Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes
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?
Friends:
Should you have any questions, please do let me know.
- Druid
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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.
If I were you I would archive my comments in a blog. Because yeah you actually do (very good) reviews. I'd sign up for your newsletter.
don't agree with your first paragraph tho... A little too coela**can't** for my taste.
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Jk I'ts all in good fun <3You know, I have thought about it. Right now my long winded comments are kind of in no man's land between off-the-cuff comments and proper reviews. I've thought about making standalone posts or something and maybe try to add some screenshots or something and ensure I actually talk about every aspect of the game and not just whatever comes to mind as I sit down and write.
But eh, I struggle with insecurities as you know and it's always felt a bit like being too full of myself and putting too much spotlight on myself, which I've never enjoyed. Like I don't know, why should I expect people to want all that, I'm literally just a guy.
Very nice pun, I like it 😄
But yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's just because of the diagnoses I have and interactions I've had with people in the past about life stuff like executive dysfunction and other I guess you would call them disabilities, but I get very very hesitant about insisting that "oh yeah everyone can do X if they just put their back into man". We're all different and we're all good and bad at different things and it's not a bad thing to accept your limits either.
And especially within a Soulslike community like this there is going to be a huge survivorship bias because everyone here is already a fan. Everyone here has already persevered.
There's 100℅ an audience for this. Imma expose myself as a .˳·˖fan girl˖·˳. here but before we ever interacted I had taken note of you and actively looked out for your comments in every gaming thread. I enjoy reading you and many others do too. Remember, part of sharing anything on the internet is that not everyone is gonna like it tho no matter how good is it; please don't let that hold you back. You could write about games professionally if you wanted to.
If you want DiStiNcTiVe vIsUalS just say the word and I'll whip out a shitty drawing for you, free of charge ;) (no pressure tho)
Oh I know... And I agree. I'm refering to anyone with an able body. I say this as someone who knows more than anyone would ever want to know about physical and mental disability:
I'm all in favor of accesibility options in this genre. This needs to happen
True, we are kind of in an echo chamber here. XD. I like these type of questions that invite people from outside the community to chime in.
You know, it's one of the nice things about this place compared to Reddit. It actually feels like old school message boards where you'd recognise users and make genuine connections with people instead of just shouting into a void.
I'll think about it. But I am also terrible with pressure and I might get performance anxiety if I take on something like that.
Okay let's not get carried away.
You know, that sounds pretty fun. I love your art. You do realise this would mean the likelihood of me forcing you to play the game in question would increase manyfold right? I mean, how can you draw it if you haven't played it?
Yes! I'm glad some games have started to introduce them but they could do so much more. And like, I feel like it should be reasonably simple to implement too. Just give us adjustable iframe window on dodges and adjustable parry windows and you could possibly just call it a day there in terms of fine motor accessibility. Doom: The Dark Ages had that (among tons of other great accessibility options) and I don't see why Soulslike can't.
Didn't mean to sound like a sycophant there. Apologies.
Sounds hot, but... Even if I succumbed to the pressure I don't think my gaming budget would allow for that XD
Like I've drawn covers for books I haven't fully read XD I can take some art direction y'know? Get a summary, look at references... Sometimes it do be like that. Like I said, it's just a shitty drawing like the ones I've posted here before:
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Oh you're fine I just have a severe inferiority complex. If I could somehow end up in a situation where I was writing about games professionally that sounds utopian, but I still doubt I have what it takes. Also isn't journalism in general one of the worst fields to get into right now with AI running rampant?
Yeah that's fair. As a console player you can't even sail the high seas huh. I would try to sing the virtues of the venerable PC here but... this point in time is like the worst it has ever been to buy a gaming PC.
First of all they're not shitty, they're cute and funny and lovely. Just because I am putting myself down constantly doesn't mean I'll let others do the same. I am, first and foremost, a hypocrite.
Second, I find it infinitely amusing that you're somehow fangirling me when you're an actual professional artist and I'm again like... literally just a guy.
Ugh...Yeah :/
My heart yearns for the seven seas, alas I'm bound to solid ground for the forseeable future.
I'm just trying to establish a realistic quality expectation hereXD As much as I like you, this has to remain low effort for me.
Nah, I've been paid for it, yes. but I wouldn't go as far as calling myself that. I suck at the business part of art which is sadly the most important one.
But I'm glad I can amuse you :P
I don't mind the length of your comments at all - always a pleasure to read!
If the game allows for it, not every single soulslike requires a stamina meter imo. Imagine how much worse Sekiro's otherwise excellent combat would be if you had to also manage stamina for your attacks.
It's cool that they went with a little more creative approach here with the Sync bar - kinda reminds me of Thymesia. But I can't quite tell you why. Probably too long ago that I played Thymesia.
Re difficulty: Yea some of the more recent soulslikes are really pushing the limits of bearable difficulty. Lies of P DLC felt super hard, Khazan's pretty much first boss is the boss that players died to the most by a huuuge margin - it's actually insane how big the difference is compared to the rest - and it doesn't look like it'll be getting too much easier in the coming games. We've had this discussion here numerous times already, but over time it feels like the onus has been on difficulty first, exploration second, so it's only naturally that the games get progressively harder with progressively more skilled players.
That's why I'm such a huge advocate of difficulty settings. People who want to play the games as difficult as they get can, those who don't don't have to.
That's good, sometimes I get worried that I'm starting to sound too self important and like I'm liking the sound of my voice too much.
Yeah, it's a shame because level design and exploration is definitely the main draw in Soulslikes for me. I like medium-challenging bosses that work cinematically and like nice punctuation marks for areas the best. I haven't sat down and measured it, but I think like one hour or so of attempts is sort of my ideal for a "tough boss" these days, where it ends up feeling like a nice but surmountable challenge. I really don't have it in me anymore to sit with a boss for hours and hours over multiple days. Even should I end up beating it I just feel like "thank god that's finally over I never want to do that again" rather than some sort of pleasure or dopamine surge.