I've been looking for a new game to play and I was thinking of trying my hand at Dark Souls but I was wondering if the story stretches over the games or if I can play them in whatever order. Since you're the leading authority on this can you please help out?
The first and third game have an intertwined story, so honestly if you haven’t played the first game it’s not like you won’t really be able to follow the story of the third, but you’ll miss A LOT of details.
Plus the story/lore of Dark Souls is pretty dense to begin with, so it’s kind of handy to have all the reference points you can get.
The second game has a couple of references to the first game, but not all that much and mostly stands on its own.
Personally I’d advise to start with the first Dark Souls anyway, since it’s the best in the series, and it’s also the cheapest ($20 on steam with all the dlc, and during steam sales that usually goes down to $4,99).