To many gamers, the phrase “Soulslike” has become an accepted way to describe a particular type of game design, succinctly summing up everything you can expect to find within that game, in a single phrase.
However, to the uninitiated, it’s a phrase that lacks clarity and one that fails to encapsulate the qualifying elements that make up the genre. So what does it mean for a video game to be Soulslike? What are the key ingredients and what distinguishes a Soulslike from any other type of game?
From Demon’s Souls to Dark Souls
The origins of the Soulslike subgenre lie with FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls in 2009. Designed to evoke the same level of challenge as older video games, it had a deliberately high difficulty level. Its developers made a conscious decision to include an abundance of enemy-based and environmental hazards that could spell death at any moment for the player.
Dark Souls, 2011’s spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls, took that ball and ran with it. It refined the game mechanics and built on the idea of an interconnected game world with a heavy emphasis on exploration and gameplay that required players to learn from their (many) mistakes to overcome it obstacles.
Since that time, FromSoftware has released a flurry of other Souls-inspired (or Soulslike) games that remain true to this original vision. But what constitutes a Soulslike game and what traits do these games all share?
Dark Fantasy Setting With Environmental Storytelling
From the corrupted kingdom of Boletaria in Demon’s Souls to the blood-soaked streets of Yharnam in Bloodborne, Soulslike games share a common thread with their locations. They are typically characterized by a dark fantasy setting, where the landscape has been scourged by plague or irrevocably changed by the influence of dark magic.
You step into these worlds with little to no knowledge of your surroundings. There is no hand-holding in Soulslike games. From the outset, you are plunged deep into the world, under-leveled, with nothing apart from a broken sword to defend yourself with. Exploration of these worlds uncovers new equipment that can be refined to strengthen your character and improve your chances of survival.
Soulslike games for the most part contain no overt storytelling. Lore concerning the game’s world exists in abundance, but it is often hidden. It can be found and pieced together by interaction with non-player characters (NPCs), uncovering journals or historical artifacts, and by carefully reading the item descriptions in your inventory as you acquire more advanced loot and supplies.
The concept here is that you must work for your meal. Some players will want to fully immerse themselves in the world, scouring for every nugget of information they can find, while others will simply want to press on to slay the next big bad. The option to play your way is a great design decision and ensures that each title appeals equally to different types of players.
Challenging Difficulty Level With Diverse Character Builds
Pay attention to the comments section of any online forum, gameplay stream, or video related to Soulslike games and it won’t be long until the phrase “Git Gud” (meaning “get good”) pops up. This phrase was spawned in relation to the challenging nature of Soulslike gameplay, which can be punishing, especially to more casual gamers. These are no hack-and-slash games.
It is often used as a piece of “helpful” advice when fellow gamers ask for help or tips on how to beat a particular boss or complete a difficult section of the game. It’s a phrase that can seem unkind, given the large player communities that these games generate. However, in many respects, it is somewhat accurate.
Souls and Soulslike games characteristically have only one difficulty level, so you won’t find an easy mode to engage when the going gets tough. Your success will depend on you mastering the trial-and-error style of gameplay. Learning your enemies’ attack patterns, knowing when to block, when to roll away, and when to counterattack, are all crucial elements.
A key strategy in mastering the gameplay in a Soulslike game is how you choose to build your character. Most Soulslike games (with the arguable exception of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice) allow you the freedom to build the kind of character that you want, but you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the process in order to achieve the results you want.
Understanding these gameplay and character-building principles is a fundamental part of your journey to “Git Gud” at Soulslike games.
The Importance of Bonfires and Checkpoints
Everybody who has played an action-adventure game will be familiar with save points or checkpoints scattered around the game world. These offer a convenient way to save your progress, acting as a respawn point should your character fall foul of some in-game threat. However, in Soulslike games, the checkpoint mechanic works a little differently.
Demon’s Souls, the grandaddy of Soulslike games, introduced the concept of bonfires. Bonfires offer a brief moment of respite for your character. Resting at a bonfire saves your progress, refills your health bar, and replenishes your supply of Estus Flasks (a consumable item that can be used to refill lost health points, in-game).
A bonfire is a place where you can repair your gear, spend your in-game currency (souls) to level up your chosen character attributes, or warp between other unlocked checkpoints as a form of fast travel.
However, resting at a bonfire in a Souls game does come at a cost. This is because opting to kick back and chill at a bonfire also respawns any enemies you have already vanquished in the surrounding area (not including defeated bosses).
Therefore, there’s a certain element of strategy to resting at a bonfire. When you die in-game, your character respawns at the last bonfire you rested at. If you haven’t rested for a while, you could end up respawning at a much earlier point in the game, with a full complement of respawned enemies to battle your way through.
When you die in-game, your accumulated in-game currency is lost at the location of your death. You have one chance to go and retrieve it, but should you suffer a fatal injury en route, or find yourself slain by the same foe once you get there, it will be gone forever.
Bonfires (or their equivalent in other Soulslike games) represent the only locations where your character is truly safe from the horrors of the world. A light in the gloom. However, the warmth and the comfort they provide is fleeting. They are an intriguing concept unique to Soulslikes and add a real sense of immersion to these brutal worlds.
Other Soulslike Games
FromSoftware already has an impressive canon of Soulslike titles, including Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring. However, it’s a testament to the popularity of this genre that other publishers have collectively spawned a legion of Soulslike games of their own.
You can find a treasure trove of other Soulslikes, that stick to (or close to) the core elements of the Soulslike structure. Titles such as Nioh, Lords of the Fallen, Mortal Shell, Lies of P, and the more recent Black Myth: Wukong are just a few examples that tread the path that FromSoftware has forged.
With more Soulslike games being released each year, it seems as though this particular gameplay phenomenon isn’t going away anytime soon. So if your interest has been piqued, and you haven’t done so before, now is the best time to dip your toes into these Soulslike waters.
