There is one guy in my group of best friends who is an absolute monster with all those games. He has something like 500 hours in ER, and another one of them just got into it and so they've been back and forth nonstop in the video games channel of our group chat. (Is it unusual for groups of 30somethings to have meticulously organized group chats? I have wondered that for a while and this is finally a public forum to pose the query)
To be fair, I have nothing at all against the games or them being so into it, but I'm glad I'm not alone in seeing people just seething over that genre and simply not getting it.
Then again, 500HrGuy recently said he's considering trying Outer Wilds (my die-on-a-hill game) and there is a pretty solid chance he won't get it either and that would be okay.
Elden ring and soulslikes in general for me is a game I space out on.
I get into this mode almost meditative where there isn't a single thought in my head and I just keep fighting the boss over and over again until I finally beat it.
I've had friends try out elden ring and get pissed off, that is just not good for having fun on the game.
For me it's a relaxing experience, and when I beat the boss I get a big hit of dopamine.
I am one of those that would get pissed so i rather not ever trying. Wich is why i stopped playing pvp games many years ago. i was just angry for most of the time and maybe i would have some fun every now and then but i decided its not worth it.
good choice. being angry is never a good thing imo. even if its just "for fun". it will always be a draining state of mind. single player and PvE games are just so chill
The first time I played Dark Souls 3 at 16, I nearly broke my controller, and refunded it at Iudex Gundyr, the tutorial boss literally like 5 minutes into the game.
I came back to it later as an adult, bought it again, and it's now one of my favorite games. You've gotta be in the right head space for it, and you have to be willing to walk away and take a break if things aren't going your way. I can't blame people for not enjoying that, it's definitely not for everyone, it wasn't even for me initially.
Yeah I agree, I had a similar experience. I tried dark souls 1 long ago and couldn't understand it but my friends kept telling me if I loved monster hunter there is no way I won't love dark souls.
Well they were right once I gave it a real try. I now have a tattoo of Nito from DS1 on my arm lol.
Souls games are definetly for a specific type of person, I love boss fights and big scary monsters. My wife however for example would absolutely hate dark souls, she plays stuff like overwatch mostly. Just different cups of tea.
I can understand that. I can do a couple dozen tries in one session, but my patience isn't limitless, that's fo sho. Been playing Wuchang lately and some bosses took upwards of a couple hundred attempts. Then again, I do suck at Soulsborne games in general.
I grew up on OG Atari and Nintendo games and even SNES had the same thing. Games were very hard and over the years alot of games just got easier and easier. People used to tell me i just played too much (I do lol) and thats why they were easy for me. Souls came along and i demolished demon souls and my friends were all stuck and couldnt figure out how i blew through it. It wasnt easy but wasnt hard. The souls made me feel like i was playing the OG games and love how difficult it was, i loved that there was no real way to just change most the fight by lowering difficulty. People get upset that i love that but i just makes me happy that we have a game without "shortcuts" Humans will take them most the time if you give it to them. Its the only game that makes everyone equals and forces you to play the game the way it was intended.
YES! I feel like playing these games makes me learn more about myself like "why am I not focusing, am I scared" I died "why did I lose focus at that point, did my head wander off" after wasting a few years on online games and getting angry these games made me reflect on myself and improve as a person
For context, Ive taught 1000s of students in a variety of subjects and setting scenarios...often critiqued being passionate about what i do, but...
Live chat, even with friends gives me anxiety. Im so focused on the game/mission I will go the whole round not saying a damn thing unless its "shooter/objective X here or there." Then ill be self conscience about not having said anything. Its a spiral...
Safe to say I, in game chat features and markers like in Hell Divers 2 of Battlefield 2 make games enjoyable.
Dark Souls and games like it require their players to make a certain click.
Some get that click after a couple minutes, others a couple hours, and for some it doesn't happen until they try again after a few years. And sometimes, it never clicks (which is completely fine, of course).
I ended up getting Bloodborne by accident. I wanted TLOU Remastered and Shadow of Mordor, but a discount for buying 3 games made getting 3 cheaper than just the 2, and Bloodborne was the only remaining game eligible for the deal that seemed remotely interesting.
It took 2,5 hours before it clicked, but Bloodborne ended up my favourite game of all time. And it introduced me to the other games in the genre.
This is perfect explanation. Dark souls 1 - skeleton graveyard for weeks. Went hollow. Came back a month later and found stairway to undead berg(around lvl40 one handing zwei- didn’t have any issues until O&S - it clicked.)
This was me back in 2015. I got Dark Souls 1 on games for gold back in 2011, and couldn't quite get it. The graveyard outside firelink dogwalked me, I didn't really understand how the stats spread out, and I couldn't get any further than lower undead burg. Cue four years later. My dad died of colon cancer that Spring, and my ex-wife and I split up that summer, and I lost the job paying my bills. My mom owned the apartment complex I lived in and when I threatened to kick me out if I missed a second rent payment.
So in the midst of all of that, I started playing again after coming across VaatiVidya. I fell in love with the lore, and dove back in. The amount of diligence and willingness to eat shit until it clicked also helped me understand what I needed to do in real life. I ended up doubling up on jobs to get back out of the hole I was in.
What all this nonsense nobody asked for was leading up to is this: Don't give up, skeleton.
