Gaming Confession: I've never played a FromSoft/Souls-like game

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

With how popular the souls-like subgenre has gotten I feel a little left out in some discussions never having played any. I like character action games, but when it comes down to choosing one the ol'hack and slashes just look so much more appealing to me. When I hear souls-like all I think is "we made it slow and clunky, on purpose".
That said, I've never really given any of them a fair chance, that's just my impression based on watching gameplay. What’s a good Souls-like that could change my mind and really sell me on the formula?

 

[Elwiwi]

With how popular the souls-like subgenre has gotten I feel a little left out in some discussions never having played any. I like character action games, but when it comes down to choosing one the ol'hack and slashes just look so much more appealing to me. When I hear souls-like all I think is "we made it slow and clunky, on purpose".
That said, I've never really given any of them a fair chance, that's just my impression based on watching gameplay. What’s a good Souls-like that could change my mind and really sell me on the formula?

Don't worry, you don't have to play them most of them are pretty meh

 

[Poppet]

I only have one complaint about souls games, one that actually made me not play them: Not having a pause menu. Yes, I want to pause my stupid game whenever I have to attend something at home mid-game, not have to find a stupid "safe" corner and pray I don't get attacked while I'm away.

I will snatch the thread and ask for games on the genre that have a pause menu, if you don't mind, lol

 

[Potapota]

I think one of the main reasons why elden ring blew up so much is that it is really accessible and has very little of that "run 500 miles through a gauntlet of undead knights and dragons to the boss for the nth time" type of bullshit. Honestly a decent entry point to the series and has a buttload of content in it.

Not sure if I would call them clunky, but I do agree that they are slower than a typical character action game. I just fail to see why exactly that's a bad thing to be honest. They're just different types of video games. You don't have to like them both.

 

[Rasetz BK201]

Well I think if you played any game with a high difficulty where you had to go through the same thing many times just to advance ten percent of the game in total until the end It would be the same as a souls-like

 

[RustySK]

I feel like with Soulslikes there's really only one rule of thumb and that is that FromSoft's games are still the best of them, even with the many imitators that have popped up over the years.
These are genuinely some of my favourite games ever made, even in spite of how obnoxious their fandom and the way people talk about them have become.

Since you mention not liking the idea of playing something slow and clunky, you'd probably prefer the newer titles over the older ones and while I have to assume that going backwards through the series would be pretty awful, that'd still make either Sekiro or Elden Ring your best bet.

Sekiro is shorter, plays faster and is generally an all-killer-no-filler kind of experience, but while its world design and feel are definitely that of a soulslike, it's combat is actually really unique and generally considered very difficult to learn, so that might be a problem if you want to get an idea of soulslikes as a genre. That game is kind of its own thing.

Elden Ring meanwhile is just... I mean that game is ridiculous.
Prepare for at least like a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty hours of playtime if you want to see everything there is to see - and that's without the DLC. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up to you.
(I think it's kind of a bad thing, personally)
I have my problems with that game, but there's a reason it's such a massive success and so many people got into the series through that game. It's a luscious masterpiece of an experience.

In general I'd also advise you to ignore the Souls community, as that scene has become... well, I find them pretty insufferable overall at this point.
Also also, just speaking for myself here, but I have the most fun with these games when I go into them without spoilers and when I try to get lost in the experience, so I tend to view them less as action games and more as RPGs in that sense.

Whatever you choose to go with, I hope you have a great time!

(I really need to stop rambling like this when I have a headache, I hope that was at least somewhat comprehensible.)

 

[No_SuRReNDeR]

When Demon's Souls came out for Ps3 I HAD no IDEA I was playing online... Until I got a weird message on screen. I was like what? Someone invaded my realm huh? And then they found me and proceeded to OBLITERATE me and I remember the sweat the panic the me screaming NOOOOOO you Bastard!!!! A moment that was tragic sure but it was a top 10 gaming moment in my long history as a gamer... I legit felt a RUSH when this happened. The second wait its online moment for me was Journey... when IT hit me that *** spoilers *** Similar situation I will say that. Demon's Souls was groundbreaking in ways that we take for granted and although i agree DarK Souls was better it all started for me with this holy crud moment.

