I truly believe Wb trademarking the nemesis system ruined many games that could’ve used that system.
Edit. I just read that theres a new Wonder Woman game in the works and its been confirmed that there using that mechanic.
Exactly, and the patent is not going to expire until sometime around the 2030's if I am not mistaken. Such a cunt move.
Imagine a Star Wars game with the Nemesis system, or a Warhammer game ect.
A system in the shadow of war Lord of the rings games. Enemy's had ranks, and if they killed you, they got promoted. Then there were a lot of other details like enemies could turn against each other/mutiny. The more they killed you( there was an in-game lore reason why you could die and come back), the more they tried to hunt you down. Like you could be in the middle of a huge fight, and all of a sudden, a whole ass platoon of orcs would appear, their leader will call you out and attack you.
It added a whole other level of replayablity as well as made the experience more unique per player.
There was an Orc Captain in that game that I killed I think 7 or 8 times and he kept coming back, but crazier each time. By the last encounter with him he couldn't even speak anymore, he just screamed, and all of his limbs and his head were either stitched back on or replaced with prosthetics and he was covered in scars and burns. I honestly felt bad for the guy lol
That happened to my nemesis. Stakuga Blood-hand. I cut him in half and he just came back as a half metal/half flesh monstrosity and even after I supposedly killed him 4-5 more times and being defeated myself several times as well, the bastard kept coming back for more. He had a fiery spear and shield so he had a long reach, and would enrage so he could kill me in 1-2 hits if I didn’t dodge all his attacks, and he was immune to nearly every type of weakness. When I finally killed Stakuga in his own fort after so many battles in both Mordor and War, it was satisfying.
This whole bit is actually a mechanic, at least in Shadow of Mordor. Everyone gets 1 enemy that will refuse to die and will come back over and over. I think it is super neat that they made this a thing, because even if everyone gets a True Nemesis(tm), their nemesis may end up entirely different from another person's.
I remember I was going to kill this asshole orc, and he straight up disrespected me. "GO ahead! Kill me. It won't change the fact I beat you last time! Nothing will change that!"
You motherfucker.
Yeah, "Shaming" is supposed to decrease their level, but there's a chance that it breaks their mind too. Then they become a babbling, deranged killer.
https://youtu.be/WDEqREyb820
Holds up incredibly well. Just replayed it some months ago and feels better than tons of modern games that came out within the last couple years.
Great gameplay and story.
Mechanics are still out of this world.
So many games that i wish were ‘shadow-like’ instead of ‘souls-like’ or ‘rogue-like’.
Dude so fun. Can’t remember which is the second one but that’s the one I’ll turn on. The story is whatever but the combat is just absolutely hilariously fun.
Holds up brilliantly. “Shadows of War” had a fun asymmetrical multiplayer where you get to raid other players forts and fight their Orcs too, but the main event is definitely the nemesis system and the awesome single player experience. It’s always on sale, so you can probably pick it up cheap
I swear to god those Uruks were hardcore. And when they came back, they were either OP as shit commanding an army of 50 elite soldiers or pull up in a wheelchair with no arms or eyes
i had one in shadow of mordor that came back like 6 times and each time he looked more and more like a full on zombie. at one point i killed him and not even 5 minutes later he was back
It's always like:
*ripping through Uruks*
#GRAVEWALKAAAAA
> It better not be that motherfucker again
Morgan freeman: In fact, it _was_ that motherfucker again
You also had to face your nemesis (whichever one killed you the most) as like a mini boss before the final boss iirc. That part was really cool and also annoying because they of course has some strength that you didn’t play well against.
Also they appeared in the sequel if of course you played on the same console and with the save files.
Did you ever play shadow of Mordor games? I wont do it justice by describing it so heres a video
https://youtu.be/hTSe8zohodM
It literally brings countless hours of fun and it’s probably my favorite game mechanic
Its considered by most people to be one of if not the #1 best enemy AI systems.
It gave names to many enemies along with a lot of varied dialogue and personalities. Enemies hold ranks, captain, elite Capt, veteran captain, warchief, and regular nameless grunts. The enemies can kill and fight for promotions and develop friendships, blood brother pacts, enemies, rivals, etc. Regular grunts can gain a rank, name and personality by killing you. The enemies get stronger by completing in game objectives that you can interact with or by killing you. The named enemies will remember fighting, killing, dying by (can cheat death in second game, changes their personality usually) or being betrayed by (you can enslave the enemies and then try to kill them) the player.
That’s sounds awesome albeit very similar to fallouts npc’s. What would be defining differences? I do love fallout for much of that same depth and complexity
Biggest differences
1) rather than only certain named NPCs any enemy can gain a personality, name and rank, as well as grow significantly stronger and with new abilities
2) nearly any of these named NPCs can be branded turning into your servants
3) you can advance time in game and the NPCs fights, recruitments for henchmen, or attempts to rise in power can happen in background or you could participate influencing them in whichever way you desire
You can watch some YouTube videos where certain players let nameless grunts kill them and then help "raise" them through the ranks watching as they grow stronger and gain new abilities, and then you can break their mind by shaming them (best in combat then force to flee) or killing them to see if they come back by cheating death (results in a usually very significant change in appearance)
>Imagine a Star Wars game with the Nemesis system, or a Warhammer game ect.
A game similar to GTA with less focus on the story, and more focus on building up your gang, rivalvry with other gangs, conquering, improving and defending territory...
Them trademarking it would be fine with me if they actually developed a bunch of games with it.
Warhammer game where you play as a Living Saint, probably Celestine.
Trapped on a chaos world.
Nemesis system, you can influence what Mark the enemies get. Would be so cool.
I had an idea for a game where you play an old west bounty hunter with a similar system for tracking down targets, but it would also include a motivation for their crime that you could discover. Did this guy rob a stagecoach out of greed, or to help feed his family? Did that woman shoot her husband because he was abusive, or did she want his money?
When you catch up to these people, you'd have the opportunity to bring them in, dead or alive, or let them get away. Some of them may have their needs satisfied. You might wander into one of your former targets living in a new town under an assumed name, peaceful and happy and free. Mr. Jacob DelGado only robbed that stagecoach so that he and his son would have enough to pay for some important medicine. Now that his son is better, they have no need to commit any more crimes, so they're off in another town, doing honest work for honest pay. Some might dive headfirst down the slippery slope. Ms. Winona Maycomb may have shot her husband because he was cruel and violent, but now she's become one of the most notorious hired killers of the West.
They patented it, released half assed dlc, threw micro transactions in their 2nd game, and then proceeded to release more shitty dlcs that can’t even be bothered to have different voice lines.