For me it was getting invaded halfway down blighttown. I used to run back to bonfires when I got invaded, or would wait near a safe spot to get my souls back. I hated getting invaded, but wasn't good enough yet to solo bosses so I always popped humanities to get some help.
Halfway down blighttown, in that area with the big sewer where the fire breathing dogs are under you and those poison dart shooters are above, I got invaded. I was so sick of getting invaded and so mad that I just said "fuck this guy" and for the first time i locked in and took him on. We traded blow for blow on those rafters, as I could hear the dart throwers I hadn't killed yet shooting at me. It was the first pvp match I actually actively tried in, and with all my flasks used I barely won. I remember putting the controller down with shaking hands and just stared at the screen for a minute.
By the time I had finally put that game down for good, I had like 300hrs in it, and about 200 of those was being a forrest bro in pvp. I'd bow when I invaded and if they bowed as well, id drop a humanity for them to pick up and use my favorite weapons. If they didnt bow, id swap to my broken op weapons and wipe the floor with them.
I farmed Seeds of Tree Giants and the disguise item in Souls 1.
If I got invaded I would become a pot and use the Seed and let the invaders clear the zone for me and just start watching YouTube or do my university homework lol.
Lol you went into the catacombs that early?? My mistake on my first ds1 play through was upon first entering firelink, I took that lift down to the haunted underwater castle area and died over and over and over and gave up and quit the game.
2 years later lol I somehow stumbled upon some Dark Souls speedrun YouTube video showing of the stairway up to undead berg from firelink. I facepalmed and immediately restarted the game and played the shit out of it and every other souls game afterwards.
Bloodborne was my first souls game. I bought it, played for an hour, returned it back to GameStop. Bought it again a year later and bear it along with DS 1-3. I am now playing Sekiro and it’s another level of punishment.
You have to be the kind of person that 1. Enjoys incrementally improving dexterity skill based activities (like playing a musical instrument, skateboarding, pool, darts etc), and 2. You have to be susceptible to being rage baited into motivation by spite.
Fromsoft games won't click until you're goaded into being angry enough to work hard enough to get that dopamine reward of eventual victory. It's actually a really sweaty competitive rhythm game pretending to be a single player RPG.
If it was blind trial and error it wouldn't be nearly as addictive or satisfying.
That's probably my issue then lol I don't get motivation from the rage baiting, I just get annoyed at the game design and say fuck this. Why should I spend my time trying to learn the specific series of button presses the dev wanted me to make to progress in a game of all things?
I play games to have a good time and relax, i have enough shit irl that I need to overcome.
Why should I spend my time trying to learn the specific series of button presses the dev wanted me to make to progress in a game of all things?
Because much like guitar hero it feels really great when you finally master something stressful through learned skill and intense practice. Feels good man.
I think Sekiro was the best for it. It removed all the stat fuckery a made the game about one thing and one thing only. Get good. Literally just improve your actual physical body's hand skills until you can beat this game. Immensely satisfying.
That wasn't the "it" for me - or rather why I enjoyed Dark Souls 1 which was my first Souls game. It was terrific because I loved the unaided exploration, finding every little bit loot and building the map in my head. I'm also sad they never went back to this level of interconnectivity while I guess Bloodborne was the closest one with this type of area loop ( especially to Iosefka's clinic later on ). One of the reasons why I also love Gothic 1 / 2 so much, as it's the same concept concerning the the map and how areas are connected over the whole island.
While true that I enjoyed the later games for figuring out the bosses, that's not why I fell in love with the series in the first place.
I didn't "get" both ER and Outer Wilds. Both are great games to me (tried both), and I can see why they're such big hits. The problem is me, and I blame adulting for it. I have far too little patience to "git gud" these days, or sit long enough for the big reveal. Give me some straightforward and brainless games that I can play on easy mode and still enjoy right away.
if you don’t like time loop puzzles where the goal is to eventually have “the perfect run,” you probably won’t have much fun with it. i think it’s a very cool game and i respect it for what it is but that type of gameplay isn’t very satisfying to me personally.
I really liked outer wilds, but I had literally just finished Blue Prince when I played it. So when I finished it I just sat there for a second like wait that’s the end?
I don’t think you need a perfect run. You can chip away at it bit by bit because your computer logs everything you discover so you can do things bit by bit. Perfect run is more like Deathloop.
OW is my favourite game of all time, never could work out the dlc though, if anything I’d argue that was more requiring of a perfect loop due to how little time you have for it vs the base game.
I love Outer Wilds but early game seems to be the problem for most people. 30 minutes is nowhere near enough for it to click.
Imagine someone used a hammer to shatter a story into many different fragments. And those story fragments were scattered across every part of the game for you to find and piece back together.
The main issue is that you have free reign to explore anywhere you want. So you go to a place, read a bit of text, find some information you don't understand or have no context over, so, for now, it's useless to you. You go explore a different place, and you get another piece of information that is just as confusing with no context. And on top of that it doesn't even relate to what you found the first time. Then you go to a third place and so on and so forth.
The magic happens when you've pieced together enough of the story for you to be incredibly curious about the rest. There's this overarching mystery that just pulls you in. Everyone's 'Aha' moment comes at different times though. But one thing's for sure is that it usually happens a couple of hours or even several hours in.
