Video games |
---|
Part of a series on |
Role-playing video games |
---|
Subgenres |
Topics |
Lists |
A Soulslike (also spelled Souls-like) is a subgenre of action role-playing games known for high levels of difficulty and emphasis on environmental storytelling, typically in a dark fantasy setting. It had its origin in Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls series by FromSoftware, the themes and mechanics of which directly inspired several other games. Soulslike games developed by FromSoftware themselves have been specifically referred to as Soulsborne games, a portmanteau of Souls and Bloodborne . The "Soulslike" name has been adopted by a number of critics and developers. However, there have also been questions whether it is a true genre or a collection of shared mechanics.
While the description is typically applied to action role-playing games, the core concepts of high difficulty, repeated character death driving player knowledge and mastery of the game world, sparsity of save points, and giving information to the player through indirect, environmental storytelling are sometimes seen in games in very different genres, the mechanics of which are sometimes described as Soulslike.
Soulslike games typically have a high level of difficulty where repeated player character death is expected and incorporated as part of the gameplay and also losing all progress if certain checkpoints have not been reached. Soulslike games usually have means to permanently improve the player character's abilities as to be able to progress further, often by a type of currency that can be earned and spent, but may be lost or abandoned between deaths if not appropriately managed, similar to the souls in the Souls series. [1] [2] [3] The need for repeated playthroughs can be viewed as a type of self-improvement for the player, either through gradual improvement of their character, or improving their own skills and strategies within the game. [4] Salt and Sanctuary developer James Silva said Soulslike games provided "deliberate and meaningful exploration" of the entire game, including the game world, character improvement, and combat, through learning by repeated failures. [5] Combat in Soulslike games may also be methodical, requiring the player to monitor stamina to avoid overexertion of their character, [2] and often is based on "animation priority" actions that prevent the player from cancelling movement until the animation has been played out, leaving them vulnerable to enemy attacks. [4] Souls and its related games developed by FromSoftware include multiplayer features such as the ability to write messages that can be seen and rated by other players, apparitions of other players, blood stains that allow viewing of other players' deaths, invasion of other players' worlds, and summoning of other players to one's own world for assistance.[ citation needed ]
Many Soulslike games include the concept of a bonfire which acts as a checkpoint. As introduced in Dark Souls, bonfires are small campfires of bones marked by a coiled sword, but may be contextualized differently in other games. [6] [7]
Activating a bonfire sets it as a respawn point for the player character should they die. They can also be used to restore health and magic as well as remove status effects, but these resting actions revives most enemies within the game world. Some bonfires can be used to level up and perform other actions such as repairing weapons. Players can also generally warp or fast travel between all bonfires discovered in the game world.
Bonfires were designed by Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki, saying that they were the single addition he was most excited about in the transition from Demon's Souls to its sequel. Serving as both a recovery and respawn point, Bonfires were designed to be a "powerful" aspect of gameplay and a place where players could gather together to share experiences and emotionally communicate. It was also designed to be a "place of warmth", and one of the few "heartwarming" locations in the game's world, expressing the feeling of dark fantasy that he was trying to create. [8]
Since the introduction of the bonfires in Dark Souls, many games have adopted similar progression mechanics; serving either as a reset, leveling, or traveling beacon in games. [9] This mechanic provides a means to avoid an outright failure state, where the player must restart the game completely and lose all progress, while still providing a risk-and-reward system to make the game challenging to the player. [10]
Soulslike games are commonly defined by their dark fantasy setting and lack of overt storytelling, as well as their deep worldbuilding, with a captivating world being cited as key to spark players' desire to explore. [11] Players are meant to discover bits and pieces of the game's lore over time via environmental storytelling, item descriptions and cryptic dialogue, piecing it together themselves to increase the game's sense of mystery. Despite their dark themes, the settings of Soulslikes sometimes feature elements of comic relief, such as unexpected interactions (e.g. petting a cat), humorous reactions from non-player characters, peculiar outfits and weapons, and unusual, often slapstick means of death, such as being eaten by a Mimic. [12]
The Soulslike genre had its genesis in Demon's Souls (2009), developed by FromSoftware and directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. It introduced the core tenets that would be followed by the Dark Souls series, such as the combat, death mechanics, multiplayer, storytelling, and dark fantasy setting. Dark Souls was released as a spiritual successor in 2011. Games considered to be Soulsborne include Bloodborne, [13] [14] [15] Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls series, and Elden Ring . [16] [17] [18] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice , also directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, is sometimes considered a Soulsborne game due to its similar design and shared mechanics, but differs in its setting and role-playing elements.