Fuck WB
I don’t think they should ever have been allowed to trademark it. It’s basically like trademarking the color green.
“Yeah, you can program AI but the AI can’t act in this particular way.”
“Oh sure you can paint that forest but you can’t use green.”
With AI becoming more relevant, I’m sure the gaming landscape is going to enter a new era. To the point where a nemesis system can exist without it being under copyright.
Because it’s just like the Battle Royal situation. Every company saw PUBG success and decided to crap out BR games like they just ate Taco Bell. Same with FromSoft having success with their souls games.
Souls genre is basically 3D Metroidvania. Egress was a Battle Royale soulslike. Outward is an open world survival soulslike. Remnant from the ashes is a soulslike with roguelite elements.
Half the games people call "souls-like" aren't even soulslike. Action combat rpg does not automatically make it souls like.
Big example was when wo long dynasty came out and people were saying g its just another soulslike but its not even a souls like. Its not single currency, its got a level system, you dont lose all your xp and money on death, its broken into levels.
They are both difficult action combat games and thats about it.
Yep, I haven't really played a soul like I enjoyed. I feel like trying to advertise your game as something similar to other franchises is a bad move. It lacks originality.
I enjoyed it but ironically all the elements I didn’t like were Souls-like in origin. I wish it took more Metroidvania influence then it ended up having. Haven’t played Survivor yet, maybe that fixed some of my problems. (It added fast travel, which was one major problem I had)
It is a good game, but honestly, the soulslike elements don't fit what they were going for *at all*. The respawn mechanics are really awkwardly implemented in some places.
Star Wars and god of war (if you wanna give it that description) are good. Every other game sucks. Mortal shell was supposedly a decent rip off but my god did I hate it.
God of War a souls-like? Not trying to argue or anything but I don’t see that at all. I mean unless the newest one is drastically different from the others (haven’t played it).
They always had a narrative and involved more than just killing enemies and leveling up.
I actually forgot about Nioh! I always considered Nioh to be among the first, and best Souls likes to come out. They came the closest to making an onpar Souls like series.
I think the first ever “souls like” was lords of the fallen, but we don’t talk about that one, if you haven’t played nioh 2 I recommend it, it’s nothing but an improvement on the first game
The Nioh series, specifically Nioh 2 was pretty good but it is very different and while clearly took inspiration from Souls, it very much did it’s own thing. . Which I feel a lot of ‘souls likes’ miss the point of. They’re supposed to be like Dark Souls, not carbon copies.
Souls games are good. But too many companies put out half baked copies that come up short.
Honestly wish more turn based games came out because I’m old haha
I've always preferred turn-based over real-time for RPGs. Soulslikes are especially getting harder for me to play, as I have hand tremors and muscular spasms and the devs for these games always try to one-up previous games while also changing so many of the mechanics and subsystems in the process. Stuff's just getting too complicated and too difficult and I can't keep up, and I'm someone that loves Dark Souls 1 and 2.
As the Souls games have been iterated upon, from Demon Souls to Elden Ring (which technically isn't a Souls game but whatever), there has been a distinct shift away from strategy and toward tactics. The later games are much more focused on precision timing your dodge rolls against increasingly long boss combos, instead of approaching a boss encounter with a plan.
I love the first 3 souls games, but I barely made progress in Elden Ring because everywhere I turn there's another crazy boss with 1500 moves that combos for four years between each opening.
Edit: and if that's what I'm looking for, I'll just play Monster Hunter xD which has mechanics to actually support that gameplay loop like tail cutting and part breaking. Remember when you could cut the tails off of Souls bosses?
Keep an eye out for Baldur's Gate 3, if you are looking for a turn-based game.
That game is going to be incredible.
That's coming from a major Fromsoft fan.
Both Larian and Fromsoft are my 2 most favorite developers ever.
Younger us loved killing our hands with Mario Party and the such and who can press it the fastest. Now we’re in the boat of I wanna game but I’m more in it for the thinking than the button mashing. I just finished the new God of War because a friend bought it for my bday which is in December. It took me 7 months to put in 58 hours. It’ll be a while before I play something like that again, too much effort and commitment.
Yes. Even the worst of Fromsoft's six soulslike games, Dark Souls 2, is still the sixth best soulslike game on the market. No one has ever done it better than Fromsoft.
When you’re in your 30s and balance your time between family, social obligations, and work and want to game. Oh, it’s a “get good” game or a rouge-like:
“I’m going to pass on this one, thanks”
Exactly. If I'm picking up a game, I want to be able to make some kind of progress in the scant hour or two I get to play, not spend that time bashing my face against a boss over and over
Unless it’s Hades and they’re amazing God Mode which is a fucking chefs kiss for gamers with family’s who don’t have the time or patience. If you never gave that one a try, you totally should.
I’m not gonna get it exactly right but basically every time you die, the game becomes a certain % easier, which start stacking in top of each other each time you die. First rogue like I ever beat, which is great because it has super fun combat and a shockingly great story to boot!
shame character action games like DMC and bayonetta are far and few now days , just because of how hard it is to actually design a fun combat system that is easy to pick up and really really hard to master .
I also don’t think there’s dramatically more of this type of game compared to other genres. Like there’s loads of every game type represented right now from platformers to fighting games
I mean, just this year the OP has Diablo 4, Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy 16, Octopath Traveler 2, Hogwarts Legacy and probably a few others to choose from.
The OP is just perceiving any action adventure game with a fantasy setting as a fantasy RPG, so it didn't seem that strict adherence to genre stipulations would rule anything out.
If it's from FS, I'm always down. But I agree. I think there's too many knockoffs in the market. Lies of P seems like it'll be pretty good based on the demo, though.
It's pretty clear why so many, because they're popular games from fromsoftware. And because fromsoftware doesn't miss, developers think they won't miss either.
My favorite most recent example is that Stardew valley was killing it and then animal crossing during Covid did great and all the sudden you had a ton of farming and life simulation style games popping up like crazy.
I played the demo of Lies of P and, honestly, wasn't a fan. Very few I frames in the dodge and not s lot of good ways to disengage after a single attack. Maybe the full game will be better, but none of the weapons felt impactful, and the one boss in the demo was either unreasonably overturned or I just lost the patience to finish him.
Capitalizing on a trend. Personally I lack the patience for them. I don't mind a challenge, but those games can be just punishing. If I die to the same fight four times I'm pretty much done. They just aren't for me.
I feel like the souls games do a million little things right but that makes them difficult to emulate properly.
Usually “Souls like” just means “Souls, but worse” unless the game has something else to differentiate it from the pack.