Just a word of warning though, this game would never click for people who don't care about stories and value gameplay above all else. And also, Outer Wilds gets described as a puzzle game but I disagree. It's mainly an exploration game. Yes there might be some puzzle moments and aspects to it but I don't think that's the main theme for the game. In fact, the DLC is more of a puzzle more so than the base game. I would avoid the radio tower on Timber Hearth (a picture of it is at the observatory) until you've done everything in the base game (or beaten it).
Groups of good friends will organize their interactions and coordinate with each other. We were adding bots and organizing our discord in middle school and then just never had to do anything else. We’re all mid twenties now.
I have about 2.5 thousand hours across from software’s catalogue.
I swear I tried getting into Outer Wilds so many damn times (twice on Game Pass, then I bit the bullet and bought the game) but after 10-12hrs of playtime and reaching "fake" ending, I can honestly say that earnestly I do not like playing that game. I like the idea of it, and driving spaceship is so cool, but damn is it so punishing for trying to explore.
You're always on a clock and progressing through scanning barcodes and reading them on spaceship just isn't as fun as I thought it was, and best you don't miss one on a planet or you just have to waste one more cycle trying to look for it again.
I really tried liking it but for the life of me after I reached the ending I just uninstalled it. I've reached fake endings before too, like in Furi but even when I put the game down I still look back fondly on my experience and some time play first few levels for the fun of it. Can't say the same for Outer Wilds.
Different strokes for different folks. I'm an avid souls enjoyer, but also Outer Wilds is one of my favourite games of all times. You never know, he may love it. He has to go in blind, though!
Im all in on the fromsoft train, but I can see why its hard for some people. Elden Ring was a turning point because it was the most accessible of the series, but that doesnt mean its accessible, just more so than others.
Once you get it, you will REALLY get it. But until you do, it might just feel not great. I had the joy of watching a friend play it as his first from soft game. This is a man I would say is objectively good at games. Like, 8/10 at most things, and watching him just plain not get how to move and do stuff in a souls game was eye opening. Ive done so many that the whole playsthle is very familiar, but when your not you can bounce off hard if you aren't dedicated to figuring it out.
The games are fine, but Ive never managed to get into them no matter what Ive tried.
Im the one who showed the game to a friend of mine that got addicted and im still trying to find out why i cant play the game for more than 3 hours without being bored.
I like the setting of the game, the combat is fine, ive played difficult games before that included 1 hit and youre done type of gameplay. I even played megaman on the NES which is pure hell and I cant get myself to sit down and play a Dark Souls game. Even tried Sekiro, it went a bit better, but i still never finished it.
Outer Wilds and Souls games have more in common than you'd think.
Progression loop based on knowledge and player skills, rather than leveling up, inevitable deaths, indirect storytelling via environment, cryptic dialogues, and notes.
Neither games relies on quest logs, mini maps or exposition.
Same themes of decay, inevitability, and acceptance.
I'm a huge fan of souls games and soulslikes, but I also like indie games such as Outer Wilds, Rain world, Tunic, Hollow Knight.
Being a fan of the souls genre doesn't mean you can't appreciate other genres
I’ve sold friends on these titles and even turned them into full-on From fans by re-pitching the game to them as a coop dungeon crawler rather than a super hard sweatfest boss brawler. The elitists in those communities only do the games a disservice by suggesting people should play alone. They miss out on a whole other experience the games offer.
Then again, 500HrGuy recently said he's considering trying Outer Wilds (my die-on-a-hill game) and there is a pretty solid chance he won't get it either and that would be okay.
I think it's important to understand that people can absolutely 'get' the premise and aims of a game and what the developers intended and still not derive enjoyment from it.
I have a buddy who plays souls games and is obsessed. He always beats them on the highest difficulty and brags about it. Whenever I played any other types of games, like multiplayer ones against humans, he didn't seem very good... Then some multiplayer Souls games started coming out and it became apparent that the reason he beats them is because he is extremely good at not giving up, but not good at gaming at all. He panic dodge rolls constantly and will die over and over and over without adjusting his strategy.
I have a full group chat of Magic the Gathering players and I havent actually met all of them but this is a consistent thing. We are all 30’s 40’s dudes
So I utterly loved Outer Wilds but I’ve also always been a massive DS fan, and it was the exploration and discovery I enjoyed, aspects prevalent in both games. A pity you never clicked with Souls games though. Maybe trying them with that sense of discovery as a forefront might help?
If ever I have an abundance of free time for gaming again (kids lol) I may give it a shot, I think the difference for me was the combat. In the context of a combat-centric game the grind of just trying again is a bit more stressful in a way I didn't enjoy. Outer Wilds, even in its most tense moments, didn't really "upset" me that way I guess. I am older and (perhaps) wiser these days though.
I found the stress of getting through Bramble more stressful than anything I’ve ever experienced in a Souls game lol, but that might just be the thalassophobia talking… I know what you mean though, if the game isn’t clicking for you with the combat, there’s not really anything you can do to avoid it, and the exploration isn’t enough to equal that out
Yeah I don't have much fear of fish or open water so that was one juno scare (twice!) for me. Have you played the DLC for OW? Thats such a departure in base game gameplay it was almost there for freaking me out lmao
I started the DLC but haven’t finished it yet (I only finally played OW last week!) but as I started it after finishing the base game, I decided to take a break and then return to it. I hadn’t seen anything scary yet (other than the creepy music during the film rolls…) but honestly, the fact there is a “less scary” mode was freaking me out a bit lmao so maybe that contributed to me taking a break…
To answer you're organized group chats, idk if its unusual but my friends do it too. We have a couple text chats specific to groups that care about certain things but ultimately is just a mix of the same people. There's also a discord for the gaming crew and within that a decent chunk of different channels for various topics.
