By DJ Barilea
If you’re a gamer like me, you’ve probably played all sorts of games. From FPS (First Person Shooters) games to RPG (Roleplaying game) games (I know, very redundant. But you get what I mean), you’ve gone and tried to play what looks interesting, and you already know what you like and don’t like. That includes the often brutal Souls-like games.
But for the uninitiated, I’m sure there are those that have heard of it somewhere and seen it get played by some Youtuber or streamer… or you have no idea what Souls-like even means and have decided to look through the internet to quench your curiosity and see what it’s all about.
And now you’ve come across my article to read about it!
So let’s talk about Souls-like games and help you see if it’s for you!
But first, what are Souls-likes and what is it even about?
To start off, the Souls-like genre is most commonly known from the games the genre is named after–like Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 & 3–and also creating similar games named Bloodbourne and Elden Ring, all created by FromSoftware.
However, what warranted these games to be given their own genre?
The simplest answer to this question lies in its incredibly hard bosses and enemies, difficulty of the levels that you must navigate through, and the repetitive ‘Death Screen’ that you’ll see within the screen of your computer.
But what about ‘Repetitive failure?’ Sounds like fun to anyone?
To fail and fail again and again with attacks are annoying and seem overly impossible to avoid, leaving you more frustrated than when you started playing the game.
But that’s exactly what makes it fun! That’s why it’s so popular amongst the gaming community.
To be greeted with a daunting enemy that you have no choice but to face.
To learn how to best approach and fight the enemy through multiple trial and error, as well as to keep yourself alive long enough to beat it.
Then finally, you feel the relief and the validation of beating such a difficult opponent…
Well, that’s until you get to its second phase.
I do understand that these games are not for everyone and that sometimes, you don’t want to have to sit through a boss for 5 hours just to beat it. (Definitely not speaking from personal experience… Mhm, definitely not.)
But! If the idea of trying to beat challenging bosses appeals to you, to die again and again until you’ve succeeded… Then you should give these genres of games a shot.