I'm gonna get flamed in the comments, I'm aware. I loved Jedi: Fallen Order, Jedi: Survivor, Elden Ring, Lords of Ire, Another Crabs Treasure and many other soulslikes. I bought Black Myth: Wukong very recently and I absolutely hate it. It's very beautiful and the enemy variety is unique, but after playing for hours and hours it dawned on me that this entire game is just a glorified boss rush mode. I completely gave up after beating the Tiger Vanguard and immediately running into another boss. Like holy shit, is there ANY exploration in this, is there ANY customization? You have these tiny and fairly linear paths that lead into another boss 5 minutes after beating the last boss. I looked it up and there's over 100 bosses. The bosses in souls and soulslike games are the side effect to the beautiful world I've found myself in, not the entire reason I'm playing the game. Am I being too harsh on this? What are some games in this genre you should have liked but found out you didn't for whatever reason? Let me know!

Anyone else jumping in?

The demo was surprisingly fun and got great reviews, so I'm hoping the full game delivers.

Soulslike, but with dinosaurs dragging around giant greatswords.

My vote goes to green monster of the swamp (Lies of p)

Curious what the general consensus is on the best game of these 4, I am also curious to hear what people think is the best, and worst quality of each game.

I haven't played AI Limit or Wukong, so the results of this list will decide what I play next out of the two lol.

Title

your thoughts on the game? i loved the demo and i think it is underrated. Has a very cool take and i love parrying as a massive spino XD.
if you have played the game what do you think of the boss design, levels, enemy variety etc?

Hello everyone! Im sure this has been posted before, and im sure more soulsikes have been released since then, so im asking this here. I recently saw a video of someone 100% completing DS 1. It seemed extremely fun, and I would love to start playing soulslikes myself. The only games I have tried a little bit are ER, BMW and DS 1, so I'm pretty much asking which one of those games are the best for someone who hasn't played soulslikes before. Sure, if you have some other game you would recommend, feel free to do it :) have a nice day!

I have beaten quite a few soulslikes this year and am looking forward to a few upcoming ones.

Not in any order but this year I have completed:

Demon souls remake 7/10
Dark souls 2 6/10
Khazan 8/10
Code vein 5/10
Remnant 2 8/10
Nioh 2 10/10
Nioh 3 10/10
Wo long 7.5/10
The last faith 6.5/10
Lords of the fallen 2023 7.5/10

Out of all of these I really enjoyed lords 2023, Nioh 2 , Nioh 3 and Khazan the most.

I am really looking forward to mortal shell 2 and maybe Crimson moon though I am not sure on this one as not a lot has been shared. Next year I’m expecting big things from the other souls likes that are dropping.

I also can’t wait to play beast of reincarnation I think this one while probably not a true soulslike is going to suprise a lot of people while the last relic really looks to need a lot of work honestly.

What games have you guys played this year or are you stoked for next month? Feel free to share non souls likes and your ratings or opinions.

Signed a dad stuck in line at a theme park

Saw an eye-catching Mortal Shell 2 article on my feed about the missing stamina bar in the demo version, and never before have I fled a news site with such haste. That's another site I'll have to remember not to touch and hope that the almigthy Algo makes note.

I've been playing Nioh 2 and lords of the fallen with my friend love playing souls likes and we love coop but I was wondering if there was games with coop kinda of like them with seamless co-op specifically on ps5

Hey I posted this in the bloodborne sub because I'm most frequent on there but is this a idea that people would enjoy or is just a waste of time

I just finished the game and was heart broken to learn the studio was dissolved. I thought the game was pretty great

I didnt fight First Berserker Khazan, Bloodborne and Lies of P

This is only gameplay wise, so factors like Presentation, Buildup, Lore, OST and narrative

I will compare Erlang to 3 fan favourites: Slave Knight Gael, Inner Isshin and Messmer the Impaler

Moveset variety ( number of attacks, and distribution of slow and fast attacks )

Erlang: He has 73 different attack, which is roughly double of Fromsofts best which is either Morgott the Omen King or Soul of Cinder. he is also very good at mixing slow, mediuma nd fast attacks, but he mostly uses fast ones so its not the most balanced, btuw itht his many moves, theres no way to complain.