I'm a big art direction guy so I love the worlds and characters of these games, but outside of Elden Ring and Bloodborne, I haven't really been able to stick it out. Maybe I'll try going back, but I'd rather just look at the art books than play most of those games.
I just played outer wilds and while I appreciate the story, the gameplay loop was maddening. Sitting through the same boring thing over and over while adding 1% more to the story just does not make for compelling gameplay. I 100% think outer wilds shoulda been made as a movie and not a video game.
I think there’s three main things that I really love about Souls Likes.
1) Proper hitboxes and weapons that feel like they have weight. It’s like the opposite of Skyrim’s slap-fight spam left click until they die gameplay.
2) No save scrumming. Actions have consequences. Failing hurts. There’s actual stakes.
3) Practicing hard things until you get into a flow state and do great things. Beating the final boss in Sekiro felt like finishing a marathon. I might not be the best but I trained my skills for hours and I finished it. No skill points, no rare weapons. My character didn’t get more skilled, I did.
I guess these points lead to Souls Likes being very immersive.
I'm not the person you asked, but I did try to play dark souls 3 several times and quit very early because I didn't find it fun. Then elden ring came out and I absolutely fell in love with it. I played it through many times and after getting used to the formula I went and played dark souls 1 and 3 and loved them too. It's a fun game imo, but you have to strictly engage with the games systems and some people don't want to do that much effort.
I think it's a lot like black coffee, you have to acclimate or develop a taste for it, and yet there are many people who do not like coffee at all no matter what.
I think that’s what Demons Souls really excels at: teaching you the concept of the “Tough but fair” mechanics by making it the focus of the game. As much as I love Dark Souls (especially DS2) it’s about as approachable as a no trespassing sign. Demon Souls at least eases you into it somewhat and has a familiar structure (The crash bandicoot style level portals) Dark Souls 2 meanwhile is filled with backtracking and hidden mechanics and items with insanely specific uses like the Ring of Whispers
It's been a while but I remember fighting a really big wolf with a sword in its mouth. I may have stopped a bit after that.
I had a friend basically carry me through Dark Souls 3. I did not enjoy the experience. That same friend played Elden Ring with me but as we got busier, we didn't play as much, and I just completely lost interest.
It's just really not my kind of game. I can appreciate a lot of stuff about it. There's no denying that it's an incredibly well made game. It's just not my vibe. And here's a controversial take...I like quest markers. I like a quest log. I want a journal I can read. I like it when games tell me exactly where to go, who to speak to, what to do in order to advance. The fact that Elden Ring doesn't even have an option to turn that on...is a huge turn off for me.
I like games with exploration, when it's on my terms. If I want to abandon the main questline and go do random exploration for hours on end then I'll do it. The more recent Assassin's Creed games even encourage exploring an area in order to find your objective rather than just giving you the quest marker to the exact location. I like the way they do that, and I can toggle it on and off depending on if I have the time to invest into it at that moment. I'm not averse to exploration, but the fact that Elden Ring offers zero guidance is a massive issue for me.
It's undoubtedly a masterpiece, but so are a lot of paintings, so are a lot of buildings, music albums, Tv shows, movies...but it's just not my vibe.
Yes, I've really liked my time with Elden Ring but the quests are irritating. You meet some random NPC (well, they're important in their own right but to you they're a stranger) and they talk about something they need your help with. That's interesting so you go on your way but half an hour later you've forgotten that you spoke to them. Then you randomly help them with their quest but you don't even realize it. Then you start reading a lot of guides about what you should or shouldn't do story wise and now you're a little paranoid that you're going to spoil an important quest line.
I really like the atmosphere and the gameplay most of the time, it's just that my progression feels so random and unconnected to the story. I guess if you play it many times you learn all the ins and outs but I'm mostly a one playthrough kind of guy. So for now I'm taking a pause but I want to come back some day.
I really liked the exploration in Hollow Knight by the way. My only grudge against that one is that I liked the exploration a little too much and I was just left with all the boss fights. I like a few in a game but not back to back to back. I think Jedi Fallen Order has a nice balance of normal fights, puzzle solving and exploring with a few tough boss fights. Kena Bridge of Spirits also.
I’m not the one you asked, but for me it was the point where I was slowly walking around this swampy, kind of foggy area. You just knew there were some baddies around (unfortunately not attractive females)…next thing you know, some creature on a rock, off-camera, mind you, one shotted me.
Regretted buying Elden Ring almost immediately... Never tried dark souls and won’t lol.
This is the problem with people playing whatever is flavour of the month, they ruin series they might enjoy by starting with the shiny new release instead of the game they're most likely to enjoy.
Dark Souls 1 is much smaller in scope and gives a more honest impression of what the games are about. Even as a fan of the series I struggled to enjoy Elden Ring and would have dropped it in a few hours if it was my first Fromsoft experience.
Those type of games have to click. It's usually at the point you find out or feel that dying is just a mechanic.
