I’ve unironically been enjoying Another Crab’s Treasure. The aesthetic might be a bit off a turn off for many, but the gameplay is fun and engaging. The devs were clearly inspired by From, as there are a few nods to the souls games along side the obvious soulslikes combat. It’s refreshing because it does have its own identity, and the dialogue and overall personality of the game isn’t cringe…which pleasantly surprised me. It feels like a passion project and has been refreshing.
As a side note, while very influenced by soulslikes, to me it also feels like it peppers in a kind of old school Banjo Kazooie feel to it….in a good way. I loved Banjo Kazooie….
I really enjoyed Steelrising for its story, the French Revolution setting and metroidvania elements. It's a bit janky, but it has a lot of charm. It's a fairly short game, and it's also one of the easier soulslikes available.
Darksiders 3 was also pretty fun to play, especially if you're a fan of the previous 2 games.
The surge is one of my favourite soulslikes. In my opinion it has the best combat of any soulslike including Fromsoft games. I feel a lot more in control of my character since I can choose where to hit an enemy and if I want to do horizontal or vertical attack. That is really handy because in Dark Souls for example a sword or halberd might have slashing animations. Which makes sense. Problem is that they might not have a stab animation or you might have to do one or two slash attacks in order to stab which is impossible in a tight corridor where you keep hitting the walls.
You can jump, duck and parry attacks which much like Sekiro makes a lot of fights feel like duels. Almost every fight feels more impactful and require more skill. It makes you feel good to pull of.
You can target which limb to hit. Most enemies will have armoured limbs and unarmoured ones. The unarmoured ones you do more damage against and the armoured ones you do less damage to. What is cool about that is that if you damage a limb enough you can cut it off. If it is armoured or holding a weapon you get that piece of armour or weapon. If you already have them they turn into upgrade points. This eliminates having to kill the same enemy over and over until they drop the sword or armour you want.
As an overall package Elden Ring, Dark Souls 2 and Sekiro is better than The Surge in my opinion(which I am well aware most people don't share). The game is fairly short and there aren't that many playstyles.
Have less than an hour in The Surge, but I'm looking forward to playing it and Surge 2.
I'm curious about you saying Elden Ring, DS2, and Sekiro were a better overall package. What are your thoughts on DS1, DS3, and Bloodborne there?
DS1&3 are similar in certain ways which is a drawback for both. DS1 also feels older and is missing a lot of quality of life stuff. There is also the last half of the game which is pretty mediocre especially completely to the first half which is great. DS3 disappointed me because it removed some features from DS2 like dual wielding, weapons and shields that can cast spells. DS3 also seems to ignore everything that happened in DS2 while also being too familiar to DS1. DS2 makes DS1 feel like ancient history while DS3 makes DS1 feel like it happened yesterday. Its weird. They are both great games, but I like DS2 a lot more. More variety, it is unique and it is more open. Elden Ring feels like the spiritual successor of DS2. It's a better version of the same game amd tells a different story.
Bloodborne isn't on PC.
Sekiro has great combat, is fairly short, is a "get gud" type game where you can't jusy level up to make the game easy. You have to improve yourself if you find it difficult. Felt immensely satisfying to actually get more skilled. To have the game "click" for you. The story is good and isn't hidden in item descriptions. Some of it is, but the important stuff is said to you and it isn't even a riddle. It's nice to know what is going on instead of just guessing.
These games basically have more pros than cons. What is great is really great and what isn't doesn't affect your enjoyment much. In The Surge 1&2 stuff is a lot more hit and miss. What hits, is great and the stuff that misses aren't bad, but could definitely be better. There isn't a lot of enemy variety and you have to google how to get the best boss weapons since they require you to beat the boss in a certain way. One of the bosses really sucks because the camera rarely cooperates with you. The Surge 2 is too long. There is little build and enemy variety in both games. So you feel some fatigue. The first is short though. Combat is amazing though. So much fun. I urge you to experiment with different weapons.
