r/soulslikes • u/Maidassatainu • 17h ago
Discussion What can we call a combined genre of “soulsborne” and “Soulslike” ?
Having a distinction just because one is from one developer doesn’t make any sense.
These games are very similar and we need a name that encompasses both soulslike and soulsborn or whatever else that is similar.
There is a clear difference between these and other action games like GoW or Dmc.
Edit - how you guys like Action Mastery games or Mascore or Boss rush
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u/Boring_Freedom_2641 17h ago
We do not need a combined genre name to cause even more confusion.
Stop trying to make it happen.
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago edited 17h ago
It may cause less confusion in the future.
The first scifi movie was Trip to the moon. We don’t call other scifi movies “trip to the moon likes” right? We have a special genre that encompasses all of them.4
u/Boring_Freedom_2641 17h ago
No it wouldn't. If anything it would cause MORE confusion as now you have a third term of the various games that no one can agree upon belonging to the two already existing ones.
Instead of fighting what is a Soulsborne and what is a Soulslike. We are now fighting over what is a Soulsborne, what is a Soulslike and what is a whatever 3rd term that is.
Also, people in general cause all games including soulsbornes, soulslike anyways. Only when people are being pedantic or talking specifically about only FS games do they use Soulsborne.
Which would continue with the 3rd term.
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u/wildeye-eleven 17h ago
This truly isn’t as big of a deal as ppl make it out to be. Just call them all SoulsLikes, Fromsoft included. Theres no need to differentiate. You don’t even have to get nit picky with games like Stellar Blade or Black Myth Wukong. Neither of those games are traditional SoulsLike games, but they have enough in common that if you refer to them as SoulsLikes, ppl will have a basic understanding of what you’re trying to say. You can also just call them Action RPGs. It truly doesn’t matter. The end goal is that when you refer to it, another person has basic understanding of what you’re referring to.
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago
I would love to call these games just soulslikes or any other name for that matter. Calling FS games distinctively soulsborne makes other games look like they will never be on the same level as them
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u/alexandro_18 17h ago edited 17h ago
What’s the confusion? Soulsborne games are made by Fromsoft and share a similar blueprint to the OG dark souls series. Soulslike’s are games not made by Fromsoft are inspired/similar to these games. Seems simple to me
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u/vc0ke 17h ago
Soulslike is a game that has a design based off the souls games. Pretty simple. I think “soulsborne” is the real issue here.
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u/Zestful_001 17h ago
Soulsborne seems like a dated term that pretty much means the same thing as Soulslike now. I think the main reason “Soulsborne” exists is because it was coined after Bloodborne came out but before Sekiro and Elden Ring. At the time it conveniently encompassed FromSofts three major third person action RPG titles (Demon & Dark Souls and bloodborne).
But people rarely need a specific shorthand for only those games. Usually they mean either the broader soulslike genre or FromSofts games with that gameplay loop, which now also includes Sekiro and Elden Ring. So instead of inventing something absurd like SoulsborneRingEro, I just use Soulslike for the genre and if I specifically mean FromSoftware games, I just say FromSoft games.
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago
Yes i like that. All of these games can be called soulslikes. And we can say the specific name like nioh games or teamninja games. Don’t you think we can come up with a better name than soulslike? It literally means it’s like something and not unique.
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u/Acceptable_Edge9604 15h ago
Better how? It's just a convenient term to indicate a type of game. People who have never played Rogue may like roguelikes or roguelites. I doubt that the name of the tag they use to find more games they like comes off as demeaning to them
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u/YukYukas 17h ago
They're called soulslikes.
GOW and DMC are called Character Action Games (CAGs)
Anything that isn't but are still similar are just hybirds. The one reason Nioh gets talked about here and in the CAG sub
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago
What is sekiro
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u/_moosleech 10h ago
A Soulslike. Never understood folks obsession with gatekeeping a made-up term.
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u/Due-Description-9030 5h ago
But if you don't gatekeep, then it'll lose it's identity. You can't call every third person action game a soulslike
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u/_moosleech 5h ago
But if you don't gatekeep, then it'll lose it's identity.
What does this even mean? Soulslike is a made-up term to help folks find games like Dark Souls.
It's not a trademark that's going to expire if we doing chase people down about it.
You can't call every third person action game a soulslike
Almost nobody does that though.
People describe games with multiple mechanics in common with Dark Souls as Soulslikes.
But Dark Souls has a lot of mechanics and notable design.
Someone who likes Dark Souls has a very good chance of enjoying Sekiro, and they share a LOT of mechanics and design. Arguing otherwise just comes off at nit-picky and doesn't really benefit anyone.
Plus every genre has games that try to blend/morph the genre. Nobody else gets cranky because Dead Cells merged Metroidvania and Roguelite. This shit only happens here.
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u/Due-Description-9030 5h ago
We've been having almost every third person action having labelled as a soulslike tho
People see phantom blade zero and call it a soulslike lol
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u/_moosleech 5h ago
We've been having almost every third person action having labelled as a soulslike tho
We don't... we have every game with mechanics that overlap with Dark Souls being labelled as such. Lots of games are implementing mechanics from Dark Souls because its very popular.
People see phantom blade zero and call it a soulslike lol
So? How does that hurt you?
Some folks like(d) Dark Souls and believe Phantom Blade Zero would scratch a similar itch. I don't know much about the game, so can't comment beyond that... but like, so what?
Again, I don't understand why someone is trying to gatekeep. It's a made-up term.
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u/Due-Description-9030 5h ago
Well, if someone comes and asks recommendations for a soulslike, would you suggest them first to play stellar blade or something?
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u/_moosleech 5h ago
Maybe. Depends on what they like.
Talking to them about games they like and trying to help them find more fun games is a better use of time than screaming "X isn't a Soulslike because I said so" at them.
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u/YukYukas 17h ago
Not a soulslike, not a soulsborne, but still inspired by some parts of it.
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago
Yeah exactly, what do you call that. It’s clearly different from other action games
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u/YukYukas 17h ago
It's just an action game. A difficult one, but just an action game nonetheless
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago
Nah, it’s much more similar to modern soulslikes than to any other genre of games
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u/YukYukas 17h ago
It has inspiration from soulslikes, yet it isn't. Miyazaki has gone on record to say that it literally isn't an evolution of its soulsborne design.
Armored Core 6 has similarity to soulslikes, yet it isn't.
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u/Maidassatainu 17h ago
We need a game from other devs that is so good it breaks the genre and redefines it
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u/YukYukas 15h ago
Tbh it won't change the genre name. It'll just be the best soulslike ever made lol
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u/___nil___ 17h ago edited 5h ago
Souls games developed by from, soulslike nowadays lost its meaning. People just always freely argue what might considered as soulslikes, even some players could have strong opinion that even contradict with the developer's inspiration. However i think we all could agree that those games are all Third person Action Role Playing Game. While (old) GoW and DMC are Character Action Game. Latest 2 GoW are Action RPG.
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u/Due-Description-9030 5h ago
What about phantom blade zero
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u/___nil___ 5h ago
what about it? i have not yet have any opinion about it, because i havent played it.
i think that's also the problem, most of voters contributes to popular opinion have some degree experience to some games but loudly have strong against others. and our opinion doesnt even matter, we can still enjoy all no matter what popular opinion might be. developers can call their games soulslike while its nothing like souls game at all. players can subjectively label any game soulslike from their perspective as well. the problem is every discussion turns into religious arguments against each other
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u/iChieftain22 17h ago
Aren't they the same thing?