Five years ago or so when the glut of soulslike games really started taking off, I was intrigued. I tried most of them, and I didn’t like any of them. I have listed them in the past so I’m not going to do it again. Every time, I went into the game with hope in my heart. Every time, I was disappointed and shook my head (metaphorically) as I set it down.
Fast-forward five years, and I am done with the genre. DONE. I am so over it. Now, I sigh heavily when I hear the phrase ‘soulslike’, and while I may try the game, I know I probably won’t enjoy it. I did not like Lies of P (Round8 Studio/NEOWIZ), which I did finish; Lords of the Fallen (Hexworks); and I really did not like the demo for The First Berserker: Khazan (Neople). I played maybe an hour of it before metaphorically hurling it into the trash.
In fact, I can’t think of one that I really liked. I enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary (Ska Studios), but immediately forgot about it once I was finished (which was halfway through a second playthrough). The reason I liked it so much, though, was because it hewed so closely to the Dark Souls formula.
The reason I don’t like the vast majority of soulslikes is because they focus on making their game hard–which is the least-interesting aspect of the From games to me. I put up with those things in a From game because the level design is beyond compare. And I just like the whole gestalt of the games.
Yes, when I played the three Dark Souls games and Bloodborne, I bought into the ‘you must solo the bosses’ mentality. And in Sekiro, you have to solo the bosses because there is no multiplayer. Elden Ring broke me of that because there was no way I was going to do that shit again.
The reason I’m musing about this is because there’s yet another soulslike coming out. It’s called WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers (LEENZEE), and it’s from China. It is heavily influenced by FromSoft games–it’s easy to see from the trailers. I’m including the gameplay trailer, and the first boss the protag is fighting is the last boss from Sekiro, and it’s even in a similar field. And it’s tagline is ‘Nothing is Forever’. That has BIG ‘Shadows Die Twice’ energy.
Side note: I HATE that they made the protag a walking sex doll. Yes, it’s a woman, and they clearly spent a lot of time on their jiggle physics. And they have several (I’m assuming) very skimpy outfits (I saw two). Come the fuck on. It’s 2025. Why the fuck are we still treating female characters like anime dolls? For fuck’s sake!
Putting that aside with great difficulty, I watched Irn Pinipl’s review (Iron Pineapple), and I just sighed internally and rolled my eyes. Soulslikes do not spark joy in my heart. Oh, and FightingCowboy says the average player can do the game in thirty to thirty-five hours. Which means sixty to seventy hours for me.
From what I’ve seen, the first third of the game is fairly easy for a soulslike. Then, it has a steep ramp up. Also, apparently magic is strong in the beginning and then is kinda trash at the end.
Arggggh. I just saw another not-even-there armor set. This angers me. You would think that by now we would be past this bullshit. And for all the guys laughing it off or saynig it’s no big deal, riiiiight. They bitch about every ‘woke’ character in a game, and you cannot tell me that if the protag of a game was a hunky male in a banana sling who was getting ogled by everyone in the game regardless of gender, those same guys would not howling their outrage. I mean, they get upset when there’s a Pride flag in a fucking game. For fuck’s sake.
Here’s the Catch-22 with soulslikes (for me). If a game is not enough like a From game, I’m not interested. Or rather, if the level design and exploration aren’t as good. I remember when I played the first Nioh (Team Ninja), and I wanted so much to like it. I tried really hard, but the game was just so grueling for me.
The level design was awful, plus if you started a mission, you had to beat the boss before leaving. Otherwise, you had to do the whole mission again. I got stuck on a boss and wanted to got to an earlier area in order to grind a bit. If I did that, though, then I would have to do the whole area again. I tried to grind in the area before the boss, but I wanted an easier grind. I think I did wind up exiting the mission to go grind in an earlier area, but I was resentful I had to go through current area again in order just to reach the boss.
Then, I bashed my head against the boss again, and I was getting frustrated. I looked up ways to beat her, and I switched weapons. I was using some kind of axe, which is my favorite category of weapon because the Pyromancer in the OG Dark Souls starts with a Hand Axe. I think it might have been a Brute Axe. It does big damage, but it’s massively slow. I had quite a bit of magicks, too, but I was very underwhelmed by them. I mostly used the magic for extra heals and other buffs.
I switched to the odachi and did the boss in one. I was relieved, yes, but I was also miffed. I had struggled so much with the axe I had, which was more upgraded than the odachi, and which I had used all game. I think I kept going for another mission and beat the next boss, who was easier, but then abruptly quit. It was not sparking any joy in me, and I was glad to put it down. I did feel a bit of regret that I could not finish the game, but I wasn’t actually enjoyng it.
That was my feeling for most of the soulslikes I tried. There was just something missing that did not keep me engaged. Since most people like the games for the combat, that covers up a lot of sins. Also, my view of these games is very different than most. What I consider important does not line up with what other people consider important.
Hard bosses was just not part of the equation for me. I saw them as something te suffer through rather than something to savor and enjoy.
I’m tired, so that’s all for now.