Genre for Dark Souls-esque games

[HazardousCube]

I've been noticing a number of games that claim to have been inspired by of Dark Souls ("The Surge" and "Salt & Sanctuary" for example) which use elements that gave Dark Souls it's own identity (subtle storytelling,challenging game-play, ETC.) and I was wondering if there is a genre for games that play like Dark Souls and if not, see if it's possible to come up with one. I also don't want what we did with "Rouge-like" and Metroidvania" and just call it "Souls-like" because that is a cop-out and explains nothing about the games in question.

 

[Saelune]

Action RPG ;P

 

[Dalisclock]

I've wondered about that too. Especially since TVTROPES files Souls games differently for different tropes. Sometimes it's a hack and slash, sometimes it's an action adventure, sometimes it's a JRPG.

 

[Hawki]

Just categorize it under ARPGs?

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Tactical ARPG? Stressing the idea of precise, planned movement and co-ordination?

Frankly I would also lump Monster Hunter into 'TARPG'. Tahhr-Pee-Gee. Gotta ring to it.

Not exactly tactical, not exactly action, not exactly RPG, but sorta all of the above. Hideo Kojima has gotten away with it for like twenty years with 'Tactical Espionage Action'.

 

[wings012]

What's wrong with Soulslike really? We can string all these long fucking words together and argue about it, but you call something a soulslike and people will mostly get what you are saying. We use it enough, it becomes part of vocabulary. Just like Rogue-like Metroidvania.

Soulslike is going to be less a goddamn mouthful than whatever people are going to come up. And less misleading too.

 

[WendyLong]

Dragon?s Dogma? It is a much faster and slightly easier game than Dark Souls. However, the enemies have a static level -- and if you come along a boss that isn?t suitable to your level, then you and your assistants will be devastated.
rolling sky [http://rollingskygame.com/]

 

[stroopwafel]

What's wrong with Soulslike really? We can string all these long fucking words together and argue about it, but you call something a soulslike and people will mostly get what you are saying. We use it enough, it becomes part of vocabulary. Just like Rogue-like Metroidvania.

Soulslike is going to be less a goddamn mouthful than whatever people are going to come up. And less misleading too.

Yeah, I think Soulslike is a good term as well. It's a specific subset of action-RPG's that are all in some way derivative of Dark Souls(technically Demon's Souls but I guess the most popular game takes the prize). When a game is such a huge source of inspiration for other developers I think it deserves it's own term.

 

[Kerg3927]

What's wrong with Soulslike really? We can string all these long fucking words together and argue about it, but you call something a soulslike and people will mostly get what you are saying. We use it enough, it becomes part of vocabulary. Just like Rogue-like Metroidvania.

Soulslike is going to be less a goddamn mouthful than whatever people are going to come up. And less misleading too.

Yeah, I think Soulslike is a good term as well. It's a specific subset of action-RPG's that are all in some way derivative of Dark Souls(technically Demon's Souls but I guess the most popular game takes the prize). When a game is such a huge source of inspiration for other developers I think it deserves it's own term.

I think Souls-like has already stuck. It is the name of the sub-genre, and that's probably not going to change at this point.

 

[CritialGaming]

Yeah I think Soulslike is basically the name for it at this point. Sadly I don't know if the sub-genre will stick around much longer. Many people have tried to make Soulslike games and most of them are fucking trash. It shows a big part of the brilliance of the Dark Souls games in that may have tried to make similar games and have failed because there is something they just don't understand about making a Soulslike.

The few successes are the games that have adopted only part of the Soulslike formula and put it into a completely different type of game. Things like Dead Cells, Salt and Sancutary, etc.

 

[Aerosteam]

Dark Souls is an action RPG. It's just a bit different from others because it requires more thought, timing and meter management than others to progress.

 

[meiam]

I don't see why it can't be soul-like (or soulike, soul like or w/e permutation you want). It definitely deserves the title at this point since plenty of game draw direct inspiration from it but its not quite distinct enough to have a name attached to it (the way doom like became first person shooter).

I'm also not quite sure how long it will actually stick around, but it might have a long tail and eventually revive, the way rogue like took off in the last 5 years despite drawing inspiration from a 30 year old game. I think it'll take time for people to really figured out what element are needed and which one aren't necessary. Personally I find that later soul game are already losing some of the magic so I don't expect other dev to just be able to replicate it easily.

 

[CaitSeith]

Not much of your choice really (once a term sticks on the community, it pretty much never goes away). The elements I expect from Souls-like games are: action RPG + combat with timing, stamina and pattern recognition (more thinking involved than just mashing buttons) + unlocking shortcuts as you progress + respawning enemies after resting in a safe zone + resources being recoverable by returning where you last died + sense of high difficulty.

 

[gsilver]

Soulslike isn't so much a genre as it is a theme and pathos regarding a world as well as a number of defining mechanics.

Like, you could have a Match-3 Soulslike if you say, had a bleak, dark, and deeply sad world with a "dodge roll" that shuffled your titles. could retreat and upgrade from a puzzle, and the puzzles "attacked" back, via some sort of collection of tiles that damaged you.

The puzzle Archdragon of Desperate Flame would be pretty awesome

 

[Fox12]

I've been noticing a number of games that claim to have been inspired by of Dark Souls ("The Surge" and "Salt & Sanctuary" for example) which use elements that gave Dark Souls it's own identity (subtle storytelling,challenging game-play, ETC.) and I was wondering if there is a genre for games that play like Dark Souls and if not, see if it's possible to come up with one. I also don't want what we did with "Rouge-like" and Metroidvania" and just call it "Souls-like" because that is a cop-out and explains nothing about the games in question.

The term I've used this far in the fan community is "souls-like."

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Dark Souls games are dungeon crawlers, you literally go dungeon to dungeon killing enemies and the boss to get to the next dungeon. There's nothing to really do in-between like having towns or anything.

I agree with Mark Brown and his Game Maker's Toolkit series in saying making a genre from a single game is a bad idea:

 

[HazardousCube]

WOW I did not expect anybody to respond to a very trivial concern of mine.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

WOW I did not expect anybody to respond to a very trivial concern of mine.

I'm surprised people are so divided. As I said, it's an ARPG dungeon crawler hybrid. Souls-like isn't a genre. Everyone else is wrong. Only listen to me.

Haha, only because you're right in this instance.