 

[Jangiku]

They can be fun but to me, can never give the same sorta satisfaction as a good character action game. I like the idea of learning boss attack patterns but on repeat playthroughs I do not get much out of them. I have much more fun labbing combos for higher difficulties in the character action genre.

 

[John Cruelty]

Dont make the same mistake i made starting with DS2, its terrible

 

[SpcDaicon]

Never played any souls-like and I think I'm not missing much.

But I do have to get it out of my chest: I started disliking souls-like because how people are really obnoxious about it even though I never played one.

Suddenly, everybody started to use Dark Souls as a synonym for hard games. "The Dark Souls of X games", "the Dark Souls of Y games", etc...

It's tiring...

Also, I don't really like how some "fans" now expect nothing from Miyazaki/FromSoft but souls-like. What broke me was seeing people pissed at FromSoft when they announced the new Armored Core and not another bonfire simulator.

 

[RustySK]

But I do have to get it out of my chest: I started disliking souls-like because how people are really obnoxious about it even though I never played one.

Suddenly, everybody started to use Dark Souls as a synonym for hard games. "The Dark Souls of X games", "the Dark Souls of Y games", etc...

Also, I don't really like how some "fans" now expect nothing from Miyazaki/FromSoft but souls-like. What broke me was seeing people pissed at FromSoft when they announced the new Armored Core and not another bonfire simulator.

I utterly adore these games, but I'm absolutely with you on that.

 

[petran79]

Irony how people wanted Dark Souls on PC that was already filled with 3d action rpgs.
It seems they were PlayStation players who moved for the first time on PC

 

[Dyne]

Never played any souls-like and I think I'm not missing much.

But I do have to get it out of my chest: I started disliking souls-like because how people are really obnoxious about it even though I never played one.

Suddenly, everybody started to use Dark Souls as a synonym for hard games. "The Dark Souls of X games", "the Dark Souls of Y games", etc...

It's tiring...

Also, I don't really like how some "fans" now expect nothing from Miyazaki/FromSoft but souls-like. What broke me was seeing people pissed at FromSoft when they announced the new Armored Core and not another bonfire simulator.

Yeah I love the Dark Souls series but you're totally right about how obnoxious some people are with it. Dark souls/Demon's Souls did not invent difficulty.
The NES games I grew up with were just as hard or harder than any Fromsoft game, but nobody ran around saying "git gud" for Zelda II or Battletoads. Although we definitely did brag if we beat a game ("I beat the whole game!") lol

Speaking of Zelda II (a game I loved as a kid and still do), and old games in general, I do remember feeling at one point like games had gotten too easy and nobody valued challenge anymore. This was around the PS2/PS3 era. I'm sure there were probably challenging games around, I just wasn't playing them. But I remember when Demon's Souls came out I had this feeling of "hey this is tough! This feels like an NES game! Awesome!"

To me Dark Souls really felt like a natural evolution of Zelda games. Its themes skewed toward a bit older audiences -- it was less "fairy tale" and more "dark fantasy." It had a more nuanced storytelling style but also retained and refined the kind of lock-on melee combat that Ocarina of Time had pioneered a decade prior. And it had that old school difficulty I remembered from the NES Zeldas.
This parallel only seemed to be reinforced when Elden Ring seemed to be BoTW: Dark Souls edition.

 

[Nickakyoin]

I feel Souls-likes are the equivalent of what were FPSs in between late 2000s and 2010s. The market felt oversatured with those, and nowadays with this mentioned genre.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

Not sure if I would call them clunky, but I do agree that they are slower than a typical character action game. I just fail to see why exactly that's a bad thing to be honest. They're just different types of video games. You don't have to like them both.

Unlike a lot of people on the internet I'd like to try it first before saying I don't like it.

Well I think if you played any game with a high difficulty where you had to go through the same thing many times just to advance ten percent of the game in total until the end It would be the same as a souls-like

Old games in general are hard, in which I've played plenty. So Dark Souls being know as the "hard modern game" doesn't really mean anything to me. I'm more so interested in the mechanics that set it apart.

I feel like with Soulslikes there's really only one rule of thumb and that is that FromSoft's games are still the best of them, even with the many imitators that have popped up over the years.
These are genuinely some of my favourite games ever made, even in spite of how obnoxious their fandom and the way people talk about them have become.

