this point in writing I forgot what my original point was, so I'm just saying things about the games.

 

All in all, each game stands tall on their own merits and within their genera type of RPG, are among the best of their kind. But if we just look at them as an RPG, and don't take into consideration the sub-genera they fall into, we could end up comparing games like Pillars of eternity with World of Warcraft, The Witcher, Final Fantasy and even Mass effect. And that's just ridiculous as they are completely different games, even beyond the point if comparison.

 

Skyrim or Dark souls? Personally, I'm all for Dark Souls, but it's more of a preference of your type of sub RPG genera, which is all opinion based.

[Adorkable 2,737]

Skyrim, by all that is obvious. I haven't played much Dark Souls though, but I don't need to because I have Skyrim, haha.