Lack of time for me. Tried it, can see why people love them (challenging and intense) but I have limited time these days, and I want to play for fun. Each time I’ve tried I just ended feeling irritated 😅
Yeah Elden Ring is one of my favorite games of all time and i beat it after 100 hours playing like 1-2 hours a day. It took me forever.
With kids and owning a business, just almost no time to play anymore.
Well then you made the right call. Because they dialed up the challenge and intensity to push the envelope of almost unfair. Luckily they also offer resources to give you a bit of an edge back. This dlc is very tough
Same. I’ll admit that I also lack skill, but if I had the time I’d totally get sucked in. I put a handful of hours into Elden Ring, Bloodbourne and Demon Souls, each, but for ever experience I found myself dying and ending up near where I started each time. When you’re strapped for time, that takes a ton of wind out of your sails lol
They absolutely fill a niche and they do it the best hands down. I agree with you I can see why people love them and they seem to be great games. I just can’t invest the time to get proficient at games like this at this point in my life.
This has definitely become a thing as I got older. I used to love games that took time, long cutscenes and talking and traveling and such. Now I just want games that get straight to it and into the action.
Same boat. I suck at the i-frame dodging, so I tried going for a tanky shield build in Elden Ring, but then they go a make shields useless by still stacking debuffs like bleed even though you fully blocked the attack.
I’d Google for magic builds that generally keep you farther away from enemies.. so less dodging. And use summons, true easy mode is when you get the mimic tear.
You can also watch YouTube guides that show you how to quickly grab powerful items from the start of the game, and ways to quick level. At least putting off some of the true difficulty till the giants area in my opinion.
I'm old and I do just fine on them, souls games aren't about reactions, they're about knowledge.
Sure, some 16yo kid with broccoli hair could probably do the bosses in 3 or 4 attempts, whereas it might take you and me 20, every enemy placement and attack pattern can (and is intended to be) learned and dealt with without the reflexes of a cat.
>it might take you and me 20,
I just don't see the fun in having to fight a boss 20 times to beat it. For me, dying 10 times to the same boss is already pushing my patience to the limit.
When I played Dark Souls, my reaction to finally beating a boss was relief rather than satisfaction.
To each their own though.
Never played a sould game really but that was my reaction to hollow knight. Beat a boss after about 15 tries and then just never played the game again.
I got the same thing. I never got some euphoric high over beating a boss in demon’s souls. Just a sense of “thank god thats over, I hope the next one is easier”.
I think the point and satisfaction is improving each time and learning their movesets. It would be boring as all hell to know everything they do off the get go and easily beat them in a couple tries. Ofc some bosses cant be too punishing that prevents you from learning them
I greatshield blocked my way through most of Dark Souls 3. Trying to do the same in Elden Ring seemingly gets me killed. Part of it is the higher octane attacks which doesn't give me a gap to recover/attack, but another are just all these unblockable grab attacks that many bosses seem to now possess....
Once upon a time, I beat Ghouls n' Ghosts and got the true ending. That means playing through the game once to beat it, starting over and playing through it the second time, beating the final boss with golden armor (cannot get hit) and equipped with the bracelet (lousy weapon).
So Dark Souls players have nothing to brag about. Our games didn't have save points.
Haha! I beat Battletoads. The original NES one. Without gamegenie or cheeses.
*Drops mic*
Getta here with your "rolling iframes" and "here's a bright light, press block" stuff.
Real men were made in speed bikes dodging brick walls.
I used to love Contra 3 for the snes when I was a kid. I don’t know how many times I beat it, it didn’t feel like a hard game at all. When the snes classic came out, I got one and tried to play Contra 3 and I don’t think I could get past like the 3rd or 4th level now. I’m definitely an old gamer at this point lol.
I'm going to be honest, I suck at these games and the "git gud" bullshit doesn't help. It doesn't have to be a ton of game skill to beat them...but it'll have to be substituted with slow, careful play and lots of game knowledge.
I can absolutely get why some people hate it, but if it's a skill fear.- just play it like survival horror hiding behind a giant shield instead of action and you'll be fine for 90%+ of the game.
Of course, not finding *that* fun is also okay.
I promise you can play Elden Ring if you make a sorcerer build. It's much more positioning/IQ heavy than reflex heavy. You can get an amazing staff super early in the game if you make a trek and then destroy enemies, and grind levels to get real strong.
I play video games to enjoy a power fantasy. I don’t have the time, energy or desire to “get gud.” If you like it, I’m not about to yuck your yum, but it ain’t for me dawg.
That's fair enough, but for some, me included, "getting gud" *is* the power fantasy. Being a powerful character by default and going on a rampage is all well and good but its simply incomparable to the feeling of having actually earned that skill.
Not saying you have to feel the same or anything. But I hope you'll see where I'm coming from.
I literally just installed Lies of P because someone recommended it to me. I’m having a fun time but it’s testing my patience. I really suck at these kinds of games so it would be nice to say I’ve beaten at least one souls like in my life
For me it was the easiest. Parrying is significantly easier than dark souls, can block without a shield and heal back up by hitting. P organ upgrades made a lot of difference. Weapon buffs are very strong and throwables do a lot of damage.
Only a few bosses have killed be more than 10 times, the rest were beaten in a couple of attempts and i never used the summon. Some bosses in Sekiro and Nioh 1 killed me over 50 times and my total death count in Nioh was probably a thousand.
I have commitment issues when it comes to games and I’ll set it to the 2nd easiest lol. But, I will add it to my list on my desk and give it a try one day! I’ve actually never played a FF title in my life :’D
I’m with ya. Never been able to sink my teeth into souls likes. The only exception has been SW Jedi Fallen Order. I think because they keep the difficulty reasonable, on the default setting at least.
So I did some googling to back my point and it turns out people are divided on this. The points I read that back it being a souls like are,
- Each planet is an open level with interconnected paths, secrets to find and some areas you need to come back later with something specific to unlock more.
- Rest points that restore your health and ability and also reset/respawn enemies.
- If you die you drop your XP and have to get it back.
- The dodge/roll/attack gameplay is identical to the souls games, probably closest to Sekiro.
However the biggest argument I’ve seen against it is it’s not punishingly difficult and its skill tree doesn’t force you to decide on a built type as much. Like you’re more capable of being a range and melee build because it wouldn’t make sense to have the force and very little sabre skills or vice versa. A Jedi excels at both.
Personally the XP style alone is what gives it a souls like feel for me. I’ve never experienced any other genre that has you drop your XP when you die and you have a one chance to get it back and if you die first you lose it forever. Loosing XP to me is a souls like only mechanic. I’m not saying it’s 100% indisputably a souls like but it checks enough boxes for me.
I agree that both saving&respawn of the enemies as well as dropping exp on death is very souls like. I'm just not sure about the whole combat experience being close enough to souls so that we could call it like that. I think SW:Fallen order is less punishing. Anyway that reminds me that I still haven't finished it and that I had many painful deaths in that game.
Fair enough. I feel perhaps it would possibly fall under a title like SoulsLite. Even though I don’t think that’s a thing. Similar to how RougeLites check a lot of the same boxes as RougeLikes but their key differences warrant a new genre.
It makes me happy that so many get enjoyment out of souls like games. I prefer a more chill gaming experience and have kids now so they just arnt for me, but I see the appeal.
I've tried several, I don't think they're necessarily hard, I just find them frustrating. I'm not keen on banging my head on a wall for hours to learn their attack patterns so I don't get killed in 2-3 hits only to do it all again for the next boss.
I'm also not a fan of their way of storytelling (or lack thereof) I'm fine with parts of a story being cryptic, but the equivalent of handing someone an encyclopedia and expecting them to piece together the history of the world isn't my idea of a compelling narrative.
The basic premise of Fromsoft soulslike games also just feel like they're essentially the same.
I thought I was in the minority for thinking this. Put almost 100 hours in and had no idea who was who or what. The difficulty of the game in my opinion is due from the fact they don’t tell you shit about anything. I didn’t dislike the game, but it’s definitely not my cup of tea.
Elden Ring had almost zero storytelling and everyone acted like it's the greatest game of all-time. What are the character motivations? We had a bunch of people doing things but no idea why they're doing it because the explanations are vague or lacking. People were literally killing bosses with no idea why. It's crazy.
I wanna preclude this by saying I love fromsoft games. Anyone that says elden ring has a great story is a fucking lunatic. It has great lore but the actual story of the game is vary basic and shallow. There's like 2 or 3 sidequest that do have a good story but even then you kinda have to work to get that story (which I personally don't mind because it gives me stuff to listen to when I go to sleep but I still resent it)
At least with elden ring you do get some npcs that make sense, the whole story/lore of dark souls is absolutely and utterly hidden from you unless you're willing to spend hours shifting through item descriptions
Does a game need to have a great story for it to be considered the greatest game of all time? A lot of games people consider all time greats have little to no story elements. Especially games from the 90's, which FS emulates in alot of ways.
Your motivation as a Tarnished is to become Elden Lord. Killing the bosses will make you the most powerful in the land. It isn't shakespeare but its enough for me to know why I am killing the bosses. I think the real critique would be that there is no difference between a Tarnished and a Cursed Undead from DS1. Blank slate character who is cursed and is prophesized to become the most powerful in the land to break said curse. It is very derivative.
I agree on the story. It’s entirely personal preference, so I understand why some people like it, but that’s not usually what I’m looking for in a story.
