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"Soulslike" (games with gameplay like Dark Souls) Thread

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FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#1: Dec 20th 2022 at 9:45:18 AM

I was searching Youtube and saw a new game called "Lies of P" that sounded neat. Turns out it was a Dark Souls-esque game. Normally I'd have just made a thread to discuss it, but I realized something - there's a whole dang lot of these games now.

So I figure this thread can be here to isolate commonalities between games like this and discuss all of them in general.

    examples 

  • Demon's Souls (prototype Dark Souls)
  • Dark Souls 2 (Dark Souls but you forgot about it)
  • Dark Souls 3 (Dark Souls but it's all about the memes)
  • Bloodborne (Dark Souls with guns and Gothic Horror)
  • Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (Dark Souls but you're a ninja)
  • The Surge (Dark Souls but post-apocalyptic sci-fi)
  • Jedi Fallen Order (Dark Souls but Star Wars)
  • Crash Bandicoot (Dark Souls but with a bandicoot)
  • Dead Cells, Hyper Light Drifter, Eldest Souls, Salt and Sanctuary (Dark Souls but 2D)
  • Nioh (Dark Souls but you're a samurai)
  • Elden Ring (Dark Souls if it were written by George R.R Martin)
  • Hellpoint
  • Lords of the Fallen
  • Mortal Shell (Dark Souls but the DM has premade character sheets for you)
  • Code Vein (Dark Souls but anime)
  • Stranger of Paradise (Dark Souls but with Final Fantasy lore)
  • Lies of P (Dark Souls but Pinnochio)
  • Hollow Knight (Dark Souls by way of bugs)
  • Immortal Unchained (Dark Souls but it's a 3rd Person Shooter)
  • Sinner Sacrifice For Redemption (Dark Souls but its a Boss Game)
  • Little Witch Nobeta (Dark Souls meets Little Witch Academia)
  • Let It Die (Dark Souls if Suda 51 directed)
  • Momodora summary
  • Blasphemous summary

If there's any other traits to these games, or anything wrong here, feel free to add.

Participants are currently working on a list of basic requirements for a "Souls-like" title. Follow along here

There is a workpage for Souls-like RPG's

Edited by FOFD on Dec 25th 2022 at 10:01:41 AM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#2: Dec 20th 2022 at 9:58:07 AM

I mean, that's a pretty bad description for Elden Ring. It's not GRRM inspired, he wrote some of the initial outlines. [lol]

ArsThaumaturgis Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: I've been dreaming of True Love's Kiss
#3: Dec 20th 2022 at 1:57:29 PM

I'll note that, so it seems to me, quite a few of the current day's metroidvanias are Soulslikes to one degree or another. See for example Hollow Knight.

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FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#4: Dec 20th 2022 at 5:48:52 PM

[lol] (2) Updated.

[up] I've heard of Hollow Knight and the sequel Silksong I think it was? Never played it though.

HamburgerTime Since: Apr, 2010
#5: Dec 20th 2022 at 6:00:23 PM

There's a lot of "gothy" games around these days, aren't there? In addition to the Soulslikes, there's a ton of dark scary 2D platformers coming out of the indie developers, with creepy one-word names like Vigil and Blasphemous and Grime and stuff.

People most really miss non-pachinko Castlevania! [lol]

jormis29 Since: Mar, 2012
#6: Dec 20th 2022 at 10:19:03 PM

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption but it is a Boss Game

Edited by jormis29 on Dec 21st 2022 at 8:39:34 PM

uncertanSearcher It's always Season of the Witch from Germany Since: Oct, 2017
It's always Season of the Witch
#7: Dec 20th 2022 at 10:29:53 PM

[up][up]Salt and Sanctuary is another 2-D Soulslike and might even have been the first one of that kind.

ArsThaumaturgis Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: I've been dreaming of True Love's Kiss
#8: Dec 21st 2022 at 3:27:59 AM

I've heard of Hollow Knight and the sequel Silksong I think it was? Never played it though.

Silksong I believe isn't out yet, and I fear that I know little of it (besides it following an NPC from the first game and taking place in a new location).

Hollow Knight, however, might perhaps be described in brief as: "Dark Souls by way of bugs".

The setting is the vast, crumbling, all-but-dead kingdom of Hallownest, peopled in this case by bugs. And within this kingdom is a plague that drives the living insane and animates the husks of the dead.