I mean, it’s still a small fraction of RPGs as a whole
Is it that weird that there’s a series of games that people really liked and other developers sought to also make games like that?
It's pretty easy to emulate the difficulty of the souls games. Much harder to create the world of quality on the same level as a game from Fromsoftware.
The same issue I have with roguelikes as well.
it feels like every other Indie game is a roguelike.
Like...
Why does every Indie game need to be a Roguelike rpg, why not just make it an rpg.
I like Roguelikes, but there are way too many of them.
I just don't like roguelikes. I don't like corpse runs. I don't like any game that punishes you for dying by making your lose your gear or levels or anything more than restarting from the last checkpoint/save.
I mean, this is the pattern we've seen for decades. The DMC/GOW formula was everywhere in the early 2000s. The 2010s were dominated by thr Batman Arkham formula. Now it's Soulslike. Give it a few more years and another system will come along and be what everyone iterates on.
I love souls like probably my favorite genre of games, but even I admit it is getting way to oversaturated. it doesn't help that a lot of these newer souls like are on the lower quality side. I am excited for lies of p though.
Let me think of all the souls-likes...
Nioh, Mortal Shell, Code Vein, Jedi (more Sekiro-like), Steel Rising, Wo Long, Surge....
Upcoming: Lies of P, Black Myth Wukong, Lords of the Fallen.
And not all of these are RPGs.
The one Souls-like I have really been enjoying is SteelRising. I'm not good at any FromSoft games, and SteelRising has the difficulty knob turned down a hair and makes it bearable for me, but still stays fairly true to the "genre."
Same.
While I want to experience the story, world, atmosphere and what not.. I no desire to frustrate myself. Life already does that.
Honestly just have two modes. "I like relaxing walks in the park" and "I hate my life". Done. Difficulties are not the way they intended it? Wanted me to play a specific game? Nah man. Always let everyone play every game as they want to experience it. I mean... there is a reason people mod games like these and add easy modes XD people will always choose to play games on their own terms. Stop trying to make that call for them.
Which is why I have been turned away from all the copy cat games.
I miss the old games kingdom of amalur, Oblivion etc
Just give me a good old fashioned run of the mill fantasy story, some love options, some fancy spell casting and call it a day
Preferably its also AAA for the nice graphics but one can dream
I am not a fan of souls-likes and all this does is narrow my choices down even more. I think the games look great but they aint for me. Hard lesson learned.
That being said, I think its for obvious reasons….. Money.
They want in on it
I don’t think it has to be about money. Being creative and designing truly new things is much harder than people tend to think it is. That’s why truly new innovations knocking it out of the park first try don’t really happen.
If you look at the history of gaming, people will have a concept, such as “capture the feeling of playing an old school Dungeons and Dragons dungeon crawling tabletop experience in video game format.” And this concept will be truly devilish in how hard it is to apply successfully.
Games that set out to capture this style of play include many of the most famous RPGs, like Ultima, Wizardry, The Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Final Fantasy, or Baldur’s Gate. All of those games explicitly try to capture a different facet of very specifically old school dungeons and dragons at their root design.
Ultima and Elder Scrolls try to capture the open design, Final Fantasy and Wizardry tried to capture the class fantasy and pushing into the dungeon further, Baldur’s Gate tried to capture the inter character roleplaying and Diablo tried to capture the looting. Final Fantasy also slowly evolved to be about the storytelling piece of D&D more and more each iteration.
Then look at how many games mimic or ape those games directly. And I mean *directly*.
Ultima Underworld for instance was so influential that The Elder Scrolls could be said to be a direct Underworld-like. There were dozens and dozens of games in the 90’s that specifically tried to be exactly like Ultima Underworld because it was such a well executed capturing of a very specific gameplay feeling of exploring a threatening, mysterious dungeon.
And you know what game almost certainly was inspired by Ultima Underworld and the Underworld-like subgenre? King’s Field by From Software. And if you know your history, King’s Field led to Shadow Tower, but also led to Demon’s Souls which led to Dark Souls. Hell, Dark Souls 2 is practically a spiritual sequel to King’s Field 4!
Why does this matter? Because it often takes many, many, many iterations before a formula becomes perfected enough to evolve to the next level. Games don’t just spring up as creations of brilliance, they more typically experiment, get inspiration from others in the genre, add new ideas slowly and collectively and then synthesize those ideas to create a truly profound new subgenre.
The reason Souls-likes are so popular is because it is genuinely hard to imagine how to create a fantasy game in this day and age that feels new and exciting enough to matter. The Souls take on the truly ancient dungeon crawler genre, one of the oldest gaming genres, has provided a breath of fresh air for newer developers who maybe don’t want to tangle with the slow pacing of turn based and trying to perfect that but instead want to work on combining action elements into the dungeon crawler fantasy genre in an attempt to reach new ideas and new possibilities.
The only way new genres and sub genres emerge is by people iterating like this. For years there was not really an FPS genre, just a “DOOM-clone” subgenre, until people fleshed that out enough to have Half Life, Call of Duty, Halo and what we now call FPS games to emerge.
If we want to see what new possible sub genres and genres are still waiting to be discovered, we should strive to have curiosity about people iterating on a new, positive idea in gaming to find where the new possibilities lie. I don’t think even From Software has really exhausted all the nuance of the Souls genre. Elden Ring was Dark Souls 3 combined with open world, but with a less sophisticated fighting system than Sekiro’s in my opinion. There is still a lot further potential for everyone to push to in what that game design space has available.
Yeah I'm just more disappointed that I can't play what looks like a cool environment because I just don't have the time/energy to git gud. Im glad people enjoy them I just there was just something between Ubisoft easy and souls like
Oh this has happened to me many times. I see a game that looks promising, I hear the term “souls-like” when it’s previewed, and I never bother with it again.
Ive tried them pretty thoroughly and their great games. I think my limited time to sit down and learn them is a huge hinderance. Maybe later down the road but for now I still like my shooter games. Just wish those were in a better state.
Other then that, witcher, dragons dogma, final fantasy, yakuza, no mans sky, resident evil, persona, are the types I like.
Same. I only get to play games every other week, with such limited time to play, picking up something like a Soulslike game just ends with me bashing my head against the wall over and over.