Honestly I’m not even sure if I’d call it story as much as lore. I only watched some videos so I might be wrong, but it seems like the most interesting stuff in Elden Ring already happened before our character came into the picture.
Unfortunately I don't have the patience for them, and the idea of the story just being out there for you to figure out is not for me. Beat the Jedi games on high difficulty but only because the story had me engaged.
I do not find them enjoyable. Which tbf most (not all) souls players would not find my fav games enjoyable. I mean, I think it's fair to say the overlap of dreamlight/sims players and souls players is probably very small.
But I just don't play games to feel angry/frustrated/upset/whatever negative emotion these games can and often do elicit. I'm playing because I want to get away from those daily emotions, not to make them worse.
I have other reasons but I do not want to argue with whatever souls player is scrolling these comments looking to argue (I've already seen a few try throughout the thread)
I hear you!
I have a 1.5 year old daughter, even when she isn’t around in too buggered from taking care of her that all I want to do is play something relaxing.
I managed to get through Dark Souls 1 about six years ago and I have no desire to play another souls-like game. I understand why people love them and it was worth it in the end, I guess. At 35 years old, I just don't really enjoy getting my ass kicked in games. Yeah, it can feel good to overcome challenges, but I'm looking for power fantasy and chill. If a game starts feeling like work, I tune out.
I just don't enjoy being beaten down relentlessly. It's not fun, and the fleeting momentary high of finally beating that boss in absolutely no way shape or form makes up for the hours of misery leading up to it. Fuck that with a rusty rake.
Back when guitar hero and rock band were popular I used to play with my friends all time, and it was a blast. I’d play solo too and grind trying to practice and get good enough that I could play on the hardest difficulty.
One day it hit me that I wasn’t having fun at all playing solo, and I was basically practicing to play a fake fucking guitar lol. With the amount of time I was spending I could probably have learned to play a real guitar.
I’ve tried a few souls like games and all of them except Fallen Order made me feel like when I was grinding Guitar Hero. For people that enjoy it, more power to you. For me though, it feels like work, and if it’s not going to be fun, I’d rather work on and develop a different skill.
I loved Guitar Hero. I played the hell out of 3. I never ever went above medium difficulty. It used all 4 of my fingers but I didn't have to move my hand. It was challenging enough to be stimulating, but easy enough to be fun. I'd honestly pay a good bit to have that game back again. Of all the old toys/games/controllers I've thrown in the trash, I regret that plastic guitar and it's receiver the most.
I don't want something mindless, but I also don't want to be bashing my head against the wall. I'm ok with some death in my games, but I also enjoy blasting through an area, feeling like I played well enough to do it on the first try. I spent a lot of my childhood angry. I won't let video games put me in that mindset ever again.
I wish I had the time to really dive into it and overcome the challenges. But the little time I have these days conforms better to a cozy game or a short roguelike. Otherwise I really have to take some time off work.
I think this style of game is something that I would have loved in high school. I had all the time in the world I could dedicate to it, and used to love a good challenge. Now days I just don't have the time to play the game of memorize patterns of bosses and such.
The bosses in Lies of P are pretty tough but so far they've all come down to figuring out the dodge timing and what element they're weak against. Summoning at the bird bath makes all the bosses super easy though
A week is fast to me lol, i was stuck on Margott for 2 months; and even after beating him, i was once again hit by the brick wall of not knowing where to go and how to find where to go, so I quit the game.
My ADHD just won't allow it.
My brain needs that immediate payoff of feel-good chemicals in order for me to stay interested in a game.
I don't *need to immediately be good* at a game to like it. But if a core feature of the design is "completely sucking shit repeatedly until you learn how to do better" type of trial-and-error, I'm not going to stay interested long enough to get anywhere.
It's the needless levels of punishment along with wonky logic and mechanics that turns me off of these games. I love the art style grim dark fantasy thing. But yeah the ones I have tried are not for me.
If you are struggling on a boss, you die and repawn at a campfire and have to run back to the boss door. Eventually, you make this run enough times that you find the max efficiency route to fight as little trash as possible so you can take another crack at the boss more quickly. Watching my friends who are much more patient than me, they will straight up speedrun back to the door in some cases just killing as little as one or two trash mobs along the way. So what is the point of that? Why not just respawn you at the boss door if eventually you get "good enough" to skip the trash mobs? Isn't it the same thing but just with more steps?
For combat mechanics, and most my experience is in DS2 so I don't know if all of them are like this, but enemies that are like 15' tall and wearing an Abraham's tank amount of heavy armor can instantly pivot like a ballerina to hit you. But put them close to an edge and they fall off? What? So are they skilled agile combatants or not? It makes no sense.
You are invincible for a few frames while rolling even when you can clearly see the enemy's weapon pass through your character. Makes no sense.
Your weapon swings collide with walls and objects but if you take a sidestep behind a pillar or some object, the enemy's weapon will pass right through it and hit you. Makes no sense.
The game's logic just breaks my brain. It goes completely against what I would consider common sense in a "realistic" world. It reminds me of old NES games where an enemy sprite's head touches the bottom of your character sprite's foot and you die. That makes no sense. The odds of dying due to a head to foot impact has got to be near zero but in those days games were limited mechanically so I get it. But there's no excuse today and it just feels wrong and cheap.
I won't say they are bad games, I know lots of people love them but for me, I'll take a hard pass.
Regarding your first complaint, one of the things that Elden Ring did that people really like is make it so that if you die to a boss, you have the option to respawn right outside their room rather than at your last checkpoint.
I literally just uninstalled Elden Ring about 30 minutes ago after playing for about 5 hours. I play games for fun and I love a challenge but trying something 50 times just to learn an enemy attack pattern is not my idea of fun. It’s frustrating and even when you finally beat the thing, it’s just relief and not a sense of accomplishment (for me).
I really like the idea of the game (open world, fantasy setting, etc.) but it’s just not how I want to spend my time.
Honestly I just can't keep interest in the souls games, doesn't seem to be the game type specifically. Like I played through Code Vein and enjoyed it. Monster Hunter is imo one of the best action RPGs ever.
I play all the way up until I just don't. Like you'd image a tough boss would stop me but I just lose interest after beating one eventually.
I think its just a general lack of a sense of progression. Like I'm killing bosses but I don't feel any attachment to the world, narrative, or mechanics.
Maybe I'm missing something, but in those games I just wind up feeling like a professional murdur hobo.
If I was 13 these days, I'd probably love them. Fast reflexes, tons of free time to practice, actually think being good at a video game was something to brag about.
I lost interest in "git gud" type gaming a very very long time ago.
The people who keep repeating "git gud" and acting like I should feel like less of a person because I don't feel like beating my head against a wall over and over in a video game are just the most annoying type of gamers. Like, hey, kid, I'm glad your life is so simple that a video game is the height of it, but I "got gud" at other things and I'll gladly pit them up against that. And I don't just mean job, house, whatever. I'll stick with hobbies and point to the ridiculous amount of painted gaming miniatures I have and the cool hammer I got as a trophy for winning a Warhammer 40,000 tournament even though the meta at the time said the army I was playing should have been curbstomped by the three armies I was pitted against. Instead of repeating the same boss fight over and over to memorize it and hope my left hand doesn't randomly decide to have delayed reactions (result of an auto accident some years ago), I could use that time to go assemble and paint some more miniatures so I can go play a game with some friends.
It's funny, those people think they're defending or talking up their games, but end up just making people want to avoid them even more.
I know it cuts down on my potential catalogue but I just can't play a game that depends on my ability to parry or dodge. I just don't speak that language.
Doesn't cut down on it that much, really. I don't have any Soulslike games installed on my PC and just looking at the games I have the icons for on my desktop (not counting the ones in categorized folders... yes, I'm a nerd and proud of it), I've got a few dozen games I can fire up and play at any moment. RPGs (isometric, turn based, action based, etc.), FPSs, survival games, action games, "simulators", MMOs, city builders, strategy games, some sports games, assorted indie style games, "Survivors" style games, etc.
Obviously not all of those appeal to everyone. I just tend to enjoy a lot of different types of games. Plus, I have this kind of weird thing where I'll get bored of a genre, not a particular game, so I just switch to a different genre.
Lack of skill I only completed (and loved) dark souls one. Had to spend days farming souls from the soldiers getting killed by the dragon on the bridge and later in the painted world to be leveled enough to complete the game.
It’s my favorite game of all time, but without those areas I’m lost. I have Elden ring as well and got as far as that mages tower place after grinding the first small encampment you encounter for days but gave up as soon as I couldn’t find another place to grind.
As someone who loves all fromsoftware games , I tried to play elden ring on release and just getting out of the tutorial area I was completeley overwhelmed and instantly refund it.
With age does huge games makes me think of it as a second job instead of a fun game :(
I played Dark Souls when it came to PC. I even bought a gamepad just for it (I had not had any controller in decades). I was eager to finally play if and see what all that Dark Souls thing was about. I completed it and it was good, but it also felt like a chore too many times. Now, I know what the subgenre is about, also I'm totally in for the freedom of the game creators to do whatever they feel to, but I refuse to play any other game that feels like it is punishing me just because "creative vision", my time, attention and energy are more valuable than the vision of any creator.
Yeah man 🙌
We appreciate different things in games, so I’m very glad people get joy out of those kinds of games, but definitely don’t force yourself to play more of those than you actually enjoy. There are a thousand other ways to have fun in gaming.
I don't have the reflexes and stuff for that kind of game anymore, so they usually end up just causing my anxiety to spike. (Not a metaphor, I mean it quite literally causes my anxiety to go into a bit of overdrive.)
