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What is a game you can’t understand why its so popular ? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] 102 points 3 months ago* (26 children)

Most souls likes. The marketing on those games is pure genius. No budget for an actual story? No problem! Let's hide some nebulous lore in item descriptions so youtubers can sell their head cannon as "the story". Oh there's only enough money for 8 hours of gameplay? I have a solution! Let's remove the save system everyone got used to these past 20 years so the player has to constantly redo our content just to get to the boss he's trying to beat. We'll sell that unecessary tedium as "difficulty". And people are gobbling that stupid mechanic up because it allows them to flaunt their e-peen, although it just shows they have more time time than skills.

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  • [–] 46 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I heard them called rollslop

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    I think fromsoft shot themselves in the foot there. I really enjoyed dark souls 2 because there were a lot of enemies that your positioning and movement were more important than spamming dodge at the exact right time. Then 3 and elden ring came out, and it's just ocarina of time, except instead of across hyrule field it's across the anime glowing lines.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Let's hide some nebulous lore in item descriptions so youtubers can sell their head cannon as "the story"

    Don't you know, every item comes with a little laminated card to give you some mostly-irrelevant quote!

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  • [–] 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I do enjoy Soulslikes, but I honestly do so despite those things and not because of them. I do think you have a general point.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Not saying anyone's wrong, but I'm not sure I would like them as much unless they had those things.

    I'm sure improvements could be made, but I feel like reducing the friction too much would rob the games of a certain flow that only arises from being forced to really get familiar with a run.

    I don't have the time for it anymore so can't play these games anymore, but when I did...

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I like Soulslikes NOT made by FromSoftware. Those people don’t get The GitGud Apologist System(R) for any flaws, so they actually have to design well.

    My favorite is Another Crab’s Treasure ; mostly because far from being a meme, it literally has the best story and character writing - both humorous and serious - of any Soulslike I’ve played. Fuck vague item description lore driven by fanfic.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (1 child)

    If you haven't played it, try hollow knight. It also doesn't do those things. It's relatively clear about the story that you need to know and why you're doing things.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    I’ve played Hollow Knight all the way through to the end, and I don’t think I remember anything about the story; just some generic “spreading rot” vibe.

    That’s fine for me because it’s not a high point of the game.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    It's the nebulous lore part that really gets me. Other games have done the items=lore part before, but weren't so fart-sniffing about it.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Obligatory:

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    I mean... a little bit of that is a good game design. I'd rather have some things that are just 'characters living their own lives in universe' rather than everything revolving around the character's effect on the world. Fromsoft just goes overboard with some of it.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Not during the time DemS, DaS became big. This was the days of EA/Ubisoft frictionless vomit. BG2 was 10+ years old, Diablo 3 had it's "exceptional" storytelling.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Demon's Souls, 2009. Tales of series had at least three entries before that with lore on items found in game that I know of. I would bet the others out of the 8 released between the first one I played and 2009 also had something similar. And that's just one series. You mentioned baldur's gate 2, which did it, and don't forget to add its spiritual ancestor of icewind dale along with the original.

    I'm sure if you went and looked through a great many games, since there are more than any person can realistically experience/play, there were hordes of them that had world lore from items. None of them that I remember were 'nebulous.'

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Elden Ring did fix some of runbacks with the stake of Marika before the boss room. Yet, some still exist and are annoying asf.

    Don't agree with 8h of gameplay though. Even if runbacks were fixed, that wouldn't go under 100.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    To me, a good Souls games make you feel an exhilarating level of thrill and satisfaction from beating a tough boss that no other game does.

    Beating the final boss of Sekiro, Nine Sols, Lies of P, and Silksong was a feeling no other game could provide. I am constantly looking forward to the next big Souls games that create that level of challenge that both feels impossibly hard, but yet you know you can do it and can see the path to winning if you keep trying.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Nine Sols is a damn masterpiece.

    The skill ceiling for that game is so incredibly high, and the floor is high enough to make sure you really understand the combat system.

    I only discovered it a few weeks ago and I can't seem to stop playing even as my ass gets cut off and handed to me.

    It's just so satisfying that it's hard to put into words.

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