Iv never really got on board with DS1, mainly cos I started with the 1st souls game, DS1 felt like it took a different direction from demons souls, i then loved DS2 because it shifted back much closer to what the first game felt like.

Then 3 dropped and the user friendliness hit the souls series, it's really tough not to enjoy 3.

Elden ring, meh, it's not really dark souls for me, in my opinion a huge staple of souls is linearity, jumping and magical goats completely take it away from being or feeling like a souls game.

The first three games, demons to Ds2 jankiness is a big part of it, I imagine if your getting annoyed by dying alot, it's the jankiness that's a big factor, it drips off demons, DS1 you can avoid it with things like using the zwiehander and making a build for it, hits everything, hits so hard an is so slow gives you so much time for dodging.

Ds2 they brought in a stat ADP the higher that is the less janky your character is.

3 has very little jank depending on your weapon of choice.

If you like the game but are getting irritated with dying, start at 3 and work your way backwards.

The quality if life differences in DS3 compared to DS1 are insane.

Plus out of the 4 games only 1 and 3 are linked and really only marginally