Every Soulsborne Co-op Experience, Ranked

As a longtime aficionado of the Soulsborne series, I must say that my favorite cooperative experience among these games is undoubtedly Dark Souls 2. While some purists might scoff at this choice, considering the game’s notoriety for its flaws, I wholeheartedly believe that FromSoftware masterfully leveraged multiplayer to make the game more accessible and enjoyable for a broader audience.


The Soulsborne series has earned its place as a standard feature in contemporary video gaming due to factors such as their challenging gameplay, compelling stories, formidable bosses, immersive settings, captivating soundtracks, and intricate level designs.

Furthermore, FromSoftware’s games are widely appreciated for their distinctive multiplayer features, enabling players to infiltrate others’ game worlds as a foe or, most notably, as a helpful companion.

Consequently, collaboration in games such as Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring has significantly contributed to their success. However, not all entries have executed it equally well, with aspects like user-friendliness, enjoyment, and significance being the primary determinants of our ranked list of every cooperative experience within the Soulsborne series.

6 Bloodborne

The Eternal Waiting Room

Bloodborne, a standout title among FromSoftware’s collection, is widely praised for its rich narrative, immersive world design, and engaging game mechanics. However, it should be noted that its multiplayer aspect is not typically lauded in the same manner.

Due to bafflingly long delays, the main challenge when it came to playing the game’s cooperative mode was finding someone to actually join in. Despite Bloodborne’s online functionality being more polished than its predecessors, it often took hours before you could team up with a friend or any other player.

Furthermore, altering the traditional summons signals into bell sounds made it more challenging and less instinctive for players to recognize each other’s presence, which underscored its limited accessibility and encouraged a solitary gaming experience in Bloodborne.

5 Demon’s Souls

Flawed, But Promising

In 2009, Demon’s Souls established a design philosophy that became a hallmark for FromSoftware in subsequent releases. The game introduced an inventive online system which gave rise to numerous memorable multiplayer experiences.

In spite of its other qualities, the game’s general performance was clumsy and unclear, leaving plenty of room for enhancement.

The multiplayer aspect faced numerous challenges, including requiring death to be called upon, dealing with balance issues, and the fact that it was more likely to be invited by a familiar friend rather than a random player due to the game’s lack of explicit online matching system.

Of course, other installments later capitalized on the fundamentals Demon’s Souls formed, and even its remake of 2020 had a more polished approach, but the flawed basics still tainted the otherwise great experience.

4 Dark Souls

A Huge Step Forward

Dark Souls significantly enhanced and improved upon the framework of its precursor across multiple dimensions. This upgrade is evident in aspects such as its intuitive tutorial, refined mechanics, and even its cooperative play features. The game represented a significant leap forward in terms of design and gameplay.

As a gamer, diving into this world with the addition of Covenants has been nothing short of extraordinary. The multiplayer aspect took on a new level of complexity, enriching both storyline and mechanics in ways I’ve never experienced before. These intriguing alliances have fostered interactions that feel authentic and unforgettable, contributing significantly to the game’s popularity and keeping me hooked.

Furthermore, it set up a unique password-protected system for summoning only certain entities, and offered exclusive rewards for playing online. This created an extraordinary setup, despite its imperfections, which continues to be highly respected.

3 Elden Ring

Experienced Refinement

In terms of multiplayer systems among the listed games, Elden Ring stands out as the one that has been meticulously crafted due to FromSoftware’s extensive 10-year background in online gaming. This results in a seamless and enjoyable cooperative play experience.

Absolutely, it doesn’t make it perfect, but with its limitations like being confined to specific zones, supporting a maximum of four players, and disallowing horse riding, it certainly has its drawbacks. However, it remains the polished cooperative adventure that every Souls fan has yearned for since Demon’s Souls.

Not only is it designed with multiplayer aspects incorporated into its difficulty levels and adversary layouts, but cooperative play has become a particularly fitting choice due to the challenging nature of the boss battles.

2 Dark Souls 3

Ending The Trilogy in Style

Dark Souls 3 represents the pinnacle of the series’ pursuit of unparalleled perfection, and even multiplayer gameplay couldn’t elude FromSoftware’s commitment to crafting an extraordinary Souls game.

Through repeated play sessions, insights gained from playing Bloodborne, and the game’s exceptional overall quality, it’s challenging to find fault with its multiplayer component. In fact, it shines brilliantly across all measurable aspects.

If you think about Covenants, connectivity, accessibility, and the overall fun factor, you will conclude that Dark Souls 3 is the best co-op experience of Soulsborne games. Unless you are a true, cultured Souls fan like me.

1 Dark Souls 2

Co-op Slave, Co-op King

Instead of most games on the list, Dark Souls 2 gained favor among a vast number of players primarily due to its multiplayer aspect. Without this feature, many players might not have found the gameplay enjoyable.

The creators at FromSoftware intentionally crafted the busy zones, the numerous multi-lead bosses, and even particular expansions for the DLC with a strong emphasis on collaborative play in mind. In essence, they aimed to make the game more enjoyable when played together—perhaps a bit excessively so, but nonetheless.

In essence, the significance of cooperative play in Dark Souls 2 grew tremendously. With servers that rarely faltered, near-flawless connectivity, and a community that embraced online gameplay as a primary draw despite the game’s shortcomings, Dark Souls 2 came to rely heavily on its multiplayer aspect, yet it masterfully controlled this domain overall.

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2024-10-21 16:10