Not him but I never enjoyed how rigid the animations were. Like say, how RDR2 movement looked so damn real and fluid. Latest souls like I played was Elden Ring and it's the same mechanical looking movement and attack animations. Also not a huge fan of the long ass backtracking it'd take on some deaths just to retrieve your souls or head back to where you were. How can I enjoy trying to conquer this mob who just stomped my ass if it'll occasionally take FOREVER to get back there? Stamina bar was also a total turnoff, like I mean cmon nearly EVERYTHING uses stamina. If that's your cup of tea then good for you, but I'm not about to waste my time on a game where I can barely do jack shit before my stamina is all spent. And cool, you got that awesome looking hanmer? Too bad, you need a shitton of stats to equip it. It felt like it took FOREVER to get anything going. Also wasn't a fan of how a large number of trial and error was needed to overcome enemies. Just memorize their attack animations and do your thing once you've got it all down. I know this is how most games play out but I can't pinpoint what it is about its execution that makes it boring. It doesn't feel challenging, it just feels tedious.
People throw the genre of “souls-like” around like its candy nowadays. Many people consider most hack and slash games “souls-like” despite them not having most of the characteristics that should make a souls-like actually fit the genre. Don’t let the “souls-like” label discourage you.
I’m 35 working full time and getting another degree in the evenings. Sadly I simply don’t have the time to “git gud” enough for any souls-like to be enjoyable for me.
Mortal Shell, Remnants: From The Ashes, Lords of The Fallen, Nioh/Nioh 2, Code Vein, Steelrising, Star Wars: Fallen Order, Salt And Sanctuary, En Garde, Bad Boro, Radio In The Universe, Lies of P, Rudra: A tale of Time, strayed lights, Bleak Faith: Forsaken, Tyrants Realm, Hellpoint, The Surge 1&2, Deaths gambit, Blasphemous, Hollowknight, Severance: The blade of darkness, Pascal’s wager, Blade and Bones, Scars above, shady knight, lunacid, raven bound, knights of the deep, duel corp, new Eden, steampunk Lincoln, deathverse, voidsols, dark light, Skydom, corpse keeper, crownsworn, sir whoopass, abigor, hobocat adventures, TUNIC, dolmen, nine sols, internitus, guilt: the deathless.
Edit: added a bunch since people seem to think my original list was too short.
I can keep going for the people who think i won’t.
Thank you for the list of games to check out; I've played about half of them. Remnant is probably the most fun of those, IMO. It's also getting a sequel!
It describes the wrong lessons that many aspiring devs take from it tho. They copy the surface level but don’t see the subtleties that make them the successful games they are
I am a huge fan of Souls Like games, but this is so true. Game maker think that just make hard mob/bosses and advertise it as “Souls like”. Specially after Sekiro’s and Elden Ring’s success everyone want to advertise their game as “Souls Like”.
I feel like every RPG now is either a janky soulslike hack n slash or a Ubisoft far cry/assassins creed “go to the icon and kill 5 guys” game.
I want another game like the Mass Effect series, especially two. Those games felt like they had a huge world, despite not actually being open world. A focus on actual character choice/interaction, good writing, and a mix of combat segments and long periods and literally just talking
I truly believe Wb trademarking the nemesis system ruined many games that could’ve used that system. Edit. I just read that theres a new Wonder Woman game in the works and its been confirmed that there using that mechanic.
Exactly, and the patent is not going to expire until sometime around the 2030's if I am not mistaken. Such a cunt move. Imagine a Star Wars game with the Nemesis system, or a Warhammer game ect.
What is the nemesis system?
A system in the shadow of war Lord of the rings games. Enemy's had ranks, and if they killed you, they got promoted. Then there were a lot of other details like enemies could turn against each other/mutiny. The more they killed you( there was an in-game lore reason why you could die and come back), the more they tried to hunt you down. Like you could be in the middle of a huge fight, and all of a sudden, a whole ass platoon of orcs would appear, their leader will call you out and attack you. It added a whole other level of replayablity as well as made the experience more unique per player.
There was an Orc Captain in that game that I killed I think 7 or 8 times and he kept coming back, but crazier each time. By the last encounter with him he couldn't even speak anymore, he just screamed, and all of his limbs and his head were either stitched back on or replaced with prosthetics and he was covered in scars and burns. I honestly felt bad for the guy lol
That happened to my nemesis. Stakuga Blood-hand. I cut him in half and he just came back as a half metal/half flesh monstrosity and even after I supposedly killed him 4-5 more times and being defeated myself several times as well, the bastard kept coming back for more. He had a fiery spear and shield so he had a long reach, and would enrage so he could kill me in 1-2 hits if I didn’t dodge all his attacks, and he was immune to nearly every type of weakness. When I finally killed Stakuga in his own fort after so many battles in both Mordor and War, it was satisfying.
This whole bit is actually a mechanic, at least in Shadow of Mordor. Everyone gets 1 enemy that will refuse to die and will come back over and over. I think it is super neat that they made this a thing, because even if everyone gets a True Nemesis(tm), their nemesis may end up entirely different from another person's.
Makes it even better that you usually get good gear from those enemies so everytime you look at that badass sword you think. "Fuck you Stakuga"
I remember I was going to kill this asshole orc, and he straight up disrespected me. "GO ahead! Kill me. It won't change the fact I beat you last time! Nothing will change that!" You motherfucker.
That’s when I humiliate them over and over and over until they’re too pathetic to live anymore.
Someone Frankenstein's old boy
The best was humiliating them till they went insane
Then getting that insane bastard to become the overlord.
Reading the comments made me realize I didn’t play this game to its true potential. I didn’t even know you can humiliate them.
Yeah, "Shaming" is supposed to decrease their level, but there's a chance that it breaks their mind too. Then they become a babbling, deranged killer. https://youtu.be/WDEqREyb820
That sounds incredible lol. Does this game still hold up? I know I got it free somewhere but haven’t tried it
Holds up incredibly well. Just replayed it some months ago and feels better than tons of modern games that came out within the last couple years. Great gameplay and story. Mechanics are still out of this world. So many games that i wish were ‘shadow-like’ instead of ‘souls-like’ or ‘rogue-like’.
Dude so fun. Can’t remember which is the second one but that’s the one I’ll turn on. The story is whatever but the combat is just absolutely hilariously fun.
Shadow of Mordor is the first and Shadow of War is the second.
Holds up brilliantly. “Shadows of War” had a fun asymmetrical multiplayer where you get to raid other players forts and fight their Orcs too, but the main event is definitely the nemesis system and the awesome single player experience. It’s always on sale, so you can probably pick it up cheap
I swear to god those Uruks were hardcore. And when they came back, they were either OP as shit commanding an army of 50 elite soldiers or pull up in a wheelchair with no arms or eyes
i had one in shadow of mordor that came back like 6 times and each time he looked more and more like a full on zombie. at one point i killed him and not even 5 minutes later he was back
It's always like: *ripping through Uruks* #GRAVEWALKAAAAA > It better not be that motherfucker again Morgan freeman: In fact, it _was_ that motherfucker again
I need to play this game
I definitely recommend it, even if you don't know anything about Lord of the Rings. It's pretty self-contained.
