Dark Souls was something of a surprise hit for its small (at the time) developer FromSoftware. The series received so much success both critically and financially that it has spawned two different spin-off series, with more probably to come on the horizon.
Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are the two games that have spun off from Dark Souls and each is loved by fans. But which one is the better of the two that takes the original formula made by FromSoftware, and makes it their own?
10 Bloodborne: Upped The Action
Bloodborne built and marketed itself around being a much more action-based game with its combat in comparison to Dark Souls. The controls were much more fluid than its predecessors and in the lead up to the release of the game, the developers mentioned how they took much inspiration from the Devil May Cry series in how the game plays. The active parry with firearms gives players much more control and the freedom of movement was also improved.
9 Sekiro: Changed The Core Mechanics
Sekiro needed to changes to the core gameplay of the other SoulsBorne games that came before it in order to stand out and make its mark on the genre. This was done in a very interesting way, instead of the standard damage an opponent until they die and disappear into dust gameplay that we are used to, Sekiro opts for a different way, needed to use finishers on stunned enemies to take them out for good. This leads into another mechanic that we will get into.
8 Bloodborne: Mystery
The world of Bloodborne is very reminiscent of other SoulsBorne games made by FromSoftware in terms of the story, mainly that it is made purposely pretty obscure so that you really need to look into it to find the story. While the game's story is put a bit more forward than in Dark Souls, it is still fairly mysterious, with a lot of events and happenings going on being not well explained if at all. The eldritch themes that the game has probably add to this.
7 Sekiro: Added Stealth
The addition of stealth into Sekiro was a must not only for being able to take full advantage of the games other mechanics but also for the gimmick of the game overall. It wouldn't make much sense for a game about a ninja set in feudal Japan to not have some kind of stealth element.
Either way, the addition of stealth gives players more options when entering combat, allowing them to quickly take down the most powerful enemy in an area before starting a fight.
6 Bloodborne: Weapon Diversity
Like we mentioned earlier, Bloodborne really took the action gameplay from Dark Souls and turned it up a few notches. One way they did this was by having a massive amount of different types of weapons for you to murder beasts with. First off you have the standard light heavy and medium weapons that all deal different amounts of damage and have different speeds. Each weapon also has different modes and that's without mentioning the different firearms and ranged weapons you can choose from.
5 Sekiro: Drastically Different Story
The story in Dark Souls and Bloodborne can be pretty mysterious, forcing you to really look at every item and analyze each different interaction or piece of information that characters give you. When you do eventually find out about the story in those games, you find that it is very dark and even somewhat hopeless, with many cosmic horror elements. This isn't what we get from Sekiro, where the game has a story that is straightforward and not as dark, which would be a welcome change from some gamers.
4 Bloodborne: Similar Tone
Like we just mentioned the stories in Bloodborne and Dark Souls are pretty dark and have a lot of mystery. This is a tone that has become something of a standard for these games and some players were somewhat disappointed that Sekiro did not continue the trend.
The world of Bloodborne is already dark and gloomy when you enter it and it only gets more so the more you play the game, gaining the insight to see the true world and horrors around you.
3 Sekiro: In Your Face Bosses
The bosses in a lot of the Dark Souls games and even a lot of them in Bloodborne are your fairly standard video game Fantasy RPG bosses, big monsters, sometimes dragons, that you have to roll around and hit when they give you openings. The thing is in Sekiro, while there still is a fair amount of that, you are more or less facing off against other samurai for the most part. This allows for a more interesting style for a boss fight that we don't get to see often.
2 Bloodborne: Possibly Connected To Demon Souls
There is a fairly popular fan theory among people who have played both Bloodborne and Demon's Souls, that theory being that the two games are connected more so than just being in the same genre and made by the same developer. The fans who believe in this theory state that the games take place in the same universe and that Bloodborne is more than just a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, being that it is a sequel that takes place years after that game.
1 Sekiro: Front And Center Story
The problem that a lot of players have when it comes to the games made in the SoulsBorne series is usually not in the gameplay itself, but more so in the fact that the games themselves can be fairly confusing with a lack of a front-facing story to give direction. While the story in Sekiro is your classic ninja revenge story, failed to protect someone and now you must right the wrong, it is still something that is much easier to grasp than most of what we usually get from these games.