This is a scary topic to debate about because I know that the fanbase here has some very strong opinions, but I’m going to do my best to speak my piece and hope for some friendly rebuttals. FromSoftware games, specifically the Soulslike ones, spend way too much effort on difficulty. This is my “hot take,” and I can’t wait to see what my responding colleague Dustin Orgill has to say in a counterargument in our new Dueling Snakes series.

Soulslike Games Don’t Spend Enough Time On The Entire Plot

I can already hear it; I already have heard it. “Get good at the games,” or “You just want to play your games on easy.” Let’s get this out of the way. I have little qualms about the difficulty of the game. If you want to have boss fights that you must fight over and over again to learn their attack patterns before you finally beat them, that’s fine, but the rest of the game needs to feel worth it.

I feel the lore in Soulslike games is entirely wasted. From what I’ve tried to understand about the lore and the surrounding world is that there is a ton to be learned about it. It’s crazy to me that they essentially make you need to seek outside explanations to understand what happened to a boss to make them into the atrocity they have become. Frankly, I think it’s ridiculous that I must read the description of items or seek out an explanation on YouTube somewhere just to figure out why I’m fighting what I’m fighting.

The gameplay also feels a little repetitive to me; this is my opinion I understand that. To me, every fight from boss to minor enemies feels the same. Walk up terrified, roll, attack, roll, probably die, try again, roll, attack, roll, you get the gist of it. To me, this gets old fast, but that’s part of the love for the games so you know what to expect. The main focus is learning the attack patterns of enemies and bosses. I know also that in any game that is challenging and has boss battles, you’re going to need to fight the boss a couple of times and learn their phases and such, but I just feel that Soulslike games do this to an extent that isn’t enjoyable because you need to learn exact timing. There isn’t a whole lot of differentiation from one boss to another either. You can find new weapons to use, it can be new attack patterns from the boss, but it’s still the same gameplay; dodge and attack.

I want to like these games because I understand the satisfaction of beating a boss that you have been working towards beating, but it’s made so difficult because the story is a huge part of it to me. The visuals are so creative, and the bosses are horrifying, I would love to have some sort of understanding of the world I am in. But I don’t want to read while I play the most frustrating games I have ever played. It makes defeating the boss feel a little pointless and takes away from the satisfaction. So correct me if I’m wrong and I just haven’t played the right one but there is not nearly enough lore and story exploration in Soulslike games.

In The End, It’s About What You Are Looking For

Games don’t always need to be made for everybody which I think is something that FromSoftware has shown and stuck to, but it’s not a bad thing. They make games for their fans and their fans eat it up. So in the end it’s really about what you like in a game, if you don’t need story-driven cutscenes or character interactions and all you are looking for is a challenge then perfect you’ve found your niche. But personally, I need a little more than just a challenging game.