For me, I followed the series, for the most part, of the developer. Mind you of remastered or upgraded versions. Dark Souls 1 Remasterd, Dark Souls II: SotS, Bloodborne, Dark Souls III, Demons Souls, and now playing Sekiro. I did not bring my PS5 out to Japan and subsequent places I will be as it is a wee bit large. Hence, I have not played Elden Ring though I plan to get once I return along with Strangers of Paradise and Triangle Strategy for the Switch - neither here or ther.

I find Dark Souls I, Bloodborne, and Demons Souls to be very tight well done games, highlighting their stories. I like that in Dark Souls II they branched out, giving it, its own character or style. However, I did find the revisiting of areas and lore in DSIII from primarily DS1 a bit unoriginal and bland. Mind you, I don't think it out of the ordinary that the character in DSIII would not know or be aware of events transpiring in DSI. We, as humans, can look back at history before A.D. or C.E. and know quite a bit. I may find it a tad different in the Dark Souls universe as it seems there are cataclysmic or civilization ending moments that "reset" history but, following the norms of actual history not outlandish.

To be honest I wish their new game plus didn't add a difficulty but allowed the player to really enjoy the game. Perhaps a new game plus-plus, as there are some changes they do in new game plus to switch things up. It does seem like a series that I would like to play over, much like Final Fantasy. I don't know if I am slowly creeping away from FF to Soulsborne. I still enjoy the FF series. Though I did want to start a new FFXII file while out here overseas and instead did the DLC of Dark Souls III and start Sekiro.

I would like that by the time I return to the states I will have beaten Sekiro to start an Elden Ring file.