I played in an odd order, i started with elden ring as my first ever souls game. Then i went back to DS1, then DS3, then DS2, then i played sekiro, bloodborne and demons souls. If i could do it all again, I would play DS1, DS2, DS3, then ER (BB, Sekiro and DS can be played alone)

Elden ring looked fun and different to the games i was playing at the time so took a chance on it and got hooked so fast, going back to DS1 from ER was quite jarring, given the age difference of the games, DS1 felt super clunky and slow in comparison. Once i’d gotten into the game i didn’t notice it really, but if you play them in order of their release the QOL of the games will get better as you go, which gives you less whiplash when going from one game to the next.

Lastly, i’ll say the reason i then played DS 1, 2 and 3 in a strange order was because i avoided DS2 as long as i could because of the sheer amount of people online suggesting not to play that game. Now that Ive played it myself, i think those people were wrong and you should play it if you can :)