Since you mention not liking the idea of playing something slow and clunky, you'd probably prefer the newer titles over the older ones and while I have to assume that going backwards through the series would be pretty awful, that'd still make either Sekiro or Elden Ring your best bet.

Sekiro is shorter, plays faster and is generally an all-killer-no-filler kind of experience, but while its world design and feel are definitely that of a soulslike, it's combat is actually really unique and generally considered very difficult to learn, so that might be a problem if you want to get an idea of soulslikes as a genre. That game is kind of its own thing.

Elden Ring meanwhile is just... I mean that game is ridiculous.
Prepare for at least like a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty hours of playtime if you want to see everything there is to see - and that's without the DLC. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up to you.
(I think it's kind of a problem, personally)
I have my problems with that game, but there's a reason it's such a massive success and so many people got into the series through that game. It's a luscious masterpiece of an experience.

In general I'd also advise you to ignore the Souls community, as that scene has become... well, I find them pretty insufferable overall at this point.
Also also, just speaking for myself here, but I have the most fun with these games when I go into them without spoilers and when I try to get lost in the experience, so I tend to view them less as action games and more as RPGs in that sense.

Whatever you choose to go with, I hope you have a great time!

(I really need to stop rambling like this when I have a headache, I hope that was at least somewhat comprehensible.)

I kind of want to avoid Elden Ring solely for it's length, at least for now.
Also yeah, I've seen how the souls community can be.
Sekiro is definitely an option. I like it's art style more than what FromSoft typically does.

When Demon's Souls came out for Ps3 I HAD no IDEA I was playing online... Until I got a weird message on screen. I was like what? Someone invaded my realm huh? And then they found me and proceeded to OBLITERATE me and I remember the sweat the panic the me screaming NOOOOOO you Bastard!!!! A moment that was tragic sure but it was a top 10 gaming moment in my long history as a gamer... I legit felt a RUSH when this happened. The second wait its online moment for me was Journey... when IT hit me that *** spoilers *** Similar situation I will say that. Demon's Souls was groundbreaking in ways that we take for granted and although i agree DarK Souls was better it all started for me with this holy crud moment.

I do have a PS3 set-up, so I could start from the very beginning. However I'd probably miss out on the online aspects. I doubt the servers are still up unfortunately.

 

[qw90700]

With how popular the souls-like subgenre has gotten I feel a little left out in some discussions never having played any. I like character action games, but when it comes down to choosing one the ol'hack and slashes just look so much more appealing to me. When I hear souls-like all I think is "we made it slow and clunky, on purpose".
That said, I've never really given any of them a fair chance, that's just my impression based on watching gameplay. What’s a good Souls-like that could change my mind and really sell me on the formula?

You don't miss anything. From Software games are like modern representations of NES-era games with fuck balance and no coherent game development whatsoever and they just make the game unfair to increase the gameplay time lol. At least in Dark Souls games why the gameplay time increases is as soon as you start the game you gotta grind EXP so you can have a realistic boss fight or fight them for like 1 hour straight lol.

If you wanna play go straight to Dark Souls 3. After Armored Core Slient Line it's the only From Software game I liked. It still requires grinding but it is at least a proper game despite yet again character movement is fuck, your character attacks in front of you (not to enemy), they develop games like they just managed to write "Hello World" on screen still to this day!!! lolol

Yet their games are really not "bad to play hard games" if you didn't start playing games after 2010s, so you know how most games have fuck controls, no proper testing, "what is gameplay balance" and shit but there is one game I only recommend to masochists: Armored Core: Last Raven. The deal of the game is beyond hard or unfair. When a game is hard you get good, when a game is hard you upgrade your character and shit but no this game is a game that you don't play the game, the fucking game plays you!!! You need God-like luck and study the game to even beat bosses. After playing this game Dark Souls games are cute, "is this what you call hard" shit. Even Silver Surfer on NES is not that hard. On Silver Surfer the strategy is when you should kill which enemy and ignore which enemy to survive the level. However in Armored Core: Last Raven stats of your mecha is so sensitive even few more points more or less matters depending on what boss you fight and then you gotta change your mecha and the gameplay style + hope for the best to even beat the boss lol. The game is designed so for Armored Core masochists who mastered previous games and have a save file to import to game to start with a killer mecha but even that mecha is not enough so the game is designed to make you cry and forget what you learned and leave your mecha behind to enjoy atomic bomb of suffering lol. However it's not that only boss fights are "hard", even ordinary levels are hard. This shit is worst that Silver Surfer on NES!!!! Fuck this digital torture program!!! lolol