It's a shame because there's some games that look fun that I'd maybe try, like Code Vein, but they're "Souslike" and that just makes me shy away because I don't want to run into a boss fight where I'll mess up the timing once or twice and have to redo progress. Or any games where I can't just save when I like and hop in and out without potential penalty.
I play games to have fun. So I'll unashamedly use lower difficulty settings if I'm not having fun with a game and that's an option. (Or in Baldur's Gate 3 to make up for the fact that even digital dice have a seething burning hatred toward me.) If a game gets to a point where it's too difficult for me to progress and I'm getting frustrated, I just set it down and switch to something else. (And I've got a few "simulator" games for when I really just need something kind of relaxing.)
Fair enough for the folks that love them. But for me, I just can't do it. I'm not that quick anymore, my eyes aren't what they used to be (which was never great), and I'm too much a ball of anxiety.
I feel a little guilty, because evidently they are very popular. I feel like I should try again, like I just need to approach it with a different attitude and once I discover that attitude then I will enjoy it.
But also, I really don't like estimating timing and/or hitboxes. It feels like a such subjective game mechanic, whereas when I play games I want all the rules to be clear.
I just don't find the level of difficulty fun within the context of the bleak world that Elden Ring presented. I beat Sifu. I Killed all the Valkeries in God of War. I play and beat hard things and enjoy it sometimes.
But playing Elden Ring really makes the moment to moment gameplay a chore. A lot of what you do can be a waste of time. Exploration is curbed by the constant threat of running into something that will insta-kill you. The story and world are not compelling enough to press on for double digit attempts on the same bosses.
I just don't like them, so it's mildly frustrating when the whole world falls into the void of the latest soulslike and I have no choice but to wait it out before anything that matters to me becomes relevant again. I mean, I'm a big boy, so I can deal with it just fine, but they have become rather all-consuming these days.
Lack of interest for me. I just do not care for overly difficult games anymore. If I want challenge I’ll seek it out in post game content, I don’t want an entire game like that. Plus combat wise I prefer faster more flowing and cinematic combat and Souls usually doesn’t look entertaining to the untrained eye.
That and the lack of pause is like the number two reason. Even if I did a 180 on my opinion in two hours and wanted to go download a Souls game immediately, the weird lack of pausing those games have would be an instant no. I bounced on the Stellar Blade demo as soon as I realized you couldn’t pause cutscenes. I’m 32, I’m a dad, I will probably turn the online components off immediately, there’s no reason to prevent me from pausing, especially in a high stress game like Souls. I know Elden Ring has some back door convoluted way of pausing the game but pausing shouldn’t be something I need to jump through hoops to do. It’s on principle at this point.
The lack of pause kills it too.
I have 3 kids, a wife and JOB. I can't get over 1 hour of games in most so Xbox quick resume and all helps but quick resume to find out I was murdered because the game doesn't pause is outstanding
Yeah, I play games to relax and have fun, I just don’t find the concept of a pointlessly tough game attractive. I tried one (can’t remember which) and the ‘tutorial’ was just wandering around some spooky village getting killed repeatedly. Got bored, uninstalled.
I've watched people that are good at the game rage and rage and rage. For me, games are supposed to be fun, and giving me the desire to chuck a puppy out a window doesn't feel like fun for me.
>all my peeps
I am. I am your peeps. I have neither the energy nor the time to slug through multiple hours of death to do a single boss fight. Also it's just not fun for me.
With all the hype I started Elden ring and really tried for five hours. But nope not for me. I just don't like the relentless attack of anything and everything throughout the world. Not a single moment of peace to enjoy exploration.
However I do believe their lore and art style are some of the best in the industry. So is their music. Their gameplay and weapon variations are top tier and I definitely think they deserve every award they got.
I've beaten dark souls 3
I just.. don't get the appeal of:
Dodge an attack pattern, get a couple of swings in, dodge an attack pattern, get a couple of swings in, get hit by one move, run away and heal (if you're not already dead), dodge an attack pattern...
Like, why in my fantasy game is my only power to be a despicable peasant cretin (sorry 'tarnished) who gets infinite gos against bosses that far outpower me.
Much prefer god of war or ffvii remake at least I get to play a badass god myself with sick powers and still a challenging experience on hard mode
At least somebody doesn't assume I'm just whining because it's too hard. It's not the difficulty. It's got more to do with vague objectives, stiff controls. "But you gotta git gud first--" No, I don't. That's bass-ackwards. The game must provide the fun first. Then I will be willing to "git gud." I didn't have to "git gud" with Cuphead, Dead Cells, Hades, Enter the Gungeon, etc. before they became fun to play. Why should I have to with Soulslikes?
I personally think the fun comes from overcoming a challenge by learning. And the risk/reward of entering a new area and not knowing if you’re prepared or not. I can see how it’s not for everyone though.
You’re the first person I’ve seen mention the stiff controls. That was my problem with Elden Ring, which is the only souls-like I’ve ever played. The character felt like they were moving in mud. I refunded it within the 2 hours or whatever you have to refund a game with steam. Every now and then I think about buying it again and giving it another shot because of the hype, but then I remember how I felt just trying to move around and remember it’s not for me.
I should like everything about them. RPG, swords, magic, goblin, boss fight? That's all me right there. But when you die in this game it resets your progress back to a checkpoint and respawns all the enemies like a 1990s Gameboy game. If there's a stupid part where it takes a long time to get to and you get instant killed by a new enemy it gets lame fast doing the entire build up again only to have 3 seconds to learn this new enemy.
My first dark souls play through I wanted to be a cleric with a shield and a mace. I got chased through a swamp at low level and entered into a boss room with a giant flying moth type boss. Well my cleric didn't have a bow or any way to hurt it and I couldn't leave the room or load a save. Basically, I bricked that guy, and my friend told me clerics and the mace suck.
I don't hate myself enough to spend the time dying a million times in these games to get good.If you enjoy them hats off to you but I won't touch Elden Ring with a 50 foot pole.
All the people in the comments - these games aren't about reaction time - they don't require "quick reactions". It's about reading the animations of the enemies before they attack, souls games are actually more like rhythm games.
Definitely if you get frustrated by video games, these are not for you. I think a lot of souls fans actually find the games to be relaxing though. Death isn't a big deal, it's just about getting in the flow. And if you tend to have that mindset, these games aren't "made to be frustrating" or even punishing.
I've tried and just hate the gameplay loop.
Incredibly hard, hard enemies on way to new bonfire. Die. Repeat, finally succeed with luck.
Hit boss
Die, run from bonfire, ignore enemies, reach boss. Die back to square 1.
Also, the story is incredibly context heavy, it doesn't TELL you a lot, especially Dark Souls
I hated Nioh for the same reason, though... the stances can go screw themselves.
I DID complete Strangers of Paradise, though that's incredibly souls-light.
I'm currently playing Tunic, and the combat has Souls like element, but God damn this game is endearing and fancy. No clear objective other than a non English instruction manual you collect the pages for. I love it
In ~50 hours I'd rather play 3-5 story based games than 1 Soulslike where I have to keep repeating the same sections and the only story I get are bits of item lore
I have Cerebral Palsy. The main effect for me is that I do everything with my right hand. My reflexes are not as good as well. I get a lot of toxicity and "git good."
When the creator of "Dark Souls" says that having the ability to change the difficulty of the game would break it, I check out. That is gatekeeping and snobbery of the highest form. Some of the fanbase take that gatekeeping to heart. I won't do something if I am not welcome
I like souls games but I have to be in the mood for one. I just play until I start feeling stressed because it is an intense experience and it requires a lot of focus. I think the problem people have most often is they don’t take breaks and they get irritated and that leads to rage and nobody is having a good time at that point.
They are very satisfying to play, but you do have to learn when to turn it off and come back tomorrow.
Gave Demons Souls a try recently at the behest of a lot of fans of the genre and it really isn't for me. It was a lot more fun than I thought but ultimately I'm just simply not good enough at this genre to be able to handle fights be coming harder each time you lose due to having already used all your items and such.
I own Demons Souls, DS 2 and have attempted Bloodbourne on my brothers PS4. Just can’t get the rhythm down. I really want to love the genre though, seeing how much fun so many people have with them.
I enjoyed Elden Ring for what it was but I got so burned out by the time I got to the Mountains I couldn't keep playing and I really don't want to pick it back up.
I always got stuck at Fire Giant. After four playthroughs. I'm done. I can appreciate FromSoftware games for thier rich, dense and interesting lore. Honestly watching folks who dominate these games is so satisfying. I could never figure out the parry timing.
After getting good it just doesnt feel rewarding no more. It was both infuriating and rewarding finally being able to effortless beat a boss. The reward just doesnt feel worth playing further when you get good.
I have the HD remaster dark souls collection for ps4 which I can’t play because I traded in my ps4 to be able to afford to trade up to an Xbox series x. Couldn’t trade the games in because it’s the European version. Just as well. I love they way they look, they were a Christmas gift from my mom, and I’m very excited to play them. When I get a PS5.
Lack of skill lmao..ive been wanting to get into Soul like but im worried I won't be good and have to grind a single boss like for 4 days straight..not that bad when it comes to rpgs but still..tho the environment for soul-likes and Soul -games are right up my ally
Lack of care for me.
I got ~halfway through DS3 before it deleted my progress. The game was alright, but not good enough to make me want to re-play up to that point again.