It doesn't always click for everyone though, and that is ok. I hated dark souls 1 when it come out, quit it for a year, gave it another choice and now it's my favorite genre.
Elden ring is my favorite game of all time. Would encourage you to give it another go if you're ever bored/not sure what game to play. Its not hard at all. If anything is challenging, just go to a different area and loot/level up and come back.
"It's not hard at all" is a massive stretch, but...yeah, it can be an "easy" Souls game...if you put the time into it. I liked Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3, but never got terribly far into either of them, because I eventually would get hardstuck, and have no other options other than spending forever farming to level up to maybe brute force things.
Elden Ring gives you so many paths, weapons, items, abilities, etc, that you can overcome just about anything if you think it through, so you feel alot less "trapped" than in previous FromSoft games. You can have alot of fun just exploring and not worrying about the main story as well. There's so many hidden nooks and crannies, and not to mention entire underground areas that even after a few hundred hours, you'll stumble across something new.
Honestly, I'm hardstuck at the Fire Giant because I refuse help, but Elden Ring is still a top 10 game ever for me.
indeed, but I like it. It's like a real time strategy game. But then you go onto Sekiro and Armored core 6 and oh boy you feel like you are actively reaching Mach 3
it went crazy in Japan it had more sales than Elden Ring and pretty sure it was the best selling videogame of Japan that year having over 700k physical sales.
still waiting for more AC6 content though it's my fav game of all time
It's a shock coming from other games that invite you to combo or button mash your way through them.
One of the rules of the genre is timing and control. Pushing a heavy attack needs to be timed well. Otherwise you needed to stick to a light attack so you can dodge in time.
Only if you play those games on easier difficulty modes. People who complain about how hard Souls games are should play Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta if they want something that really feels HARD. I love all of these games but I think difficulty is definitely a huge spectrum in these and some people saying soulslikes are too hard blow my mind as somebody who beat Arlecchino solo in Lies of P on Leg Stalker difficulty but cannot get past the first two stages of Hard on NG2 Black or past stage 4 in Ninja Gaiden Sigma or who got stuck for like an hour on the third stage of Bayonetta.
What I think is happening is the game demanding you to play a certain way only for people to start bashing their head against a wall, beating it anyway and just assuming that's how the game was meant to be played. Dark Souls is harder to get into as an action rpg first timer but if you have played others, then it really isn't hard at all.
It is in fact much easier in real life than it is portrayed in souls games. Even the biggest weapons were rather light , or they wouldn't be practical in any scenario.
I mean, I dont think people defending it are 'white knights'. Its literally a core mechanic of the game, hence why every singlendark souls game has the same combat. The developers dont just suck at developing combat, its intentional. The souls games have a huge following and every single one will say the same thing, that cimbst being the way it is, is the point. Just because someone doesnt understand it or like it doesnt mean its bad game design. You dont like the game the way it is, thats it.
I mean, I dont think people defending it are 'white knights'. Its literally a core mechanic of the game, hence why every singlendark souls game has the same combat. The developers dont just suck at developing combat, its intentional. The souls games have a huge following and every single one will say the same thing, that cimbst being the way it is, is the point. Just because someone doesnt understand it or like it doesnt mean its bad game design. You dont like the game the way it is, thats it.
I mean, I dont think people defending it are 'white knights'. Its literally a core mechanic of the game, hence why every singlendark souls game has the same combat. The developers dont just suck at developing combat, its intentional. The souls games have a huge following and every single one will say the same thing, that cimbst being the way it is, is the point. Just because someone doesnt understand it or like it doesnt mean its bad game design. You dont like the game the way it is, thats it.
I mean, I dont think people defending it are 'white knights'. Its literally a core mechanic of the game, hence why every singlendark souls game has the same combat. The developers dont just suck at developing combat, its intentional. The souls games have a huge following and every single one will say the same thing, that cimbst being the way it is, is the point. Just because someone doesnt understand it or like it doesnt mean its bad game design. You dont like the game the way it is, thats it.
Thank you for this. I haven’t played any of those games and now I know I never need to. This is the most frustrating thing in any game. It unleashes a deep seated rage in me going back to the wrestling games of the early 90s.
What? Its like realistic? Like when you swing your sword, you swung it. you cannot just cancel the action, you have to follow through. Just like real life.
I'll never understand why people say DS1 is still king. This game has so many flaws that I can't rate it higher than 8/10. After Anor Londo it's a 6/10 at best and that's like half of the game. I did not like Lost Izalith, Demon Ruins and the Tomb of the Giants. When you get fast travel, the quality nosedives and the amazing interconnectivity is almost gone. Also, Bed of Chaos is so bad I can't even put it into words. Worst Fromsoft boss fight I have ever played.
Contrary to that Sekiro just gets better and better: both the late game and the end game are brilliant. No other game can match the satisfaction you get from beating the game's bosses. But maybe I'm biased because Sekiro is the first souls game I've ever finished.
I was the same way, for such a long time. I'm 28 and have never touched a dark souls game. I just couldn't understand why people would like games that are just supposed to be difficult and that's it
Until 2 weeks ago when I started playing dark souls 1. It is tough, it can be frustrating, but DAMN beating a boss who's moveset is difficult but not unfair is such a good feeling
I think people who only interact with Souls Games on a surface level, think they are designed to be difficult or mean spirited, when that couldn't be further from the truth.
