Do you usually play action-adventure role-playing games, or are soulslikes the exception? Have you found tastes in games be majorly influenced by your liking Soulslikes?
I don’t think it’s had an influence on the games I like but more so on my being rather picky when it comes to combat-focused games. Games that are too spammy or don’t feature good boss fights don’t really interest me these days (with some exceptions here and there). I do like to play other games after having a bit of a break since the last soulslike really had me in its grips.
What about you?
Edit: Also sorry for the lack of posts recently. I admit to having browsed reddit using Stealth for the past couple years which helped me with ideas for posts and memes. Since that’s been shut down recently, I have pretty much no clue what’s happening in the genre right now. I’ve also got exams, so that probably isn’t helping either. :D
My taste in playing other games? I get less easily frustrated? Or maybe that’s not the right expression. I enjoy loosing more often and then the iterative process to get better (“git gud”). That’s something which doesn’t need an underlying Soulslike. But it’s also more how I engage with games and less about my taste changing.
It would also be interesting to play a third person action game again which is explicitly not a Soulslike. I don’t think I’ve played such an action game since I really got into Souls games. I will probably, eventually get into Monster Hunter again - I used to be way into that series. It would be interesting to see how my experience has changed…
I’m now almost at the end of my third RL1 playthrough of Elden Ring (I may have played too much last week and this weekend). My Radagon/Elden Beast win this time was so satisfying: I lost heartbreakingly - Elden Beast had almost no red on it’s health bar and then the next attempt I played nearly flawless and immediately beat the fight, admittedly I got the perfect opening in the Elden Beast fight, but I also perfectly capitalized on it.
I have now beaten all Remembrance Bosses except Consort. I skill issued on Malenia hard. I almost felt totally in the zone when fighting her with Star Fist, perfect dodges, capitalizing on her openings and then – “I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella…”. Yeah, a perfect fight with Star Fist may be out of my reach for now. I then tried and eventually succeeded with Giant-Hunt, but that strategy is far more success full at higher levels then at low level since she has so much hyper armor. Ice Spear is definitely better for me then Giant-Hunt on her.
I also got a bit goofy: Did you know you can use the Sacred Relic Sword at Level 1? (That’s Elden Beast’s weapon). It was so funny and so satisfying simply blasting Fia’s champion with the Weapon Art.
I concluded my Holy Pot experiments. I did one-shot the Death Bird in the Snowfield with it, but did “only” 34k damage to it. I think I could have got almost 40k but either Howl of Shabriri ran out or I didn’t hit the head. But I did get 50k damage in one pot with the DLC boost on one Ghostflame Dragon, which was pretty funny. One-shotting those annoying dragons with a single pot will never not be funny.
I finally got Bloodborne working on PC! So I’ll be locking into that whenever I can. Realistically probably won’t be till next week, busy weekend.
I finally got to try Khazan yesterday! I defeated the phantom blade boss and so far I’m enjoying the feel and rhythm of the combat a looot! really fresh take on the genre. I never personally played any CAG’s (but I’ve been toying with the idea of of playing the devil may cry series for a good while, could this game sway me that way?). I’m only two bosses in, but I have already seen some of the fights and I know they are really intense, so hopefully I can keep up. the visual effects didn’t bother me as much as I though they would initially, which is good, I’m reading the action without that much effort. I’m not getting much from the story or the world design yet, but the gameplay feels so good that if that doesn’t change I wouldn’t be super mad about it. I hope for al least some good enemy variety as the game progresses.
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in regards to the question,( It’s the other way around for me. moslty. :P ) scratch that SOMEHOW I read incorrectly. it’s the same for me then
I just beat Dark Souls 3 today! I played a dex build with rapier/ mail breaker. It’s my first time beating it.
I might jump back into Elden Ring, I’ve had a second run going in that one for a while now for whenever I feel like dipping in again.
I guess the DLCs don’t really go on sale?
If you’re on PC, Joybuggy has SotE for 20% off just now if you use code
WEEKENDat the checkout. It’s a legit site, not grey market. It doesn’t seem to go lower than that though
Probably a bit of Elden Ring, comfort gaming due to busy schedule this weekend
I don’t know if soulslikes have influenced my tastes. I think a lot of the elements were always there - I enjoy settings that feels.coherent but mysterious, I enjoy harsh but fair and weighty gameplay, I enjoy melancholy and lonely media, and all of those things were true before I first touched a soulslike. Action RPGs more broadly aren’t a genre I engage with a tonne; strategy, puzzle, and sim racing. Things that engage with a lot of those same elements, if in very different ways. Perhaps it is the other way around for me, other games influenced me towards soulslikes
I’m currently in the middle of three different souls lakes or fromsoft games. I’ll be playing silksong this weekend!
I’m looking at playing Convergence 3.0. I already played the older versions a bunch, but 3.0 is a big update again. I’ve been watching MissMikkaa playing it and it looks awesome.
It is another big time sink, so I’m not sure if I want to start it right now. Or perhaps play some co-op with somebody. But it does look pretty good.
Hope to play lords of the fallen with some friends, if we find the time.
If not, guess I’ll go through Lies of P or some DS1 again
It’s an interesting question. I am definitely more of a general gamer who sometimes plays Soulslikes, rather than a full-blooded Souls gamer. And that’s not really been changing recently, if anything the ratio is slipping. I’ve said it before but there is definitely a concern in the back of my head that I might be falling out of love with the genre. That appetite for bashing my head against a boss for days and days is really diminishing. I still love the type of exploration and level design a good Soulslike offers but… I might not be cut out for them anymore. I don’t know. Maybe I just need a longer break until the next one.
So yeah, no Soulslikes for me right now. Although I was actually very very close to grabbing Hell Is Us on the Steam Summer Sale, but decided against it. I did buy five other games though so might dig into one of those, if I have any time between World Cup games and F1. Or maybe I’ll keep playing Splinter Cell: Double Agent first, I finished the first mission today and might actually be getting into it a bit.
I feel somewhat similarly. To me, Souls like solved melee combat. If I play any game that has swords and the like, 3rd person melee combat, I expect it to play like a souls, if not, it is, in my opinion, a subpar design. But, combat is not all I want in a game, actually, these days, I care less and less about it. I’ve been having a hard time playing pure souls likes because just the combat is not enough to keep me entertained anymore, I haven’t even finished Elden Ring because it just felt “samey”. I wish we’d see more souls likes that innovate around other gameplay elements, Ashen was a game that particularly struck me as being an interesting direction to go, where combat rebuilds the world.
For me actually I think I’m the opposite. I’ve played a lot of Ninja Gaiden the past year, and coming back to Souls afterwards combat felt bland and stale. I’ve come to prefer a more active and proactive approach rather than the reactive paradigm of memorising patterns and pressing B for thirty seconds straight then R1 once and then repeating for ten minutes. In fact, I think claiming any 3rd person melee combat that isn’t Souls is straight up subpar design is absolutely crazy.
Same here. Bloodborne is the only non-fully-reactive/more-proactive Souls, and no wonder it’s considered by many as their favorite (including me).
I’m now playing Crimson Desert, and their fighting game approach to combat is incredible. I’ve played like 300 hours and I’m still discovering new moves and combos every now and then.