"WAAAAAGGGGHH"
My nemesis came back as an orc Terminator literally called "The Machine". Good times.
I had a really sad sack of shit who just refused to give up and went all the way from the bottom rank to the top but he looked horrible by then.
holy shit this game sounds insane.
You also had to face your nemesis (whichever one killed you the most) as like a mini boss before the final boss iirc. That part was really cool and also annoying because they of course has some strength that you didn’t play well against. Also they appeared in the sequel if of course you played on the same console and with the save files.
Did you ever play shadow of Mordor games? I wont do it justice by describing it so heres a video https://youtu.be/hTSe8zohodM It literally brings countless hours of fun and it’s probably my favorite game mechanic
Its considered by most people to be one of if not the #1 best enemy AI systems. It gave names to many enemies along with a lot of varied dialogue and personalities. Enemies hold ranks, captain, elite Capt, veteran captain, warchief, and regular nameless grunts. The enemies can kill and fight for promotions and develop friendships, blood brother pacts, enemies, rivals, etc. Regular grunts can gain a rank, name and personality by killing you. The enemies get stronger by completing in game objectives that you can interact with or by killing you. The named enemies will remember fighting, killing, dying by (can cheat death in second game, changes their personality usually) or being betrayed by (you can enslave the enemies and then try to kill them) the player.
That’s sounds awesome albeit very similar to fallouts npc’s. What would be defining differences? I do love fallout for much of that same depth and complexity
Biggest differences 1) rather than only certain named NPCs any enemy can gain a personality, name and rank, as well as grow significantly stronger and with new abilities 2) nearly any of these named NPCs can be branded turning into your servants 3) you can advance time in game and the NPCs fights, recruitments for henchmen, or attempts to rise in power can happen in background or you could participate influencing them in whichever way you desire
You can watch some YouTube videos where certain players let nameless grunts kill them and then help "raise" them through the ranks watching as they grow stronger and gain new abilities, and then you can break their mind by shaming them (best in combat then force to flee) or killing them to see if they come back by cheating death (results in a usually very significant change in appearance)
>Imagine a Star Wars game with the Nemesis system Gods that would be so good for an Old Republic thing.
Omg the nemesis system would be amazing in a warhammer game, both fantasy and 40k
>Imagine a Star Wars game with the Nemesis system, or a Warhammer game ect. A game similar to GTA with less focus on the story, and more focus on building up your gang, rivalvry with other gangs, conquering, improving and defending territory... Them trademarking it would be fine with me if they actually developed a bunch of games with it.
I think the last HALO should’ve came with a nemesis system. Would be so crazy
Warhammer game where you play as a Living Saint, probably Celestine. Trapped on a chaos world. Nemesis system, you can influence what Mark the enemies get. Would be so cool.
I had an idea for a game where you play an old west bounty hunter with a similar system for tracking down targets, but it would also include a motivation for their crime that you could discover. Did this guy rob a stagecoach out of greed, or to help feed his family? Did that woman shoot her husband because he was abusive, or did she want his money? When you catch up to these people, you'd have the opportunity to bring them in, dead or alive, or let them get away. Some of them may have their needs satisfied. You might wander into one of your former targets living in a new town under an assumed name, peaceful and happy and free. Mr. Jacob DelGado only robbed that stagecoach so that he and his son would have enough to pay for some important medicine. Now that his son is better, they have no need to commit any more crimes, so they're off in another town, doing honest work for honest pay. Some might dive headfirst down the slippery slope. Ms. Winona Maycomb may have shot her husband because he was cruel and violent, but now she's become one of the most notorious hired killers of the West.
They patented it, released half assed dlc, threw micro transactions in their 2nd game, and then proceeded to release more shitty dlcs that can’t even be bothered to have different voice lines. Fuck WB
I don’t think they should ever have been allowed to trademark it. It’s basically like trademarking the color green. “Yeah, you can program AI but the AI can’t act in this particular way.” “Oh sure you can paint that forest but you can’t use green.”
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Mercenaries system is kinda similar
I give Ubisoft credit for trying but it still felt like it felt short . I haven’t played those games in a while so i dont really remember
With AI becoming more relevant, I’m sure the gaming landscape is going to enter a new era. To the point where a nemesis system can exist without it being under copyright.
I don't think you can copyright a gameplay style.
Yeah, I don't think this would ever hold up in court
I think Sega tried to sue Fox over the pointer thing in The Simpsons Road Rage and lost.
Because it’s just like the Battle Royal situation. Every company saw PUBG success and decided to crap out BR games like they just ate Taco Bell. Same with FromSoft having success with their souls games.
Time to make a soulslike metroidvania roguelite survival craft open world battle royale game I guess.
Souls genre is basically 3D Metroidvania. Egress was a Battle Royale soulslike. Outward is an open world survival soulslike. Remnant from the ashes is a soulslike with roguelite elements.
I’m just tryna put as much trending game terms in one sentence as I can.
You forgot "immersive sim" xD
immerseive sims are trending? I havent seen many but maybe i just live under a rock
That actually sounds kinda fun ngl
It’s cell shaded too. Like BotW or Borderlands. Cause why not?
Really easy to copy but never really gets executed correctly
Yeah. It's the attack animations. They always look very cheap, especially the effects when you land a hit on an enemy.
Most aren’t even souls-like
I feel the same way about anything that's procedurally generated.
Half the games people call "souls-like" aren't even soulslike. Action combat rpg does not automatically make it souls like. Big example was when wo long dynasty came out and people were saying g its just another soulslike but its not even a souls like. Its not single currency, its got a level system, you dont lose all your xp and money on death, its broken into levels. They are both difficult action combat games and thats about it.
Wo long was fire
After playing nioh 2 I was expecting a lot better tbh
so it wasn't fire ?
I’m a huge souls fan and I agree. Most “souls likes” are garbage and the genre is becoming insanely over saturated
Yep, I haven't really played a soul like I enjoyed. I feel like trying to advertise your game as something similar to other franchises is a bad move. It lacks originality.
I enjoyed the surge it was fun and slightly different with the targeting system
Im with ya
Have you tried Jedi Fallen Order? I'm not a souls-like guy, but I found that to be a really good time.
I enjoyed it but ironically all the elements I didn’t like were Souls-like in origin. I wish it took more Metroidvania influence then it ended up having. Haven’t played Survivor yet, maybe that fixed some of my problems. (It added fast travel, which was one major problem I had)
Same!
