Your first fromsoftware game will always be the hardest to you
These discussions about which game is hardest always boil down to what game people played first. most people here started with Elden ring so for them, they remember all the times they died in the beginning trying to figure out how fromsoftware games work. But for someone like me who started with ds1 it was a complete cakewalk cause there was always other ways to go and I was never locked down into one boss.
At the same time the people who started with Elden ring are so used to spammy jittery fast paced action that ds1 was incredibly easy for them, especially cause they’re already past the learning phase. While for me i remember dying to skeletons for literal hours all those years ago.
If you want to have a discussion about which one is hardest you have to put your personal bias and experience aside and look at it factually and objectively. And even then, all of the games have their own challenges.