this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes
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This is a community for discussion, news, and memes pertaining to the video game sub-genre "soulslike".
Given Lemmy's size, the definition of soulslike may be treated relatively loosely. While games like the numerous FromSoft titles, the recent Star Wars Jedi games, Lies of P, Nioh and similar games should be the focus, games that incorporate soulslike elements - like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, for example - may also be discussed here.
Basic Lemmy-quette applies. Additionally, since flairs don't exist yet, please do make sure to include a marker to denote what game your post is about in square brackets for clarity's sake. An example could be:
[BB] This enemy is so difficult!
or
[DS1] Anyone struggling with the gargoyles?
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!liesofp@lemmy.zip
!bloodborne@lemmy.zip
!sekiro@lemmy.zip
!eldenring@lemmy.world
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Previously Sekiro the parrying scared me for the longest time. I'm still sure the game will absolutely kick my ass, but maybe not that bad.
Right now... DS2 , the mechanic that punishes you for dying sounds awful, I'm dumb and die a lot on a first playthough so.... I'm tempted to skip to 3 and then come back.
The max HP reduction caps at 50% and the items to return back to full are pretty common. There's also a ring you can find very early in the game that caps the the reduction at 25%.
The game also throws a silly amount of souls at you. IMO DS2 is easier than DS1, a lot longer though, especially if you play all the DLC (and you should).
Wow, a LOT longer? I don't mind if it doesen't feel like a drag. Is there good exploration in DS2 in your opinion?
There is some janky stuff that doesn't really make sense, but overall exploration is one of the strongest parts of the game. A ton of branching paths and optional things to find, much better than DS3 as far as exploration goes.
DS2 was a lot easier to me than other dark souls entries (Didn’t play DLC) which helped soften the blow of that mechanic.
Really? What made it easier in your experience?
I'm not the person you asked, but I can tell you the DS2 punish mechanic isn't as bad as it sounds. You pop a human effigy (humanity) and it's gone. You can get a ring that mitigates the effect in one of the first areas, and you can wear 4 rings instead of just 2 like in DS1.
Bosses are generally not that difficult. There's no noob trap where you end up in Tomb of the fucking Giants early and have to climb back out. You can teleport between bonfires immediately.
There are some tough areas for sure, but you can actually make enemies go extinct by killing them 12 times.
/DS2 fanboy
I've read so many complaints about the health nerf over the years that I assumed there was no way to reverse it but leveling up again. I still wanted to play because of how divisive the game is, ha.
I actually enjoyed a lot not being able to teleport from the get go in DS1. It made exploration higher stakes and so very satisfying, It's what I like the most about the game. Which brings me to ask, is exploration good in DS2?
I also enjoyed the exploration and the no-teleport in DS1, but due to the (in my opinion pretty slapdash and poor) way the world in DS2 is constructed it would be torture to not have fast travel from the get-go. It's basically all dead-end areas branching off of a central hub, and without it you would do an insane amount of meaningless backtracking. The world doesn't connect back on itself like in DS1 (though no other game really does).
There is a lot of secrets to find and stuff like that though, but the joy of just discovering how the areas fit together isn't there.
I wonder why they didn't went with the same concept for the map in the other entries. Lore? Because Miyazaki did not direct Ds2 ? Too much a pain in the ass? A shame since it's so good.
So the production for DS2 was quite troubled. The way I remember it was that Tanimura and Shibuya were in charge of it while Miyazaki was busy with Bloodborne. About halfway through the process the higher-ups decided it was shit and booted Shibuya off, leaving Tanimura in sole charge. The narrative was remade from scratch, characters were revised or redone and existing assets including areas were stitched together best they could to slot into the new game. In its own way it's an impressive feat, but you can understand why it's messier than DS1.
I have no idea for DS3 though, apart from that it had a pretty short development cycle, so I'm assuming sacrifices had to be made. Many of the levels themselves are great in DS3, but on the macro level it's much more linear than DS1 (DS3 is almost just a long corridor). It could also have to do with a shifting of the focus from exploration to tough boss battles.
Yes, but not as good as DS1, because they nailed the interconnected world in that game. DS2 is more like branches off from the main hub, and you can access most of them right away or very early. DS1 was built different than the other Fromsoft games. You'll still have plenty to explore and the DLCs are especially massive, but you won't have those "omg I'm back at firelink!" moments. It's similar in the way you go through Catacombs/Tomb, or Duke's/Crystal Cave, a series of areas that eventually hit a dead end.
I agree and feel as though you showcased better reasons than I could articulate. Thanks for your input.
It was personally that I just felt the movement and attacks were a bit more fluid than DS1. Bosses were just easier to me than stuff like O&S that I suffered with in the first dark souls. Still I love all entries and I don’t want to punish ds1 for being less refined in some ways than later entries 🫶🏼
Sounds logical and reasonable, thank you. I don't mind the combat rythm of Ds1, that said I played the remaster soooo... Take that into account. I find it charming, in a weird way ? I know for example a lot of people would like a bloodborne remaster, or a 60 fps update, but, to me it's good how it is, maybe is nostalgia as well.
The thing with sekiro is the cooldown between blocking and not blocking is very short so parry spamming is a viable way to learn the timings. Also the game has lots of arm attachment tools to mitigate enemies you can struggle with. Fireworks basically got me through many of the tough fights.
This community has reasured me a couple of times now that it's not as super hard as I was led to believe, so thanks. And after trying Lies of P now I feel better knowing I can do the thing the game wants me to do. XD