The Problem with Soulslike Games.
Posted: December 8th, 2019, 1:30 pm
I don't think it'd come as any surprise if I said that I'm crazy about the Dark Souls games. Now that the trilogy is finished and they don't plan on making more, I'm forced to try and get my Soulsian fix elsewhere--which isn't all that hard, seeing as how Dark Souls has literally created an all new genre of video game. Tons of developers are trying to cash in on that trend but, to me at least, none of them have really managed it. Nioh is decent, but couldn't keep my attention. Code Vein frustrated me in a way Souls never did. The Surge was just flat out boring. And yet, looking at reviews for those games, it seems most people really like them.
I think my problem is that these games play too much like Dark Souls, but at the same time not enough like it. They all have combat that revolves around stamina management, you lose XP when you die but have one chance to reclaim it, and resting at checkpoints resets the level and all the enemies you've killed. But the developers all put their own subtle spin on it to keep them from being straight up copies of Dark Souls. I can respect that. But it's those differences that throw me off.
As anyone who's played Dark Souls can tell you, you have to learn Dark Souls. It's incredibly open in terms of how you can choose to play it, but first you have to un-learn how other games have taught you to play. By the time you've beaten all three games like I have, the lessons they teach you are so ingrained in your skull that they're practically second nature. That presents a problem when you're playing a game that's Dark-Souls-But-Not-Quite. Both Nioh and Code Vein have fewer options when it comes to approaching combat. Code Vein is built around cooperative play, and Nioh makes you pay closer attention to your stamina bar since you have to manually recharge it. Neither of them have a huge list of options when it comes to choosing how you fight, instead focusing more on head-on confrontation.
None of these makes them bad games. But it does mean that if you approach them the same way you did Dark Souls, you're not going to get far. That means that you have to un-learn the lessons that Dark Souls taught you, which forced you to un-learn everything else before being able to play in the first place. I thought I'd be open to that, but to my own surprise...I'm not.
Everyone says that the key to enjoying these games is to stop thinking of them as Dark Souls clones, and just see them as Code Vein and Nioh. That's easier said than done, though. Like I said, these games feel like Dark Souls. That makes me want to play them like Dark Souls. When the tactics and strategies that I worked so hard to master in Dark Souls turn out to not work in these games, I find that I don't have the patience to go through the entire learning process a second time.
But here's the weird thing: I don't know if this is my fault or theirs. That's because there's one Soulslike game that I absolutely loved: Bloodborne. Yes, it was made by the same developers, but everything I said about Nioh and Code Vein applies to it too. It follows the Dark Souls formula, but adds its own changes like no shields, firearms, and more aggressive enemies. But I jumped into it and loved every second of it because it has the one thing that the others don't: it feels like Dark Souls. The changes make it its own thing, but not enough to where a guy who's played all three Dark Souls games can't feel right at home in it. Nioh and Code Vein aren't bad games. They're well made. But they feel so different to the games that inspired them that I couldn't get into them.
Wow, that went on a lot longer than I thought it would. Anyone else have their own opinions on this?
I think my problem is that these games play too much like Dark Souls, but at the same time not enough like it. They all have combat that revolves around stamina management, you lose XP when you die but have one chance to reclaim it, and resting at checkpoints resets the level and all the enemies you've killed. But the developers all put their own subtle spin on it to keep them from being straight up copies of Dark Souls. I can respect that. But it's those differences that throw me off.
As anyone who's played Dark Souls can tell you, you have to learn Dark Souls. It's incredibly open in terms of how you can choose to play it, but first you have to un-learn how other games have taught you to play. By the time you've beaten all three games like I have, the lessons they teach you are so ingrained in your skull that they're practically second nature. That presents a problem when you're playing a game that's Dark-Souls-But-Not-Quite. Both Nioh and Code Vein have fewer options when it comes to approaching combat. Code Vein is built around cooperative play, and Nioh makes you pay closer attention to your stamina bar since you have to manually recharge it. Neither of them have a huge list of options when it comes to choosing how you fight, instead focusing more on head-on confrontation.
None of these makes them bad games. But it does mean that if you approach them the same way you did Dark Souls, you're not going to get far. That means that you have to un-learn the lessons that Dark Souls taught you, which forced you to un-learn everything else before being able to play in the first place. I thought I'd be open to that, but to my own surprise...I'm not.
Everyone says that the key to enjoying these games is to stop thinking of them as Dark Souls clones, and just see them as Code Vein and Nioh. That's easier said than done, though. Like I said, these games feel like Dark Souls. That makes me want to play them like Dark Souls. When the tactics and strategies that I worked so hard to master in Dark Souls turn out to not work in these games, I find that I don't have the patience to go through the entire learning process a second time.
But here's the weird thing: I don't know if this is my fault or theirs. That's because there's one Soulslike game that I absolutely loved: Bloodborne. Yes, it was made by the same developers, but everything I said about Nioh and Code Vein applies to it too. It follows the Dark Souls formula, but adds its own changes like no shields, firearms, and more aggressive enemies. But I jumped into it and loved every second of it because it has the one thing that the others don't: it feels like Dark Souls. The changes make it its own thing, but not enough to where a guy who's played all three Dark Souls games can't feel right at home in it. Nioh and Code Vein aren't bad games. They're well made. But they feel so different to the games that inspired them that I couldn't get into them.
Wow, that went on a lot longer than I thought it would. Anyone else have their own opinions on this?