How would you guys rate the difficulty level in such games?
DS>DS2>Bloodborne>DS3>Nioh>Lords of Fallen?
DS is known for not handholding the players. You are just thrown into the world, no instructions, not tutorial, nothing telling you what to do next or where to go, nothing telling you about the story even, you have to explore and find out yourself. Nioh does a better job at that right? It introduces new mechanics slowly, the first half dozen hours is basically a long tutorial? Is it actually accessible to new comers (say someone more used to action games like God of War or Devil May Cry)? (I keep hearing Nioh is more Onimusha + Ninja Gaiden than DS, it's very different game.)
Now that i've finished the game, i can safely say, at least in terms of difficulty, bloodborne > nioh > lords of the fallen. Nioh is actually very accessible.
1. u get OHKO rather easily in BB, no matter your level. Whether its the boss's ridiculous laser attacks or simply a stage trap like a boulder running down the slope or those spike traps or those sludges camping at the ceiling waiting to ambush u. In nioh, there are several methods to trivalise boss fights, sloth and lifeseal talismans especially. Traps are also not as deadly. Not to mention there are item attributes like "sense enemies", "treasure sense", "kodama sense" (this is for collectibles and other bonuses), "amrita sense", equip all those and u'll rarely get surprised by anything.
2. Bosses in BB have multiple phases, meaning they change or expend their movesets once u bring them down to a certain hp %. Normally there are at least 2 phases, and its natural to find the bosses getting exponentially more difficult the lower their hp. In nioh, most bosses employ pretty much 80-90% of their movesets from the start, once u figure them out, u'll beat them shortly. And of course based on the above point, there are easier ways to deal with bosses. BB? No way, u have to fight them just like that.
3. in BB there's only 1 currency, that currency is used for everything, buying items, level up, upgrade weapons, etc. So its more precious. In nioh, there's gold (which u use to buy stuff from the blacksmith as well as other functions) and amrita (level up only). When u die u only lose amrita, ur gold is always intact. So dying isn't as big a penalty.
4. Nioh has living weapon, which basically means god mode with a meter. No such thing in BB.