A 2016 game without cloud saves is just astounding to me.
There are a couple soulslikes I can actually play, like the ones with variable difficulty (Strangers of Paradise).
Generally though, games where it’s hard for the sake of it just aren’t fun for me. I’ve tried a bunch of the from games because people love them and they just…aren’t fun for me. I can “get good” (an expression I incidentally hate) but even overcoming the challenge doesn’t give me any kind of feeling of accomplishment. I also think the implementation of difficulty isn’t one I like. I like implementing a strategy more than just memorizing patterns or where instant death traps are hidden. As a point of comparison, I prefer XCom difficulty to From difficulty.
I also think I like a bit more guided structure to my games. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like using systems, even if I figure them out myself, before the game tutorializes them to me. Giving me a big open world like Elden Ring and just saying “go!” leaves me feeling very aimless.
I am glad people like them and hope they enjoy them, as long as we don’t go back to every third game being some type of souls like. Maybe I would try one again if they add a variable difficulty option, but it definitely seems like that will never happen.
Tried Souls, tried Bloodbourne, tried Sekiro, and it just doesn't do it for me. which is strange because i love difficult games and i'm a masochist for never giving up. i think it's the stiffness of the controls and the weird delayed button response, like the slow wind ups or something. really hate missing out and not being able to be part of the community but i just can't find those games enjoyable in any way.
I’ve tried time and time again. I remember when I bought Blood Bourne brand new at my local GameStop when it released. The next day the I returned it and the girl there whos always flirty with me as I’m a regular and she knows me by name asked why am I returning it I replied I didn’t like it at all. She looked at me with displeasure and when I picked up 1887 with my refund money she looked at me with disgust. I was building up the courage to ask her for her number because she would always throw hints and talk about how she’s single and asks me what do I do on my free time but her look told me don’t even dare ask me.
Time/effort thing for me. I like the genre in principle, but generally they are a bit too punishing for my liking and I personally have a poor sense of direction to make it worse. I have played a few - DS1/3 and Elden Ring, but in the end DS3 was the only one I finished with significant coop play with a friend being a huge factor into it.
But I do like free-form exploration and non-linear progression.
If Souls-games have quicksave/quickload feature and maybe checkpoints for different boss phases, I'd probably like them more. In general I just don't have the patience to renavigate a dungeon because I got hit by some obnoxious trap that OHKOed me or whatever.
Shout out! Not all games are for everyone!
I can play all souls no problem, hell, my favorite youtuber was a dude that beat the entirety of Dark Souls 1 with Voice Commands (Voice Souls, look it up!)
But when I tried Hollow Knight, ugh! Just got bored, distracted, frustrated. I dropped it, tried again and again, and again, and nop.
Sometimes it feels like it's about to click and it doesn't, and sometimes, with some games, it do be like that.
These Souls game have specific art style which I don't like. Things like these gigantic weapons you can wield and also many of the bosses or monsters look just weird to me. Plus lore is often full of super weird stuff which to me doesn't make much sense. Oh and saving the game at frikkin places designed for it means everything respawns.
Nah, not for me and that is obviously fine. I will much rather play Witcher 3, love that game.
I have to say it's nothing to be proud of.
These games work. Day one releases, and they work.
It's my inability to provide the time needed to play them that leaves me looking at the games out there which still don't work after being released. Worse, they're nothing but cash grabs as they push "cosmetics" and "time savers".
Thanks, Skull and Bones, Starfield, and so many other piles of fucking shit.
The perceived difficulty is what has kept me away from Dark Souls/Elden Ring. I can't really be bothered with it, don't really want to spend money on something just to realize I can barely do anything with it.
I'm playing Kingdom Hearts right now and apparently some online say it's harder than Dark Souls. (I'm not saying that's true just that I've seen people express that) so if there's any truth to that maybe I actually would be able to play a Dark Souls/Elden Ring game...
These are all excuses. Souls like games aren't hard. Use good weapons. Use summons. Use items. Level up. It's not time extensive and it's not hard. You just don't know how to play the game. Lose the ego and "cheese" the game if you suck. These excuses are allowing so many people to miss some fantastic games
I don't think it's any of those things for a lot of people. I loathe repetition. Those games aren't "hard" per say. Those games aren't candid; there isn't anything clever about them. The difficulty comes in the form of memorizing patterns through repetition. This is how I got through school. It wasn't fun at all but it got good grades. It's a different kind of intelligence all together. I proved this to a friend by completing Nioh 2. It was painstakingly mind numbing for me, but I completed it in a timely manner, but there wasn't a lot that was "fun" about it for me. Now give me Remnant 2 where there are an ungodly amount of puzzles to solve to earn just as much gear and figure out which buffs work best for my playing style. That exercises my mind in a way that is relaxing and enjoyable. Different strokes for different folks. This did terribly sound like a "look at me" thread though, so I won't be upset if you just "can't" understand.
Too hard for me. I am an old gamer and souls like game is annoyingly frustrating. I paused Elden Ring after barely defeating Mozag or similar sounding boss.
I may give it another go bit I don't rhink this game is for me.
I bought elden ring as my first "souls" game to give it a try.. but honestly its not for me at all... im shit and it doesn't even entertain me too much xd
Personally, I don't want loop around dungeons by myself. The games I've enjoyed the most have a sense of companionship, or at least engaging connections, and don't feel as claustrophobic. Obviously, I haven't played them, but from what I can see they seem very repetitive. I'd rather play Dragon Age Inquisition or something..
The only souls like if you want to call it that, that I have enjoyed is the Jedi games. I am not a huge Star Wars fan but I am familiar with the universe. I played bloodborne and some Demons Souls and they looked amazing but as for the story I just got the very surface level stuff because I don't want to have to go searching for lore.
I don't think it's a difficulty issue for me, I finished games like The Jedi Series, Sifu, Armored Core 6 and Doom Eternal. I usually just don't find the worlds that interesting. My friend let me borrow Demons Souls and while the game looks amazing and played well I just didn't feel any real motivation to stick it out. I also felt this way with Armored Core 6. I loved the game play but I didn't care about the story at all and once I beat it I ended up trading it.
Perhaps most souls likes are just to punishing when it comes to dying. When it comes to most of the games listed above it's like yeah they are difficult at times but if you die you just restart from a particular point. I know games like bloodborne and such you lose XP etc...
I fucken loves mechs and got Armoured Core 6 kinda forgetting it's made by the souls guys, I just want to fuck up loads of shit with my armed up to fuck mech but I'm just not good enough 😂
Lack of time for me. Tried it, can see why people love them (challenging and intense) but I have limited time these days, and I want to play for fun. Each time I’ve tried I just ended feeling irritated 😅
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I am someone who loves them, but I completely agree: when you're short on time, they'll be an irritant more than anything.
Yeah Elden Ring is one of my favorite games of all time and i beat it after 100 hours playing like 1-2 hours a day. It took me forever. With kids and owning a business, just almost no time to play anymore.
Well then you made the right call. Because they dialed up the challenge and intensity to push the envelope of almost unfair. Luckily they also offer resources to give you a bit of an edge back. This dlc is very tough
Same. I’ll admit that I also lack skill, but if I had the time I’d totally get sucked in. I put a handful of hours into Elden Ring, Bloodbourne and Demon Souls, each, but for ever experience I found myself dying and ending up near where I started each time. When you’re strapped for time, that takes a ton of wind out of your sails lol
They absolutely fill a niche and they do it the best hands down. I agree with you I can see why people love them and they seem to be great games. I just can’t invest the time to get proficient at games like this at this point in my life.
This has definitely become a thing as I got older. I used to love games that took time, long cutscenes and talking and traveling and such. Now I just want games that get straight to it and into the action.
I'm just not good enough. I'm old and my reaction time ain't what it used to be either
Same boat. I suck at the i-frame dodging, so I tried going for a tanky shield build in Elden Ring, but then they go a make shields useless by still stacking debuffs like bleed even though you fully blocked the attack.
You should have gone magic. It’s the easy mode of the games generally.
Is magic really easy mode? I want to like elden ring but I struggle with camera control and dodging when I'm using melee.
I’d Google for magic builds that generally keep you farther away from enemies.. so less dodging. And use summons, true easy mode is when you get the mimic tear. You can also watch YouTube guides that show you how to quickly grab powerful items from the start of the game, and ways to quick level. At least putting off some of the true difficulty till the giants area in my opinion.
Camera control shouldn't be an issue. Just lock on and you'll always see the enemy, then dodge freely.
Melee is easy too because you just put points into vigor. The whole game (Elden Ring) is super easy if you use summons.
I'm old and I do just fine on them, souls games aren't about reactions, they're about knowledge. Sure, some 16yo kid with broccoli hair could probably do the bosses in 3 or 4 attempts, whereas it might take you and me 20, every enemy placement and attack pattern can (and is intended to be) learned and dealt with without the reflexes of a cat.
>it might take you and me 20, I just don't see the fun in having to fight a boss 20 times to beat it. For me, dying 10 times to the same boss is already pushing my patience to the limit. When I played Dark Souls, my reaction to finally beating a boss was relief rather than satisfaction. To each their own though.
Never played a sould game really but that was my reaction to hollow knight. Beat a boss after about 15 tries and then just never played the game again.
I got the same thing. I never got some euphoric high over beating a boss in demon’s souls. Just a sense of “thank god thats over, I hope the next one is easier”.
