even DS2 or Bloodbourne way harder
all the games become easier once you play one of them
once you understand the roll frames, the levels and concept they are interchangeable
Elden ring there is no real barrier, you have unlimited directions to go to level and farm
and you can make progress each place at your own pace
the other games are like "if you want to go further with the game.... get better immediately to go down this only path"
you are constantly going down a hallway towards the unknown and tougher enemies to make progress
with elden ring you can circle limgrave, go through caelid, go south of limgrave... mess around at the castle... you could stay in Liurnia forever etc
limgrave alone you can just circle and level up forever... not saying this is bad at all... its actually epic and breathtaking to have the freedom to do it
but older ones you farm behind your progress and you dont wanna do that... you get bored and are forced to push forward constantly. Thats why people would say these games are super punishing. Just when you thought you were on a roll, nope. You go too far and get humbled real quick before the next checkpoint. There was way less checkpoints too like the veteran players were saying at launch. You might get like 3 checkpoints at the castle, one in front... one near the middle and one at the boss. You might not even get one at the boss, it would probably be after you beat the boss, so you'd be forced to run from middle of castle to the boss without dying each time. But thats the beauty of open world... you can create more of an adventure and free flowing game for the player, it makes the zones more re-visitable and fun. Secrets and boss doors everywhere that you can double back to. I dont think one is better or worse, but the older more linear games were a nightmare fest. You had to really choose between pushing forward into the unknown or doubling back and wasting so much time farming the zones you already beat which felt boring as fukk.
In Dark souls 2 .. if you went the wrong way at the start... you could lose like 10 hours not understanding what the fukk was going on
you make a right instead of left and you're fukked... like 20 knights in a row on small platforms that 1 or 2 shot you and hardly any heals