Okay so I have never been into the Souls games. The whole “brutally difficult” thing never appealed to me, and watching my friends play was enough to turn me off.
However I decided to take the plunge and try Elden Ring recently because of all the amazing hype. Tons of “I’m not a Souls gamer but I loved it!” kind of hype.
And it’s pretty fun! I get why it got so much love.
But I also, after a week or two of play, have identified exactly what I don’t like about Souls games. It turns out it’s not the difficulty. I grew up playing in arcades and on the NES so I’m no stranger to trying things over and over until I get it right.
It’s the damn death penalty. I cannot express the depth of my hatred of losing progress. Games with save points that are too far apart or games where you can lose items when you die, etc, are just the worst for me. And in Elden Ring, the stress that goes along with trying to get back to my corpse to get my money/XP back is stress I don’t want or need.
So I ask you all this: can you recommend a Souls style game with the fun gameplay loop but without the punishing death penalty? Does that even exist or is it just not a Souls game without that? I’d love the carrot of [learn fight, get better, epic win] without the stick of [now go grind low level mobs for XP, loser].
The only Souls game I’ve played and enjoyed in the past was Bloodbourne. I’m not an action / fighting gamer usually I enjoyed the atmosphere and challenge.
I’ve just picked up Sekiro (half price, steam summer sale), and I am absolutely loving it. The difficulty is crushing for me but always (so far) feels fair, like I can tell what I did wrong, what I needed to do, what to get better at. And when it goes well I feel like a goddamn samurai, the rythym of combat is just so satisfying when you’re on top of it.
The game design suits me a lot better than something like Elden Ring - in Sekiro it’s way more focused, far fewer options (no character build freedom, only a few secondary weapon choices that aren’t used as often - it’s just you, your sword, and your rythym).
Penalty of death feels less intense than Bloodbourne (and other souls games I think). You lose consumables that you’ve used, and half of your Sen (currency), but building both of those up again is pretty easy and there are ways to stash it to not be lost. Your XP (used to acquire skills) is lost back down to your last number increase, meaning every time you gain a level it can’t be lost. Feels like a good balance to me, and there’s no running back to the enemy that killed you every time - you’re free to explore another way.
I highly recommend it, but I’m still in the early stages so who knows, maybe it gets terrible? I doubt it though 🤞