“Soulslike”, a word everyone was oblivious to until September 22, 2011. A fateful day when Dark Souls was released. Defined by players as the reason they smashed their keyboards and controllers. But is there more to them than just unforgiving difficulty? Let’s find out with this article. I am Swapnil, an enthusiastic gamer, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know about souls like.
Introduction
But first, let’s talk about the video game company that started them, FromSoftware. FromSoftware was known for titles like King’s Field and Armoured Core, which date back to 1994 and 1997. The man behind them is Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Now, the thing you should know about him is that he is not your average game developer who just believes in making a large map, dropping enemies and making a pretty straightforward story that revolves around our main protagonist, like everything is about them.
No, he believes that the player should get a wholesome experience, which gets painful sometimes, but makes you cry with joy at the end. With this motive in mind, the first game was released, Dark Souls.
Now, on the surface, it looks like an average RPG with average graphics, lighting effects, and fight mechanics too. The only thing different from other games is that enemies respawn no matter how many times you kill them (a mechanic that was later tweaked in DS2). You lose all your souls (upgrade currency) when you die.
The same goes for the 2015 PS4 exclusive Bloodborne. Set in an old fictional British town called Yharnam. But with a little bit of advanced mechanics this time, and now your souls are called blood echoes. And you could say the same for the 2019 title Sekiro (Very advanced fight mechanics this time and breathtaking sceneries).
But what sets them apart then?
Story
As already mentioned, unlike other titles, the story doesn’t revolve around you (Except in Sekiro). Everything points to a bigger purpose. In the Dark Souls series, the first thing you are presented with as soon as the game boots up is a cutscene. According to that, the world before any kind of human civilisation was Dark and was ruled by ancient dragons.
Everything was fine until humans arrived and invented fire, which created a disparity in everything. There was the concept of light vs dark, good vs evil, etc. And with this newfound power of fire, humans waged a war against ancient dragons. But everything comes at a price. The people who were unfortunate became hollow (undead).
So every few years, many people(Hollows) rise from the grave to challenge the Lords of Cinder and to keep the flame going by sacrificing themselves. What I told you is merely 5% of the story. There is a lot of betrayal and trust, love and hate, etc., going on inside, the volume of which is simply flabbergasting.
NPCs
Unlike other games where NPCs (Non-playable characters) are just like a checkpoint to upgrade gear, buy weapons or save the game. Here, every NPC has a story and a purpose.
And the most fantastic thing about all this is that 99% people wouldn’t even pay attention to them in their 1st playthrough. You have to pay close attention to their dialogues( which are extremely limited) and do their quests. I’ll quote the example of Soliaire of Astora here.
He’s just another hollow like you, who’s here to go through an arduous journey to link the fire. He praises the sun (Sun here symbolises his source of motivation, or a god). He helps you in many boss battles.
You also encounter him many times in your playthrough, just chilling near a bonfire. But every time you talk to him, his voice gets sadder and sadder as he is unable to find his Sun.
And then starts his descent into madness. He gets depressed day by day and then becomes insane, and eventually, you have to kill your good old friend with your own hands. It’s pretty heartbreaking sometimes. But there lies the essence of Dark Souls.
More About NPCs
And there are about 9-10 NPCs like this you meet in every part, everyone with their own struggles and ambitions. The same goes for Bloodborne, where you talk to a little girl who’s lost her parents. You instruct her to head down the sewers and find a safe place.
Later in the game, you see her mother murdered by her father, who has now become a bloodthirsty demon, which you have to kill. And in the late game, you find that little girl’s pendant in the guts of some big Demon.
Yeah congratulations! You led her to a horrible demise. Unlike other games where NPCs (Non-playable characters) are just like a checkpoint to upgrade gear, buy weapons or save the game.
Purpose of Every NPC in Soulslike
Here, every NPC has a story and a purpose. And the most fantastic thing about all this is that 99% people wouldn’t even pay attention to them in their 1st playthrough. You have to pay close attention to their dialogues( which are extremely limited) and do their quests. I’ll quote the example of Soliaire of Astora here.
He’s just another hollow like you, who’s here to go through an arduous journey to link the fire. He praises the sun (Sun here symbolises his source of motivation, or a god). He helps you in many boss battles.
You also encounter him many times in your playthrough, just chilling near a bonfire. But every time you talk to him, his voice gets sadder and sadder as he is unable to find his Sun. And then starts his descent into madness.
He gets depressed day by day and then becomes insane, and eventually, you have to kill your good old friend with your own hands. It’s pretty heartbreaking sometimes.
But there lies the essence of Dark Souls. And there are about 9-10 NPCs like this you meet in every part, everyone with their own struggles and ambitions. The same goes for Bloodborne, where you talk to a little girl who’s lost her parents.
You instruct her to head down the sewers and find a safe place. Later in the game, you see her mother murdered by her father, who has now become a bloodthirsty demon, which you have to kill. And in the late game, you find that little girl’s pendant in the guts of some big Demon. Yeah congratulations! You led her to a horrible demise.
Setting and environment
Each Soulslike game is set in a different fictitious place. For Dark Souls, it’s Lordran and Yharnam for Bloodborne. The environment in these games is simply fabulous.
Each place has its own story, and every single thing, every single enemy to fight, contributes to its lore and every item you find, too. To quote an example, there is an area in Dark Souls 3, the Profaned Capital, home of the inextinguishable Profaned Flame ( flame in Dark Souls represents something way bigger than fire).
Dangers Lurking in the Game
You find very horrible creatures and gazillions of corpses melted together in the form of some gelatin (Some of them alive too. Pretty graphic, right? I know:>). It tells the story of how the power of the profaned flame went uncontrolled and gave rise to such horrible creatures. And just like that, every area has its own lore.
Another thing to observe is the use of sound and BGM. For most of the time, there is no BGM in Dark Souls. All you hear is the sound of your own clanking armour and footsteps. But a few areas like the Ash Lake and Anor Londo do have soundtracks that etch a wonderful experience in your brain.
Bosses
Now, for the most part, there is only one thing you’ll notice about every Dark Souls boss: they’re difficult as hell! But just like any other thing in this game, they too have a story of how they came to be and why they are fighting you, for example, Sif, the great wolf. He’s basically an enormous wolf with a greatsword held in its mouth, fighting you.
You die a few times, learn his attack pattern and then come back prepared. Now, this one time, you manage to get him down to 30% of his health. Yeah, you feel fantastic because you have learned his attack pattern, and you’ll kill him now.
Battles & More
But you lose again. Unlike other bosses who get an absurd magic buff once their HP passes the 50% mark, he becomes weak. He starts limping on one leg now. But he still continues fighting you. You do trounce him after that, but are overcome by a sense of dread for what you just did. And like him, every action other bosses do in these games adds some purpose to the story.
Above all, the arduous battles and the impending futility of the new, decaying world lie the indomitable will of the characters, the NPCs. Despite living in a dying husk of what used to be their home, they still harbour a faint shimmer of hope. “Don’t you dare go hollow” is a quote thrown around a lot in the community.
Final Thoughts on Soulslike
In a straightforward sense, it means to ascend from the cycle of death and rebirth. It means to escape from the inevitable fate your mind is left in after a thousand resurrections, fractured beyond repair.
But by my interpretation, it goes way beyond that. It, for me, means not giving up what makes us, us. Not bending to the will of the increasingly pessimistic population and still believing in something. No matter how futile or simple it is.
So…. My friends. Don’t you dare go hollow.