Other notable Soulslike games include Lords of the Fallen (2014), [19] [20] Titan Souls (2015), [21] DarkMaus (2016), [22] Salt and Sanctuary (2016), [19] [23] the Nioh series, [19] [24] The Surge series, [19] [25] Darksiders III (2018), [19] Ashen (2018), [19] Dark Devotion (2019), [26] Remnant: From the Ashes (2019) and Remnant 2 (2023), [19] [27] Code Vein (2019), [19] [28] Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023), [19] [29] Hellpoint (2020), [30] Mortal Shell (2020), [19] [31] Chronos: Before the Ashes (2020), [32] Thymesia (2022), Steelrising (2022), Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (2022), [33] Lies of P (2023), [34] Lords of the Fallen (2023), Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (2023), Another Crab's Treasure (2024), and Black Myth: Wukong (2024).
Other games outside of the genre cited to have been influenced by the Souls series include The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011), [35] Journey (2012), [36] Shovel Knight (2014), [37] [38] Destiny (2014), [39] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015), [40] God of War (2018), [41] Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018), [42] Dead Cells (2018), [5] Death's Gambit (2018), [43] and Blasphemous (2019). [44] Similar death mechanics are used in Nier: Automata (2017), [45] Hollow Knight (2017), [2] and Fear & Hunger (2018). [46]
Interviews with developers of Soulslike games revealed that they all thought of being classified as part of the genre as a positive thing that functioned as a useful description for players. However, some believed that it could be misleading, causing players to expect certain things and be disappointed when a game does not have them. An example of this was players being disappointed that Remnant: From the Ashes was primarily a shooter, despite being characterized as a Soulslike. [12]
Austin Wood of PC Gamer criticized the Soulslike label, saying that treating Souls games as a template "misleads" players into believing that various games classified as such are similar to Souls when they are really different. He called the Soulslike label, along with the Metroidvania and roguelike labels, "jargon" that "ignores what makes [the games] unique". [11] Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit also decried the Soulslikes as overly restrictive, forcing games to fall into a certain template and preventing their design from advancing. In responding to this argument, Bruno Dias of Vice disagreed, saying that Brown's comparison of Soulslikes with roguelikes was not apt because roguelikes were a hobbyist pursuit for a long time. He also said that Soulslikes did not need to advance yet as they did not have a marketability problem. [47]
The Bonfire system of Dark Souls has been well received. Matthew Elliott of GamesRadar+ called them "a meaty cocktail of progress, exhaustion and joy". He also stated his belief that different types of Bonfires evoke different emotions - welcoming for Bonfires at the start of areas, numb for Bonfires after bosses and great relief for Bonfires at the end of difficult levels. He said that while other games evoke similar emotions with their save points, such as Resident Evil 's save rooms, no other game does so as effectively. [48] Joe Donnelly of Vice described their introduction as a "mark of genius". Saying that failure is redundant in games with autosave systems, he opined that Dark Souls "reinvented the save point", comparing reaching the next bonfire to receiving a badge of honor, and remarking that the Bonfire was a "central character" of the games as much as any NPC or monster. [49]
Robert Zak of Kotaku praised the concept, saying that describing them as a "checkpoint" did not do the idea justice. [50] Kat Bailey of VG247 called Dark Souls Bonfires a signifier of solitude, rather than companionship, like most campfires would be, but, despite that, also a symbol of warmth and safety. She remarked that other games had borrowed this imagery, singling out Shovel Knight as a particular example, despite the reluctance of Yacht Club Games to acknowledge the connection. [51]
The lack of fast travel for a significant portion of the first Dark Souls has been particularly noted as giving the Bonfires of that game outsized significance. While Zak stated that he did not believe that the sequels to Dark Souls were ruined by convenient warping, he nevertheless said that such teleportation "undermined the unique role of the Bonfire", and "watered down their potency". Giving the particular example of the Blighttown bonfire, which is cut off from any others, he noted that it offered both solace and isolation, calling Bonfires "literal and figurative lights in the dark". He stated his opinion that, once the player lights a bonfire in Dark Souls, there is nowhere to go but forward, making it the "ultimate tension-building device". The lack of fast travel gives the player more motivation to "push on", instead of thinking of Majula and Firelink as merely "pitstops". [50] Author M. J. Toswell described Bonfires in Dark Souls as evoking Samhain imagery, similar to the festival of Bonfire Night. Marking the veil between life and death, they give protection against invading souls of the dead, and offer the player a fraught opportunity for redemption. [52]
Roguelike is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most roguelikes are based on a high fantasy narrative, reflecting their influence from tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
FromSoftware, Inc. is a Japanese video game development and publishing company. It was founded by Naotoshi Zin in Tokyo on November 1, 1986. Initially a developer of business software, the company released their first video game, King's Field, for the PlayStation in 1994. Its success shifted FromSoftware to focus fully on games, with them producing two more King's Field games before creating the mecha combat series Armored Core (1997), one of their flagship franchises.
An action role-playing game is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre.
