wow you're so grimdark, cool story gamer gamer-gulag

  • HexBeara [none/use name]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Pretty sure you meant to put this in bad posting. There there, you'll git gud eventually.

  • GnastyGnuts [he/him]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Soulsborne games clarify to me how much of my ability to enjoy stuff is tied to mental association.

    I have never been able to give the genre a fair shake because I will forever associate it in my brain with annoying internet freaks being needlessly and aggressively elitist about them. I feel like I would probably like them a lot if I didn't associate the very concept of them with types of people I dislike.

    At least I already liked Armored Core and Tenchu before anybody could fuck it up for me.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      : (

      Maybe give Sekiro a try? It's not not ac6's frantic flying around combined with Tenchu's fun ninja toys. I

    • QuietCupcake [any, they/them]
      ·
      1 month ago

      I was the same way. I fucking despise the "git gud" attitude and decided that I would never be able to enjoy the genre that gave rise to that phrase. But I ended up playing a game I didn't even realize was a soulslike until after I became addicted to it. Ever since I've been fascinated by the way that kind of game with that set of mechanics can really hook a person in to the world and into learning and developing the strategy needed to further uncover it.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yet baiting attacks is a core tactic in soulslikes. Curious...

      :curiouscurious-marx

        • ashinadash [she/her]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Otogi and Otogi 2 are Fromsoft's Xbox proto-Sekiro-likes, hack n slashy ancient Japan type beat games. Sekiro is secretly Otogi 3 :>

          • Thallo [love/loves, she/her]
            ·
            1 month ago

            Cool!

            They playable these days without an Xbox?

            Based on the screenshots, it really looks a lot more like onimusha

            • ashinadash [she/her]
              ·
              1 month ago

              Dunno offhand, there is both CXBX-R (easy to setup) and XEmu, (harder to set up) I have had luck running Jet Set Radio Future myself so maybe?

    • Smeagolicious [they/them]
      ·
      1 month ago

      I am a souls fan in general but Sekiro is GOAT. Takes me back to the old classic Tenchu games

      • GnastyGnuts [he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        Sekiro pissed me off because I thought it was going to be a Tenchu game when they first showed it lol

        • Thallo [love/loves, she/her]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Yeah, it got marketed as a spiritual successor to tenchu but it's not at all.

          I think the flashback area (where you fight lady butterfly and owl father) is kind of reminiscent of tenchu because it's just a Japanese town that you can stealth around and navigate at your discretion. But that's really it.

  • Goadstool [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    I only ever played the first Dark Souls and it was so ass I legitimately thought I had been sold the wrong game for the first like 2 hours, then I never tried any other soulslike games. I love challenging games, even unfair ones, but that shit was just boring as hell. I assume they're not all bad though.

    • QuietCupcake [any, they/them]
      ·
      1 month ago

      The first soulslike I played was Salt and Sacrifice and it won me over to the genre which beforehand I had decided would be too frustrating. Unlike most soulslikes, Salt & Sanctuary is 2D, so maybe consider giving that one a try if 2D games tend to be more along the lines of what you like. I'm guessing that might be the case considering you made one! Also for that reason, it might be worth noting that Salt & Sanctuary was a labor of love made entirely by only 2 people. Make sure it's Salt & Sanctuary you're getting because they did end up putting out a sequel, which I haven't played yet but understand it to be more like Monster Hunter than a soulslike, called Salt & Sacrifice.

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Agree, and that's the reason they don't have an easy difficulty mode, often called "story mode" in many games - they barely have any story at all. I mean it's ok but at least stop calling them RPG for fucks sake.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      I really think this is a key to it. There isn't much to the games beyond combat. There's almost no dialogue, the quests such as they are are extremely austere, the levels are generally very small and very linear if you were to simply walk through them without fighting for every inch. They're nothing like Skyrim or Mass Effect or Dragon Age or BG3 or Divine Divinity. They don't have Zelda style puzzles, they don't have branching questlines, there's little or no character development. It's mostly just the fighting. The environments are pretty but not pretty enough to justify going through them more than once or twice if you're not fighting for every inch. These are not deep, rich story games with hours of voiced dialogue and well developed characters. Most of the most talkative, beloved souls characters have at most, like, maybe 30-40 lines of dialogue? Ranni has more, but like Siegfried or Solaire? They don't say much, I doubt all of their voiced dialogue amounts to five minutes.

      I think a lot of people think that a big deep complex character and story rpg is being gatekept from them by the difficult combat, but the difficult combat is all there is and if you don't enjoy the souls gameloop of fighting through the same area many times until you win then you probably just aren't going to find the genre enjoyable.

      • Thallo [love/loves, she/her]
        ·
        1 month ago

        These are not deep, rich story games with hours of voiced dialogue and well developed characters.

        You know, I used to think this way, too. I still don't play the games, but I somehow got into an Elden Ring lore video loop, and there really is A LOT going on in the story. It's just not being presented in a traditional way.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Totally agree, i love the story and background. But the way it's presented - item descriptions, weird shit you find lying around - doesn't really track with what people expect from a traditional crpg.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        I remember encountering this first time in Darksiders, it was advertised as an RPG game, and it has accessible difficulty so i finished it and was like "wait is that it"?

        From that point of view "soulslike" emerging as tag and genre is positive development.

    • Parzivus [any]
      ·
      1 month ago

      When people call it an RPG, they mean in terms of build variety. There are a billion different strategies to mess with and most of them are interesting. If you're willing to use everything the game gives you, it's not nearly as hard as people make it out to be.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        1 month ago

        Minmaxing numbers being taken for an rpg is one of the oldest problems not even with the genre but with fucking game journos and ads. I mean, unless you want to roleplay as accountant.

        • Parzivus [any]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Not talking about numbers, there are dozens of types of weapons with unique movements, hundreds of spells, summons, ranged weapons, craftable weapons, even extra abilities you can put on those weapons. It's a ton of fun to just randomly switch up your playstyle halfway through a run.

          I get that it doesn't appeal to everyone, it's obviously a very combat focused RPG. I bounced off it initially but once I got into it I found it very compelling, even as someone who isn't big into action games.

  • Egon [they/them]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Can we get a moratorium on these bait posts? They're boring and repetitive

    • Mindfury [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 month ago

      They're boring and repetitive

      Kinda like something else mentioned in the post berdly-smug