I like Soulslikes.. but not the Souls Games.

[Zombiethederg]

So ive recently gotten into like. The soulslike genre. I started this by playing a lot of Elden Ring, and as I played more and more, continuously dying to each and every enemy since they fuckin swarm you and stunlock you to death, with the grungy style that makes everything look dirty and unrealistic (while I admit there are some times where there are beautiful scenes but they still have a rough look to them) and a lack of lore that your able to follow without opening a book... I'll be honest, I kind of hate it! Combine everything I said with difficult bosses (that can also just completely jebait and stunlock you) and with a mechanic that requires you to basically suicide run into the boss arena in order to get all your progress back, its just not a fun experience for me.

Then I got my hands on Another Crabs Treasure. I mainly bought it because it was from a studio I like (Aggro Crab) who made another game, Going Under (which I highly recommend), and I wanted to support them. I expected to get mad in the first few minutes and just up and quit but.. the games actually quite fun! It improves alot upon the issues I have, especially in art style! Where I had the problem of the grungy art style of the souls games, ACT has a bubbly, colorful artstyle that makes even the disgusting and polluted areas look great! Bosses as well cant stunlock you, and when you do get staggered, your instead sent flying backwards while the boss waits for you to land. This is a much better system as the boss can still get a cheap hit on you if your not careful! It also actually shows how much an enemy is staggered, so you know when to hit a heavy attack, and it hits just the right balance of difficult, but not unfair. Best of all, they have a system where all of your "souls" get put just outside the boss arena door when you die in a fight, so you can simply grab them and try something else if you don't want to keep fighting the boss. Theres also at the very least a comprehendible story (even if it isn't anything too crazy)

Its made me realize, I actually love this kind of game! Like, this is awesome! The genre really lends itself to making a fun game! But apparently, the Souls games despite having years to get it right.. cant seem to do it much better than a group of indie devs! In my opinion, at least. Ive only ever played Elden Ring, so im not sure if maybe the other souls games are like this, or might be better than this, but I find Elden Ring to just be abysmal to play through.

I know Elden Ring is a beloved game by many, even winning game of the year for when it came out, but I just sit here in misery every time I play. Even when beating bosses, I dont feel a euphoria of "yea yippee I did it!" more of just a "uggggh im glad its over". What do you all think? Does a Soulslike have to be unfair in order to be good?

[sokil]

haha, i've never played through elden ring myself but i can definitely relate to your frustration as someone who has played some of bloodborne! i love bloodborne, don't get me wrong, but maaaan it is one hell of a rage-inducing game at times. i don't quite "get" soulslikes so i approach it the same way i'd approach a game like skyrim - guns blazin' goofing off, more or less one day i'll actually figure things out and get around to beating the game. i had a similar experience with one of the actual souls games on xbox years back since it was free to download at one point, might've been dark souls II.

i have heard of another crab's treasure and i think i actually have it on my steam wishlist. to be honest, i didn't even know it was a soulslike game! i just thought the crabs looked cool xD and steam recommended it to me since i had played vampyr (which, i'll be honest, i don't really understand the connection here). i'm glad you're having a fun experience with it!!! it looks like a really fun game

i know it's debated on whether or not this is actually a soulslike game, but i enjoy remnant: from the ashes a lot. i've never tried a solo run so i don't know how difficult it would be, but i know it can be quite difficult at points with a full party of three. a friend of mine who is super into the souls games recommended it to me and a mutual friend, and we're almost finished with the story. we haven't played in a while so it's possible that this has been fixed now, but the only real problem i've had with the game is that it can get awfully laggy in my opinion, i'd say it is a more forgiving soulslike game because there aren't really any penalties when you die (as far as i'm aware, other than the 'restart' point being a little further back than desirable); otherwise, it's got many of the same souls game mechanics.

i definitely don't think that soulslike games have to be unfair in order to be good games - or "true" soulslike games for that matter, since i expect some of the more hardline fans will probably argue such. counter-strike and fishards are both classified as shooter games, but fishards being sillier and much simpler doesn't make it any less of one. perhaps it's a rather silly example, but overall i think that trying to categorize game genres by how "unfair" they are is just unnecessary. i'd much rather hear a game be criticized as a "bad" soulslike game because maybe it doesn't incorporate specific mechanics as well as another does than hear "x isn't actually a soulslike game because it's easier than y".