Slave Knight Gael: A high amount of total moves, my estimate ( which could be wrong )is that Gael has between 3 and 2 times less attacks than Erlang. he mostly uses medium fast attacks, with relatively few slow ones and very few fast ones

Inner Isshin: Similar to gael, Inner Isshin a high amount of total moves, my estimate ( which could be wrong )is that Inner Isshin has between 3 and 2 times less attacks than Erlang, He is Excellent at mixing attacks of all speeds.he has a fast katana, a medium slow spear, very slow lightning attacks and a very fast Glock.

Messmer: Messmer has amongst the most attacks out of any Fromsoftware boss. HE probably has 2 times less moves than Erlang but he is better than Erlang at mixing fast and slow attacks

1. Erlang

2. Messmer

3. Inner Isshin

4. Gael

Mixups

Erlang: Do I really need to say anything? I have nearly 10 hours in this boss and I still see new combos. sometimes the mixups are so insane I have a feeling he invents new moves

Slave Knight Gael: A good amount of mixups for a DS3 boss, btu compared to Erlang itsan absolute JOKE.

Inner Isshin: I am not entirely sure whetehr he has many mixups, btu msot of the time I know whats coming next.

Messmer: this is Messmers phase 2 combo flow chart, as you can see its quite complex but sadly we cannot compare it to Erlangs flow chart because making Erlangs flow chart is impossible

Its actually far from teh best even in Elden Ring. this is Godfreys 2nd phase Combo Flowchat:

and this is Morgotts 2nd phase combo flowchart:

1. Erlang

2. Messmer

3. Inner Isshin

4. Gael

Delays

people will disagree, but delays almost wlays significantly improve a fight, it makes mastering the boss more satisfy8ing because you can get hidden openings.

With long delays you can use it as an attack window, and with a short delay you can use it to replenish stamina.

Erlang. Percentage wise, Erlang has a rather small amount of delays. but Erlang has so many attacks that it justifies the fqact he has low percentage of moves with a delays. in phase 1 he has areally low amount of delays but it improves in phase 2 and 3

Slave Knight Gael: in phase 1, he has probably 1 delay which is definiitely above average for a Dark Souls 3 boss, but in modern gaming its terrible.

in phase 2 and 3, he actually has a good amount of delays thanks to not only his cape ( even some of his basic attacks have a delay ) im shocked its the same boss as phase 1 Gael.

Inner Isshin: in phase 1, his only delays are the ashina cross and the mortal blade attack. and Ichimonji so thats decent but not good. in phase 2, he gets new delays. he even keeps his ichimonji attack ( but tis slightly different now ). in phase 3, nothing hanges with delays

Messmer: Really good. unlike the other 3 bosses here, Messmer has a high number of delays in both his phases,

1. Inner Isshin

2. Messmer

3. Erlang

4. Gael

all these 4 are great in delays

Player Mechanics

this means the boss has attacks that the player can jump over or strafe

Erlang: he has an EXTREMELY high amount of jumpable attacks, and they are used well in his attacks. you have two options ( for some of his attacks ): 1. Try to perfect dodge. you might get focus, but if you fail the perfect dodge then you will get hit 2. Jump, you wont get focused but you will have more generous dodge window. hwoever, he isnt very strafable aside from fwe attacks

Gael: No jump button. But good in strafing

Inner Isshin: There is a jump button, but there is only one attack where its effective ( aside form Lightning attacks ), that very attack can be evaded 5 ways: 1. jump 2. deflect 3. run away 4. dodge 5. go behind him. his basic katana swings can only be deflected or dodged, but for example , you can run around Isshin when he does his Ashina Cross and you end up behind him. Dodging is actually extremely effective against this boss, you can dodge some basic swing and you get a 2 hit opening.

Messmer : Very good in both categories. lots of jumpable attacks and also a good amount of strafes, especially in 1st phase because in 2nd phase there a a very limited amount of strafes.

in Jumpable attacks: 1. Erlang 2. Messmer 3. Inner Isshin 4. Gael In strafes: 1.. Messmer/Gael 2. Messmer/Gael 3.Erlang 4. Inner Isshin

Hitbox precision

All 4 have excellent hitboxes ( aside from 1 Messmers snake attack finisher )

Flow

Flow is 100 percent subjective so theres no point in debating about it

Difficulty

this one is 50 percent objective and 50 percent subjective because tis objective a boss will punish you if you try to heal mid combo, or if a boss is tanky, or if a boss has a long combos, or whether the boss has janky hitboxes but its subjective whether you find the boss predictable, or if teh bosses 'clicked' with you.