Into this comes a small, mute bug, who ventures throughout the myriad paths and tunnels of the kingdom, discovering its scattered remaining people and fighting its myriad vicious creatures.

All, perhaps, to face the bearer—and perhaps the source—of the plague...

Mechanically, Hollow Knight is primarily a metroidvania platformer: The game-world is 2D, seen side-on, and traversal challenges involve various types of platforming. Over the course of the game, various abilities are gained that aid in traversal and that open up access to new areas.

However, it's also a Soulslike: On death, the player loses all money, as well as suffering a limitation to their maximum "mana"-equivalent—both of which, of course, may be recovered. The money, however, is lost if the player dies again before recovery. Further, where Dark Souls has "bonfires", Hollow Knight has "benches": places where the player can recover, deal with their equipment—and reset all standard enemies.

There's more, of course—including some of the specifics that give Hollow Knight its particular "flavour", its individuality. For example, "equipment" primarily takes the form of "charms", each providing some benefit or alteration, and a limited number of which may be equipped at any one time.

But this post is getting long, so I won't delve too much further right now, I intend!

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RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#9: Dec 21st 2022 at 3:38:35 AM

I believe Little Witch Nobeta is out, and it has a lot of the combat mechanics of one. Albeit, from what I remember of the prerelease, it is vastly more linear and you're not going to be picking up random weapons for days.

FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#10: Dec 21st 2022 at 6:45:48 AM

Updated [up] [up][up]

Little Witch Nobeta seems like a cute, chibi Dark Souls kind of

SgtRicko Since: Jul, 2009
#11: Dec 21st 2022 at 8:10:35 AM

Let It Die would be another candidate - except the design is focused on the fact it's a Free-to-Play game and noticeably rougher around the edges. Oh, and Suda 51 was involved in it's creation, so it's definitely on the zanier side of things.

Edited by SgtRicko on Dec 22nd 2022 at 2:12:38 AM

Impossum Really Needs to Get Some Sleep from the corner of a troubled mind Since: Jan, 2019 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Really Needs to Get Some Sleep
#12: Dec 21st 2022 at 1:47:34 PM

Momodora series has Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, a metroidvania game which I think is pretty close to being called a souls-like: it has a depressingly dark atmosphere and setting, minimal story which mostly gets unveiled through flavour text and rare dialogues, simple melee and ranged combat combined with a Unnecessary Combat Roll, challenging bosses, various items you can equip to improve your weapons and skills and gain useful effects, etc.

Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is currently in development and seem to be going on a similar path as its predecessor in regards of gameplay and overall aesthetic.

There's also Minoria, which is sort of a spiritual successor made by the same developer.

Mullon Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
#13: Dec 21st 2022 at 7:54:54 PM

I just wish they didn't all look the same.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.
doomrider7 (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#14: Dec 22nd 2022 at 12:30:39 AM

Blasphemous also fits a lot of these molds in a similar way as Hollow Knight due to both also being Metroidvanias.

- Explore a crumbling kingdom(debatable if Cvstodia was ever great).

- Money is dropped and penalty is incurred on death.

- Large amounts of the story and lore are told via flavor text.

- Most bosses are horrific abominations of famous or once great people.

- Much Gothic and depressing world.

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#15: Dec 23rd 2022 at 3:38:26 AM

So, Nobeta was pretty fun. It even got into some of the more thematic Soulslike elements as things went on, like a very strong implication of a world after the end (or at least very destroyed kingdoms), tragic bosses, and the final boss having sad piano music. (Not an old man, though, that wouldn't fit the theme). [lol]

Also a pretty fun thing. Far more shooty than most soulslikes, but the core idea of dodge and attack is still there, you get a parry feature, etc.

So, despite using hololive members to do boss voiceovers and being an adorable anime game, it's probably more of a soulslike than the metroidvanias mentioned so far. xD

Might start on a page, but god do I hate indexing.

uncertanSearcher It's always Season of the Witch from Germany Since: Oct, 2017
It's always Season of the Witch
#16: Dec 23rd 2022 at 10:30:24 PM

I guess Iron Pineapple's Souls-Like games you never heard of searies is relevant to this topic. Looking for the more obscure and often weird Souls-Likes on Steam, with some genuine hidden gems being among them on occasion.

