The Problem With 'Soulslike'

Look, I like Dark Souls as much as the next guy but...

Been on a recent From Software binge playing through Bloodborne, DS3, Demon's Souls Remake etc. and I got a bone to pick with some of ya'll. Whatever hard game it is you're thinking about, no, it is not the "Dark Souls of-" anything.
Hyped for Elden Ring tho

Also no, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is NOT a soulslike just cause the mf can DODGE ROLL.

And yes I know the Demon's Souls gameplay is from the PlayStation 5 remake, not the original. I don't have a ps3, let me live.

[blugil]

fire video. subscribed, liked, commented, clicked the bell, shared it to my family, played it at my grandma's funeral (she was resurrected), this video cured my stage four terminal cancer, my depression, and fixed my unrelenting habit to call shitting while constipated a souls-like experience. cant wait to see more

[justjero]

I am calling abusive households: "soulslike parenting" from now on

[uanime]

Fun fact: FPS used to be called "Doom clones".

[tristan]

I'm a huge fan of soulsbornekiroring and i'm so glad miyazaki invented difficulty, this is truly a soulsbornekiroring moment.

[lolsaidthescorpionlmao]

The real problem is that most developers miss the real point and don't even put a single barefoot maiden in their games, like c'mon guys! it's called soles like for a reason!

[DragnReapr]

"Demons Souls is the Dark Souls of Souls games" is something my friends and I like to say to mock the over-use of soulslike

[aspiringchampion]

your voice is so calming i fell asleep, not in a bad way.
you could talk about your what tea you like the most and i would still listen

[nativepredator]

I think part of the problem is when a game comes out and gets labled as something because it shares things; it is automatically compared to the game prior. This can be a bad thing becauae some games would be seen as better if they werent compared to other games just because it is similar in some ways

[TurdFrguson]

"Souls-like parenting" killed me. Very souls-like humor.

[kisukoev]

The first and most influential videogame of all time is Pong, so I'd say Dark Souls is a

[joshuavick]

Feeling like I have the exaggerated swagger of a medieval fantasy protagonist is exactly why I love Dark souls, among many reasons. You hit the nail on the head my guy

[blad...]

This video's message is incorrect. That's not the problem with "Soulslike". The problem is people use it incorrectly. They drastically overuse it. That's the problem. You got it all wrong. The terms Roguelike and Roguelite and Soulslike are fine. It's people that are dumb and ruin it.

[QuantumWaltze]

In Japan they are called "shinige" (dying games or something like that), games where dying and coming back, learning from your mistakes is part of the mechanic and usually it's implemented in the story as well.

[realkingofantarctica]

Everyone knows that Kirby's Dream Course was the first Souls-like game. Why do you think Miyazaki made Mimic Tear the strongest thing in the game? Because Kirby does the same thing and he's the strongest character in fiction. I rest my case, OJ didn't do it.

[synystero]

hey Nasu! great video bro. just love the tone of your voice makes it so easy to listen, and i really admire this presepective and agree with it completely. even as a hardcore fromsoftware fan i agree that putting lables on any artform limits the potential of its creators and also tunnels the expectations of what people think a game Shoul be played like. beautiful talk. thank you!

[dragonsamurai]

It also has managed to trap fun action gameplay in dark settings.

Heck, I'd go so far as to say the better the 3D combat system, the more it's expected to be in the goriest most gritty style imaginable.

[masterklaw]

Remember when all FPS games were called "Doom Clones"?

Edit: The point I tried to make here is that as the FPS genre evolved, Doom's copy-cats took fewer and fewer elements from the Doom gameplay loop. As a result, the only similarities Doom shared with these other games (post-1996 when "Quake" was released) was that they were in first person and had shooting-based combat, thus narrowing down the definition to an extremely flexible category.

As for how this relates to Souls-Likes, FromSoftware made more and more changes to the Dark Souls formula in subsequent games, adding and subtracting various features, like adding rallying in Bloodborne and removing the stamina bar in Sekiro. As a result, we ended up with games that played very differently as a whole while still having the same core mechanics.

[jorgeramirez]

I always thought a "soulslike" game was when enemies respawn each time you "rest" or level up, and losing your level up points each time you died. Dark Souls was the first game to introduce me to those mechanics.

[dyson]

this is the exact premise of my research paper im writing for college and helped me a lot for points i wanted to cover, thank you !

[ruppzie]

all those parry's put me into tears.
one must be above all to acquire such a power!
sensational, Magnificent.