Mortal Shell is free on the Epic Games Store for today.
One day, we will read his name in the news and cheer.In fact, from what I've seen, Elden Ring is pretty bright and colourful overall. Limgrave and really most of the rest of the surface world looks more or less like The Fellowship of the Ring, with the additions of visible trees of Valinor and incongruously terrestrial marine life.
Strongly gothic horror-fantasy art direction is pretty strongly associated with it, though, probably both because Fromsoft did it first and because it resonates well with common mechanics like restricted healing, experience as currency, and the gameplay loop of dying repeatedly until you succeed.
(On the subject of which, I'm hopeful about Nazralath
almost entirely because of the environment and sound design, despite a couple of obvious placeholders making it clear it isn't publication-ready yet.)
Middle-Earth is a world in ruins, too, though. :P Raya Lucaria is pretty gothic, and Leyndell has some of that as well, but it also reminds me a lot of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath. (This may admittedly have more to do with LOTR not actually being as High Fantasy as most of its imitators.)
Edited by Noaqiyeum on Dec 30th 2022 at 5:30:01 PM
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO![]()
![]()
Most of Middle-Earth that has people in it is inhabited. Unless you go to Ost-in-Osgiliath, you're not likely to find ruins lying around everywhere (Beleriand obviously being inaccessible), you're going to find people living in settlements except in Eriador. Minas Tirith is disproportionately depopulated, but making a comparison between Middle-Earth and the post-apocalyptic Lands Between is a bit of a stretch.
Eriador is that sort of emptiness (if you go out of your way to avoid Lindon, Imladris, Bree, and the Shire), but that's merely one area.
Edited by RainehDaze on Dec 30th 2022 at 6:04:10 PM
The Fellowship literally does find ruins lying around everywhere (Weathertop, the Barrow-Downs in the book, Moria, Amon Hen). It spends a lot of time in the wilderness and very little in populated places. Numenor fell, the elves are leaving, and Gondor is a Vestigial Empire. Even Mordor is less powerful than it used to be. Middle-Earth is full of the remnants of past golden ages, and all the countries are smaller and emptier than their predecessors until after the Third Age comes to an end.
The appearance of the Lands Between is similar. I wasn't talking about anything like population density, because it's harder for a game to portray enormous territories and busy cities as a limitation of the medium, just what the environment contains and how it looks.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NOI did say except in Eriador. Gondor's in decline, but it's not that depopulated aside from Osgiliath. Similarly, the elves are in decline but they don't leave all that many ruins—Ost-in-Edhil would be in ruins, but all we see of that is the end of the road to Moria.
Although, I will admit that I accidentally interpreted it as Lord of the Rings as a whole instead of Fellowship, but I must object to the notion of treating it as a stand-alone story in any fashion.
I'm not sure of to whom that was addressed, but speaking for myself, I'd call it one, yes.
x5 Without thinking too hard about it, I'd say it qualifies.
When thinking about it, it becomes a question of what a "Soulslike" really is. By the definition in this very thread name, Hollow Knight wouldn't count; it's a 2D metroidvania with no stamina meter and no real weapon selection unlike, say, Dark Souls 1. It does feature some of DS's gameplay elements - chiefly regaining your lost stuff by picking up your bloodstain/killing a Shade.
Now, in terms of presentation and the narrative side of things, I would say it qualifies. It's probably one of the stronger contenders here; it has a long-ruined kingdom, a dark prophecy, a plague that sweeps the land, a selection of often doomed-but-spirited adventurers you meet around the world. It's more optimistic than Dark Souls since you can enact real change through some of the endings rather than simply kick the can down the road, too.
Unfortunately, the term "Souls-like" can mean so many things it's genuinely hard to be academic about it - but on vibes alone, I'd say Hollow Knight counts and is as close to it as possible without being an outright ersatz. (like Salt and Sanctuary)
Edited by FergardStratoavis on Feb 26th 2024 at 5:05:56 PM
The thing is, it's a fairly vague definition: just how like Dark Souls need a game be in order to qualify?
I mean, taken far enough, Sekiro wouldn't qualify, as it has certain mechanics of its own. Taken not far enough, and Uncharted would qualify, as it's a third-person action-game.
Regarding Hollow Knight specifically, I'd argue that while there is no selection of weapons or stat-keeping, the actual combat does resemble that of Dark Souls: there's a focus on dealing with enemy attack-patterns, as well as a relatively-punishing amount of damage dealt to the player.
Not to mention saving (other than save-and-quit) being available only at checkpoints; and enemies that respawn (and that, if I recall correctly, respawn on using checkpoints).
That, combined with the above-mentioned elements of recovery runs and scattered NPCs, is to my mind pretty Soulslike.
And I suppose that's the thing: genres tend to not be hard-and-fast things, but rather "I know it when I see it" things.
They're a bit like species: On the face of it, they seem clearly separated. But when examined more closely, edge-cases start to appear, and the borders begin to shade into each other...
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Feb 26th 2024 at 7:57:35 PM
My Games and Asset PacksThat is interesting! A bit of convergent evolution, or unconscious inspiration, perhaps! ^_^
My Games and Asset PacksI think the thing is that Dark Souls was both distinct and innovative in a wide variety of ways, to the point that two Souls-like games can both be clearly imitating it but not strongly resemble each other. And not everything that made it distinct was original to it (its strong gothic fantasy art direction, for example), but combining so many previously-unrelated elements meant it was a game where many players were exposed to them without realising something else inspired it.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO

Indeed, I do agree then I believe.
In that case I indeed wouldn't call it a "Soulslike"—as I said, my comments regarding the combat were specifically about the combat, rather than a full definition of the genre, as I recall.
I'm inclined to agree!
(Edited for page-topper.)
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Dec 28th 2022 at 10:01:15 PM
My Games and Asset Packs