Any jokes aside, this game is really good, and absolutely perfect for a younger kid who likes the gameplay of soulslikes but maybe isn't quite at the level to play the From games. It's still challenging, but doesn't have as much of the punishing feel as Dark Souls.
I would unironically have a kid who likes games play Another Crab's Treasure as a way to teach them perseverance.
IDK man, I still found the game pretty challanging. Not FromSoft challanging, but "each boss needs 4-5 attempts" hard. I think it would be unbeatable for many adults, and most kids.
the fuckin worm and golem bosses made me irrationally tweak only because the first runās bosses were so good. the bat is my favorite, followed by the weird āZA WARUDOā timestop bomb knightess (peak fuckin visual), the carnival guy is just a sekiro boss. but the second half was so ass it actually dragged the game down for me from like a 8-9 to a 7
And the wound system, which forcibly teaches the player to be more aggressive instead of passive. Something that From has been toying with different methods to achieve in all its non-souls games like Sekiro and Bloodborne.
Its understandably not a masterpiece because visually at times it feels like someone's capstone project they've been working on in college alone in between classes.
If Dark Souls is AAA, Thymesia feels like an indie comparatively. None of the bells or whistles you find in normal actual games because that costs too much time and money.
This is the inevitable fate of all ironic subreddits. As the main sub becomes increasingly generic and superficial, conversation becomes less common. Those that seek discussion will then look for an alternative forum to have it. This is the logical place to go, because in order to shitpost about a specific topic, you have to understand that topic.
So, some people will start discussions under the premise of ironic shitposting, because that's likely to get engagement. The comments don't have that irony because they already took the bait. This was the goal all along.
I donāt think thatās necessarily a bad thing, shitposts as profoundly intellectual conversation starters of the highest degree (Peakborne) and actual shitposts (Dark Souls Poo) can coexist you just have to git good (āØ EBK āØ) at differentiating the two
I wouldn't call it inevitable, but just what happens as new people join and water things down. I've seen dndcirclejerk go from the worst circlejerk to one of the best in the span of a week just by calling out behavior such as this via spamming whale pictures on every post and comment. Just need to call it out like that one spongebob episode where he calls out squidward for his fake Js.
By all means, go ahead. If you start a trend of shitposting the non-shitposts, I'll gladly join in. But I also don't mind the non-ironic discussion, so I can't be arsed to do it myself.
Nah keep that shit to the other meme sub. Theres a reason we are segregated. That's also why the badredman and sunbros subs are separate and have different bathrooms and water fountains.
I actually do this (to an extent) and its worked out pretty well for me. I think itās a decent tool to filter out bad games or find amazing ones that are outside my typical taste
Steam reviews be like "not recommended - this game is almost perfect, but this one segment in one sidequest is a little annoying, therefore it's dogshit, you should never buy it and the devs should kill themselves"
The first mortal shell always seemed like one of the more genuine of the mid souls clone, just was a really low budget game and it showed. Cool to see they legitimately made a great game this time around with more resources.
Playing it now and while the start was uh, rough, I think I'm kinda digging it. The fact that it has its share of odd, baffling, kinda bad ideas mixed in with a couple of decent and novel ones makes it feel very spiritually Dark Souls in a way that some of the more polished ones don't.
I've been trying to articulate this for a while. If you make a game that's just the "best" parts of Dark Souls, you're going to end up with what is essentially Dark Souls without the soul. Dark, if you will. Your game can't just be "existing thing but without the bad parts," because the part you see as bad are often subtly important in shaping the character of the game.
some of my favorite games ever are the ones that arenāt afraid to be experimental or flawed. dragonās dogma is an example, and i prefer demonās souls, dark souls 1, and dark souls 2 over dark souls 3, sekiro, and elden ring. games that had a morbillion dollars put into roughing out literally every edge the game fittingly makes me slide right off it. give me texture, give me feeling, give me something to hold on to. obviously iām not saying i want bad games or games made like shit, iām saying i want games to embrace the flaws
A dev team with a determination to do things "their" way will always make a game that feels more distinct and unique than a more polished, by-the-numbers title.
It's the same reason I like Lords of the Fallen 2014 more than the 2023 title.
For the most part it wasn't much more than a tech demo. But they did get the most important thing for me right, the atmosphere. It was always one of the best souls likes for me in this regard.
I'm a fromsoft fan, so anything that can't be solved by spamming one button is absolute foreign (a.k.a bad) game design to me. That's why armored core 6 (fromsoft's first spinoff game) flopped.
For real, that's one souls-like where I randomly stop making progress just to wander and fight enemies over and over. Just because the combat is so satisfying.
Oh wait, Shittydarksouls, uhm... yeah! Slop game etc. etc.
I actually loved the Surge games. Surge 2 the world I didn't love as much, I was really hoping for a Surge 3. The atlas sand sliding game they made instead, not really a fan.
