I have more to say about soulslikes and why I don’t like them in general. Yes, this was spurred by me playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), but I’m done talking about that specific game for now. I probably will bring it up later, but right now, let’s just talk about soulslikes in general.
The first soulslike was the first Lords of the Fallen is 2014 (Deck13 and CI Games). It was slow and clunky, and they did not understand what made Dark Souls special. They made the bosses really hard, but not interesting. Well, to be fair, I think I did two bosses. And they sucked.
The game did have an interesting mechanic where after you lost your souls (or whatever they were called in that game), you had a timer for how long you had to collect them. And by interesting, I meant bullshit. They made The Surge after this game*, which I really like.d It also had the mechanic, but I just ignored it. Most of the time, I would never make it to where I had previously died, anyway.
The Lords of the Fallen (2014) just felt so sluggish. They misinterpreted deliberate combat for slow movements. Their enemies and bosses were damage sponges, and the magicks were useless–at least in the portion of the game I played.
By the way, CI Games SE, the developers of the current The Lords of the Fallen as well are absolute pricks. I regret buying their game, and I will never buy another game from them again. And their second game was shit. There. I said it. I did not get on with it at all, but I do not want to talk about it so I’ll leave it there.
I tried most of the soulslikes that came out. Or at least a good chunk of them. I will list several of them to show the variety. Deep breath: The Lords of the Fallen (2014) (Deck13, CI Games). The Lords of the Fallen (2023) (CI Games SE). Ashen (A44 Games), Salt and Sanctuary (Ska Studios), Remnant (both) (Gunfire Games), DarkMaus (Daniel Wright), The Surge (both) (Deck13), Mortal Shell (Cold Symmetry), Lies of P (Round8 Studio/Neowiz Games), Hollow Knight (Team Cherry), Nioh (both) (Team Ninja), Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (Team Ninja), Blasphemous (The Game Kitchen)–to name a few.
I have finished The Surge, Salt and Sanctuary, and Lies of P. I have almost finished The Surge 2. The rest I have played anywhere from a few hours to half the game. I thoroughly enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary, but I immediately forgot it once I was done with it (played one complete playthrough and one mostly-finished playthrough). It was so much like Dark Souls, but in a cute chibi 2D style. There was even a hunter starting class with a whip.
It did not have the depth that FromSoft games have, but it was immensely enjoyable as a mage/caster. It sucked, however, as a melee player, and that’s why I quit my second playthroughh. I can remember the boss I rage-quit against, which I had absolutely no trouble with as a caster. Weirdly, it was a magic user boss that tripped me up.
The problem I’ve had with so many of these games are that they are either too slavish to the Souls formula or they try to innovate in very weird ways. I think Salt and Sanctuary stuck too closely to the formula, but also tried to make it different in bad ways. When the game first came out, tthere was one button layout, and the…either the dodge or the heal–I looked it up. Roll was on RT. It only came out on PlayStation first, by the way. Use was B, attack was X and Y (ok, I’m using XBox controls now because that’s what I know), block was LT, switchi loadout was LB, and use item was RB.
This is madness. This is not the place to put your stamp on things, no matter how much you want to differentiate yourself from Souls games. There was a huge outcry when people found out they couldn’t remap the buttons, and content creators who played Souls games were pretty vocal about their dissatisfaction.
By the time it came out on the PC or soon thereafter, the dev added the ability to remap the buttons. I think I might have bought it when the buttons weren’t remappable, though, because I definitely tried it with the buttons as they were. I would not have done that if I were able to change the buttons. I lasted maybe half an hour, but I just could not do it.
I included the video of the RKG lads, back when they were PTT, trying out Salt and Sanctuary. They did not care for it very much.
Games like Hollow Knight really do not belong in the conversation, but people keep dragging it in because it has respawning enemies and you lose your souls when you die. And the bosses are supposed to be pretty hard. I wouldn’t know because I didn’t get very far into the game. It’s way too hard for me. I do appreciate, though, that they took the barest whispers from Souls games and then go off in a different direction to do their own thing.
This is the thing. Those that hew very closely to the original formula oftentimes feel flat and boring. So many people loved Lies of P, but it felt too iterative to me. There was one really good innovation–being able to swap (almost) any weapon head to fit (almost any) weapon handle (the boss weapons were one piece only, which was a massive disppointment). That was brilliant. Everything else, however, just fell falt for me.
I gave it a 6.5, I think. I would give Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 something higher, but I’m not sure how much higher. Definitely not a 9. It’s not as good as a From game (to me), even though it does some things exquisitely.
I do wonder what’s wrong with me that I can’t see what other people see in these games. Well, it’s my disabilities, really. I have gotten better at dodging in Clair Obscur (except when I inexplicitly pressed X instead of B!?), and I’m even able to parry certain attacks. Basically, the attacks that are slow, evenly spaced, and clearly telegraphed.
There are optional bosses that are fucking hard on purpose. They are grouped in two. One is the mimes, and they give different hair/clothing options, and the other is the chromatic ______. They are like normal enemies (for the most part), but about five times as hard. Most of them can kill me in one combo if I don’t parry/dodge perfectly. The most recent one I fought has three of them. I cannot perfectly dodge/parry 10+ hits in a row–I simply cannot. They give you good gear, I think?
I read that even on story mode, they can one-shot you. And, I think this is a common thing for JRPGs (which this is paying homage to, but it’s French). (Someone made the joke of calling the people who love this game ouibs (instead of weebs), which I love), but the battles can be so grueling.
I’ve watched people play JRPGs, and one fight can take fifteen to twenty minutes. And a boss fight can take half an hour or more. That’s outrageous. There are plenty of ways to heal yourselves (and others in your party) and to revive, but I would give them all up for fights that take a quarter of the time. It’s psychologically discouraging to do an attack and see just a sliver come off the health bar.
That’s all for now. More tomorrow.
*They were going to make a sequel to The Lords of the Fallen, but for one reason or another, that never happened.