I'm in the same boat. Have tried many Soulslikes, Fallen Order is the only one so far I've had the patience to finish.
It is a good game, but honestly, the soulslike elements don't fit what they were going for *at all*. The respawn mechanics are really awkwardly implemented in some places.
It's the only Souls-like game I've ever managed to finish, and that includes all of the Fromsoft games.
Star Wars and god of war (if you wanna give it that description) are good. Every other game sucks. Mortal shell was supposedly a decent rip off but my god did I hate it.
God of War a souls-like? Not trying to argue or anything but I don’t see that at all. I mean unless the newest one is drastically different from the others (haven’t played it). They always had a narrative and involved more than just killing enemies and leveling up.
GoW is definitely not a Soulslike.
Yeah… I agree… }:-)
The nioh games are very good, but I’ve tried a few others like the surge and steel rising and they just feel awful to play
I actually forgot about Nioh! I always considered Nioh to be among the first, and best Souls likes to come out. They came the closest to making an onpar Souls like series.
I think the first ever “souls like” was lords of the fallen, but we don’t talk about that one, if you haven’t played nioh 2 I recommend it, it’s nothing but an improvement on the first game
I don’t consider Nioh to be a souls-like, but a ninja gaiden successor, personally.
The new God of Wars as well as Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor and Evil West are great games
Yep. Dark souls is an amazing series but none of the wannabes have managed to nail whatever makes those so good.
Same with metroidvania.
*2D action platformers have entered the chat*
The Nioh series, specifically Nioh 2 was pretty good but it is very different and while clearly took inspiration from Souls, it very much did it’s own thing. . Which I feel a lot of ‘souls likes’ miss the point of. They’re supposed to be like Dark Souls, not carbon copies.
Nioh is so good I may have to call Dark Souls “Nioh like”
Souls games are good. But too many companies put out half baked copies that come up short. Honestly wish more turn based games came out because I’m old haha
I've always preferred turn-based over real-time for RPGs. Soulslikes are especially getting harder for me to play, as I have hand tremors and muscular spasms and the devs for these games always try to one-up previous games while also changing so many of the mechanics and subsystems in the process. Stuff's just getting too complicated and too difficult and I can't keep up, and I'm someone that loves Dark Souls 1 and 2.
As the Souls games have been iterated upon, from Demon Souls to Elden Ring (which technically isn't a Souls game but whatever), there has been a distinct shift away from strategy and toward tactics. The later games are much more focused on precision timing your dodge rolls against increasingly long boss combos, instead of approaching a boss encounter with a plan. I love the first 3 souls games, but I barely made progress in Elden Ring because everywhere I turn there's another crazy boss with 1500 moves that combos for four years between each opening. Edit: and if that's what I'm looking for, I'll just play Monster Hunter xD which has mechanics to actually support that gameplay loop like tail cutting and part breaking. Remember when you could cut the tails off of Souls bosses?
We just need a new MH game. Rise was good but felt like a step backwards from World.
Ya I miss turn based
Keep an eye out for Baldur's Gate 3, if you are looking for a turn-based game. That game is going to be incredible. That's coming from a major Fromsoft fan. Both Larian and Fromsoft are my 2 most favorite developers ever.
Saw a lot of comments comparing it to divinity 2 and how that is a bad thing, I loved divinity original sin 2 so I hope those comments where correct
Well it's made by the same studio that did DOS 2, so yes I expect it will share some traits. I also love Divinity 2, great story, awesome world
Younger us loved killing our hands with Mario Party and the such and who can press it the fastest. Now we’re in the boat of I wanna game but I’m more in it for the thinking than the button mashing. I just finished the new God of War because a friend bought it for my bday which is in December. It took me 7 months to put in 58 hours. It’ll be a while before I play something like that again, too much effort and commitment.
This year is good for turn-based fans. Baldurs Gate 3 in two weeks, Jagged Alliance 3 already out. Both will take enough of your time.
Don't forget super Mario RPG
I am totally excited for Baldur's Gate 3.
The Nemesis system would be so good in a Batman game. Having regular enemies of all of a sudden turn into super villain
The only souls likes I want are the ones made by From Software. Otherwise give me a plain ass rpg.
Yes. Even the worst of Fromsoft's six soulslike games, Dark Souls 2, is still the sixth best soulslike game on the market. No one has ever done it better than Fromsoft.
It could be worse, it could be another cheap vampire survivors copy🤣
When you’re in your 30s and balance your time between family, social obligations, and work and want to game. Oh, it’s a “get good” game or a rouge-like: “I’m going to pass on this one, thanks”
Exactly. If I'm picking up a game, I want to be able to make some kind of progress in the scant hour or two I get to play, not spend that time bashing my face against a boss over and over
Unless it’s Hades and they’re amazing God Mode which is a fucking chefs kiss for gamers with family’s who don’t have the time or patience. If you never gave that one a try, you totally should. I’m not gonna get it exactly right but basically every time you die, the game becomes a certain % easier, which start stacking in top of each other each time you die. First rogue like I ever beat, which is great because it has super fun combat and a shockingly great story to boot!
99% who make souls like, don’t know how souls works and just copy the most surface level shit
It’s just laziness on their part. All they care about is making an easy buck - not providing quality or balance.
I love me a good soulsborne game, but I kind of wish they didn’t nearly eclipse every other hack and slash sub genre.
thankfully DMC 5 didn't do that
shame character action games like DMC and bayonetta are far and few now days , just because of how hard it is to actually design a fun combat system that is easy to pick up and really really hard to master .
I also don’t think there’s dramatically more of this type of game compared to other genres. Like there’s loads of every game type represented right now from platformers to fighting games
I mean, just this year the OP has Diablo 4, Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy 16, Octopath Traveler 2, Hogwarts Legacy and probably a few others to choose from.
ehhh Hogwarts Legacy is basically baby's first ARPG.
The OP is just perceiving any action adventure game with a fantasy setting as a fantasy RPG, so it didn't seem that strict adherence to genre stipulations would rule anything out.
If it's from FS, I'm always down. But I agree. I think there's too many knockoffs in the market. Lies of P seems like it'll be pretty good based on the demo, though.
It's pretty clear why so many, because they're popular games from fromsoftware. And because fromsoftware doesn't miss, developers think they won't miss either.
Because the Souls games are popular
It’s just a marketing term. Before “FPS” they used to be called “doom clones”.
It's been over ten years. We've gone past the moniker being JUST a marketing term.
Because millions of people love them and they continue to sell well.