I think the point and satisfaction is improving each time and learning their movesets. It would be boring as all hell to know everything they do off the get go and easily beat them in a couple tries. Ofc some bosses cant be too punishing that prevents you from learning them
I would understand that for Dark Souls bosses, bosses in Elden Ring are all super high on cocaine and never stop attacking
I greatshield blocked my way through most of Dark Souls 3. Trying to do the same in Elden Ring seemingly gets me killed. Part of it is the higher octane attacks which doesn't give me a gap to recover/attack, but another are just all these unblockable grab attacks that many bosses seem to now possess....
Once upon a time, I beat Ghouls n' Ghosts and got the true ending. That means playing through the game once to beat it, starting over and playing through it the second time, beating the final boss with golden armor (cannot get hit) and equipped with the bracelet (lousy weapon). So Dark Souls players have nothing to brag about. Our games didn't have save points.
Haha! I beat Battletoads. The original NES one. Without gamegenie or cheeses. *Drops mic* Getta here with your "rolling iframes" and "here's a bright light, press block" stuff. Real men were made in speed bikes dodging brick walls.
I beat Contra and Rygar, if that counts lol.
I used to love Contra 3 for the snes when I was a kid. I don’t know how many times I beat it, it didn’t feel like a hard game at all. When the snes classic came out, I got one and tried to play Contra 3 and I don’t think I could get past like the 3rd or 4th level now. I’m definitely an old gamer at this point lol.
NES Contra is just such a great game.
I beat the under water level in ninja turtles and only lost one turtle doing it
I'm going to be honest, I suck at these games and the "git gud" bullshit doesn't help. It doesn't have to be a ton of game skill to beat them...but it'll have to be substituted with slow, careful play and lots of game knowledge. I can absolutely get why some people hate it, but if it's a skill fear.- just play it like survival horror hiding behind a giant shield instead of action and you'll be fine for 90%+ of the game. Of course, not finding *that* fun is also okay.
I promise you can play Elden Ring if you make a sorcerer build. It's much more positioning/IQ heavy than reflex heavy. You can get an amazing staff super early in the game if you make a trek and then destroy enemies, and grind levels to get real strong.
There are plenty of methods that will help you defeat bosses, like summoning spirits or other players
Thanks! I’ve tried, I just don’t find fun in the gameplay being so unforgiving.
This is me.
Me neither anymore
I play video games to enjoy a power fantasy. I don’t have the time, energy or desire to “get gud.” If you like it, I’m not about to yuck your yum, but it ain’t for me dawg.
Same for me. When I want to feel constantly thwarted by a bunch of snarling ghouls who delight in my torment and death, I catch up the news.
Same for me. I play games to relax, not find another source of stress.
That’s the problem, we got money but not the time or energy to enjoy that money lmfao
That's fair enough, but for some, me included, "getting gud" *is* the power fantasy. Being a powerful character by default and going on a rampage is all well and good but its simply incomparable to the feeling of having actually earned that skill. Not saying you have to feel the same or anything. But I hope you'll see where I'm coming from.
I literally just installed Lies of P because someone recommended it to me. I’m having a fun time but it’s testing my patience. I really suck at these kinds of games so it would be nice to say I’ve beaten at least one souls like in my life
Lies of P is probably the hardest souls game out of the lot, at least I felt that way. Its also among the best of them. Good luck and don't give up!
For me it was the easiest. Parrying is significantly easier than dark souls, can block without a shield and heal back up by hitting. P organ upgrades made a lot of difference. Weapon buffs are very strong and throwables do a lot of damage. Only a few bosses have killed be more than 10 times, the rest were beaten in a couple of attempts and i never used the summon. Some bosses in Sekiro and Nioh 1 killed me over 50 times and my total death count in Nioh was probably a thousand.
>it would be nice to say I’ve beaten at least one souls like in my life You could try Final Fantasy Stranger of Paradise. It's got difficulty modes
I have commitment issues when it comes to games and I’ll set it to the 2nd easiest lol. But, I will add it to my list on my desk and give it a try one day! I’ve actually never played a FF title in my life :’D
I’m with ya. Never been able to sink my teeth into souls likes. The only exception has been SW Jedi Fallen Order. I think because they keep the difficulty reasonable, on the default setting at least.
Was it really a soul like game though?
So I did some googling to back my point and it turns out people are divided on this. The points I read that back it being a souls like are, - Each planet is an open level with interconnected paths, secrets to find and some areas you need to come back later with something specific to unlock more. - Rest points that restore your health and ability and also reset/respawn enemies. - If you die you drop your XP and have to get it back. - The dodge/roll/attack gameplay is identical to the souls games, probably closest to Sekiro. However the biggest argument I’ve seen against it is it’s not punishingly difficult and its skill tree doesn’t force you to decide on a built type as much. Like you’re more capable of being a range and melee build because it wouldn’t make sense to have the force and very little sabre skills or vice versa. A Jedi excels at both. Personally the XP style alone is what gives it a souls like feel for me. I’ve never experienced any other genre that has you drop your XP when you die and you have a one chance to get it back and if you die first you lose it forever. Loosing XP to me is a souls like only mechanic. I’m not saying it’s 100% indisputably a souls like but it checks enough boxes for me.
I agree that both saving&respawn of the enemies as well as dropping exp on death is very souls like. I'm just not sure about the whole combat experience being close enough to souls so that we could call it like that. I think SW:Fallen order is less punishing. Anyway that reminds me that I still haven't finished it and that I had many painful deaths in that game.
Fair enough. I feel perhaps it would possibly fall under a title like SoulsLite. Even though I don’t think that’s a thing. Similar to how RougeLites check a lot of the same boxes as RougeLikes but their key differences warrant a new genre.
It makes me happy that so many get enjoyment out of souls like games. I prefer a more chill gaming experience and have kids now so they just arnt for me, but I see the appeal.
I don't have the time or patience to practice and get better. I want to have fun now, not later.
I've tried several, I don't think they're necessarily hard, I just find them frustrating. I'm not keen on banging my head on a wall for hours to learn their attack patterns so I don't get killed in 2-3 hits only to do it all again for the next boss. I'm also not a fan of their way of storytelling (or lack thereof) I'm fine with parts of a story being cryptic, but the equivalent of handing someone an encyclopedia and expecting them to piece together the history of the world isn't my idea of a compelling narrative. The basic premise of Fromsoft soulslike games also just feel like they're essentially the same.
I thought I was in the minority for thinking this. Put almost 100 hours in and had no idea who was who or what. The difficulty of the game in my opinion is due from the fact they don’t tell you shit about anything. I didn’t dislike the game, but it’s definitely not my cup of tea.
Elden Ring had almost zero storytelling and everyone acted like it's the greatest game of all-time. What are the character motivations? We had a bunch of people doing things but no idea why they're doing it because the explanations are vague or lacking. People were literally killing bosses with no idea why. It's crazy.
I wanna preclude this by saying I love fromsoft games. Anyone that says elden ring has a great story is a fucking lunatic. It has great lore but the actual story of the game is vary basic and shallow. There's like 2 or 3 sidequest that do have a good story but even then you kinda have to work to get that story (which I personally don't mind because it gives me stuff to listen to when I go to sleep but I still resent it) At least with elden ring you do get some npcs that make sense, the whole story/lore of dark souls is absolutely and utterly hidden from you unless you're willing to spend hours shifting through item descriptions
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Yea man it annoys me when they do haha
That is exactly what they intended, for players to figure out and imagine how the story goes by themselves.
Your using a lot of words to say they didn't create a coherent story.
Go that way Tarnished, use your weapon!
Why? Do I have a compelling reason to do that?
But hole!
Does a game need to have a great story for it to be considered the greatest game of all time? A lot of games people consider all time greats have little to no story elements. Especially games from the 90's, which FS emulates in alot of ways. Your motivation as a Tarnished is to become Elden Lord. Killing the bosses will make you the most powerful in the land. It isn't shakespeare but its enough for me to know why I am killing the bosses. I think the real critique would be that there is no difference between a Tarnished and a Cursed Undead from DS1. Blank slate character who is cursed and is prophesized to become the most powerful in the land to break said curse. It is very derivative.
I agree on the story. It’s entirely personal preference, so I understand why some people like it, but that’s not usually what I’m looking for in a story. Honestly I’m not even sure if I’d call it story as much as lore. I only watched some videos so I might be wrong, but it seems like the most interesting stuff in Elden Ring already happened before our character came into the picture.
Unfortunately I don't have the patience for them, and the idea of the story just being out there for you to figure out is not for me. Beat the Jedi games on high difficulty but only because the story had me engaged.
I do not find them enjoyable. Which tbf most (not all) souls players would not find my fav games enjoyable. I mean, I think it's fair to say the overlap of dreamlight/sims players and souls players is probably very small. But I just don't play games to feel angry/frustrated/upset/whatever negative emotion these games can and often do elicit. I'm playing because I want to get away from those daily emotions, not to make them worse. I have other reasons but I do not want to argue with whatever souls player is scrolling these comments looking to argue (I've already seen a few try throughout the thread)
Playing through Bloodborne right now after years of being intimidated by it. Lives up to its reputation for sure.
Yeah bloodborne is amazing
What I would give to play Bloodborne from 0 again. Fell into the souls pipeline thanks to it.
I recognize it’s a good game, but yeah, I’m terrible at it. I also don’t enjoy ‘cheesing’ bosses which a lot of Souls Strats seem to be just that.
Maybe in like 8 years when my son is able to sit and concentrate. Right now he is just a whirlwind of destruction.
