This is the second post about my ideal soulslike. Here is the first post from yesterday in which I managed to list 3 things that I would/would not include. The platforming thing is a big one. In fact, if I were the monarch for the day, I would decree that no non-platforming games could have platforming in it. Period. I’ve just had too many non-platforming games cram platforming in them, and none of them have been any good. Again, I know this is partly my own issues, but it’s so fucking frustrating.
Back to what I want in a soulslike.
4. Bring something new to the table. This is a tricky one because there are some unspoken rules that have to be followed for soulsikes devs. Bonfires, souls as XP/monies, etc. The names may be different, but they have to be there. Another is run/dodge on B. This is one of my gripes with Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Run/dodge is on A, and that ain’t ever going to happen. I believe it’s the same with Nioh 2, if I remember correctly. It’s because they want to put one of the three blocks on B (the other two are on LB and…LT in certain circumstances), which is irritating as fuck. As a result, I rarely use dodge or run in Stranger in Paradise. No, you can’t change it–at least there’s no way to change it that I’ve found. And I hate it.
Back when Salt and Sanctuary (Ska Studio) came out, there was one control scheme–this was on the PS whatever it came out on. The run/dodge was on LT. Er, L2. L. Fucking. 2. That was fucking bullshit and so many people pointed it out By the time it came out on PC, you could change the controls. Which is how every game should be. There is no excuse in this day and age not to let people reconfig their buttons.
Sheesh.
Back to bringing something new to the table. This is the reason it’s so tricky. Yes, they have to do something that isn’t just iterative, but stray too far, and it’s no longer a soulslike. You can’t get fans to agree what makes a soulslike a soulslike, exactly, but they sure as hell know when a game isn’t doing it right.
Lies of P (Round8 Studio/NEOWIZ) is held up as a recent soulslike that nailed it. The thing is, though, it’s really iterative. When RKG streamed the demo, they were commenting on how close to a From game it was. “Taking the piss” was muttered more than once by the lads. I learned you can’t sue for infringement in most cases in game development (unless it’s the stealing of assets), which means you can pretty much copy a game beat for beat and not have to worry about it. Which is what Lies of P did.
That is not completely fair to them. They did have a few innovative ideas. One of them was having all the weapons in two pieces (except boss weapons) so you could switch out the handle or blade any time you wanted. This was great because you might want the fable skill of one handle, but the stats on a different blade. And you can weild any of them, but the efficacy and power of each is based on the grades you have for different stats. That was very cool and truly creative.
On the other hand,let’s talk about The Lords of the Fallen (2023, HexWorks). I was very hyped for this one because it was supposed to be a sequel/remake/reboot of the first The Lords of the Fallen (2014, Deck13/CI Games). I did not get on with the first one for a variety of reasons, and I was hoping the recent version would improve on the first iteration. Which had a few interesting ideas in and of itself, but didn’t gel at all with me.
Deck13 went on to make The Surge, which I had a blast with. Still did not love the timer that counted down as you raced to find your souls, er, whatever it’s called in that game, but it was so much fun to hack off limbs and get them as my own. That was the innovation in that game, and it was a great one. The Surge was so janky, but I could forgive it its flaws because of the limb-severing mechanic.
The Lords of the Fallen (2023) looked really good in the trailer. It touted the fact that it had two different worlds, which was really intriguing. The regular world and the Umbral world, which is a darker, more harrowing world. You had to use a lantern to go between the worlds, which was also cool. The Umbral world had more enemies than the regular world, too, which is where it all fell apart. You’re already dealing with the normal hordes of enemies, which were too much to begin with–that is not one of From’s stronger points, their habit of throwing in a ton of enemies in an area, and it’s one I wished the wannabes wouldn’t mimic. While From is usually good at not going too overboard, they do love them an unseeable enemy or ten.
By the way, I just tried out the demo for AI LIMIT (SenseGames Co.), which is a Lies of P wannabe. Yes, we have reached the point where a derivative of a From game is getting its own derivative. I played about an hour and was rolling my eyes in frustration the whole time. It brings absolutely nothing new to the table, and it was frustrating to boot because in addition to being reliant on the parry, it doesn’t have a shield until well into the demo. And it’s not a constant shield–it’s one that you can only use with the energy of the game. I don’t remember what it’s called, and, quite frankly, I don’t care. It’s fine. I’m sure some people will love it, but I am so over the deflect/parry meta. I cannot wait until it goes back to soulslikes being more like Souls than Sekiro. Which leads me to the next point.
5. Go back to being more like Dark Souls/Elden Ring than Sekiro. I cannot tell you how sick of every soulslike demanding the perfect parry. Once I hear that’s the main combat of a game, my interest takes a nose dive. Yes, I played Sekiro and finished it. No, I did not enjoy it and I will not be able to do it again. In addition, I find it stifling. One thing I love about these games is being able to do builds the way I want them. That’s not really possible when a game insists that you have to parry.