Are You Tired of FromSoftware’s Influence?
The action genre is one of the most popular in the gaming industry. With combat at its core, the genre lets you live out the ultimate fantasy: stepping into the shoes of a complete badass and decimating anything that dares to stand in your way. Over the years, we’ve experienced a wide range of incredible titles, each delivering that premise in unique and varied ways. However, since the meteoric rise of FromSoftware, their patented gameplay loop has significantly influenced the genre – perhaps to its detriment.
Trends are common in the industry. If a game finds success due to some sort of innovation, this quickly bleeds into a number of titles. The mechanics synonymous with FromSoftware are now a staple in modern action games. Some aim to emulate the experience like Lords of the Fallen while others adapt the concept to a new setting, like Nioh. While conventional for the industry, this has exploded to a point where we are experiencing a lack of innovation due to the unrelenting commitment to create a Soulslike experience.
What Can I Add to Make it a Soulslike?
The real issue lies with those games that needlessly add mechanics to morph their game into a Soulslike. Jedi: Fallen Order is a wonderful Star Wars adventure that includes exciting lightsaber battles and some great setpieces. While Respawn Entertainment crafted a thrilling experience, the decision to include a bonfire-like system seemed unnecessary. Like the Souls games, you can use key locations to rest, which respawns enemies and can lose XP but retrieve this by tracking down the enemy to enact revenge. In addition to not making any narrative sense, it also felt shoehorned into the adventure, included just to receive the Soulslike tag.
Other games have taken elements from the highly acclaimed titles, most notably the combat. Heralded for its implementation of a strategic battle system, FromSoftware releases promote a methodical approach to encounters. While this works perfectly for their games, it doesn’t work as well in others. For example, Assassin’s Creed allows you to venture through a rich world as a dangerous warrior. Changing from a counter-based system to Arkham-style combat, the game focused on stylishly eliminating multiple opponents with ease. However, Origins saw the series shift to a battling system akin to FromSoftware titles. While this raises the difficulty, it removes the feeling of being an unstoppable assassin which is part of the franchise’s appeal.
What Happened to the Traditional Style?
Character-driven action games have always been a favorite of mine but the trend of ambiguous storytelling has reduced the number of releases of this ilk. A lot of titles now include faceless protagonists and lore-building tales. While there is a place for this, I miss traditional action-oriented games such as Devil May Cry and Nier. Although PlatinumGames is still a pioneer in the sub-genre offering unique approaches to combat with games like Astral Chain and Wonderful 101, these are now few and far between.
In fact, due to the commitment from developers to capture the magic that imbues FromSoftware games, the industry is seeing a lack of original ideas. Hi-Fi Rush was a breath of fresh air because it had the courage to step outside the box and try something different. Fans of the genre are starved for something fresh but the influence of Miyazaki is hindering its evolution.
So, even though FromSoftware has altered the landscape of gaming, creating its own sub-genre, has the lauded company stilted progression in the genre? As developers strive for the same success, we are experiencing less innovation which has resulted in numerous clones. Will this continue or are we due a batch of games that ignore the trend and try something new?
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