Demon's Souls is a 2009 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 3 under the supervision of Japan Studio. It was published in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment in February, in North America by Atlus USA in October, and in PAL territories by Namco Bandai Partners in June 2010. The game is referred to as a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's King's Field series.
Dark Souls is a 2011 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Namco Bandai Games. A spiritual successor to FromSoftware's Demon's Souls, the game is the first in the Dark Souls series. The game takes place in the kingdom of Lordran, where players assume the role of a cursed undead character who begins a pilgrimage to discover the fate of their kind. A port for Windows featuring additional content, known as the Prepare to Die Edition, was released in August 2012. It was also released for consoles under the subtitle Artorias of the Abyss in October 2012.
Bloodborne is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Bloodborne follows the player's character, a Hunter, through the decrepit Gothic, Victorian-era–inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabitants are afflicted with a blood-borne disease which transforms the residents, called Yharnamites, into horrific beasts. Attempting to find the source of the plague, the player's character unravels the city's mysteries while fighting beasts and cosmic beings.
Hidetaka Miyazaki is a Japanese creative director, designer, writer, and president of the video game company FromSoftware. He joined the company in 2004 and was a designer for the Armored Core series before receiving wider recognition for creating the Dark Souls series. Miyazaki was promoted to company president in 2014 and also serves as its representative director. Other similar games he has directed include Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring.
Necropolis is an action role-playing game developed by Harebrained Schemes and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in July 2016, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2016.
Dark Souls III is a 2016 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. The third and final entry in the Dark Souls series, it is played in a third-person perspective, and players have access to various weapons, armour, magic, and consumables that they can use to fight their enemies. Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the series, returned to direct the game after handing the development duties of Dark Souls II to others.
Dark Souls is a dark fantasy action role-playing game series developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It began with the release of Dark Souls (2011) and has seen two sequels, Dark Souls II (2014) and Dark Souls III (2016). The series was created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and has received critical acclaim, with its high level of difficulty being among its most discussed aspects, while the first Dark Souls is often cited as one of the greatest games of all time. By 2023, the series had shipped over 35 million copies outside of Japan. Other FromSoftware games, including Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring, share several related concepts and led to the creation of the Soulslike subgenre.
Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough, or simply Ornstein and Smough, are a duo of interconnected characters from the 2011 action role-playing game Dark Souls. Independently known as Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough, they are mentioned in the lore of every game in the series, but are predominantly known for their appearance as an asymmetrical boss fight considered one of the game's most difficult. Ornstein being one of the Four Knights of Gwyn who formerly hunted dragons, and Smough an executioner of superhuman size, they were assigned to protect the Lordvessel from intruders and function as the final bosses of the Anor Londo level. The boss battle has been called one of the most memorable fights in gaming by critics.
Anor Londo is a fictional city in the Dark Souls series of action role-playing games. Appearing in both Dark Souls and Dark Souls III, it is the seat of the power of the gods, deities of the Dark Souls world who used the power of the First Flame to destroy the Everlasting Dragons that once controlled it. By the time of Dark Souls, however, it has become an abandoned lost city, as Lord Gwyn had long since sacrificed himself to rekindle the fading First Flame. Anor Londo has been cited by critics for its design as well as the level's high difficulty, including a section guarded by two powerful archers, and the level's final boss duo, Ornstein and Smough.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by FromSoftware. It was released in Japan by FromSoftware and internationally by Activision for the PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in March 2019 and for Stadia in October 2020.
Elden Ring is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware. It was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with worldbuilding provided by fantasy writer George R. R. Martin. It was published for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 25 by FromSoftware in Japan and Bandai Namco Entertainment internationally. Players control a customizable player character who is on a quest to repair the Elden Ring and become the new Elden Lord.
Mortal Shell is an action role-playing video game developed by Cold Symmetry and published by Playstack. The game was released on 18 August 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. A remastered version titled Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition was released on 4 March 2021 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and on 18 November 2021 for Amazon Luna. A port for Nintendo Switch with all the DLC included titled Complete Edition was released on 19 December 2022. It received positive to mixed reviews from critics and has sold one million units as of September 2023.
UnderMine is a roguelike action dungeon crawler video game developed and published by Thorium. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One on August 6, 2020, which followed an early access release one year earlier. Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 versions were released in February and March 2021, respectively.
Steelrising is an action role-playing video game developed by Spiders and published by Nacon. The game was released for Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S in September 2022.
Lords of the Fallen is an action role-playing video game developed by Hexworks and published by CI Games. A successor to the 2014 video game of the same name, the game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 13 October 2023. Upon release, it received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and sold over one million units in the first ten days since release.
Another Crab's Treasure is a Soulslike action-adventure video game developed and published by Aggro Crab. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S on April 25, 2024.
Essentially, Fear & Hunger's approach to difficulty mirrors the Soulsborne games where failure is a lesson and not a punishment.