10 Disappointing Sequels To Iconic Video Games

For many, the games that best capture the essence of the Dark Souls-inspired genre aren't actually in the same franchise. Titles like Sekiro, Demon's Souls and Bloodborne have advanced the tried-and-tested formula in ways that make them more accessible to newcomers while losing none of the extreme difficulty.

However, most seasoned souls players have a love for the first Dark Souls, released in 2011. Their love is justified, with gorgeous visuals and punishingly precise gameplay standing out as some of the medium's best, so with the weight of the world on their shoulders, developer FromSoftware took a crack at a sequel, which wielded some mixed reactions.

Dark Souls is a fair, if slightly unwelcoming game. The sequel is decidedly less balanced. Dark Souls 2 was an unfair, unforgiving and, as a result, unfun entry in the pioneering series. The complaint isn't exclusively around its difficulty, but the nature of its delivery. It's tedious and the slow, yet impossibly hard gameplay felt like a chore to slog through.

There is a silver lining, however. The lessons FromSoftware learned from Dark Souls 2 were harsh, and subsequent offerings from the developer surely wouldn't have hit the heights they did without severe growing pains.