Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes

Proooobably no soulslikes for me this weekend due to having other plans, but I might get that video about my Realm of Shadow idea that someone on this comminity suggested to me finished

I don't think there is a single necessary prior genre to play, just anything that familiarises you with the basic movement controls (whether it's with a gamepad or mouse & keyboard). I distinctly recall a friend trying Skyrim for the first time on my computer, and she really struggled with the intro section in Helgen because she just had no background to build upon, her prior gaming was all in strategy games. She got there after a while, but I do not think that a soulslike would have been in any way a conducive environment for her to make those initial steps of learning

I do think that, barring disabilities, anyone could learn to play the average soulslike. I'm not convinced that everyone would necessarily learn to enjoy it. The genre makes demands of the player and it's okay to not find that rewarding

It makes me think a little of games that have what are essentially no-fail modes for people who want to just enjoy the story. A lot of prominent soulslikes have brilliant worlds to explore, but I wonder how much is lost by exploring them without failure? The tone of so many of them is somewhat defined by gameplay, and I think that that tone requires you to feel like the world is a dangerous place full of things far greater than you. Would the experience of the world be ruined by never being at risk of losing a fight?

If you don't consider Sekiro a soulslike, sure. Sekiro demands a player sticks to parrying with precision. Whoever can't for whatever reason won't beat the game and perseverance won't fix that.

No soulslikes here for now. Closest thing is a replay of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.

I think difficulty inflation has proceeded to the point where you can't really say that anyone can beat every Soulslike anymore, no. I do think that pretty much anyone can beat Dark Souls 1, and I don't know exactly where the line in the sand is. But I do know that there are too many too difficult games out there now to expect absolutely everyone to be able to beat absolutely all of them. We've already seen gaming journalists fail to beat Isshin for their reviews and genre veterans giving up on Khazan because it's so brutally difficult.

I don't know what I'll play this weekend honestly. I finished AI Limit yesterday, and while there is still the free roguelike DLC to play I'm not sure I'll jump into it right away.

Overall I found the game to be alright, probably like a 7/10, maybe 7.5. Best words I can think of were "solid and competent". It doesn't really do anything particularly badly, but it doesn't really excel at anything either.

I think one problem the game has is that the art direction is just kind of old hat. We've seen this style of post-apocalyptic anime landscapes so many times before, and the fleshy mutant alien enemies and environmental matter is also very well trodden ground. And the lore behind it all is again - like everything else in the game - fine. It does the job but it's not exactly super interesting, exciting or captivating.

I have to mention the voice acting and the protagonist too, which ended up being really annoying to me. The protagonist is supposed to start the game as a blank slate android, and they decided to convey this by having her repeat the last two words other people speak to her in a lobotomized tone of voice for like the first like 75% of the game. It's supposed to contrast with her evolved personality when she starts speaking normally later, but I just found it both immersion breaking and extremely annoying.

I have mixed feelings about the combat: I liked some things but I hated the parry. This game has the worst parry of any game I've played (though this is of course subjective and 100% a skill issue). The problem is that in this game the parry has like a million startup frames, and I just couldn't for the life of me wrap my head around it. You have to press parry like one full second before you get hit, which turns every single parry into a memorisation game of each attack's exact timing instead of an instinctive flow-state reaction. Fortunately there is a weapon with a "normal" reaction-parry as a weapon skill, but... it costs 25% of your Sync bar to use so you can't really use it as often as you would like. At least late game you get Bloodhound Step-style thunder dash you can use as a parry alternative, and I did enjoy playing with that one a lot.

Speaking of Sync, honestly having played a lot of non-Souls games recently the lack of stamina felt... pretty nice. The Sync bar that replaces both mana and stamina works more like a meter in a fighting game or something and I enjoyed the way it played out. It ends up rewarding aggression, and in general managing the Sync bar felt more fun and engaging than constantly backing off and waiting for stamina to regenerate. You get some moments where you're gambling on attacking a couple more times to push your Sync bar above the first threshold so you can use your weapon skill and cause stagger, and stuff like that always felt really good and fun.

Bosses were okay, there was one tough secret boss and one somewhat challenging main story boss, the rest were really manageable. It felt challenging enough for me at my current level of skill and patience (which feels comparatively low), but will probably feel on the easier side for a Souls vet at the top of their game. There was only really that one secret boss that I struggled with, the rest of the bosses I managed to kind of brute force in a couple of attempts even while playing like shit and barely ever parrying.

Overall I can't really complain considering I spent just €18, and I feel like at that price it's worth playing. But that is subjective too, I guess: for me exploring a new world is 90% of the joy of a Soulslike, so just getting some new environments to experience is more enjoyable to me than replaying old Fromsoft games, even though they are way better than this was on their own merits.

Damn these comments are getting long, I'm almost writing whole ass reviews at this point.

Bloodborne was my second/third video game, it was difficult, I had to look up a lot of stuff and get coop help with most bosses, but I managed to finish it. I don't think I'm better than averagely skilled, but I liked the world and I had pretty good perseverance.

