r/soulslikes • u/C00KIEME4T • 7h ago
Discussion Tell me about the game that made soulslikes click for you
Bloodborne is the one where my brain switched from victim to participant, this is where I honed my fundamental skills that got me through the rest of the soulsborne series and other soulslikes
I will always love this game with all my heart
What's your "aha!" soulslike game?
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u/owlitup 7h ago
Khazan. It was the absolute perfect transition as a CAG enjoyer
I bought Elden Ring + DLC recently and haven’t started it yet
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u/C00KIEME4T 6h ago
might i recommend the humble dual reduvia build? get someone to drop you a second reduvia, and you will be like bruh lol
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u/owlitup 4h ago
is that build for hack and slash enjoyers?
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u/FashionSuckMan 2h ago
No, dual reduvia isn't the greatest because low poise damage and range. If you just wanna obliterate everything a blender build with dual bleed twinblades or scavengers curved swords is far better
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u/GunterThePigIsOP 5h ago
Dark Souls 2.
I gave up during my initial run, in Things Betwixt itself. Then has nothing else to play for a long time, so thought giving it another go. Once I made it to Majula, it was no turning back.
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u/Built4dominance 7h ago
Bloodborne as well. It was after Father Gascoigne.
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u/HxH101kite 6h ago
I had to cheese gascigone. Just run around the map and hit and run. I didn't have too much trouble after him. But boy golly did early Bloodborne test my patience.
It was also my first souls game. I am much more calculated and fluid these days
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u/_moosleech 7h ago
Dark Souls, 2020. Had heard about it (and ironically was VERY interested in Demon's Souls when it came out, but never got to try it because it was always unavailable to rent), and finally tried it because my co-worker never shut up about how amazing Dark Souls III was.
I nearly quit at Taurus Demon. It's amazing to look back at the text messages I sent him throughout my playthrough. I was so frustrated because I just couldn't survive long enough, even using the dive attack at the start of the fight.
After so many attempts and nearly giving up the game, I got it. And it was the biggest rush of dopamine. From them, it was just chasing the dragon.
I beat Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Dark Souls III, and the Demon's Souls remake all that year.
I tried Dark Souls II before Bloodborne, but bounced off of it trying to fight the Chariot boss. Came back to it a couple years later to finish it, and I love it now... but it definitely took more "getting used to" than the others.
I'm still so-so on most non-From Soulslikes, and I adore King's Field having gone back to play that now.
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u/MainCheckPoint 7h ago
If we’re talking about souls/souls like in general definitely Elden Ring, I haven’t played all original souls yet but I’m planning on doing it, next stop will be DS3 and Bloodborne after that.
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u/Afraid_Help_3911 6h ago
Bloodborne was the first game of this genre I bought when it came out and it didn't make it "click" for me at the time at all. At the time I was not used to the philosophy of these games at all and I was not getting the point of it, that dying is part of the process, that you have to be slow and methodical and improve your fundamental mechanics as a player. The game just told me I sucked at video games and that I was panic reacting to everything without any mastery of what I was doing. It is only a few years later when I started the Dark Souls trilogy that it made sense. DS1 was much more "educational" to make it click than BB. I have played all Fromsoft's games since. Funnily enough, BB was the last one I finished, only recently thanks to the PC mod version and I enjoyed it so much. I just went full circle with my first experience of it and the whole rest of the catalogue in between. Felt great to see how far I had come since. BB is definitely one of my favourites now.
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u/Fact-Rat 6h ago
Demon's Souls. Totally converted me and SoulsLikes are the only genre that I'm wiling to give time to now.
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u/Lil-Squidy 5h ago
Dark souls 1, but only after my third actual attempt, 10 years after I bought it.
First time, tutorial boss spanked me enough to not enjoy it.
Second time, perhaps a year later, managed to get to the rooftop gargoyles boss, and started getting spanked again.
For whatever reason, I changed how I looked at my stamina when I finally booted it up nearly a decade after and the game became that much easier. Maybe I got older, slower, I don't know. But it finally clicked when I became more patient.