The games are basically meant to look really scary but then perfectly mould the player to have all the skills necessary to succeed. If you look at statistics they have a much higher completion rate than many narrative driven games like LOU or Uncharted.
When you play it you will encouter a part where you think you will never be able to progress past it, but in the end you always will and no other video game will provide this feeling better.
And then on top of everything, they have amazing combat, level design, music, big variety of playstyles, lore etc.
From games have a ton of style and atmosphere. The narrative style is different and enjoyable, world design is often fantastic (level design in Dark souls 1 is some of the best of all time). There's so much fashion souls to do, and tons of different builds/playstyles. Plus coop/pvp. Soulsborne is so much more than the "hurr durr, game is hard" people seem to think it is.
I think the first dark souls is awesome but I couldn’t get into Elden ring really. But at this point dark souls and the souls genre is over saturated. Kind of like battle royal but those are at least different game companies.
Agreed. I tried so hard to like Elden Ring. I really did. But everything about it just wasn't my thing at all. I found the world a little bleak, I spent 20 hours running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out what to do and then getting absolutely blasted and killed by bosses that were miles above my level. I just found it hard to figure out where to even begin tbh. After 20 hours I shouldn't feel so directionless. I don't expect a game to hold my hand, I love exploring a good open world and getting lost doing random stuff. But I just couldn't grasp this goddamn game whatever.
At the end of the day, I got a job, I commute to work and have other responsibilities in life, I just don't have the time nor patience to fart about a world like this with very little reward for hours upon hours.
Same. I atill have my original copy of the limited edition of Demon Souls for ps3. I had a hard time getting into it. When it turned into Dark Souls, I tried, but I am pretty sure I just do not like the genere.
I have a disability where my brain has a slight delay when processing things. This sadly transfers into video games. Its about 1.3 milliseconds and it took me a long time to adjust to life after the incident that caused this.
I have the hardest times with most souls like games because of this. The 2 games I was able to play was Bloodborne and Code Vein.
There maybe others, but because of my difficulty with them, I just avoid buying the . Its a shame because Elden Ring looks special.
The only one that ever clicked with me was Bloodborne because of it's aggressive gameplay loop and the setting. Any other Soulslike I tried never connected. I'm shocked to this day that I managed to finish Demon Souls back on my PS3.
Most of them suck. Dark souls 3 and elden ring are solid.
The caviat is you need to Google everything because the game assumes you are an unemployed lunatic that will work things out on your own.
Also the story telling in fromsoft games is legit terrible and players need to stop giving them a pass on that. Needing a YouTube video to explain it is a failure, not a complexity.
Bloodborne has some of my favorite “story telling” in any game or piece of media in general. It’s definitely vague and some of it is left up for interpretation but I think that’s kind of the point.
This is a godawful set of takes. It’s one thing to not like it, it’s another to be incapable of following basic level design and having not even surface level media literacy skills and an attention span not greater than 5 minutes.
The world building is huge and complex. But the handful stories are as simple as it gets. The main story in dark souls is explained in the starying trailer of each game.
Aka people found a source of power which turned them into god like beings aka bonfire. Now the world is dying as the source is dying out aka the flame of the bonfire. Dk1
You got to repeat the cycle or try to find a different path from this cycle of lighting the flame. Dk2
The flame is on its last embers. The world burned so often almost only ash and decay is left. End it and naybe usher a different age. Dk3
I can imagine the appeal, but goddamn does that game not care at all to give me ANYTHING I want in a game.
Bland world and artstyle. Boring, slow, painful combat. Hard difficulty primarily because of unfair checkpoints (or rather, lack of). Little story explored explicitly that isn't lore that you have to piece together yourself and look up on YouTube later.
While I do think it's perfectly fine to not like the game, but I do have to adress some points that I think are simply wrong.
Considering an artstyle bland is your opinion that I cannot change, but the world of Elden Ring is not bland. A lot of frequently shown footage is from the opening area, but there is a lot more variety in terms of biomes and buildings.
You can play the combat slow and careful, but it's definitely not the only way. Dark Souls 1 & 2 are fairly slow, but the other games have sped things up.
As for unfair checkpoint, Elden Ring has additional respawn checkpoints near most bosses that you can respawn at upon death, so you don't have to do the whole runback to the boss. I do agree it is an issue that the other games regularly have, even though there are shortcuts.
I want to repeat that I think it's completely fine to not like these games, they don't click well for everyone.
I have edited the comment lol. The other person also informed me of how diverse the world is. Yeah I obviously haven't even gotten to those areas because the gameplay stops me from getting there, oh well.
No, the combat is slow in general compared to hack n slash games and beat em ups which I highly favor. Arkham, Castle Crashers, Astral Chain, and Ys have some of my favorite combat ever in games, just for comparison.
Oh cool so Elden Ring is more fair with checkpoints than the other games, thanks good to know.
Yup I agree, we can all like or dislike whatever. Makes the world more interesting. 🤝
My brother bought it for me because I was ‘missing out’. I beat every boss on mouse and keyboard, then I told him he was wrong. I played on mouse and keyboard cause I was not gonna buy a controller for a game I didn’t want in the first place. It’s not a bad game by any metric, personally, it’s just not for me.