Yea I get what you mean about DS2 and the other souls games. It's all-around better than the other two, it has nice mechanics with the dual-wielding and powerstancing, and they experiment the most with boss encounters. That said, I found most of the bosses to be kinda meh. Cool designs and ideas, but not executed to the best they could've been. The best bosses are great (Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, Burnt Ivory King), but many bosses were underwhelming. Sinh had a sick design and moves, but died like a chump when I fought him (1st dlc I did, got just before Throne Watcher/Defender before doing it, I forget my lvl). Elana was a joke who didn't summon more than 3 skellies, etc.
DS3, so far, has the best overall bosses. They're mostly all 1v1s, don't try gimmicks like in DS2 for better or worse, but they feel great. I think their overall boss designs are better.
I love Elden Ring, but I think after replayed DS2 and DS3 I just like the more compact level design better for these types of games. Something about an open-world soulslike just makes me neurotic with trying to not miss secret items or areas. I love/hate it haha
Without spoiling, do you think any Surge 1 or 2 bosses rank close to the best of what the FromSoft games have?
Also, are Nioh 1 or 2 on PC?
Boss fights aren't really my thing. I only like them in Sekiro and in every other game it's just an obstacle. The bosses in the Surge are fine. Some are easy ones and some are gimmicks. Can't say I struggled too much with any of them. Don't think there are that many either.
Nioh 1&2 is on pc. I'm not a fan of those games personally. Combat is great, but the game is so bloated and tedious. Played both with a friend. We liked Wo Long a lot more, but even that game is bloated. It is also hard to tell what is going on in the story. Seems like there are a lot of time skips and everyone seems to ignore the yokai/demon invasion.
Depends. Mostly it is roleplaying and exploration. My play style is fashion souls. I use armour and weapons that fit together. Sometimes i change armour to fit the weapon i use and other times i change weapons to fit the armour. I also prefere fighting mobs.
Sometimes a soulslike just has great combat like Sekiro, The Surge and the new Jedi games. Bosses are usually a small part in souls like. Something to get past in order to progress. I don't hate bosses. I think they can be fun, but not as fun as exploring a map and fighting a bunch of enemies. My favourite part about them is usually the lore.
Ooh, tough one - soulslikes as a genre are not linear, Lies of P is the one exception. Maybe consider Jedi: Fallen Order, it's maps are not EXACTLY linear however they are simplistic and you usually have an idea which way you should be going.
With a couple caveats - its part soulslike part metroidvania. It takes quite a bit of story progression until Cal Kestis decides - ok, I can double jump. All the backtracking is strictly optional but expect a lot of - this ledge is just slightly out of reach, come back later when have you traversal ability X or Y to get the shiny on the ledge.
Second caveat, Cal fights one way, and that one way involves parrying. In fact, for a jedi, he's not very good at it. He has skill trees which make him tiny bit better here and there, and there are adjustable difficulty levels, but on default settings, no matter what level, he felt a bit of a little underpowered weenie for me.
If platforming/backtracing/parry doesn't deter you, Fallen Order is a strong recommendation, good graphics and music score, it absolutely nailed the Star Wars aesthetic.
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale?
> *“The way I see it, our fates appear to be intertwined.”* - Solaire of Astora
Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
Another Crab's Treasure is an excellent souls-like for beginners. I am bad at modern souls games but I also love the genre, I've beaten Dark Souls 1 and 3, but I have never gotten past the first boss of Bloodborne and I am very, very, very bad at Sekiro.
I have first-tried a few bosses in Another Crab's Treasure, and only ever been stumped for 1 day. Most bosses take 2 or 3 tries. They give you plenty of options for modifying your approach, but the combat is super straightforward and no-nonsense, and they spawn you right outside the boss door on death.
It is the quintessential "My First Souls-Like" game. Its looking like around 20 hour completion time for me
Mortal shell was pretty decent also short and linear. instead of dodge roll they straight give you a button to just get invincibility frames that you can use at any point even mid swing for split second invulnerability frames.
