Soulslike Games: A subgenre of action RPG and action-adventure games.
The Origin of Soulslike Subgenre
Demon’s Souls is the spiritual predecessor to not just the Dark Souls
series and its extended Soulsborne titles, but all Soulslike games.
The formula for the Souls games is fairly simple. Players are challenged
to defeat enemies and bosses while utilizing a plethora of different
weapons and items, all while keeping track of limited health resources
and managing stamina use. Each game in the Soulsborne series has tweaked
this formula slightly, but they all stay close to these basic mechanics.
The goal behind the original title was to create a game that was
punishing yet fair and had a simplistic story on the surface, but became
more interconnected and interesting the more the player delved into it.
Demon’s Souls accomplished these goals by featuring many unique
locations all with their own challenging enemies and bosses that are all
connected through an overarching story. Players often found themselves
exceptionally challenged by the constant flow of increasingly difficult
bosses but knew that they could succeed through perseverance and
dedication. And once an area was completely cleared, the sense of
accomplishment was unmatched.
The Soulsborne games not only made enemies challenging, but created a
different kind of challenge when introducing lore. Though players could
easily dismiss the story and hack-and-slash their way through the entire
game, the amount of detail that has gone into the lore of these games
creates a sense of wonder that is unavoidable for players who begin to
investigate further into the story.
With most the games featuring very few cutscenes or straightforward
explanations, it is up to the player to investigate items and weapons as
well as the world and its inhabitants in order to discover as much about
the game’s story as possible. Players are never coddled in gameplay or
lore and the constant challenge is what has driven players and
developers to crave games similar to Demon’s Souls.