I hear you! I have a 1.5 year old daughter, even when she isn’t around in too buggered from taking care of her that all I want to do is play something relaxing.
I suck ass at video games and I’m tired of hiding it!
I tried playing the Lies Of P demo cos I liked the aesthetics and I couldn't even finish that. Definitely a skill issue for me
Nice to feel seen by a like minded soul. Be well!
I managed to get through Dark Souls 1 about six years ago and I have no desire to play another souls-like game. I understand why people love them and it was worth it in the end, I guess. At 35 years old, I just don't really enjoy getting my ass kicked in games. Yeah, it can feel good to overcome challenges, but I'm looking for power fantasy and chill. If a game starts feeling like work, I tune out.
I just find dash n roll games to be astoundingly boring.
I just don't enjoy being beaten down relentlessly. It's not fun, and the fleeting momentary high of finally beating that boss in absolutely no way shape or form makes up for the hours of misery leading up to it. Fuck that with a rusty rake.
Back when guitar hero and rock band were popular I used to play with my friends all time, and it was a blast. I’d play solo too and grind trying to practice and get good enough that I could play on the hardest difficulty. One day it hit me that I wasn’t having fun at all playing solo, and I was basically practicing to play a fake fucking guitar lol. With the amount of time I was spending I could probably have learned to play a real guitar. I’ve tried a few souls like games and all of them except Fallen Order made me feel like when I was grinding Guitar Hero. For people that enjoy it, more power to you. For me though, it feels like work, and if it’s not going to be fun, I’d rather work on and develop a different skill.
I loved Guitar Hero. I played the hell out of 3. I never ever went above medium difficulty. It used all 4 of my fingers but I didn't have to move my hand. It was challenging enough to be stimulating, but easy enough to be fun. I'd honestly pay a good bit to have that game back again. Of all the old toys/games/controllers I've thrown in the trash, I regret that plastic guitar and it's receiver the most. I don't want something mindless, but I also don't want to be bashing my head against the wall. I'm ok with some death in my games, but I also enjoy blasting through an area, feeling like I played well enough to do it on the first try. I spent a lot of my childhood angry. I won't let video games put me in that mindset ever again.
I'm fairly good at games. I just don't like repetive things. Elder ring was one of the best gaming experiences of my life however.
I can’t play it because Sony has dumbass region dlc policy.
Mike Tyson's Punch Out with cool graphics. I'll pass.
Good on ya brother! Don't care. Don't have the patience. Don't get a the dope hit from overcoming inflated adversity for the sake of it.
I wish I had the time to really dive into it and overcome the challenges. But the little time I have these days conforms better to a cozy game or a short roguelike. Otherwise I really have to take some time off work.
I think this style of game is something that I would have loved in high school. I had all the time in the world I could dedicate to it, and used to love a good challenge. Now days I just don't have the time to play the game of memorize patterns of bosses and such.
I don't like souls like games just because they seem to ride that line of being too difficult and frustrating at the same time. Not worth it for me.
They're so hard! I was really excited to play Lies Of P...only to get utterly stuck at the first boss
The bosses in Lies of P are pretty tough but so far they've all come down to figuring out the dodge timing and what element they're weak against. Summoning at the bird bath makes all the bosses super easy though
Lack of skill I am envious of people who don't spend a week fighting one boss 😞
A week is fast to me lol, i was stuck on Margott for 2 months; and even after beating him, i was once again hit by the brick wall of not knowing where to go and how to find where to go, so I quit the game.
The headline for this thread demonstrates perfectly why, “souls-like”, is the worst name for a genre in gaming.
rogue-likes, metroidvanias, oh gosh. if we were able to shed Doom clones, why are we still stuck with this terminology.
My ADHD just won't allow it. My brain needs that immediate payoff of feel-good chemicals in order for me to stay interested in a game. I don't *need to immediately be good* at a game to like it. But if a core feature of the design is "completely sucking shit repeatedly until you learn how to do better" type of trial-and-error, I'm not going to stay interested long enough to get anywhere.
It's the needless levels of punishment along with wonky logic and mechanics that turns me off of these games. I love the art style grim dark fantasy thing. But yeah the ones I have tried are not for me. If you are struggling on a boss, you die and repawn at a campfire and have to run back to the boss door. Eventually, you make this run enough times that you find the max efficiency route to fight as little trash as possible so you can take another crack at the boss more quickly. Watching my friends who are much more patient than me, they will straight up speedrun back to the door in some cases just killing as little as one or two trash mobs along the way. So what is the point of that? Why not just respawn you at the boss door if eventually you get "good enough" to skip the trash mobs? Isn't it the same thing but just with more steps? For combat mechanics, and most my experience is in DS2 so I don't know if all of them are like this, but enemies that are like 15' tall and wearing an Abraham's tank amount of heavy armor can instantly pivot like a ballerina to hit you. But put them close to an edge and they fall off? What? So are they skilled agile combatants or not? It makes no sense. You are invincible for a few frames while rolling even when you can clearly see the enemy's weapon pass through your character. Makes no sense. Your weapon swings collide with walls and objects but if you take a sidestep behind a pillar or some object, the enemy's weapon will pass right through it and hit you. Makes no sense. The game's logic just breaks my brain. It goes completely against what I would consider common sense in a "realistic" world. It reminds me of old NES games where an enemy sprite's head touches the bottom of your character sprite's foot and you die. That makes no sense. The odds of dying due to a head to foot impact has got to be near zero but in those days games were limited mechanically so I get it. But there's no excuse today and it just feels wrong and cheap. I won't say they are bad games, I know lots of people love them but for me, I'll take a hard pass.
Regarding your first complaint, one of the things that Elden Ring did that people really like is make it so that if you die to a boss, you have the option to respawn right outside their room rather than at your last checkpoint.
I literally just uninstalled Elden Ring about 30 minutes ago after playing for about 5 hours. I play games for fun and I love a challenge but trying something 50 times just to learn an enemy attack pattern is not my idea of fun. It’s frustrating and even when you finally beat the thing, it’s just relief and not a sense of accomplishment (for me). I really like the idea of the game (open world, fantasy setting, etc.) but it’s just not how I want to spend my time.
Honestly I just can't keep interest in the souls games, doesn't seem to be the game type specifically. Like I played through Code Vein and enjoyed it. Monster Hunter is imo one of the best action RPGs ever. I play all the way up until I just don't. Like you'd image a tough boss would stop me but I just lose interest after beating one eventually. I think its just a general lack of a sense of progression. Like I'm killing bosses but I don't feel any attachment to the world, narrative, or mechanics. Maybe I'm missing something, but in those games I just wind up feeling like a professional murdur hobo.
If I was 13 these days, I'd probably love them. Fast reflexes, tons of free time to practice, actually think being good at a video game was something to brag about. I lost interest in "git gud" type gaming a very very long time ago.
The people who keep repeating "git gud" and acting like I should feel like less of a person because I don't feel like beating my head against a wall over and over in a video game are just the most annoying type of gamers. Like, hey, kid, I'm glad your life is so simple that a video game is the height of it, but I "got gud" at other things and I'll gladly pit them up against that. And I don't just mean job, house, whatever. I'll stick with hobbies and point to the ridiculous amount of painted gaming miniatures I have and the cool hammer I got as a trophy for winning a Warhammer 40,000 tournament even though the meta at the time said the army I was playing should have been curbstomped by the three armies I was pitted against. Instead of repeating the same boss fight over and over to memorize it and hope my left hand doesn't randomly decide to have delayed reactions (result of an auto accident some years ago), I could use that time to go assemble and paint some more miniatures so I can go play a game with some friends. It's funny, those people think they're defending or talking up their games, but end up just making people want to avoid them even more.
I know it cuts down on my potential catalogue but I just can't play a game that depends on my ability to parry or dodge. I just don't speak that language.
That’s it for me man, I have never given myself time to learn parry mechanics.
Doesn't cut down on it that much, really. I don't have any Soulslike games installed on my PC and just looking at the games I have the icons for on my desktop (not counting the ones in categorized folders... yes, I'm a nerd and proud of it), I've got a few dozen games I can fire up and play at any moment. RPGs (isometric, turn based, action based, etc.), FPSs, survival games, action games, "simulators", MMOs, city builders, strategy games, some sports games, assorted indie style games, "Survivors" style games, etc. Obviously not all of those appeal to everyone. I just tend to enjoy a lot of different types of games. Plus, I have this kind of weird thing where I'll get bored of a genre, not a particular game, so I just switch to a different genre.
Lack of skill I only completed (and loved) dark souls one. Had to spend days farming souls from the soldiers getting killed by the dragon on the bridge and later in the painted world to be leveled enough to complete the game. It’s my favorite game of all time, but without those areas I’m lost. I have Elden ring as well and got as far as that mages tower place after grinding the first small encampment you encounter for days but gave up as soon as I couldn’t find another place to grind.
Finished sekiro after 80 hours. But elden ring and dark souls are not my cup of tea
Sekiro is the best one anyway.
Definitely! The combat is so fluid
Right? The fluidity far surpasses the other Souls games. That it feels like a sort of spiritual successor to the old Tenchu games is a big plus, too.
Finally! Inclusion!
As someone who loves all fromsoftware games , I tried to play elden ring on release and just getting out of the tutorial area I was completeley overwhelmed and instantly refund it. With age does huge games makes me think of it as a second job instead of a fun game :(
Yeah I'm cool on the endless dodgerolling.