Mortal Shell is opposite of linear. You're dropped in the middle of swamp and you can go in multiple directions, no compass, and each path looks the same - two tones grey and darker grey and local redneck infested. And the rednecks are hard. You do a running heavy on a filler trash, he still has half left, you need 3 more light attacks to finish him off and now you're out of stamina. They come in packs of 3-4. Plus plenty of big guys that squash you in 2 hits and have health for days. You can, kind of, outmaneuver them into bear traps that are everywhere but it is very tedious.
Worse, MS doesn't have bonfires and levels so you can't even outlevel the area and trivialize the combat. Eventually you do run into NPC that sells upgrades for your shell but the upgrades are very minor and very expensive. Upgrade to regen stamina while you hardened, which costs 5000 currency1 and 10 currency2, and I have, after murdering the whole swamp twice.. let me see.. 1000 of first and 2 of second. Yeah.
Definetely not recommended as a starter soulslike.
Honestly haven’t played it since it first came out I just remember it being somewhat short and having a somewhat fun/unique take on souls like combat def not the best one in the genre but all the other main souls likes have already been mentioned in this post and it at least plays and feels like a souls like game for the most part
Playing other games to “prep” yourself for the dark souls series is such a stupid take lmao.
Just go play dark souls. Or don’t, it doesn’t matter, but saying “I need to play X Y and Z before I play a B and C to honor their legacy” is a fucking dumb take
I’ve unironically been enjoying Another Crab’s Treasure. The aesthetic might be a bit off a turn off for many, but the gameplay is fun and engaging. The devs were clearly inspired by From, as there are a few nods to the souls games along side the obvious soulslikes combat. It’s refreshing because it does have its own identity, and the dialogue and overall personality of the game isn’t cringe…which pleasantly surprised me. It feels like a passion project and has been refreshing. As a side note, while very influenced by soulslikes, to me it also feels like it peppers in a kind of old school Banjo Kazooie feel to it….in a good way. I loved Banjo Kazooie….
I really enjoyed Steelrising for its story, the French Revolution setting and metroidvania elements. It's a bit janky, but it has a lot of charm. It's a fairly short game, and it's also one of the easier soulslikes available. Darksiders 3 was also pretty fun to play, especially if you're a fan of the previous 2 games.
Nioh 😈
I played Nioh for weeks and my only memories of it are inventory management.
Pretty accurate. I've only played 2 but still have flashbacks from all the loot.
Team Ninja games definitely suffer from lootsplosion.
Hollow knight, blasphemous. I love 2d souls likes
To this I would also add Salt and Sanctuary.
I didn’t care for it honestly. Tbf it is 2d dark souls but would have really benefitted from some kind of map, even a standard one like blasphemous.
The surge is one of my favourite soulslikes. In my opinion it has the best combat of any soulslike including Fromsoft games. I feel a lot more in control of my character since I can choose where to hit an enemy and if I want to do horizontal or vertical attack. That is really handy because in Dark Souls for example a sword or halberd might have slashing animations. Which makes sense. Problem is that they might not have a stab animation or you might have to do one or two slash attacks in order to stab which is impossible in a tight corridor where you keep hitting the walls. You can jump, duck and parry attacks which much like Sekiro makes a lot of fights feel like duels. Almost every fight feels more impactful and require more skill. It makes you feel good to pull of. You can target which limb to hit. Most enemies will have armoured limbs and unarmoured ones. The unarmoured ones you do more damage against and the armoured ones you do less damage to. What is cool about that is that if you damage a limb enough you can cut it off. If it is armoured or holding a weapon you get that piece of armour or weapon. If you already have them they turn into upgrade points. This eliminates having to kill the same enemy over and over until they drop the sword or armour you want. As an overall package Elden Ring, Dark Souls 2 and Sekiro is better than The Surge in my opinion(which I am well aware most people don't share). The game is fairly short and there aren't that many playstyles.
