Elden Ring sold 25 million copies in its first year — a mainstream breakthrough that would have seemed impossible for a notoriously difficult franchise just a decade earlier. The Soulsborne genre, pioneered by FromSoftware's director Hidetaka Miyazaki, turned 'hard' into a selling point. From the nearly-cancelled Demon's Souls (2009) to the open-world grandeur of Elden Ring (2022), every game in the series has asked players to learn through failure, pay attention to the environment, and find satisfaction where other games hand it to you. This 50-question quiz covers every major title, the design philosophy behind them, the lore, and the community that grew up around the pain.
Each round presents 10 randomized multiple-choice questions drawn from a pool of 50, so every playthrough is different. You get instant feedback with explanations after each answer, plus a shareable score at the end.
Questions span the entire FromSoftware catalogue: the troubled origins of Demon's Souls, the interconnected world design of Dark Souls, Bloodborne's Gothic horror pivot, Sekiro's parry-focused samurai action, and Elden Ring's George R.R. Martin-assisted mythology. You'll also face questions on design philosophy (bonfires, environmental storytelling, the 'no easy mode' debate), lore deep-dives (Gwyn, the Elden Ring Shattering, the Great Ones), community culture ('git gud', VaatiVidya, Let Me Solo Her), and the fun facts that make this franchise unlike any other.
The community generally considers Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Elden Ring) to be the hardest boss in the entire Soulsborne catalogue. Her infamous Waterfowl Dance combo — a rapid flurry of slashes that launches her airborne — killed millions of players and spawned the legendary player 'Let Me Solo Her', who helped strangers defeat her wearing nothing but a jar on their head. Fromsoft themselves sent this player a real commemorative sword as thanks. Honorable mentions go to Orphan of Kos (Bloodborne) and the Nameless King (Dark Souls 3).
Miyazaki has consistently said no — and his reasoning is philosophical rather than gatekeeping. He argues that the struggle, the failure, and the eventual triumph are inseparable from what the games are trying to communicate emotionally. Without difficulty, the sense of accomplishment dissolves and the storytelling through challenge is lost. He has compared it to a novel that loses meaning if you skip to the ending. That said, FromSoftware has added accessibility features over time — summoning cooperative players, spirit summons in Elden Ring — that provide difficulty scaling without a formal easy mode.
George R.R. Martin (author of A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones) created the foundational mythology of Elden Ring's world — the Lands Between, the Elden Ring itself, the Erdtree, the demigod characters, and the backstory of the Shattering. He wrote the deep lore history that happened before the game begins. Hidetaka Miyazaki then designed the actual game, the quests, the gameplay, and the present-day storyline on top of that foundation. Martin said the collaboration was fascinating because Miyazaki works so differently from western game studios.
Last updated: March 2026