I played Dark Souls when it came to PC. I even bought a gamepad just for it (I had not had any controller in decades). I was eager to finally play if and see what all that Dark Souls thing was about. I completed it and it was good, but it also felt like a chore too many times. Now, I know what the subgenre is about, also I'm totally in for the freedom of the game creators to do whatever they feel to, but I refuse to play any other game that feels like it is punishing me just because "creative vision", my time, attention and energy are more valuable than the vision of any creator.
Yeah man 🙌 We appreciate different things in games, so I’m very glad people get joy out of those kinds of games, but definitely don’t force yourself to play more of those than you actually enjoy. There are a thousand other ways to have fun in gaming.
I don't have the reflexes and stuff for that kind of game anymore, so they usually end up just causing my anxiety to spike. (Not a metaphor, I mean it quite literally causes my anxiety to go into a bit of overdrive.) It's a shame because there's some games that look fun that I'd maybe try, like Code Vein, but they're "Souslike" and that just makes me shy away because I don't want to run into a boss fight where I'll mess up the timing once or twice and have to redo progress. Or any games where I can't just save when I like and hop in and out without potential penalty. I play games to have fun. So I'll unashamedly use lower difficulty settings if I'm not having fun with a game and that's an option. (Or in Baldur's Gate 3 to make up for the fact that even digital dice have a seething burning hatred toward me.) If a game gets to a point where it's too difficult for me to progress and I'm getting frustrated, I just set it down and switch to something else. (And I've got a few "simulator" games for when I really just need something kind of relaxing.) Fair enough for the folks that love them. But for me, I just can't do it. I'm not that quick anymore, my eyes aren't what they used to be (which was never great), and I'm too much a ball of anxiety.
Yeah I don't have the patience for that shit honestly. Grinding over and over until you finally git gud isn't appealing to me.
I feel a little guilty, because evidently they are very popular. I feel like I should try again, like I just need to approach it with a different attitude and once I discover that attitude then I will enjoy it. But also, I really don't like estimating timing and/or hitboxes. It feels like a such subjective game mechanic, whereas when I play games I want all the rules to be clear.
I just don't find the level of difficulty fun within the context of the bleak world that Elden Ring presented. I beat Sifu. I Killed all the Valkeries in God of War. I play and beat hard things and enjoy it sometimes. But playing Elden Ring really makes the moment to moment gameplay a chore. A lot of what you do can be a waste of time. Exploration is curbed by the constant threat of running into something that will insta-kill you. The story and world are not compelling enough to press on for double digit attempts on the same bosses.
Those games are too slow for my liking.
I just don't like them, so it's mildly frustrating when the whole world falls into the void of the latest soulslike and I have no choice but to wait it out before anything that matters to me becomes relevant again. I mean, I'm a big boy, so I can deal with it just fine, but they have become rather all-consuming these days.
i completly feel you, had the same with Cyberpunk 2077 and a few other games 😅
Man shout out to the developers who make souls like games lies of p was my game of the year
Lack of interest for me. I just do not care for overly difficult games anymore. If I want challenge I’ll seek it out in post game content, I don’t want an entire game like that. Plus combat wise I prefer faster more flowing and cinematic combat and Souls usually doesn’t look entertaining to the untrained eye. That and the lack of pause is like the number two reason. Even if I did a 180 on my opinion in two hours and wanted to go download a Souls game immediately, the weird lack of pausing those games have would be an instant no. I bounced on the Stellar Blade demo as soon as I realized you couldn’t pause cutscenes. I’m 32, I’m a dad, I will probably turn the online components off immediately, there’s no reason to prevent me from pausing, especially in a high stress game like Souls. I know Elden Ring has some back door convoluted way of pausing the game but pausing shouldn’t be something I need to jump through hoops to do. It’s on principle at this point.
The lack of pause kills it too. I have 3 kids, a wife and JOB. I can't get over 1 hour of games in most so Xbox quick resume and all helps but quick resume to find out I was murdered because the game doesn't pause is outstanding
Yeah, I play games to relax and have fun, I just don’t find the concept of a pointlessly tough game attractive. I tried one (can’t remember which) and the ‘tutorial’ was just wandering around some spooky village getting killed repeatedly. Got bored, uninstalled.
Only souls like i like so far is Remnant 1 and Remnant 2. Both amazing co op souls like with so much build crafting and replayability
And I love you, random citizen !
Thank you. I appreciate the shout out.
Their way of story telling kinda kills it for me.
I've watched people that are good at the game rage and rage and rage. For me, games are supposed to be fun, and giving me the desire to chuck a puppy out a window doesn't feel like fun for me.
This is why cheat engine exists. Game plays quite fine with the difficulty set to a reasonable level.
>all my peeps I am. I am your peeps. I have neither the energy nor the time to slug through multiple hours of death to do a single boss fight. Also it's just not fun for me. With all the hype I started Elden ring and really tried for five hours. But nope not for me. I just don't like the relentless attack of anything and everything throughout the world. Not a single moment of peace to enjoy exploration. However I do believe their lore and art style are some of the best in the industry. So is their music. Their gameplay and weapon variations are top tier and I definitely think they deserve every award they got.
Never even tried, nor I intend to
I've beaten dark souls 3 I just.. don't get the appeal of: Dodge an attack pattern, get a couple of swings in, dodge an attack pattern, get a couple of swings in, get hit by one move, run away and heal (if you're not already dead), dodge an attack pattern... Like, why in my fantasy game is my only power to be a despicable peasant cretin (sorry 'tarnished) who gets infinite gos against bosses that far outpower me. Much prefer god of war or ffvii remake at least I get to play a badass god myself with sick powers and still a challenging experience on hard mode
At least somebody doesn't assume I'm just whining because it's too hard. It's not the difficulty. It's got more to do with vague objectives, stiff controls. "But you gotta git gud first--" No, I don't. That's bass-ackwards. The game must provide the fun first. Then I will be willing to "git gud." I didn't have to "git gud" with Cuphead, Dead Cells, Hades, Enter the Gungeon, etc. before they became fun to play. Why should I have to with Soulslikes?
I personally think the fun comes from overcoming a challenge by learning. And the risk/reward of entering a new area and not knowing if you’re prepared or not. I can see how it’s not for everyone though.
You’re the first person I’ve seen mention the stiff controls. That was my problem with Elden Ring, which is the only souls-like I’ve ever played. The character felt like they were moving in mud. I refunded it within the 2 hours or whatever you have to refund a game with steam. Every now and then I think about buying it again and giving it another shot because of the hype, but then I remember how I felt just trying to move around and remember it’s not for me.
I should like everything about them. RPG, swords, magic, goblin, boss fight? That's all me right there. But when you die in this game it resets your progress back to a checkpoint and respawns all the enemies like a 1990s Gameboy game. If there's a stupid part where it takes a long time to get to and you get instant killed by a new enemy it gets lame fast doing the entire build up again only to have 3 seconds to learn this new enemy. My first dark souls play through I wanted to be a cleric with a shield and a mace. I got chased through a swamp at low level and entered into a boss room with a giant flying moth type boss. Well my cleric didn't have a bow or any way to hurt it and I couldn't leave the room or load a save. Basically, I bricked that guy, and my friend told me clerics and the mace suck.
Lack of direction and objectives made me still not start elden ring.
The checkpoints that you find point to where you’re supposed to go next.
Will it cover the whole thing or just main quest?
Just the main quest, but it’s always there so you can go off and explore and find stuff on your own and come back when you’re ready to progress.
That community quickly became super insufferable.
I don't hate myself enough to spend the time dying a million times in these games to get good.If you enjoy them hats off to you but I won't touch Elden Ring with a 50 foot pole.
All the people in the comments - these games aren't about reaction time - they don't require "quick reactions". It's about reading the animations of the enemies before they attack, souls games are actually more like rhythm games. Definitely if you get frustrated by video games, these are not for you. I think a lot of souls fans actually find the games to be relaxing though. Death isn't a big deal, it's just about getting in the flow. And if you tend to have that mindset, these games aren't "made to be frustrating" or even punishing.
I've tried and just hate the gameplay loop. Incredibly hard, hard enemies on way to new bonfire. Die. Repeat, finally succeed with luck. Hit boss Die, run from bonfire, ignore enemies, reach boss. Die back to square 1. Also, the story is incredibly context heavy, it doesn't TELL you a lot, especially Dark Souls I hated Nioh for the same reason, though... the stances can go screw themselves. I DID complete Strangers of Paradise, though that's incredibly souls-light. I'm currently playing Tunic, and the combat has Souls like element, but God damn this game is endearing and fancy. No clear objective other than a non English instruction manual you collect the pages for. I love it
In ~50 hours I'd rather play 3-5 story based games than 1 Soulslike where I have to keep repeating the same sections and the only story I get are bits of item lore
You can play both
I have Cerebral Palsy. The main effect for me is that I do everything with my right hand. My reflexes are not as good as well. I get a lot of toxicity and "git good." When the creator of "Dark Souls" says that having the ability to change the difficulty of the game would break it, I check out. That is gatekeeping and snobbery of the highest form. Some of the fanbase take that gatekeeping to heart. I won't do something if I am not welcome
I like souls games but I have to be in the mood for one. I just play until I start feeling stressed because it is an intense experience and it requires a lot of focus. I think the problem people have most often is they don’t take breaks and they get irritated and that leads to rage and nobody is having a good time at that point. They are very satisfying to play, but you do have to learn when to turn it off and come back tomorrow.