Same. Bought the original dark souls shortly after release after seeing the huge positive press it was getting. A couple of hours in im asking myself, is this fun? Why did I pay $60 for this when I could just punch myself in the balls for free?
1,000%. I’m a 31 year old guy who grew up on basic video game mechanics from the PS2/PS3 era. This shit is just way too complex for me to jump into with my limited time.
I actually find it hard to go back to elden ring and that's that I regularly play the older games and sekiro. The open world aspect of it kills it for me. I'm one of those people that has to mostly clear maps before moving on with the story, and I have like 4 different characters at the soft cap for leveling pvp on NG. I basically burned myself out on it.
The older games are easier to go back to by comparison for being hubs and dungeons.
I think for me its how they present the story. The idea to me that you could potentially miss important story beats if you miss specific items and don't read the description is (in my opinion) just bad game design.
The combat is fun and all but I like an actual story in games now.
Fighting and dying to a boss for 4hrs isn't for everyone, this was isshin from sekiro for me. Felt like i climed Mt Everest and won nobel prize after i finally beat him though
I specifically didn't click with Elden ring because of its "quests". I'm a massive fan of Bloodborne and DS3 and Demons Souls but not dipped into the rest of the franchise (but enjoyed other soulslike games (The Surge for example).
I got Elden Ring on sale (because my god does the franchise hold its value) and started off enjoying it until I met Rani and she basically just says "I'm off to my tower in blah blah blah".
I have just started the game lady I do not know where blah blah blah is. Does my map tell me? No. Does the game give me a journal to remember her vague directions? No. It gives you exactly 1 reminder.
Now most people would say just check the internet and I'm willing to do that but it depends on the game and why. My current playthrough of Morrowind I am dipping in and out of the wiki (uesp) every 10 seconds because the game will block off content if you do things in the wrong order.
But Bloodborne I played almost blind missing content along the way sure but building up at least an idea in my head of what the plot is and stuff like that because the atomosphere was so engrossing but Elden Ring feels like it was made with an attitude of "The players will just check the wiki" and that suuuucks. Morrowind wont have a map marker telling you exactly where to go but will give manual directions and a good journal so you can refer back to those directions.
I just wish more of the Elden Ring experience was diagetic, like maybe make a journal that displays previous dialogue, just to give some directions and help you remember.
Tl;Dr Bounced off Elden ring because I didn't wanna google where the content was, the game should just have a way to read through previous dialogue in a journal to aid immersion when it comes to questing and locations and I say this as a soulslike enjoyer
essa semana eu consegui engajar e gostar de Dark Souls Remaster após a terceira (talvez quarta) tentativa, finalmente entendi o ritmo do jogo… mas eu fico ansioso ao jogar, uma sensação de insegurança eterna, você nunca fica forte o bastante pra meter porrada livre nos bichos mais simples. tou pensando em finalmente abandonar de vez. Tbm tentei elden ring umas 3x, é difícil engajar mesmo…
I look at souls games the same way I look at games that you have to farm a bunch of krap over and over to progress. Any game that requires you to do the same thing over, and over, and over is not fun for me at all. Fighting the same boss a million times spamming techniques is not fun.
Yea for me too. I love the difficulty and art style. But I can't motivate myself to spend so much time if there isn't a deep narative story with characters and consequences and dialogues.....
Yeah for me too. Partially its how difficult these games are and how on top of things you have to be. I know thats intended but its generally not fun. I have to be in the right mood for it to enjoy it otherwise its just shit to me. A slightly easier mode might help here. I also play games to relax, these games still feel like work.
But the other issue is how jank these games are. There is the intended difficulty and then there is the dated looks and crap controls. These games always feel a decade behind. There are souls likes that feel more modern and there the issue is just the difficulty thing for me.
I like hard games like Celeste and Hollow Knight, but there’s something about Elden Ring I just hated so much since the first time I played, the style, the movement, the fighting I dunno but it’s just not meant for me. I axknoledeg it’s a very good game but it’s not one I enjoy
I do not mind if games are somewhat difficult, but Dark-Soul style games are too much of an hassle for me and I can't simply have fun. I tried Sekiro and couldn't play more than 1 hour. But I respect the visuals of those games, they look amazing and are very creative.
I got ER with my PS5. I tried it, and hated it. I gave up after about ten hours.
I went back to it a few years later. I found that if I did the boring, tedious work of grinding the first few levels and just casually explored the world, it was a lot less like diving face-first into a woodchipper. I eventually got Platinum on the game and the DLC.
I had a bad initial reaction to Elden Ring after coming out of the tutorial area and being immediately slaughtered...repeatedly. Anyone who has played the game knows what killed me. Eventually I got into it, but it took a while and even then I found the game about equal parts frustration and fun. I enjoy exploring open world games, and that is mostly what kept me at it...it was visually gorgeous. Some people go on and on about the lore in Elden Ring but to me it was mostly just...weird...and hard to find.
Later, I tried one of the earlier souls games I got for free and after playing about 10 minutes I said "Oh no, not doing this shit again" and deleted it.
As one of those people who has platinumed all of them, does shitty cosplay builds for fun, and has several tattoos of the series... I completely understand.
Personally, I absolutely love the esthetic, the lore, the feel of the controls. Everything about them is another thing that adds up to it being my favorite series. That being said, I can also see why some people absolutely hate them.
