Topic: Souls-likes (& dislikes)

@graymamba Awesome to hear such high praise for the game. I've become really interested in Soulsbornes and Souls-likes as I'm currently playing through Hollow Knight: Silksong. I've recently lost interest in gaming but Souls-likes has reignited my passion for the medium. I feel like playing through challenging games makes me more engaged as I spend more time in the world rather than just breezing through a title and not remembering any part of it.

My last time in these subgenres was almost 10 years ago when I played through Dark Souls and Bloodborne. I feel like I have so much catching up to do. After playing through Silksong, I want to experience Demon's Souls (2020), Dark Souls 3, Sekiro and naturally, Elden Ring. Then there are the Souls-likes, like Lords of the Fallen, NiOh, Lies of P and many more. Hopefully these games manage to grab me!

@LtSarge glad to hear that you have developed an interest in the genre, it was the Dark Souls series that changed me from quite a casual gamer into a more impassioned gamer (and trophy hunter) back almost a decade ago.

You’ve listed some of the greats there in regards to what you intend to play… but please do consider adding Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin to your playlist. Even though it gets treated as the black-sheep of the series… it’s still awesome. I had a similar discussion with @Th3solution a couple of years back and I’m sure that having now played through DS2 that he would advise against you skipping it too.

@graymamba I will absolutely add it to the list, which isn't that hard for me as I do have it in my backlog.

@LtSarge @graymamba Indeed, I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough of Dark Souls 2 last year. Although it’s heresy to admit it, I actually think it might be my favorite of the Souls games (as in, From games that actually have “Souls” in the title) but I’ve yet to play Dark Souls 3. I should be able to get that done within the next year, hopefully within the next few months.

As an aside, I still count Bloodborne as my favorite of the FromSoft games, then DS2/DS1 next (depending on my mood that day), and then Demon’s Souls fourth, although it’s still excellent.

I’m glad I was convinced not to skip DS2, because it’s a common conception that it’s not worthy of the series since it does have a few things it does differently, but to me it was still enough like the others and the new things (like enemies stopping respawning if you kill them enough times, for example) were interesting and enjoyable in their own right.

The other game of theirs that I was planning to skip but now will most definitely play is Sekiro. @graymamba @BlAcK_SwOrDsMaN and others have sold me on it. I haven’t quite decided what order to play it in, but for now it will have to be after DS3 and Elden Ring.

As far as non-From Souls-likes, I still hold the Jedi games as really solid and fun experiences. Jedi Survivor gets a slight edge as the better of the two for me, but many people prefer Fallen Order. Both are great. I’ve not done many other Souls-likes (a failed attempt at Code Vein aside) but now I definitely have Lords of the Fallen squarely on the radar, and also Lies of P.

@Th3solution I’d been trying to work out what souls-likes to play next year, as I’d shuffled my schedule a around a bit due to wanting Lies of P to be a milestone (moved it to 2027 basically). I’d completely forgot about Star Wars: Jedi Survivor for some reason, so glad that you brought it up.

@Hapless yeah I intend to play it on the difficulty that the game originally released at when I eventually get around to it. I’m hoping for it to be my 300th plat, as Bloodborne (which happens to be my fave game of all-time) was my first… and I thought it’d be a nice full-circle moment due to LoP being so heavily inspired by it.

Started up Demon's Souls on PS5 today. I've been on the fence about starting it up as I'm also playing Silksong but I haven't been in a mood to play that game lately, while I've been really wanting to play something like Demon's Souls.

I played it for 4 hours straight today and it's so good. It's as I expected, I'm absolutely loving the challenging nature of the game. I want to take my time and explore everything this world has to offer, which is good because the game does reward you greatly for exploration. I'm also playing it with online features turned on and it's nice to read messages throughout my playthrough that other people have left. It's like we're all on the same journey. Although I feel like the messages do sometimes spoil upcoming enemies and bosses, so I'll have to see if I want to keep having them turned on.

All in all, it's a fantastic game so far and it's made me even more interested in buying more Soulsbornes and Souls-likes.

@LtSarge definitely keep the messages on buddy, it’s all part of the experience… “try finger, but hole…” 😉

edit. Glad that you’re enjoying it so much straight off the bat! - Umbasa 🍻

@graymamba Good call, I have to agree with you in that regard. I played Dark Souls and Bloodborne without messages and it does feel like I missed out on a huge part of the "Souls experience". I'll keep them on!

@LtSarge Another vote here for keeping the messages and ghost images on. Often the messages are actually players who are trying to troll or deceive, so you can’t always believe them.

But mostly I enjoy the online features for the reasons you state — it helps you feel a sense of camaraderie with other player around the world. And can make the journey seem less daunting and frustrating.

And another vote.... especially for something like Sekiro, where co-op isn't an option - helps you feel like 'you're not alone' (!)

@Hapless Fair enough on the Ubisoft and AC comments. I’ve only been able to get one of the newer open world AC games done, Origins, and I liked it well enough. I’ve been meaning to play Odyssey for ages but other games keep pushing it back. Like I mentioned about JRPGs being long, WRPGs and equally as time-intensive, if not more so, and it makes me have to be really selective. Being on about hour 160 of Baldur’s Gate 3 and still not done yet is a testament to that. (Absolutely loving it though)

I have Nioh 1 & 2 in the library, by virtue of PS+ and I’ve meant to play them. I actually did load up Nioh once and played about an hour of it, just to see and it seemed alright but I wasn’t committed to it yet, was just sort of demoing it. I have grown to adore the From / Souls games and am making my way through them. And so my plan was to play all of them first (still have DS3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring to go) before trying Nioh and some of the other Souls-adjacent games.

I assume you’re pretty hyped for Nioh 3? It looks like they are changing the formula a little, from what I’ve read though.

@Hapless I haven’t played the Nioh 3 demo (big Nioh fan though and will definitely play the full game) but I have heard that it plays with the formula quite a bit. I’ve heard things about it being more ninjitsu-focussed and open-world. Not sure how accurate those reports are but sounds interesting.

@Hapless yeah I wouldn’t know… still to actually play RotR and heard just as many positive reactions as negative. I do have it in the backlog though, so I’ll get around to it at some point… have no idea if that’ll be before I play Nioh 3 or not though.

I’m going to go against public opinion, at least the opinion in this thread and say that on the first play through messages should be off. Too many messages give away secrets, wall here, treasure this way. Obviously that is supposed to be an element of the game but i find it distracting, at least on the first play through.

The other thing is the bloodstains and I’m reminded of my first play through of Demons Souls back in 2009, I was wandering through a certain area and noticed loads of bloodstains and instantly thought “hey up, trap here”.
Ever since then I have decided to make my first play throughs offline.

Of course that just my two cents and everyone should play in whatever fashion gives them the most enjoyment.

@graymamba
Have you seen Where Winds Meet?
Just seen it on a video by ACG concerning November releases, a quick google later and it appears to be a solo/coop F2P game. Certainly looks interesting although F2P might put a spoke in the wheel.

@CaptD I saw a trailer or part of a trailer a couple of months back and does look interesting. Didn’t know specifically what type of game it was though… apart from it being free-2-play multiplayer. So it’s a souls-like is it? Cool, I’ll have a watch of that ACG vid to get a better idea 👍