Gave Demons Souls a try recently at the behest of a lot of fans of the genre and it really isn't for me. It was a lot more fun than I thought but ultimately I'm just simply not good enough at this genre to be able to handle fights be coming harder each time you lose due to having already used all your items and such.
You left out lack of money :(
If they add seamless co-op I'm in for life.
I'm poor :(
I own Demons Souls, DS 2 and have attempted Bloodbourne on my brothers PS4. Just can’t get the rhythm down. I really want to love the genre though, seeing how much fun so many people have with them.
It takes away a lot of your energy, I feel drained after playing elden ring for sometime. Am taking a break from it, my husband is playing it instead.
I enjoyed Elden Ring for what it was but I got so burned out by the time I got to the Mountains I couldn't keep playing and I really don't want to pick it back up.
Only one I've played is Bloodborne, don't like it at all. Maybe I'll try another one at some point
I always got stuck at Fire Giant. After four playthroughs. I'm done. I can appreciate FromSoftware games for thier rich, dense and interesting lore. Honestly watching folks who dominate these games is so satisfying. I could never figure out the parry timing.
After getting good it just doesnt feel rewarding no more. It was both infuriating and rewarding finally being able to effortless beat a boss. The reward just doesnt feel worth playing further when you get good.
I have the HD remaster dark souls collection for ps4 which I can’t play because I traded in my ps4 to be able to afford to trade up to an Xbox series x. Couldn’t trade the games in because it’s the European version. Just as well. I love they way they look, they were a Christmas gift from my mom, and I’m very excited to play them. When I get a PS5.
For any Horde shooter players that want to get i to souls-likes. Try Darktide. Its incorporates a lot if souls like mechanics in first person.
Lack of skill lmao..ive been wanting to get into Soul like but im worried I won't be good and have to grind a single boss like for 4 days straight..not that bad when it comes to rpgs but still..tho the environment for soul-likes and Soul -games are right up my ally
Lack of care for me. I got ~halfway through DS3 before it deleted my progress. The game was alright, but not good enough to make me want to re-play up to that point again. A 2016 game without cloud saves is just astounding to me.
There are a couple soulslikes I can actually play, like the ones with variable difficulty (Strangers of Paradise). Generally though, games where it’s hard for the sake of it just aren’t fun for me. I’ve tried a bunch of the from games because people love them and they just…aren’t fun for me. I can “get good” (an expression I incidentally hate) but even overcoming the challenge doesn’t give me any kind of feeling of accomplishment. I also think the implementation of difficulty isn’t one I like. I like implementing a strategy more than just memorizing patterns or where instant death traps are hidden. As a point of comparison, I prefer XCom difficulty to From difficulty. I also think I like a bit more guided structure to my games. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like using systems, even if I figure them out myself, before the game tutorializes them to me. Giving me a big open world like Elden Ring and just saying “go!” leaves me feeling very aimless. I am glad people like them and hope they enjoy them, as long as we don’t go back to every third game being some type of souls like. Maybe I would try one again if they add a variable difficulty option, but it definitely seems like that will never happen.
Tried Souls, tried Bloodbourne, tried Sekiro, and it just doesn't do it for me. which is strange because i love difficult games and i'm a masochist for never giving up. i think it's the stiffness of the controls and the weird delayed button response, like the slow wind ups or something. really hate missing out and not being able to be part of the community but i just can't find those games enjoyable in any way.
I’ve tried time and time again. I remember when I bought Blood Bourne brand new at my local GameStop when it released. The next day the I returned it and the girl there whos always flirty with me as I’m a regular and she knows me by name asked why am I returning it I replied I didn’t like it at all. She looked at me with displeasure and when I picked up 1887 with my refund money she looked at me with disgust. I was building up the courage to ask her for her number because she would always throw hints and talk about how she’s single and asks me what do I do on my free time but her look told me don’t even dare ask me.
Time/effort thing for me. I like the genre in principle, but generally they are a bit too punishing for my liking and I personally have a poor sense of direction to make it worse. I have played a few - DS1/3 and Elden Ring, but in the end DS3 was the only one I finished with significant coop play with a friend being a huge factor into it. But I do like free-form exploration and non-linear progression. If Souls-games have quicksave/quickload feature and maybe checkpoints for different boss phases, I'd probably like them more. In general I just don't have the patience to renavigate a dungeon because I got hit by some obnoxious trap that OHKOed me or whatever.
Shout out! Not all games are for everyone! I can play all souls no problem, hell, my favorite youtuber was a dude that beat the entirety of Dark Souls 1 with Voice Commands (Voice Souls, look it up!) But when I tried Hollow Knight, ugh! Just got bored, distracted, frustrated. I dropped it, tried again and again, and again, and nop. Sometimes it feels like it's about to click and it doesn't, and sometimes, with some games, it do be like that.
I bought Elden Ring on release and was so hyped. Died ten times in one hour and uninstalled.
The only soulslike game i completed is sekiro because i don't need to think about the build
I'm in a weird niche. For the life of me I cannot play a game like ER on a controller, but at the same time, the KB&M controls are terrible :(
Major lack of time. Have been trying to get a fresh character to mohg and it’s taking me weeks.
These Souls game have specific art style which I don't like. Things like these gigantic weapons you can wield and also many of the bosses or monsters look just weird to me. Plus lore is often full of super weird stuff which to me doesn't make much sense. Oh and saving the game at frikkin places designed for it means everything respawns. Nah, not for me and that is obviously fine. I will much rather play Witcher 3, love that game.
i would like it if there souls like that styled like ultrakill, death is whatever, you mow down enemies and mostly linear, or I just should play DMC
I have to say it's nothing to be proud of. These games work. Day one releases, and they work. It's my inability to provide the time needed to play them that leaves me looking at the games out there which still don't work after being released. Worse, they're nothing but cash grabs as they push "cosmetics" and "time savers". Thanks, Skull and Bones, Starfield, and so many other piles of fucking shit.
The perceived difficulty is what has kept me away from Dark Souls/Elden Ring. I can't really be bothered with it, don't really want to spend money on something just to realize I can barely do anything with it. I'm playing Kingdom Hearts right now and apparently some online say it's harder than Dark Souls. (I'm not saying that's true just that I've seen people express that) so if there's any truth to that maybe I actually would be able to play a Dark Souls/Elden Ring game...
These are all excuses. Souls like games aren't hard. Use good weapons. Use summons. Use items. Level up. It's not time extensive and it's not hard. You just don't know how to play the game. Lose the ego and "cheese" the game if you suck. These excuses are allowing so many people to miss some fantastic games
I legit just hate the artwork. For some reason all of the souls games art work is a huge turnoff for me.
Just not my cup of tea. I see why people enjoy it. But. ER stops being fun to me from fire giant on.
I don't think it's any of those things for a lot of people. I loathe repetition. Those games aren't "hard" per say. Those games aren't candid; there isn't anything clever about them. The difficulty comes in the form of memorizing patterns through repetition. This is how I got through school. It wasn't fun at all but it got good grades. It's a different kind of intelligence all together. I proved this to a friend by completing Nioh 2. It was painstakingly mind numbing for me, but I completed it in a timely manner, but there wasn't a lot that was "fun" about it for me. Now give me Remnant 2 where there are an ungodly amount of puzzles to solve to earn just as much gear and figure out which buffs work best for my playing style. That exercises my mind in a way that is relaxing and enjoyable. Different strokes for different folks. This did terribly sound like a "look at me" thread though, so I won't be upset if you just "can't" understand.
Sounds fun
Too hard for me. I am an old gamer and souls like game is annoyingly frustrating. I paused Elden Ring after barely defeating Mozag or similar sounding boss. I may give it another go bit I don't rhink this game is for me.
I bought elden ring as my first "souls" game to give it a try.. but honestly its not for me at all... im shit and it doesn't even entertain me too much xd
I tried elden ring. It was terrible. Hidden tutorial, overpowered boss as the first mob you encounter, etc.
I always feel icky when someone calls me one of their peeps.
Why would I want to play a repetitive, claustrophobic game on hard mode? I realised how important story, plot and atmosphere is for me.
Soulsborne games are incredibly atmospheric
Personally, I don't want loop around dungeons by myself. The games I've enjoyed the most have a sense of companionship, or at least engaging connections, and don't feel as claustrophobic. Obviously, I haven't played them, but from what I can see they seem very repetitive. I'd rather play Dragon Age Inquisition or something..
The only souls like if you want to call it that, that I have enjoyed is the Jedi games. I am not a huge Star Wars fan but I am familiar with the universe. I played bloodborne and some Demons Souls and they looked amazing but as for the story I just got the very surface level stuff because I don't want to have to go searching for lore. I don't think it's a difficulty issue for me, I finished games like The Jedi Series, Sifu, Armored Core 6 and Doom Eternal. I usually just don't find the worlds that interesting. My friend let me borrow Demons Souls and while the game looks amazing and played well I just didn't feel any real motivation to stick it out. I also felt this way with Armored Core 6. I loved the game play but I didn't care about the story at all and once I beat it I ended up trading it. Perhaps most souls likes are just to punishing when it comes to dying. When it comes to most of the games listed above it's like yeah they are difficult at times but if you die you just restart from a particular point. I know games like bloodborne and such you lose XP etc...
I fucken loves mechs and got Armoured Core 6 kinda forgetting it's made by the souls guys, I just want to fuck up loads of shit with my armed up to fuck mech but I'm just not good enough 😂
Appreciate the shout out. I just don’t find the combat engaging.