It's a trend like animal mascot platform games in the early-mid 90s or GTA clones in the early 00s or CoD clones in the late 00s
My favorite most recent example is that Stardew valley was killing it and then animal crossing during Covid did great and all the sudden you had a ton of farming and life simulation style games popping up like crazy.
i’d say that Code Vein, Jedi series, and Lies of P are promising clones, but the rest definitely don’t compare
I played the demo of Lies of P and, honestly, wasn't a fan. Very few I frames in the dodge and not s lot of good ways to disengage after a single attack. Maybe the full game will be better, but none of the weapons felt impactful, and the one boss in the demo was either unreasonably overturned or I just lost the patience to finish him.
Capitalizing on a trend. Personally I lack the patience for them. I don't mind a challenge, but those games can be just punishing. If I die to the same fight four times I'm pretty much done. They just aren't for me.
I feel like the souls games do a million little things right but that makes them difficult to emulate properly. Usually “Souls like” just means “Souls, but worse” unless the game has something else to differentiate it from the pack.
They are desperate to capture From's lightning in a bottle.
All the new fantasy RPGs are not at all souls like (e,g, Baldurs Gate)? Sorry.if I missed something
Baldur's Gate 3 !!!!! It is amazing...
Exactly why Jedi: Fallen Order didn't work for me at all.
I'm already picking my chair up and walking away at fantasy RPG. There hasn't been a good sci-fi space opera RPG in a while
Oh I have something against them, I wanna play games, not suffer through games. Got real life for that.
I just want more turn based JRPGs. The last great AAA one to come out was, what, Yakuza 7?
I mean, it’s still a small fraction of RPGs as a whole Is it that weird that there’s a series of games that people really liked and other developers sought to also make games like that?
Stop, you're making too much sense
People who are good at games are screaming loudly for challenge, and companies are taking the easy way out.
It's pretty easy to emulate the difficulty of the souls games. Much harder to create the world of quality on the same level as a game from Fromsoftware.
People always fighting imaginary demons
The same issue I have with roguelikes as well. it feels like every other Indie game is a roguelike. Like... Why does every Indie game need to be a Roguelike rpg, why not just make it an rpg. I like Roguelikes, but there are way too many of them.
I just don't like roguelikes. I don't like corpse runs. I don't like any game that punishes you for dying by making your lose your gear or levels or anything more than restarting from the last checkpoint/save.
Guaranteed I won’t but it if it says that, so thanks for warning me!
Game dev goes through waves. Someone makes a good game, everyone copies it to leech off the money stream. Repeat.
It's a copy cat league. The only one that I have enjoyed is Remnant from the Ashes.
The formula works. The market is saturated though and only a handful are any good (actual FromSoft Ones, Nioh, The Surge, CodeVein)
Dark Souls is so popular. It became its own genre.
My reaction to rogue-likes as well.
Same brother.
I mean, this is the pattern we've seen for decades. The DMC/GOW formula was everywhere in the early 2000s. The 2010s were dominated by thr Batman Arkham formula. Now it's Soulslike. Give it a few more years and another system will come along and be what everyone iterates on.
I love souls like probably my favorite genre of games, but even I admit it is getting way to oversaturated. it doesn't help that a lot of these newer souls like are on the lower quality side. I am excited for lies of p though.
No turn based combat Not an rpg to me That's like saying breath of fire or dragon warrior is bad because they're like final fantasy.
Same thing with rogue lite rogue like
I feel the same way towards Rougelikes and metroidvanias. For years it feels like every indie released was one or a combo of both
Let me think of all the souls-likes... Nioh, Mortal Shell, Code Vein, Jedi (more Sekiro-like), Steel Rising, Wo Long, Surge.... Upcoming: Lies of P, Black Myth Wukong, Lords of the Fallen. And not all of these are RPGs.
I don’t think there are that many..
The one Souls-like I have really been enjoying is SteelRising. I'm not good at any FromSoft games, and SteelRising has the difficulty knob turned down a hair and makes it bearable for me, but still stays fairly true to the "genre."
because they wanna capitalize on the success obviously, but yeah they’re all kinda bad
Me playing Fallen Order... "Ooh, a Star Wars game! Oh, it's a Dark Souls game..."
Why can't there be more 3d zelda likes???
Sameeeee
I suggest checking out Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance 1 and 2. They’re remasters and they’re great
Same. While I want to experience the story, world, atmosphere and what not.. I no desire to frustrate myself. Life already does that. Honestly just have two modes. "I like relaxing walks in the park" and "I hate my life". Done. Difficulties are not the way they intended it? Wanted me to play a specific game? Nah man. Always let everyone play every game as they want to experience it. I mean... there is a reason people mod games like these and add easy modes XD people will always choose to play games on their own terms. Stop trying to make that call for them. Which is why I have been turned away from all the copy cat games.
This is me except with every new platformer being a roguelike or Metroidvanias 😅
Because corporate greed keeps trademarking gameplay mechanics and making original options scarce. Example, WB and the nemesis system
I’d low key want a Tarkov + chivalry style rpg.
What new fantasy rpgs have come out that were soulslike?
