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.

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[BB] This enemy is so difficult!

[DS1] Anyone struggling with the gargoyles?

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[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and do you think anyone can beat any Soulslike they set their mind to? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 month ago by v4ld1z@lemmy.zip to c/soulslike@lemmy.zip

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Whoops! Long weekend - lost track of time, sorry.

I'm stuck in a perpetual vortex of League of Legends and watching Death Note when I'm not playing League. I also haven't played TUNIC in over two weeks T__T I suck at sticking with new games. I have tried out Gambonanza tho, but it's not a soulslike. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Soulslikes are notorious for their difficulty, often at the expense of scaring away potential new players who can't or don't want to wade through the early steep difficulty curve. Nevertheless, bar any physical/cognitive disability that could hinder your gameplay, do you think anyone can beat a soulslike if they just set their mind to it?

Inspired by a post I saw on reddit where OP mentioned that they had previously only played mainstream "cookie cutter" games, like CoD, GoW or Uncharted and decided to try out Bloodborne. At first, they struggled a lot but got better over time and started enjoying their time.

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? Will of determination, perseverance, seeing things through to the end are all values explored in soulslikes - implicitly or explicitly - so it would make sense.

Thoughts?

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[–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 month ago

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?