Talking about Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (Team NINJA) in the last several posts as well as about soulslikes in general has made me muse about what would actually be my ideal soulslike. Here’s the last post I wrote about SiP: FFO. I mention it because I am stil playing Killing Chaos (it’s alternate name. I kid, but it should have been), and I am trying so hard to love it. I just can’t, though, and I’m thinking about why that is.That led me to thinking about how I would build the ideal soulslike if I were a game developer. Here’s a list of what must be included, in no particular order.
1. Intricate and elaborate level design. Look. This is why I play the games. I know that makes me sound like a wanker, but so be it. It also makes me sound like one of those snobby elitist who doesn’t want to admit that I play the games because of the hard bosses. For me, though, this is what kept me going when I first played Dark Souls, despite how much I struggled with the game. It was the oppressive environments with a few brighter ones sprinkled in. It was the subtle but exquisite breadcrumbing that leads the player in the right direction. From is not perfect by any means. I have gotten lost more times than I care to admit in a From game (some of that is my complete lack of a sense of direction), but for the most part, if I’m observant enough, I can find the right way to go.
You can usually guess which of the three paths is the main path and which is a side path. Except in the beginning of the game in which there are three paths and two of them are for the much later game. From apologists will say that Miyazaki hallmarked that the two later-game areas are earmarked by their difficulty, but that’s retconning in my opinion. What is the one thing people know about the games–people who haven’t played them, I mean? That the games are fucking hard. This has also been retconned by longtime fans to say that, no, the games aren’t hard–you just have to learn how to play them properly. I mean…that’s every fucking game! To an extent.
So, for someone who is playing Dark Souls for the first time and it’s the first From game they’ve played, how the hell are they supposed to know that the two later game areas are ‘too hard’? All you hear is how hard the game is so of course ghosts being able to kill you in one hit and you not being able to hurt them at all or skellies who can one-shit you while you need to hit them five-hundred times seems par the course for this game.
In general, though, the level design itself and the haunting environments are top-notch. There are areas I like better than others, but FromSoft is heads and shoulders above any other company when it comes to level design. They were at the very apex of their capabilities with Shadow of the Erdtree, well, maybe they went a bit too far. The DLC was so vertical (as almost every games website mentioned in their review) and dense, it was fairly easy to miss entire areas. I missed an NPC completely until nearly the end of the DLC, which means I completely fucked up his questline in my first playthrough.
2. Shortcuts and judicious placing of bonfires. This is a subset of the first point, I guess, but I wanted to put it on its own because it’s such a staple of the From games. There is nothing like finding a shortcut in a From game and seeing a previously-lit bonfire on the other side. I would say it’s even better than finding a bonfire on its own, which in and of itself a great feeling, too. Again, in Shadow of the Erdtree, I felt the rush of finding a shortcut that brought me back to the first bonfire, er, Site of Grace, and I actually teared up one time in such a situation. There is nothing like the sense of relief when all your resources have dwindled to almost nothing than finding a bonfire, whether it’s a new one or a shortcut to an old one.
This is something that other developers really don’t get. From is very thoughtful and careful with their shortcut placement as well as where they put their bonfires.
Side note: it’s amusing to me that the bonfire is such an icon in this kind of game that people call any save point in any of these kinds of games a bonfire, regardless of what kind of saving point it is. In From games, they’re always called bonfires (along with the money/Xp being souls). Lamps from Bloodborne? Bonfires. Shrines from Sekiro? Bonfires. Sites of Grace from Elden Ring? Bonfires.
In Elden Ring, From was very generous with the Sites of Grace, probably because it’s an open world game and they did not want newbies to be frustrated by runs back. In addition, they added Stakes of Marika before boss fights in order to make the boss runs even more painless. I thought they were a little too generous with the bonfires in the open world, but I understood why they chose to do that. There were way less of them in the legacy dungeons, and rightfully so.
3. No platforming. The end. not the end. I have said many times that any game that is not a platforming game should not have platfroming because it’s such a difficult and precise thing to do. From is not good at this, but my god, do they love their platfroming. I have died so many times to misjumping because of my own personal issues with the space around me. I cannot line things up and pairing that with my bad reflexes, well, let’s just say that I curse every time I see a jumping section.
In Elden Ring, it’s even worse with Torrent. I love Torrent. He is best boy. He takes me where I need to go, and I feed him raisins to keep him well. I don’t love combat on him, but I’ve gotten used to it. However, platforming atop him is horrible. It’s twice as bad as platforming in From games in general. There are ways to make it less terrible, apparently, but, again, with my terrible reflexes, that’s not always viable.
This is quite possibly one of my biggest gripes about From games. Stop with the fucking platforming! I get that it’s not always avoidable, but tehy seem to pride themselves on having entire sections of terrible platforming. There’s one in this game that if you have to do it the regular way, it takes forever. The first time I did it (it’s going down rather than up), it took me an hour to do it properly. There are ways to circumvent that, but if you do it the ‘pure’ way, it’s bullshit. I’m not the only one who’s said that, by the way. I know it’s usually just me, but this is one that other people have commented on.
If it were up to me, I would get rid of all platforming in non-platforming games. I’ve had this issue in indie games as well. Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games) is one of my favorite indie games ever. I have platinumed it and loved it to pieces. I also almost didn’t finish it because of the platforming in it (both the main game and the DLC). I didn’t finish Stray (BlueTwelve Studio) because of the quick-time events, but also hated the performing in it. Both of these are cozy games, which makes the atrocious platforming even worse. There’s no need for it so why is it there?
I have more to say on this, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.