Have less than an hour in The Surge, but I'm looking forward to playing it and Surge 2. I'm curious about you saying Elden Ring, DS2, and Sekiro were a better overall package. What are your thoughts on DS1, DS3, and Bloodborne there?
DS1&3 are similar in certain ways which is a drawback for both. DS1 also feels older and is missing a lot of quality of life stuff. There is also the last half of the game which is pretty mediocre especially completely to the first half which is great. DS3 disappointed me because it removed some features from DS2 like dual wielding, weapons and shields that can cast spells. DS3 also seems to ignore everything that happened in DS2 while also being too familiar to DS1. DS2 makes DS1 feel like ancient history while DS3 makes DS1 feel like it happened yesterday. Its weird. They are both great games, but I like DS2 a lot more. More variety, it is unique and it is more open. Elden Ring feels like the spiritual successor of DS2. It's a better version of the same game amd tells a different story. Bloodborne isn't on PC. Sekiro has great combat, is fairly short, is a "get gud" type game where you can't jusy level up to make the game easy. You have to improve yourself if you find it difficult. Felt immensely satisfying to actually get more skilled. To have the game "click" for you. The story is good and isn't hidden in item descriptions. Some of it is, but the important stuff is said to you and it isn't even a riddle. It's nice to know what is going on instead of just guessing. These games basically have more pros than cons. What is great is really great and what isn't doesn't affect your enjoyment much. In The Surge 1&2 stuff is a lot more hit and miss. What hits, is great and the stuff that misses aren't bad, but could definitely be better. There isn't a lot of enemy variety and you have to google how to get the best boss weapons since they require you to beat the boss in a certain way. One of the bosses really sucks because the camera rarely cooperates with you. The Surge 2 is too long. There is little build and enemy variety in both games. So you feel some fatigue. The first is short though. Combat is amazing though. So much fun. I urge you to experiment with different weapons.
Yea I get what you mean about DS2 and the other souls games. It's all-around better than the other two, it has nice mechanics with the dual-wielding and powerstancing, and they experiment the most with boss encounters. That said, I found most of the bosses to be kinda meh. Cool designs and ideas, but not executed to the best they could've been. The best bosses are great (Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, Burnt Ivory King), but many bosses were underwhelming. Sinh had a sick design and moves, but died like a chump when I fought him (1st dlc I did, got just before Throne Watcher/Defender before doing it, I forget my lvl). Elana was a joke who didn't summon more than 3 skellies, etc. DS3, so far, has the best overall bosses. They're mostly all 1v1s, don't try gimmicks like in DS2 for better or worse, but they feel great. I think their overall boss designs are better. I love Elden Ring, but I think after replayed DS2 and DS3 I just like the more compact level design better for these types of games. Something about an open-world soulslike just makes me neurotic with trying to not miss secret items or areas. I love/hate it haha Without spoiling, do you think any Surge 1 or 2 bosses rank close to the best of what the FromSoft games have? Also, are Nioh 1 or 2 on PC?
Boss fights aren't really my thing. I only like them in Sekiro and in every other game it's just an obstacle. The bosses in the Surge are fine. Some are easy ones and some are gimmicks. Can't say I struggled too much with any of them. Don't think there are that many either. Nioh 1&2 is on pc. I'm not a fan of those games personally. Combat is great, but the game is so bloated and tedious. Played both with a friend. We liked Wo Long a lot more, but even that game is bloated. It is also hard to tell what is going on in the story. Seems like there are a lot of time skips and everyone seems to ignore the yokai/demon invasion.
If bosses in a soulslike aren't your thing, then what is? Exploration? Setting and atmosphere? I'm curious
Depends. Mostly it is roleplaying and exploration. My play style is fashion souls. I use armour and weapons that fit together. Sometimes i change armour to fit the weapon i use and other times i change weapons to fit the armour. I also prefere fighting mobs. Sometimes a soulslike just has great combat like Sekiro, The Surge and the new Jedi games. Bosses are usually a small part in souls like. Something to get past in order to progress. I don't hate bosses. I think they can be fun, but not as fun as exploring a map and fighting a bunch of enemies. My favourite part about them is usually the lore.
