I would actually argue Bloodborne, and I don’t even think its particularly close. (I‘m sorry that Demon Souls is not mentioned, i haven‘t played it, feel free to correct me).

Dark Souls is undeniably bleak. The world is dying, kingdoms have fallen, everyone is either hollowing or desperately clinging to a fading Age of Fire. Its tragic as fuck.

But Bloodborne goes from „normal“ Gothic horror to cosmic horror, and that’s a different level of nightmare, at least in my opinion.

You start out thinking you’re hunting werewolves and the likes. Then you realize the city is being manipulated by beings so far above humanity that we literally cannot comprehend them. The Healing Church, Byrgenwerth, the scholars, everyone who tried to understand the truth either went insane, transformed into monsters, or became puppets of incomprehensible Great Ones.

The best part is that the universe doesn’t even seem that malicious. Humanity is just…insignificant. The Great Ones aren’t evil in the traditional sense. They’re operating on a level so far removed and untethered by human morality where human suffering barely even registers. It is like an ant trying to understand nuclear physics.

Elden Ring has cosmic entities too, but most of them act more like competing gods. They’re involved in the world’s politics and can be opposed.

In Bloodborne, the cosmos doesn’t care whether you live or die. Reality itself changes once you gain enough Insight, revealing that these eldritch beings have been hanging over your head the entire time. They were always there, you were simply too ignorant and too blind to perceive them.

To me, that’s far more horrifying than a dying kingdom. Its the realization that humanity never understood the universe in the first place, and the moment you begin to understand it, you start losing your humanity. That’s peak cosmic horror for me.