They are punishing games. Punishing for not knowing obscure mechanics never taught to the player. Punishing for never actually telling you where to go next, where to meet npcs, how to do any sort of questlines. Punishing for simply being bad at the game (especially Demon Souls). And i completely understand the frustration that comes from that kind of thing.
I enjoy the challenge myself. And I love the actual "souls" games that Fromsoftware makes, because any "soulslike" game I've ever tried, the ones that imitate the formula, all just feel extremely clunky compared to the actual games. The actual games have a smoothness to them (except ds2 but that's its own argument) that imitations never manage to capture, and exploiting the mechanics to your benefit is just super satisfying.
I'd also like to point out, as a side note, I'm not one of those players who uses glitches to fall through the map, skip areas, and all that nonsense. I play the game to play the game lol.
My favorite thing about FROM games is that you're not allowed to criticize them. You immediately get 40 people telling you you're wrong and need to "gIt GuD." They're the peak of insufferable gaming communities imo
I respect and admire those games, but those games literally bring out the "ain't nobody got time for that" outta me. A younger me would've gone all in. Adult me with absolutely limited time and knee deep in responsibility? Gotta keep them games short, man.
you guys are free to stick to your opinions but i really want to throw this out there
sekiro is BY FAR the easiest of the soulbornes and is so different it shouldnt even be considered a soulsborne and alot of people do, it really is my favorite game of all time it gives me so much adrenaline when playing and if you just PARRY then you can get through the game without too much issues really
its not an EASY game but if you actually focus on parrying (like 50/50 parrying and attacking) you wont spend crazy hours on the game like what seems like the entire internet is saying
I want to play a game not to get punished for not having the reflexes of Bruce Lee and the observation of Sherlock Holmes. I am tired l. I went to work. I wanna relax 30 mins before sleep.
I encourage you to try again. Such great games, but go in blind and just have fun. I get that they aren't for everyone but if you tried it you had to have some interest. That is all in the end, to each their own as long as you have fun keep it up..cheers
I love souls games but I think Elden ring was one of the weaker ones. I'd even out Lies of P over it tbh which is a (and I mean this lovingly) souls rip-off.
Bloodborne is genuinely my favorite game of all time for reference.
But ER just felt like quantity over quality for me. Bit of a slog to get through. A pretty slog mind you. But it felt too bloated too many times. That and I think the boss design was a step down in many ways
Hard agree, life is already challenging enough as it is... I just want to play games where I can relax and have fun. I don't want to be seated 6 inches from my display, dripping with sweat, wide eyed and hyper-focused on trying to beat the same boss on my 89th attempt.
I've heard Elden ring has mods that make it a lot easier, but from what I've gathered from the people who enjoy those type of games, the increased difficulty of souls games are a core component.
If the campaign, mechanics, leveling systems, art direction etc. Aren't good enough to stand on their own without relying on a super punishing difficultly curve, it's not for me.
Same, I have tried so many of them too because people who normally share my taste convince me “no, this one is different!”.
It never is. Besides the obvious difficulty issues,I just don’t find them narratively or mechanically interesting. Though maybe the narrative is back heavy and I just never got to it, to be fair. The only soulslIkes I have ever spent much time with were ones with difficulty options, but I’m not sure that would even save the From games for me.
This has been my unpopular opinion for a while now. Difficulty feels good when you are given the tools to succeed and persevere despite that.
Souls likes don't prepare you for anything, and uses your sanity as a blunt object as you get killed constantly by things that you could not possibly predict, while walking back miles over and over again.
I enjoyed Elden Ring, but it was definitely ridiculously hard and put me off to any other Soulslike games. I just don’t really care to spend hours on a single boss having to memorize every single move so I can get the timing just right. It becomes extremely tedious. Plus with Sites of Grace everywhere and the possibility of dying from a bunch of imps or rats anywhere you go, it really discourages exploration
I liked demons souls because it was a game with actual structure and progression that made sense.
Elden Ring is not . . .and the idiots that play it just cheat and use guides then act like they are holier-than-thou for doing so.
In about 50 hours of exploring, fighting bosses, fighting minibosses etc. I didn't get a single piece of equipment that was better than my starting equipment.
My ex gf played an within a few hours she was fully geared up with far less actual game progress.
I have nothing against this series as much as I do towards their toxic fanbase who shits on everything else and act like all other gaming series are garbage because they're not as punishing in arbitrary ways.
We've reached a point in time where some game developers assume their sales will take a major hit if they don't cater to these asshats with Souls elements.
souls games are for dedicated self masochists who, for some reason, fucking love to get fucked up by a ridiculously overpowered opponent and then spend the next ten minutes after dying to get back to the boss arena and try again. they do that about 500-1000 times per souls game and then say “this is the best game ever made and anyone who doesn’t like it is a fool” very dumb games
I think I would have hated them, if I hadn’t gotten into DS1 when it came out and I happened to be young enough to have time to “git gud” at it.
After that, the other games were easy enough to get into without wanting to kill my console. Sekiro got to be a bit heavy, but Elden Ring was a joyride after the previous games.
That said, I’ve played every game completely offline. No invaders, but also no help.
I did not like Elden ring or the dark souls games as well. But for some reason I have really been enjoying mortal shell 2. Never thought I would enjoy that style of game.
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u/Cosmointheskye Aug 19 '26
Elden ring or any other dark souls games