He is up to part 18 now, there are a lot of these games to be found.

eagleoftheninth Shop all day, greed is free from a dreamed portrait, imperfect Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Shop all day, greed is free
#17: Dec 24th 2022 at 6:44:26 AM

Do we have a basic list of "Souslike" criteria for the purpose of this discussion? I don't think anyone would actually call Crash Bandicoot 4 as one other than in joking reference to its high difficulty, for example. I think that a title would need maybe half of these to qualify:

  • Money Is Experience Points

  • Corpse running, aka you drop your currency/XPs when you die and need to go back to the spot to retrieve it (or a similar consequence mechanic for deaths)

  • Well-telegraphed enemy attacks that balance out the precision needed to successfully dodge, block or parry them

  • You can save and refill your health/mana at fixed save points, which also revives most non-boss enemies (as well as resetting the world state in other ways)

  • Interconnected level design, with unlockable shortcuts balancing out the distance between save points

  • High design and narrative focus on boss battles

  • Emphasis on "organic" storytelling, relying more on environmental details and gameplay elements (like boss moves) to lay out the story over expository dialogue and traditional cutscenes

Going forward, I think it would be a good idea to introduce whichever title we want to talk about by briefly explaining how it fits (or doesn't fit) these criteria, as well as the unique elements they bring to the table.

One day, we will read his name in the news and cheer.
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#18: Dec 24th 2022 at 6:55:44 AM

Mmm, I think you're underselling the fight mechanics there. I'm always extremely leery of things that would classify anything without at least 2/3 of the combat formula as a Soulslike.

And a reliance on the level designed evidenced in DS 1 might be overdoing it, since I don't think that shows up in any of the sequels or Bloodborne (or Elden Ring), so it's hardly integral. A neat bonus (Grime had it IIRC), but very much not a defining feature. Even the DLC of Dark Souls is pretty linear.

Also, have we listed Nioh yet? It is like THE most obvious example of a non-From level-based soulslike. [lol]

Edit: yup, see it there now. Missed it because no link.

Edited by RainehDaze on Dec 24th 2022 at 2:56:31 PM

Dylan_Dog Since: May, 2020 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#19: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:03:12 AM

Soulslike doesn't really have a combat formula. It's simple: dodge and counter. Just because you get punished harder for it doesn't make it deeper. The beauty of Soulslike isn't really in the combat, imo.

ArsThaumaturgis Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: I've been dreaming of True Love's Kiss
#20: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:05:54 AM

[up][up][up] Interestingly, I ran Hollow Knight through that out of curiosity, and... it checks all of those points, I believe.

(It's hard to say just how much time and effort went into designing the bosses, of course, but there's plenty of them and they're each quite different.)

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Dec 24th 2022 at 5:06:20 PM

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RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#21: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:10:35 AM

You sure? I'd consider that the essential action components of the action RPG part of it are the majority of a dodge, block, parry, a stamina system to limit endless abuse of same mechanics, and a third person perspective to wrap it together. Weapon options are a pretty common one. And then you add in the generally-exacting timing or hitboxes to add difficulty (and a hatred of mercy invulnerability).

That is what I consider the core of what I look for in a new soulslike. Nioh doesn't have a generic parry option but it has all the rest. Grime is 2d and I can't remember if it DOES have a block or stamina (sorry flaky memory), but it has the others for sure. Nobeta's combat lacks weapon choices (it has magic options instead which are more ranged) and a block, but everything else is checked off.

And maybe limited healing that leaves you open to getting whacked more.

FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#22: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:21:51 AM

I'm updating the original post soon, just preoccupied.

Crash Bandicoot was indeed a joke.

A basic list of what the thread believes qualifies for a "souls-like" would be a great idea.

uncertanSearcher It's always Season of the Witch from Germany Since: Oct, 2017
It's always Season of the Witch
#23: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:39:53 AM

The biggest part that makes Souls-like mechanics to me is a large emphasis on needing to read enemy movement patterns and needing to find the right rythm of how to approach each encounter.

A very immersive and deliberate feeling combat.

FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#24: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:45:43 AM

By that definition Crash Bandicoot would sort of count lol

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#25: Dec 24th 2022 at 7:47:57 AM

That's why I got rather exhaustive on the 3d mechanics side of thing.

You can probably draw a divide between narrarively soulslike and mechanically.


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