Perfecting Souls-Like Games: The Rise of a Winning Formula

 Perfecting Souls-Like Games: The Rise of a Winning Formula

Why are souls-likes so popular? We will try to answer this by tracking the evolution of the souls-like formula and its coming of age in 2023. We will argue that the souls-like is an audience favourite because it’s a hotbed of innovation, it offers punishing but ultimately rewarding gameplay, and developers are now taking it in directions that few studios would risk, imbuing the souls-like with its own identity.

Must-Play Souls-Likes: Evolution and Experimentation

In most souls-likes, you are never more than seconds away from death, you need skill to survive, and stamina in combat. We will take a look at how From Software established and iterated on the core gameplay of Souls titles, and how studios like Team Ninja introduced novel variations on this formula: no two souls-like are alike.

Demons’ Souls

The first Souls game might well have been the last. Shuhei Yoshida, the then President of Sony Worldwide Studios, played a buggy final demo with framerate issues containing none of the game’s promised multiplayer elements. Sony decided not to publish the game worldwide. But soon, Atlus USA published the game in the US and Bandai Namco released it in Europe after reviews of imported copies made it clear that the game was 2009’s sleeper hit. At a time when mainstream games were criticised for holding the gamer’s hand and making things too easy, Demons’ Souls broke the mould and introduced the core gameplay concepts of the Souls games, with punishing combat, dark themes, an indirect narrative, death penalties, and more. As Demons’ Souls was released before the term ‘souls-like’ was coined, it was called an RPG and drew praise for its build variety and challenging combat. 

The Dark Souls Franchise

If Demons’ Souls was almost nipped in the bud, Dark Souls I was against nigh-impossible odds. 2011 saw the release of Skyrim, Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City and other hugely successful games. Yet, Dark Souls drew critical praise and fans who guided each other to make the experience less punishing. Dark Souls improved upon the Souls formula: healing supplies are replenished when you respawn at a checkpoint, combat is more fluid, and the environmental storytelling is more nuanced. 

Dark Souls II (2014) was not very popular on release because of performance and design issues. But it is now recognised for pioneering many of the elements that Elden Ring would feature: it is a quasi-open world allowing room for exploration, it offers more variety in builds, and has stances with unique movesets. If nothing else, Dark Souls II was a failed experiment that laid the groundwork for the best-selling souls-like to date. 

Dark Souls III (2016) broke sales records on launch, becoming publisher Bandai Namco’s fastest-selling game until Elden Ring was published. A lot of hype surrounded the game before release; the term souls-like was now known, if not common, and most importantly, Bloodborne (2015) was a smash hit, giving From Software a chance to bounce back from Dark Souls II. And Dark Souls III didn’t disappoint. The game expands on many souls-like concepts: the parry system is more refined and magic builds are stronger with the Ashen Estus Flask, which can either regenerate health or magic. The new Weapon Arts system also arms the player with a variety of movesets. The world of the souls-like was now brimming with possibilities. 

Bloodborne

Few games are as unique as Bloodborne, a souls-like that plays like a horror fantasy inspired by the author H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Bloodborne encourages fast-paced, aggressive combat by depriving the player of any shield or defensive weapon and giving them guns that can deal damage and repel attacks. If an enemy attack deprives you of health, you can counterattack within a narrow time frame to regain lost health points. This ‘Rally’ mechanic, along with Bloodborne’s gunplay, is a significant departure from the deliberate, methodical combat of other souls-likes. 

Moreover, Bloodborne has a twist on the horror elements as well. A faculty called Insight keeps increasing as you progress through the game. This allows you to see the world as it really is – filled with Lovecraftian monstrosities. According to Lovecraft’s mythos, people who truly see the world’s cosmic horror go mad. Bloodborne’s developers translate this fictive conceit into a brilliant gameplay mechanic.

The Nioh Duology

The Nioh games are true souls-likes: they don’t copy the Souls formula, but experiment with it. As a gamer notes, unlike the Souls games, Nioh’s gameplay is much smoother, fluid and multifaceted, with various mechanics that offer plenty of approaches to combat, improving your odds of defeating the games’ incredibly difficult bosses. 

Firstly, there is the all-important Ki pulse, which lets you rapidly regenerate your stamina, or Ki, in the middle of battle, allowing you to stay in the fight. Each weapon comes with three stances and their own specific movesets, and each stance offers unique advantages in battle. Every single weapon has a detailed skill tree: once mastered, these skills can be devastating in battle. The Nioh games’ narrative is drawn from Japanese folklore. In Nioh (2017) you battle Yokai – malevolent supernatural creatures – with the aid of guardian spirits that make you invincible for a short time in battle and can greatly damage enemies. In Nioh 2 (2020), you can become a benevolent Yokai, yourself, armed with powerful movesets.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro eschews many core aspects of Souls games. In Sekiro, the most powerful move you make is the perfect parry or ‘deflect’, a timed block that you can follow up with a crippling attack. There is no stamina mechanic, but a posture bar that fills up if you block repeatedly. Once full, your posture breaks, you slump to the ground, defenceless, and are open to mortal attacks. If you successfully deflect attacks, or time your blocks, the enemy’s posture breaks and opens them up to a deathblow.

The game does away with RPG mechanics and only offers a few upgrade paths. Sekiro, the player character, is fitted with a prosthetic after his arm is chopped off early in-game, and it can be equipped with weapons like a shuriken launcher or a short-range flamethrower. They may work with regular enemies, but you must master the art of deflecting again and again and finally dealing the coup de grace to defeat bosses.

The game does have a forgiving stealth system, though, where you can kill enemies and severely weaken bosses with a timed backstab. You can flee to a nearby checkpoint even when very close to death. Even the death penalty is not severe. Sekiro is less punishing than most souls-likes purely because every boss is a nightmare. 

Sekiro is a masterpiece and won the Game of the Year Award for 2019. Every design choice is meant to let you be the perfect Ninja, who can kill anything with his katana. Sekiro adds a whole new level (literally) to the world by placing loot and even NPCs in high places that can be reached only with a grappling hook. And it’s a true souls-like: it just throws out anything that does not directly involve death and difficulty. 

Elden Ring

Is the best-selling Souls game and the Game of the Year for 2022 the best Souls game? Arguably, yes. Penned in part by George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring is as difficult as any souls-like, and combines this with a complex RPG system in a wide-open world. Like in any Souls game, difficulty and deception play an equal role in this title.

Roam without caution and you will stumble upon a mob or a nigh-unstoppable mini boss. Try to bypass this area, and you may encounter another foe who kills you with one blow. Unlike the linear Souls games, however, you are never necessarily stuck somewhere, you can always find a relatively safer path. 

It’s also consistent with linear souls-like design. You explore large spaces, but your path to the Erdtree, which plays a critical role in the main quest, is blocked by incredibly difficult bosses. Explore to grind, gear up, level up and git gud enough to go after these demigods. And these boss fights are as hard as they come, but to paraphrase a reviewer, you go from ‘no way I can do this’ to ‘I can’t believe I did that’.