Happy holidays to all who celebrate! I’m on Easter school break, so I have no sense of time at all - my apologies. A day late, here’s the discussion post:

Some voices in the community want to have a distinction between different types of souls-games - games by FS referred to as soulsborne, games that come close to FS soulslike, and games that just take inspiration from FS and take a couple mechanics here and there are soulslites.

The distinction is a little arbitrary, I feel like, but it helps further distinguish games by their main characteristics which in a vacuum is absolutely fine.

Games like Hollow Knight or Darksiders 3 come to mind because they clearly take inspiration from souls-games without outright going for that kind of game.

Mine would probably be Hollow Knight, mainly for the fact I haven’t played Silksong as much and because I haven’t played too many soulslites overall. It blends the metroidvania genre with souls elements really well - the, at times, depressing atmosphere while maintaining a sense of hope, the challenging combat, the cryptic storytelling… It’s a very well-made blend.

So what’s your favourite soulslite and why?

As for soulslikes I’m playing right now: nothing. Been tinkering with my new home server for the past week, so that’s been taking most of my free time I’d normally use for gaming. If I do play something, it’s still back to League and more Slay the Spire 2. What about you?

  • Druid@lemmy.zipOPMEnglish
    3·
    14 days ago

    I played a little of it at GamesCom two years ago and it was kinda disappointing. It looked nice, but it felt so clunky. Is the gameplay smoother than what I’ve seen?

    • GrantUsEyes@piefed.zipEnglish
      4·
      14 days ago

      It’s not terrible; but It could be so much more polished. I’m playing mostly for the vibes and because Coelacanth gave it his seal of approval but warned me to keep my expectations within the (I’m paraphrasing) ‘AA, kinda janky game’ zone.

      I don’t know if they have updated the combat since you tried it. If it was already out, probaby not.

      For someone looking for a smooth experience, yeah this 'aint it.

    • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
      4·
      14 days ago

      I never played it at Gamescom so I can’t tell for sure. It never felt unplayable for me though, it’s just not something you play for the smooth combat on its own. It’s definitely janky AA territory, but I have pretty high tolerance of that and charming AA eurojank has its own appeal to me.

      You play it for the art direction, visuals, cool world and theme, music, beautiful environments and different vibe. The combat is just kind of there and still a serviceable Soulslike at the end of it. I had a good time playing around with the elemental system, the mask switching and the active abilities. The game is also only about 25h so it doesn’t wear out its welcome.

      If you’re a combat purist or have strict AAA polish standards you might not enjoy it.

      • Druid@lemmy.zipOPMEnglish
        4·
        14 days ago

        I wouldn’t even call myself a combat purist, but the combat should feel somewhat good and clean. I don’t want the game to “stand in my way” of having fun via combat, if that’s makes sense. Definitely not one to shy away from AA games in general for sure

        • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
          3·
          14 days ago

          It depends on what you mean by stand in your way I suppose. There’s still dodging and parrying to be done and bosses killed. Ultimately most Soulslikes are just varying degrees of pressing Circle at the right time and R1 at the right time and you get to do some of that here. There are definitely titles with higher production values though if you want fancier more cinematic fights, like DS3 and ER.

          I enjoyed it for the different vibes and unique environments and ideas, but Soulslikes is probably the most oversaturated genre on the market the past decade so if those things don’t appeal to you and you don’t like jank then it’s not like you’re running out of other options.