Erlang: Does not punish healing, but is extremely tanky, has super long combos and you cannot SOME memorize his attack patterns because of his insane mixups.

Slave Knight Gael: Does not punish healing at all, has a high healthbar, relatively short combos that can be easily memorized because there arent many mixups

Inner Isshin: Mechanically demaning and deals high damage, btu is a glass canon and cna be destroyed super quickly if you dodge his attacks. He sevrely punishes healing, isnt very tanky, has medium-long combos

Messmer: Mechanically demanding and hits like a truck, teh difference between him and Isshin tho is that Messmer isnt a glass canon and is very tanky, he also punishes healing a lot. very tricky attack timings as well. has medium -long combos

1. Erlang 2. Messmer 3. Inner Isshin 4. Gael

Erlang and Messmer are on par in difficulty the first playthorugh, but on otehr playthroughs you will see that Erlang is clearly more dificulty because its much hasrder to memorize his attack patterns

Congratulations if you actually read all of this

in Gameplay I think Erlangis teh best, but if we look at the entire package which includes factors like Presentation, Buildup, Lore, OST and narrative then Messmer isnt far behind/ is on par with Erlang

Why are hack and slash games now called "soulslike?" Is it simply because the popularity and difficulty of the original Souls game?

I would call DMC and GoW(originals) as just hack and slashes. However, the newer games of both series have been identified as "souls-like." Has the term replaced the term hack and slash?

This monkey is ruthless

I've been having a sorta epiphany that i kind of despise parry mechanics, and i'm terrible at them in basically every game they exist in (soulslike or not), but what i can't figure out exactly is why i don't like it, and why i can never seem to get good at it even with practice.

Take sekiro, i actually managed to beat that game, though it was a frustrating enough experience more often than not that i'm probably not gonna replay it any time soon. Thing is i don't think i ever got great at deflecting, i just got passable enough to beat the game after like 20-30 attempts at most of the bosses (weirdly first owl didn't take me many attempts). I'm currently playing through lies of p, which really seems to incentivize perfect guard over dodging, and nearly every boss was 15-20 tries and most of those were getting parry timings down to a "passable" level. i kind of hit a wall with the black rabbit and especially king of puppets, and ended up summoning for those. For a non soulslike mechanic, E33's dodge/parries are also proving to be a bitch, i'm very likely gonna need to either mod slightly more generous windows or play on easy.

Thing is i don't think i'm even that terrible at soulslikes, like i recently played through dark souls 3 (beating its dlcs for the first time) and bloodborne, and most of the bosses didn't take more than 10 attempts, with most more between 3-5. Friede took 4 tries. Even bosses that took longer like Gael never really got frustrating for me. I did actually do a fair bit of parries in bloodborne, i only got to maybe a 40% parry rate but it was good enough to deal with bosses like Maria.

I guess what i wonder about is that some argue getting a parry off and dodging properly aren't fundamentally night and day different in the kind of skills required, but to me they do feel completely different. I don't mind dying to a boss 15 times when i can tell i fucked up a dodge or got greedy, or mistimed my attack window, but everytime i die to a parry centric encounter it kind of feels instead like i failed the hidden rhytm minigame. And it feels like something i can't really get good at because parries rely much more on individual enemy patterns as opposed to good game sense, whereas dodging seems to me more "universal".

Anyway, sorry if the post was a bit rambly, this isn't meant to be me whining, rather i want to understand what it is about parries that i really dislike, and if anyone relates to it or has any advice for getting better at them.

How many times have you gone through the same games? Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne are the only games in my life that I feel the need to pick up and play again, over and over for the past decade. I've probably done at least 20 playthroughs of each and still start fresh every year or so if not more. These are the only 2 games that I can never get enough. What about you guys? Whats your go to and how bad is the addiction?!

But he was pretty annoying tho.

Reddit only allows for maximum 6 answers, so I cant add Great Sage's Broken Shell, Inner Father, Malenia, Bayle and some other popular ones

Anyway, my vote goes for Erlang because he has insane moveset variety and mixups,excellent replayability, lots of jumpable attacks and is the best gameplay wise