I enjoy Soulslikes. That’s why I’ve played an alarming number of them. I enjoy the frantic combat, the risk and reward of going into a fight with a pocket full of souls, the process of finding loot that can give me +1 to some obscure trait that I haven’t figured out the purpose of — all of it.
But for as innovative and original as some of these Soulslikes can be, they all seem to share one thing in common: a depressing, grim-dark setting.
Every time I load one up, I sigh once I hear the overly dramatic narrator begin their long spiel about how the world came to ruin. There’s always some plague or curse or otherworldly catastrophe, which then leads to everyone having glowing eyes and a thirst for blood. Most of the NPCs are in various states of sadness or madness, or they want to regale you with confusing tales about the past that somehow sound more insane than the gibberish coming out of the undead townsfolk. There’s also usually a dragon at some point.
Why does this genre always have to be so dark? Is it possible to have a “happy” Soulslike that doesn’t take itself so seriously? Because it sure would be nice to play one of these games that isn’t full of doom, gloom, and level designs that look like concept art from a Tim Burton movie.
For The Love Of God, Someone Throw A Pie!
It’s easy to see why Soulslikes are so morose. The entire genre is all about punishing the player with brutal difficulty. You’re supposed to die over and over until you figure out how to not get eviscerated by enemies. And once you figure that out, you then run into an even tougher enemy who kills you even harder. Soulslikes are all about constant soul-crushing defeat, so it makes sense to base everything in a place just as oppressive and somber as the gameplay.
I get it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not tired of it. It’s becoming harder and harder to tell these games apart. Mortal Shell just released and while it is a pretty dang good game, it’s visually and narratively indistinguishable from anything FromSoftware has made. It does the Soulslike formula well and puts some fun spins on it, but the developer seems to have actively tried as hard as they could to make it look like another Dark Souls game.
Remember when it seemed like every shooter wanted to be Call Of Duty? It was tiresome sorting through game after game trying to be all hardcore and militaristic. Now that’s happening with Soulslikes. Everyone is repeatedly making the same miserable environments. Where is the wonder? Where is the whimsy? Where are the goofs?
I think it’s high time that someone tries to add some new style to Soulslikes. Why couldn’t there be a game set in a beautiful world that isn’t decaying? Something that looks like Trine or Fable but still features that back-breaking difficulty we all know and love. Maybe it could tell a story that doesn’t involve the fall of humanity? Could there be a character who can smile without it being menacing or creepy? Perhaps you could even throw in some colors that aren’t grey, brown, or green?
I want a cheerful Souls. A funny Souls. A Souls that’s completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots. The gameplay is already there. We just need developers to try something different from the same old dismal, dilapidated worlds. In fact, Soulslikes have so many tropes and cliches that you could easily make a hilarious game parodying the entire genre. You could turn bonfires into washing machines. The Estus Flask could be a Capri Sun. What if Sif was a giant Corgi with a sword in its mouth? That would be amazing.
I Just Want To Smile While I Stab Things
I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy a good serious game. Hell, I just got through The Last Of Us Part II and that’s the most depressing game I’ve played in years — and I loved it. So if a developer wants to stroll into the Soulslike genre and make a creative-yet-horribly-dark game then that’s fine by me.
I just want there to be more variation. It seems like everyone took the dark part from Dark Souls and forgot about the soul. FromSoftware has done the grim-dark fantasy setting to death. It’s time for some fresh takes. Something that’s gorgeous, or ridiculous, or both. At the very least, something that doesn’t feel like it came from the poetry book of a mopey high school senior.
So to developers out there in the process of making Soulslikes, take a good look at what you’re working on. Don’t be afraid to be original, wacky, or insane. If your main character is a boring knight, think “what if this knight was voiced by Terry Crews?” If that knight is going to fight a fire-breathing dragon, think “what if that dragon was a massive ferret that breathed sparkles?” And if one of your major locations is a dusty, old castle, think “what if that castle was stuffed full of clowns?”
Well actually, that last idea sounds much scarier than anything FromSoftware ever did. But I’d get to fight the clowns, so yeah, do it. Give me clown-fighting Dark Souls.
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