No, they have a learning curve but that’s about it. They are not unfair or over difficult like some of those meme games that were popular a while ago

the thing about souls games is that people on the internet insist that the only REAL way to play them is through extra difficult self-imposed challenge runs (summons? resin? pyromancy? you didn’t beat the game)

ignore that and you can temper the difficulty down a lot, though you’ll likely still need a good amount of patience and perseverance, especially if it’s your first time playing

Souls games are for masochists. If that’s not your thing, steer clear.

Souls games require repetition to remember the bosses’ moves and a lot of patience. Give it a try, maybe you will like the challenge it offers.

The game is learning.

There’s some reaction element, but the core loop is learning how to be optimally positioned to use your weapon, how to optimally pace your attacks, when your attacks leave you vulnerable. Then once you get that, you do the same with enemies. You learn where they hit hardest, what you can avoid, what their tells are, and when they’re vulnerable.

If you’re willing to learn and approach the game with learning as a goal, and understanding that you’ll die as part of that learning process, they’re great, because they do a really good job of creating difficulty in a way that almost all damage is predictable and avoidable if you know what you’re looking at and approach it the right way.

If you just want to button mash you’re going to have a bad time.

They’re mostly janky. It’s a lot of fighting the most boring combat on braindead NPCs to get to a boss.

In the sense of “do they require lightning fast reflexes or mastering a deep combat system”, no not at all. They mostly require paying attention and learning.

If I may, I’d recommend starting with the Demon’s Souls remake if you’re interested. Bloodborne was the first Souls game I ever played, and it was quite punishing. I got quite far and greatly enjoyed parts of it, but it was my experience that it was extraordinarily challenging for a newcomer. Among all the Souls and Soulslike games, BloodBorne is intended to be played aggressively, which is not a good starting point in my opinion.

It was actually Returnal that taught me how to approach challenging games, i.e., almost like a puzzle game in how you try new things to break through impasses. That being said, I also found the Demon’s Souls remake to be a much more forgiving entry point, especially if you play as a magic caster. MP is limited so you still need to engage in melee, but magic is a powerful tool to play things safe if you play smartly.

It’s also just a fantastic game with great level design. I actually kind of like the segmented levels with a central hub.

The souls games, and Bloodborne in particular, can be hard and frustrating.

But with the right mindset everyone can beat them.
You don’t need perfect reflexes, you don’t need to learn super complex combos.

You do need to realize that (at least in the beginning) you are not super strong compared to the enemies you encounter.

If you start the game for the first time and run into a big group of enemies, you WILL die.
Then you learn to not do that and try to aggro one enemy at a time.

This goes for many more situations.
At first you won’t know how to approach some of them and you will die. And sometimes you will die twice and lose your hard earned resources.

This can be frustrating. And sometimes the camera was a bit buggy or your dodge didn’t work the way you thought it would.
But most of the time you could have done something different to avoid death.

And FromSoftware is quite good in giving hints what that is.
If you die in similar situations, there is usually a way to approach them differently.
That also goes for bosses.

And then there is the big open secret, you can simply level a bit more than absolutely necessarily to make souls games significantly easier.

If you only need to hit the boss 20 times instead of 30 and you survive his 3 hit combo and can heal back up instead of dropping dead after 2 hits it becomes way more manageable.

This is not necessary, people beat those games with base level running around naked with giant clubs, but not in their first run.
Use items, upgrade your weapon, level up your character, and the game will not be so grim.

But be prepared to not be able to rush through all the content without being challenged or using your brain.

Oh and if you choose to play Bloodborne (my first souls like and still one of my favorite games of all times) just enjoy yourself.
Every weapon is 100% viable.
For the first run the Saw Cleaver (R1-L1-L1) and the Axe (long R2 in two-handed mode) are slightly easier than the pimp cane, but again, every weapon is viable.

Just have fun with it, the games are classics for a reason.

No

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I would say that a lot of these unforgiving action RPGs are complete-able and enjoyable by most everyone, but I should give a caution that if you’re disabled in the hands, things will be substantially less forgiving.

I’ve got hemiplegic cerebral palsy from a pair of strokes, and as a result, the right side of my body, specifically my fine motor control of the right side of my body, is utter garbage. I can’t get through Bloodborne or most Souls games. The exception was Elden Ring, because it made ranged combat viable in such a way that any need for twitchy gameplay was substantially reduced.

Bloodborne is among the most difficult in the genre, and if you’re looking to broach this sort of game, I’d recommend Elden Ring first. It’s got the same learning aspects, but it allows for more creativity and thought in the moment.

They can be hard. I’ve tried Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Sekiro. I got the furthest in Sekiro and kind of got the draw because, man, the high when you finished a boss. But the struggle, from my understanding, is part of the gameplay itself, part of the experience. It was too unforgiving for me. While I was happy finishing a boss, I didn’t go into the next one excited for the challenge, I was dreading the upcoming hours of banging my head against the wall, so I just decided it wasn’t for me. That part of the game play just wasn’t appealing to me, doesn’t mean it’s bad of course.

I say give it a try! They always have Bloodborne on sale, nothing wrong with trying and deciding it’s not for you, and it’ll be awesome of it is!

I feel like, if you’re going to play a souls game for the first time you should play Elden Ring, because it’s the kind of game that’s only as hard as you want it to be. Elden Ring is in this interesting spot of being open world, meaning that if a particular boss or area is too challenging, you can fuck off and do something else for a bit, then come back when you’re better leveled/better geared/more practiced etc. I feel like you don’t really get this with other souls games, which are more linear in their structure.

that said, I don’t think any souls game is really an insurmountable challenge, especially Bloodborne. sure, you might suck when you first start it, but once you get the hang of the combat, dodging, etc you should be fine.

They have a skill floor that you need to overcome, usually early on. Once you do that, the formula for the rest of the game follows suit.
Bloodborne is my favorite souls game. If you find it too challenging, I’d recommend watching some let’s plays which can have great advise. I don’t typically watch his channel, but Jacksepticeye has a really informative playthrough. He’s beaten the game so many times that he mostly just shows you the cheesy speed run methods for boss fights, however.

Tbh, no. I suck at like 90% of games, just genuinely not good at them. I excel in soulslikes, you really won’t know how difficult it is for you until you try it. I think the games are built in a way where, should you use all the games mechanics, they are relatively easy but if you don’t use all the mechanics they can get hard