Playing Nightreign still! Maybe some Elden Ring with the seamless mod too.

I think for new players it’s the new mechanics that aren’t explained very well in the game like for me the dodge rolling. When I first played Dark Souls I didn’t realize how that worked. When I finally figured out iframes it opened up the whole game for me.

I do like these kind of obscure and complicated mechanics because it makes the game more interesting as you figure it out and learn at all, but it is a major obstacle for new players.

If you don't have a disability or something, yeah; everyone could beat a soulslike if they try.

The hard part with any of them is timing. Once you know the timing for everything, it becomes a breeze. So unless you have a problem seeing the movement or reacting to things, you can get through it eventually.

Yeah, any abled body person can.

Unless you're actually new to gaming as a whole, maybe there isn't really any genre you'd need to have played prior to be successful in soulslikes?

I had little gaming experience and hadn't gamed for a long time when I picked up BB for the first time. Even so I managed to solo the thing 100℅, same with every other soulslike I've played since. But going in, I knew was gonna suck for a while, and I knew I had to be patient with myself. it's all about having the correct mindset.

Success in any skill based endavour is almost guaranteed when you enjoy the process of getting better and you dedicate time to it, simple as that.

Fun and Time.

With these two almost anyone can beat a Souls game. To actually get into a Souls game, you first need time to actually get comfortable with the gameplay feeling. This isn't like clicking through a 2 hour tutorial section. You actually need, in my opinion, probably ~5 hours of actually gameplay and that simply needs time. And later in a game you need time to progress your gameplay ability, even if you don't progress your in-game RPG character.
But no person would actually take that time if they didn't have fun during it. Now you could probably pressure people into playing it and they maybe would complete it. But we play video games first and foremost to have fun!

Another factor in completing a Souls game is game knowledge. On the one hand, that's in-game paying attention and learning from the enemies, trying out different gameplay elements (weapons, items, spells etc.) and reading (item descriptions, dialogue etc.). On the other hand that's knowledge from outside the game. If you get frustrated, have no fun anymore, or if you simply like to look things up in a wiki while you play, then you might research in the internet how to defeat an obstacle in the game or even how to play it in a more general sense. And this is okay! No judgment! Play the game how you enjoy it! For some, Souls games are about discovery and exploration in the game of both locations and mechanics and it can be a bit of a balancing act to keep the fun of exploration alive while not get frustrated and also not ruining your fun by looking stuff up.

Where game knowledge can help, is of course time. If you know the or a solution then you can progress faster through the game. I could probably guide someone who never played a 3D game through the whole of Elden Ring. But would that be fun for them? Just the other day on Lemmy, I asked someone who couldn't beat the final Bosses of Elden Ring (DLC and base game), if I could help them by for example suggesting some good strategies and they said no, they said "it’s more of a “Ok, I’ve seen the game, this is a slog, I’m moving on to something else.”"; they didn't have fun anymore (Happy ending in this case, since they have now fun re-playing Demon Souls on the PS5).

I don't know how to conclude my ramblings… Have fun while playing Soulslikes?

I also lost track of time and suddenly it was Sunday (⌒_⌒;)

I didn't really play anything or really do anything this weekend… Just kinda lay on my sofa and re-watched a tv series.

Recent soulsborne fan. Started with bloodborn last year. Just beat Eldin Ring and am a decent chunk into DLC. Am loving it but something made decide to try Dark souls for the 3rd or 4th time (It never clicked). Suddenly, after hours of Eldin Ring, it just clicked this time. Now I’m tempted to finish it before completing the Eldin Ring DLC. Idk I’m kinda overwhelmed and can’t believe I slept on these games for so long

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a free ps+ game for this month and I've been surprised how much I've liked it. The level design is great - they take a huge DS1 type of map and tie it together really well. Being able to respec any time for free has encouraged me to switch up weapons and playstyles, which has kept things fresh. The Chinese aesthetic is different and refreshing.

Souls-likes are about learning and perseverance. It embraces the old-style of gaming, where you'd go to the video rental store, grab an obnoxiously difficult game and bang your head against it for a weekend before probably having to re-rent it to finish.

Those foundational lessons build character. Furthermore, I've seen enough Elden Ring dlc final boss runs with ddr mats, 2 controllers at once, blindfolded etc... to convince me that with enough perseverance anyone can do it.

I'm back on Lies of P. Started it before but got distracted by some other game but it's time to start again. Hoping to beat it this time

People have beaten Dark Souls 3 with: their feet, one hand, musical instruments, and a DDR dance pad.

I think, barring you've been in some horrific accident, anyone can beat Dark Souls. Just gotta keep trying. In fact, the game is designed so that anyone can learn how to be successful at them.

To answer your final question, I have always looked at Dark Souls like grown up LoZ. So, really, any action adventure with exploration — but they are not necessary to enjoy them by any means.