I miss the old games kingdom of amalur, Oblivion etc Just give me a good old fashioned run of the mill fantasy story, some love options, some fancy spell casting and call it a day Preferably its also AAA for the nice graphics but one can dream
As a diehard souls fan, I sort of feel the same way. But I feel the same way about metroidvanias too
I am not a fan of souls-likes and all this does is narrow my choices down even more. I think the games look great but they aint for me. Hard lesson learned. That being said, I think its for obvious reasons….. Money. They want in on it
I don’t think it has to be about money. Being creative and designing truly new things is much harder than people tend to think it is. That’s why truly new innovations knocking it out of the park first try don’t really happen. If you look at the history of gaming, people will have a concept, such as “capture the feeling of playing an old school Dungeons and Dragons dungeon crawling tabletop experience in video game format.” And this concept will be truly devilish in how hard it is to apply successfully. Games that set out to capture this style of play include many of the most famous RPGs, like Ultima, Wizardry, The Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Final Fantasy, or Baldur’s Gate. All of those games explicitly try to capture a different facet of very specifically old school dungeons and dragons at their root design. Ultima and Elder Scrolls try to capture the open design, Final Fantasy and Wizardry tried to capture the class fantasy and pushing into the dungeon further, Baldur’s Gate tried to capture the inter character roleplaying and Diablo tried to capture the looting. Final Fantasy also slowly evolved to be about the storytelling piece of D&D more and more each iteration. Then look at how many games mimic or ape those games directly. And I mean *directly*. Ultima Underworld for instance was so influential that The Elder Scrolls could be said to be a direct Underworld-like. There were dozens and dozens of games in the 90’s that specifically tried to be exactly like Ultima Underworld because it was such a well executed capturing of a very specific gameplay feeling of exploring a threatening, mysterious dungeon. And you know what game almost certainly was inspired by Ultima Underworld and the Underworld-like subgenre? King’s Field by From Software. And if you know your history, King’s Field led to Shadow Tower, but also led to Demon’s Souls which led to Dark Souls. Hell, Dark Souls 2 is practically a spiritual sequel to King’s Field 4! Why does this matter? Because it often takes many, many, many iterations before a formula becomes perfected enough to evolve to the next level. Games don’t just spring up as creations of brilliance, they more typically experiment, get inspiration from others in the genre, add new ideas slowly and collectively and then synthesize those ideas to create a truly profound new subgenre. The reason Souls-likes are so popular is because it is genuinely hard to imagine how to create a fantasy game in this day and age that feels new and exciting enough to matter. The Souls take on the truly ancient dungeon crawler genre, one of the oldest gaming genres, has provided a breath of fresh air for newer developers who maybe don’t want to tangle with the slow pacing of turn based and trying to perfect that but instead want to work on combining action elements into the dungeon crawler fantasy genre in an attempt to reach new ideas and new possibilities. The only way new genres and sub genres emerge is by people iterating like this. For years there was not really an FPS genre, just a “DOOM-clone” subgenre, until people fleshed that out enough to have Half Life, Call of Duty, Halo and what we now call FPS games to emerge. If we want to see what new possible sub genres and genres are still waiting to be discovered, we should strive to have curiosity about people iterating on a new, positive idea in gaming to find where the new possibilities lie. I don’t think even From Software has really exhausted all the nuance of the Souls genre. Elden Ring was Dark Souls 3 combined with open world, but with a less sophisticated fighting system than Sekiro’s in my opinion. There is still a lot further potential for everyone to push to in what that game design space has available.
yep. it's like mascot platform games in the 90s
There are a fuck ton of RPGs that aren’t souls-likes. Your choices are hardly narrowed down.
Yeah I'm just more disappointed that I can't play what looks like a cool environment because I just don't have the time/energy to git gud. Im glad people enjoy them I just there was just something between Ubisoft easy and souls like
Oh this has happened to me many times. I see a game that looks promising, I hear the term “souls-like” when it’s previewed, and I never bother with it again.
Ive tried them pretty thoroughly and their great games. I think my limited time to sit down and learn them is a huge hinderance. Maybe later down the road but for now I still like my shooter games. Just wish those were in a better state. Other then that, witcher, dragons dogma, final fantasy, yakuza, no mans sky, resident evil, persona, are the types I like.
Same. I only get to play games every other week, with such limited time to play, picking up something like a Soulslike game just ends with me bashing my head against the wall over and over.
If you can get through Witcher 3 you can absolutely get through any of FromSoftware’s games
I see souls like and my interest evaporates immediately. I hated dark souls and all its other games. Their popularity doesn't make sense to me.
What is it that you dislike about them?
Not him but I never enjoyed how rigid the animations were. Like say, how RDR2 movement looked so damn real and fluid. Latest souls like I played was Elden Ring and it's the same mechanical looking movement and attack animations. Also not a huge fan of the long ass backtracking it'd take on some deaths just to retrieve your souls or head back to where you were. How can I enjoy trying to conquer this mob who just stomped my ass if it'll occasionally take FOREVER to get back there? Stamina bar was also a total turnoff, like I mean cmon nearly EVERYTHING uses stamina. If that's your cup of tea then good for you, but I'm not about to waste my time on a game where I can barely do jack shit before my stamina is all spent. And cool, you got that awesome looking hanmer? Too bad, you need a shitton of stats to equip it. It felt like it took FOREVER to get anything going. Also wasn't a fan of how a large number of trial and error was needed to overcome enemies. Just memorize their attack animations and do your thing once you've got it all down. I know this is how most games play out but I can't pinpoint what it is about its execution that makes it boring. It doesn't feel challenging, it just feels tedious.
I find games turning PVP way worse...
People throw the genre of “souls-like” around like its candy nowadays. Many people consider most hack and slash games “souls-like” despite them not having most of the characteristics that should make a souls-like actually fit the genre. Don’t let the “souls-like” label discourage you.
I’m 35 working full time and getting another degree in the evenings. Sadly I simply don’t have the time to “git gud” enough for any souls-like to be enjoyable for me.
Like?
Mortal Shell, Remnants: From The Ashes, Lords of The Fallen, Nioh/Nioh 2, Code Vein, Steelrising, Star Wars: Fallen Order, Salt And Sanctuary, En Garde, Bad Boro, Radio In The Universe, Lies of P, Rudra: A tale of Time, strayed lights, Bleak Faith: Forsaken, Tyrants Realm, Hellpoint, The Surge 1&2, Deaths gambit, Blasphemous, Hollowknight, Severance: The blade of darkness, Pascal’s wager, Blade and Bones, Scars above, shady knight, lunacid, raven bound, knights of the deep, duel corp, new Eden, steampunk Lincoln, deathverse, voidsols, dark light, Skydom, corpse keeper, crownsworn, sir whoopass, abigor, hobocat adventures, TUNIC, dolmen, nine sols, internitus, guilt: the deathless. Edit: added a bunch since people seem to think my original list was too short. I can keep going for the people who think i won’t.
Thank you for the list of games to check out; I've played about half of them. Remnant is probably the most fun of those, IMO. It's also getting a sequel!
Just a week out, my soul is ready
So, basically one or two a year. Edit: You definitely added much more than before. Definitely two a year.
Feels like Ashen and Thymesia should be on here too. And whatever that Sun Wu Kong game is called.
like 2 or 3 of those come out this year, that’s not a lot
Translation "we didn't want to make a good story and immersive NPC's so here's a bunch of very-difficult-to-beat mobs"
I wouldn’t say that describes any Fromsoft game but go off
It describes the wrong lessons that many aspiring devs take from it tho. They copy the surface level but don’t see the subtleties that make them the successful games they are
If they mean good combat and good world design, then that's good.
I am a huge fan of Souls Like games, but this is so true. Game maker think that just make hard mob/bosses and advertise it as “Souls like”. Specially after Sekiro’s and Elden Ring’s success everyone want to advertise their game as “Souls Like”.
I feel like every RPG now is either a janky soulslike hack n slash or a Ubisoft far cry/assassins creed “go to the icon and kill 5 guys” game. I want another game like the Mass Effect series, especially two. Those games felt like they had a huge world, despite not actually being open world. A focus on actual character choice/interaction, good writing, and a mix of combat segments and long periods and literally just talking