 

[petran79]

Yeah I love the Dark Souls series but you're totally right about how obnoxious some people are with it. Dark souls/Demon's Souls did not invent difficulty.
The NES games I grew up with were just as hard or harder than any Fromsoft game, but nobody ran around saying "git gud" for Zelda II or Battletoads. Although we definitely did brag if we beat a game ("I beat the whole game!") lol

Speaking of Zelda II (a game I loved as a kid and still do), and old games in general, I do remember feeling at one point like games had gotten too easy and nobody valued challenge anymore. This was around the PS2/PS3 era. I'm sure there were probably challenging games around, I just wasn't playing them. But I remember when Demon's Souls came out I had this feeling of "hey this is tough! This feels like an NES game! Awesome!"

To me Dark Souls really felt like a natural evolution of Zelda games. Its themes skewed toward a bit older audiences -- it was less "fairy tale" and more "dark fantasy." It had a more nuanced storytelling style but also retained and refined the kind of lock-on melee combat that Ocarina of Time had pioneered a decade prior. And it had that old school difficulty I remembered from the NES Zeldas.
This parallel only seemed to be reinforced when Elden Ring seemed to be BoTW: Dark Souls edition.

Dark Souls covered the gap after the demise of Ultima franchise. I remember the impact of Ultima 8 in the 90s and how dark and cumbersome it was.
But 9 was a disaster that killed the franchise for good and Online was a different genre.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

I do have a PS3 set-up, so I could start from the very beginning. However I'd probably miss out on the online aspects. I doubt the servers are still up unfortunately.

Oh hey Demon's Souls has a fan server, that's pretty cool.

The Archstones

thearchstones.com

 

[Dyne]

I have not played any Yakuza games, most of my friends on PS5 always chat about it but i'm still just not sold and still have no interest to try it & i'm very ok with that *shrugs*

Yakuza games are on a very long list of games I really want to play one day but haven't gotten around to yet.

 

[iamthemilkman]

Lies of P, Demon's Souls, and Bloodborne are my favorites.

 

[thumbsdown]

Never once used the repo

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

LOL I just realized I've been mixing up Sekiro and Nioh this whole time.
I guess this is a good time to ask about the Nioh, how do those games stack up?

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 10:33 PM

Lies of P, Demon's Souls, and Bloodborne are my favorites.

Lies of P was a game I was interested in until I found out it was a souls-like. I should probably check that one out too.

 

[RustySK]

LOL I just realized I've been mixing up Sekiro and Nioh this whole time.
I guess this is a good time to ask about the Nioh, how do those games stack up?

The Nioh games are great for sure - but those are even more of their own thing than Sekiro, to the point that I would barely even consider them soulslikes.
They're mission-based, feature Diablo-style randomized loot and have an incredibly intricate and punishing, unique combat system that really feels more character action-adjacent than anything else.

(and for what it's worth, I'll second that Lies of P recommendation. That game is right beneath FromSoft's games as soulslikes go in my mind)

 

[Sunnyside]

It's weird. I'm a diehard oldgen Monster Hunter fan. The slow methodical combat pre-World is like a drug to me. Friends point to that and say I'd love Fromsoft stuff because it's also hard, grindy, and has deliberately clunky controls. I've tried Dark Souls 3, Sekiro and Elden Ring. Bounced off all of them. I just can't enjoy these games. They aren't fun to me and I don't know why. But I suppose you don't always need a concrete reason to dislike something.

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I would say start with the original Demons Souls and then play the first Dark Souls, but since you said you're a character action game fan; it might be an idea to start with BloodBorne. It's a much faster paced game in terms of combat where the focus is more on movement and countering/staggering as opposed to learning and understanding enemies attack patterns while playing more defensively. Either way, those 3 I've suggested are the best of all the Souls games IMO so you can't go wrong with whatever one you might pick.