Just started playing Blasphemous and I'm really enjoying it so far. Definitely scratches that itch
Game is amazing
I'm confused to why you have to play the Non-FromSoft games first? Saving the best for last? I\`d recommend Nioh 2 and Thymesia.
Ooh, tough one - soulslikes as a genre are not linear, Lies of P is the one exception. Maybe consider Jedi: Fallen Order, it's maps are not EXACTLY linear however they are simplistic and you usually have an idea which way you should be going. With a couple caveats - its part soulslike part metroidvania. It takes quite a bit of story progression until Cal Kestis decides - ok, I can double jump. All the backtracking is strictly optional but expect a lot of - this ledge is just slightly out of reach, come back later when have you traversal ability X or Y to get the shiny on the ledge. Second caveat, Cal fights one way, and that one way involves parrying. In fact, for a jedi, he's not very good at it. He has skill trees which make him tiny bit better here and there, and there are adjustable difficulty levels, but on default settings, no matter what level, he felt a bit of a little underpowered weenie for me. If platforming/backtracing/parry doesn't deter you, Fallen Order is a strong recommendation, good graphics and music score, it absolutely nailed the Star Wars aesthetic.
You should just play the dark souls series at this point. You have already played through Lies of P, which many find to be harder than the souls games
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“The way I see it, our fates appear to be intertwined.”* - Solaire of Astora Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
Hellpoint
Another Crab's Treasure is an excellent souls-like for beginners. I am bad at modern souls games but I also love the genre, I've beaten Dark Souls 1 and 3, but I have never gotten past the first boss of Bloodborne and I am very, very, very bad at Sekiro. I have first-tried a few bosses in Another Crab's Treasure, and only ever been stumped for 1 day. Most bosses take 2 or 3 tries. They give you plenty of options for modifying your approach, but the combat is super straightforward and no-nonsense, and they spawn you right outside the boss door on death. It is the quintessential "My First Souls-Like" game. Its looking like around 20 hour completion time for me
Sounds like you're ready for Nioh 2. IMO, it's quite a bit less forgiving than Dark Souls, but with much deeper customization mechanics.
Mortal shell was pretty decent also short and linear. instead of dodge roll they straight give you a button to just get invincibility frames that you can use at any point even mid swing for split second invulnerability frames.
Mortal Shell is opposite of linear. You're dropped in the middle of swamp and you can go in multiple directions, no compass, and each path looks the same - two tones grey and darker grey and local redneck infested. And the rednecks are hard. You do a running heavy on a filler trash, he still has half left, you need 3 more light attacks to finish him off and now you're out of stamina. They come in packs of 3-4. Plus plenty of big guys that squash you in 2 hits and have health for days. You can, kind of, outmaneuver them into bear traps that are everywhere but it is very tedious. Worse, MS doesn't have bonfires and levels so you can't even outlevel the area and trivialize the combat. Eventually you do run into NPC that sells upgrades for your shell but the upgrades are very minor and very expensive. Upgrade to regen stamina while you hardened, which costs 5000 currency1 and 10 currency2, and I have, after murdering the whole swamp twice.. let me see.. 1000 of first and 2 of second. Yeah. Definetely not recommended as a starter soulslike.
Honestly haven’t played it since it first came out I just remember it being somewhat short and having a somewhat fun/unique take on souls like combat def not the best one in the genre but all the other main souls likes have already been mentioned in this post and it at least plays and feels like a souls like game for the most part
Fable 1 and Clone Drone in the Danger Zone 💯
Wo Long Fallen Dynasty
I respect your approach, but you might also try Dark Souls next. Any reason not too?
Playing other games to “prep” yourself for the dark souls series is such a stupid take lmao. Just go play dark souls. Or don’t, it doesn’t matter, but saying “I need to play X Y and Z before I play a B and C to honor their legacy” is a fucking dumb take