What is a souls game?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what does or does not
make something a souls game.
Souls like, etcetera.
So let’s break down the hallmarks of the genre
and determine exactly what is a souls game.
Let’s start with the defining characteristic souls.
It doesn’t matter what each individual game calls them,
it matters how they function.
And the way the souls works in every souls game is they are experience,
they are currency. And you can lose them once when you die
and then try to get back to him.
And if you die again, for getting back to them,
they’re gone forever. And then if you get back to them,
you get them back. That is how they all work.
Doesn’t matter what they’re called.
In any game, if it’s a souls game,
it has souls, and they work like this.
Now let’s talk about common traits.
These things don’t make a game of souls like,
but are shared among a lot of them.
Stamina bar. This one is really important.
The only souls like
I can even think of that doesn’t have a stamina bar is another
crab’s treasure. Aside from health,
aside from magic,
you have another bar that’s expanded when you do an action
like attacking or rolling
or dodging. And as you do that,
that bar depletes stats. Individual things you level up strength,
intelligence, dexterity,
etc etc. Etc.
You put the points into the individual Stats and you level those up.
Classes and builds. This kind of goes hand in hand with stats,
armor, weapons,
a variety of different playstyles that you can tailor make
by putting your soul’s experience
experience into the stats.
Get different classes and builds.
See how these three work together.
Flasks. This is a far less common trait because Demon Souls,
the one that started in Bloodborne,
do not have flasks. They have healing items.
You have a finite number of those.
You have to go out and you have to get more.
But the idea of a flask that recharges at rest points
is a hallmark of a lot of souls games.
Not all of them. Rest stops.
I can think of a lot of games have rest stops are not souls likes,
but I can’t think of any that are souls likes
that don’t have rest stops.
These are bonfires, these are sites of Grace,
these are lamps, these are art stones,
whatever you want to call them.
You’re saying hey, a lot of these sounds like their RPG mechanics?
That’s because souls games are a subgenre of RPG.
Souls games are a type of RPG.
Let’s talk about a couple things
are not relevant whatsoever to being a souls.
Like it being hard, they’re being a Perry
or being made by from software.
Plenty of games are hard. Don’t my cry is hard.
No one saying that’s a souls like Perry.
Spider Man two’s got a Perry
No one saying that’s a souls like.
It being made by from software.
I know a lot of you hadn’t heard of from software prior to Dark Souls,
but I promise they’ve made and still make a lot of different things.
Cookies and cream. Not souls like.
Darksouls for the PSVR directed by Miyazaki.
Not souls like and YouTube for the PS one.
Not souls like. So using the system.
Let’s talk about things that are not souls like.
Stellar Blade is not a souls like.
There is no souls mechanic in the game.
The game is not an RPG. You don’t have stats that you level up.
You do get experience killing enemies,
but that’s separate from your currency.
There are flasks and rest stops,
but that does not necessarily in itself make it a souls like.
There’s no stamina bar, there’s checkpoints.
The only thing that makes it remotely similar is a flask
and a rest point. Those two things alone do not make it a souls like.
Second row not a souls like.
There are no soldiers. Experience and currency are separate.
You can lose them, but there’s no option to get them back.
There’s no stamina bar, there’s no stats,
there’s no builds or classes.
There are flasks and there are rest points,
but that alone does not make a souls like.
To start off, life is a 10 shoe game.
And then when they realized it was too different from 10 shoe
they changed it. To its own thing.
Why does this matter? It.
It doesn’t. Genres are stupid.