5
Dark Souls trilogy are all brilliant games, and are finally on a steam sale for the first time in a year and a half
(i.imgur.com)
All three games are on sale on steam for the first time since January 2022 (to the best of my knowledge). If you’ve never given them a shot, now is the best time to do so as they don’t go on sale very often at all
Story in all these games is convoluted (and awesome) to the point that it doesn't really matter which one you start with.
Ds1 is worth it and id recommend starting there if you can. Snappy controls, and the experience you gain playing it will transfer over to later games just fine.
DS2 is a bit of a mixed bag. It diverged from ds1 in some game mechanics and if you play DS1 or 3 and then go to 2, you might find the combat frustrating. However I've beaten all dark souls games and after you get used to it, 2 is actually very good. Many people claim it was better then 3, but it's not clear if they're serious or "DS2 good" is a meme at this point. I liked it, but it's hard to go back to after getting used to the flow of combat in 1 or 3. However again, some people truly love it.
Ds 3 is great. Also a good place to start if you want. It's as close to a sequel to ds1 as you can get, but even if you didn't play ds1, it's still worth playing. The combat got a lot more refined from 1 to 3 and it feels a lot more responsive than 2.