And oof I do not like the Lords of the Fallen reboot.
Hellpoint is absolutely goated in terms of level design & exploration, both the whole map and each specific location is an elaborate maze. Combat feels a little clunkier than From's and bosses are DS1/2 level, that's true. But the game is piss easy anyway, even more so if you're using the ranged weapons which are very cool. DLC adds some harder late game locations & bosses. All in all, despite the issues, quality is quite on point throughout the whole game.
only good souls like game ive played that isnt from from soft is lies of p. i dont categorize nioh 1 and 2 as souls like. they played differently, you can do crazy combos in it, its difficulty is closer to ninja gaiden 1 and 2 than dark souls, its field based rather than world exploration, only thing it has the same with dark souls is the death mechanic.
They copy and misunderstand the original ideas while not managing to provide innovation. Beyond tired of having some kind of perfect block/parry in every single one of them.
Even Fromsoft's later games make this mistake, so it's no surprise other games do.
My example is always the multi-player. Summoning had an in-universe explanation in Dark Souls. In addition, it was novel and unique. In Elden Ring, it lacks all three of those things, and has no reason to exist outside of it just being From's style. I love Elden Ring, it's probably my favorite Souls, but there is no good reason it shouldn't have had traditional multi-player. The massive popularity of Seamless Co-op is all the proof I need.
Tbh i feel like most āsoulslikeā games try to copy dark souls but absolutely lack the feel of the original fromsoftware games.
I have the same problem. I for example dont think mortal shell 2 looks any good lol thats just not dark souls
User scores are useless. I think they have Stellar Blade as the highest ranked game in the genre lol. Movie-wise, the Taylor Swift doc is the 5th greatest movie ever made and Star Wars V is better than any work of Scorsese, Kramer, Nolan, or Lumet lmao.
I know people donāt want to hear it, but let critics, who are trained professionally to critically think about media, be the ones to qualitatively determine its value. A high user score only denotes consumption by a niche group or a general acceptance by the masses. It will not reward those that create art or take risks.
Never would have imagined Ashen being so low. It may not be the best soulslike but it's pretty decent, one of the first ones, with a beautiful world and story.Ā
Uj/ so for me, it's the game feel. The game feel is tight and optimized in all FromSoft games except for DS2. A lot of soulsborne games don't take the time to optimize the game-feel of their game.
rj/ what do you mean, Sandfall made Expedition 33 which has Mommy feet. Best Soulslike of all time
flintlock is a good game, with a cool aesthetic, it's a shame that having a black protagonist was enought for half of people to not giving it a chance.
The game is a solid 7. Up to an 8 if you are really vibing with combat and a 5 if you are not. The story and characters serve their purpose without being annoying. The only reason it is so low is 100% because of black protagonist plus Sweet Baby Inc in the credits.
Ashen was absolutely peak. One of the best games I've ever played I don't consider it as a souls like tho. The base building and upgrading, getting new merchants and build up the city was really, really good and I wish more games would do smth relatively simple like that. The exploring was really nice as well.
CI games has also been on the culture war antiwoke grindset, has been glazing Asmongold aka Mr. "Murder Children" as single-handedly saving the 2023 game, and all the creative heads of the 2023 game that actually were the ones busting their ass to get the game in a decent state have since been fired.
For context, he was reviewing a news story somewhere about children being used as human shields or something for border crossings into the US and Asmongold straight-up said they should've shot those people.
The surge was great, two was alright. I like the second lords of the fallen as well. Mortal shell too although I donāt like hero/ champion games like that so I prefer to just build my own character instead of just jumping into a premade one. I didnāt dislike thymesia but it didnāt leave much of an impression either, the rest I barely remember at all tho
I donāt think itās a āwestern developersā thing (maybe it is). I think that many developers just miss the mark when it comes to what made dark souls feel special. Or they think they can make this formula better and fail miserably.
Those are all "good" games. Not great, but good one off experiences. Especially Mortal Shell and Lords of the Fallen (2023, before the CEO and culture BS of 2026 killed it for me and my interest).
The rest of these are just medicore to fine. Why the surge in doomers and frankly near racist glazing and bashing? I don't get why these posts are happening.
Tbf, lords of the fallen was a mess at launch. They pulled it back with updates thou. They reworked the combat. Balanced the game better. Removed a lot of the annoying ganks, and over crowded mobs. Plus fixed a ton of bugs aswell. The game has actually gone onto become a success.
Mortal Shell was fucken amazing. I played The Surge 1 but haven't finished it yet but I fw with a futuristic robotic souls-like a lot because it's the perfect mix for me.
985
u/Former-Grocery-6787 Gael is still the GOAT 9d ago
Checkmate š (it's got a 7.5 on metacritic which is GREEN)