Does "souls-like" just mean hard? Need some advice please

[Citizen10Bears]

I see a lot of games described as being souls-like and I'm not 100% sure what that means. Reading the comments here I just get the idea that it's crazy hard. So some questions...
1) is there a souls-like game I can try out, a demo perhaps?
2) what does souls-like actually mean?
3) I don't like really hard games, I like to play almost in story mode, is that an option in this game to reduce the difficulty a lot?
Thanks v much!

[HelgenX]

Just watch a video.

[Absinth Minded]

1. There once was a demo, it isn't on Steam anymore.
2. Action-RPG with a stamina system that takes heavy inspiration from the first Dark/Demon's Souls.
3. No. 1 difficulty setting.

You could buy the game play it for an hour and see if it is for you. If not you can refund through Steam. But... it doesn't sound like a game you would enjoy.

[Freudesleid]

Not every souls-like has to be hard. Games like Asterigos, Jedi Fallen Order and Metroidvenia Souls-like like Grime are not really hard. Compared to Dark Souls they are really easy.

[gtamike_TSGK]

Games like Demon Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Basically rogue like and high difficulty. Aspect to die a lot till you can understand how to survive and take minimal to no damage when you get good. If you let every enemy you encounter hit you you are playing the game wrong.

[Haruspex]

It's clear these guys don't know what 'Souls-like' is if they think difficulty is OH THAT'S SOULS LIKE.

[Pwnbeard]

'bonfires'
i-frames
shortcuts
'thee thou thou chosen X' dialogue
resource retrieval after death
beeg bosses
lore in item descriptions
what's this item do? lolidunno figure it out

[Gnodab]

Soulslike games are typically like so:

1. You have limited consumable healing items to get through an area
2. You have checkpoints that heal you but also respawn all enemies
3. High difficulty. Expect to die to standard enemies, then die repeatedly to bosses
4. A non-straightforward story. The story is often told through notes you pick up, in item descriptions, and interactions through NPCs
5. No hand-holding. There is a limited tutorial showing the basic controls, but the rest is up to you to figure out

Now that you know, if you're a Story Mode type of person, this is absolutely not the type of game you would enjoy. This game is hard even compared to other soulslikes, so if you have no experience with them this is not a good place to start.

But if you're willing to learn to get into soulslikes, play Dark Souls Remastered. It's where the genre started, more or less. You can get it on sale for $10.

[Viper]

Play the Souls games if you have not. They are not nearly this hard.

[Dregora]

I think souls like games essentially boil down to accepting that you're going to die. Whether it's due to gravity, new enemy, bosses, etc. You're going to die. In fact, i'd almost argue one of the major design filosophies is just that.

Aside from that, it usually just means a specific group of mechanics that are in place. Difficulty is part of that, but it's not the only thing that defines a souls like. Other people have already pointed out said mechanics, so no need for me to repeat them.


But you can assume decently high difficulty and souls like usually go hand in hand. Doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions or souls like that deviate just enough, but i'd argue that the majority is fairly challenging.

[der gewesene]

If you don't like hard games then this game is unfortunately not for you. You will die a lot in this game and you have to learn the mechanics which means fighting bosses over and over again. There is also no difficulty setting besides a ghost you can summon in boss fights which is not that useful.

[Pink Eye]

Souls like for me means: great tightly designed level design, challenging combats, tough boss design - but fair, and mechanics that interact with each other in such a way that they promote character driven progression. Additionally, the story/narrative isn't the focus but the combats is.

[Citizen10Bears]

Thank you all for the info. You may have save me £50 on this game :-)
If they could add an easy mode I would buy it - I don't play games to experience frustration, life is full enough of that already!

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by Citizen10Bears:

Thank you all for the info. You may have save me £50 on this game :-)
If they could add an easy mode I would buy it - I don't play games to experience frustration, life is full enough of that already!

You should try Dark Souls 2. It's the best souls game on market.

[Baron01]

Originally posted by Citizen10Bears:

I see a lot of games described as being souls-like and I'm not 100% sure what that means. Reading the comments here I just get the idea that it's crazy hard. So some questions...
1) is there a souls-like game I can try out, a demo perhaps?
2) what does souls-like actually mean?
3) I don't like really hard games, I like to play almost in story mode, is that an option in this game to reduce the difficulty a lot?
Thanks v much!

You can always pay $10 for a Gamepass for a month, maybe even get some promotion discount or additional month, to try Lies of P and Starfield for cheap, There is another recent Souls-like on Gamepass called Wu-Long--it is not great but decent enough to play for free.

Ad 2.) Souls-like games are games drawing inspiration from original Fromsoft series called Demon/Dark Souls. They are usually derivative games utilizing concept introduced or popularized by Fromsoft in their games.
These concepts are, but not limited to: increased difficulty, focus on methodical combat and stamina management, gathering various resources to progress your character and gear, loss of experience on death that can be retrieved if you return to place of your death without dying , checkpoint system that allows you to restore healing items and respawns enemies and elaborate system of shortcuts that make traversing environments easier or faster.
Ad 3. Lies of P is a challenging game. Your mileage may wary but judging from amount of comments providing feedback about difficulty, it is one of harder Souls-likes in recent memory. There are not difficulty settings in Lies of P as is most customary in these types of games.
There are Souls-like games that have difficulty settings though. Remnants 2 is often dubbed souls-like with guns that features difficulty options and these difficulty options are baked into game progression. You are expected to start on easier difficulty and progress your character skill and gear wise to a point where you can move to higher difficulty.

Lies of P is amazing game in my opinion that I immensely enjoy even if the game has its fair share of frustrating moments. Learning curve is steep but manageable at start but the game has several difficulty spikes that might surprise less experienced players. Some of boss encounters are challenging and the game likes to utilize mutli-phase bosses that can be a nasty surprise. However, it is not all just dismay and frustration as the game is trying to make your life easier in certain aspects as well: checkpoint placement is decent and there are very few frustratingly long boss runs (when you die at boss and need to run back ), you are not in danger of losing Ergo (your experience in this game) on bosses as the dropped Ergo spawns in front of the boss arena every time, game tells you via NPC icons in fast-travel menu if there is a new interaction in a locations you can teleport to and few other quality of life improvements that are not common in other Souls-like games.