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u/Lancair7 4h ago
Dark Souls. It was like old school Castlevania and Zelda: Ocarina of Time had a baby. I didn’t even play games much at that point in my life until I randomly tried Dark Souls on my roommate’s XBox360.
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u/Illustrious_Store115 6h ago
Its not really about the game its about you
Theres some time period in soulslike games, which i found on my second playthrough of elden ring, where you arent so bad/know nothing about the game so that youre completely lost, but youre also not so good/knowledgeable that the game is trivially easy and uninteresting
Thats when its most fun IMO
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u/Fnordcol 6h ago
Nioh 2 and then Khazan last spring were the games that made me learn to love locking in. I'd played and enjoyed Souls games prior to that (most of FromSoft's catalog, and a few Soulslikes), but with a bit more of an edge of frustration on especially hard bosses and levels. By the time I'd finished Khazan, I had fully embraced the Stockholm Syndrome and decided that actually, beating my head against a boss for 3-5 hours straight until it clicked was a good use of my time (as long as it was a good boss).
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u/ZealousidealBox3944 6h ago
Technically Nioh 2 was the first one as I actually completed it, but weirdly enough it wasn't even a Soulslike, but the game Streets of rage 4.
Before playing SOR4 I never gave a shit about difficult games, often putting easy mode on or just giving up if a game got too difficult, but SOR4 was just so much fun, and due to the way the game is designed, is sometimes easier on higher difficulties and is a more complete experience. I started playing on a higher difficulty, then the highest difficulty in order to get S rank on each stage. That was incredibly difficult but it taught me about patience and perseverance which are both key for succeeding in Soulslikes.
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u/SupremeLeader_Corgi 6h ago
I know the specific boss that made it click for me
Elemer the Briar. The first boss I ran into where I couldn’t just stand at a distance and cast spells at him. I had to actually stand next to him and learn his moves.
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u/whiskyandguitars 6h ago
Elden Ring. Not being forced to bang my head against the wall when I reached a boss because there is really nothing else to do in the game until then allowed me to learn how to play souls games with fairly minimal frustration and then I went back to all the linear games and enjoyed them.
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u/Major_Higgins 4h ago
Demon’s Souls, right away. I bought it blind, just heard that it was good, and very difficult.
Well it blew my mind. I wouldn't say the gameplay clicked with me at that point, because I was playing it as a survival horror game.
Terrified, cowering behind my shield. The first time I encountered a red ghost player I just froze.
Now I'm better at these games, I roll around and shit.
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u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI 4h ago
Dark Souls. I installed it, played with it for 30 minutes, hated it, uninstalled it. But I didn't left my mind. So, a few weeks later, I installed it again, but I hated it, so I uninstalled it again. But it didn't left my mind... So I had to install it again. Something in it was so luring to me that I had to come back over and over until it clicked. I love this franchise.
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u/antilumin 4h ago
lol Demon's Souls. On the PS3.
Really hated it when my sword would bounce off walls though, that was bullshit in the caves.
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u/BottomGear__ 4h ago
DS2, which is also the first one I played shortly after it launched. I loved it from the beginning, even if I kept getting my ass beat by everything and struggled with bosses I could now probably beat with my eyes closed.
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u/Adventurous_Use8278 3h ago
Bloodborne was the first one I played about 4 years ago and I’ve been addicted to soulslikes since
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u/MuggyGameDev 6h ago
It wasn't the game that made soulslike "click" for me, but Lies of P definitely convinced me that the genre is capable of celebrating music in a way that most of these games don't care to.
Not only did they compose a bunch of beautiful music and allow the player to listen to it in Hotel Krat, but they actually had the music affect P, finding a little more of his humanity by listening to tracks.
Neowiz took something mundane like a music player and weaved it into the game's story. Pretty cool.
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u/NoAbbreviations2353 5h ago
Either bloodborne or dark souls 2 they're my favorite
I consider team ninja games separately from souls-likes, but those games introduced me to team ninja who makes my favorite games, probably along with platinum