I Hate Souls Games
There, I said it. I hate Souls, Souls-like, and pretty much everything FromSoftware has made. That includes Armored Core (I played Armored Core V. It was garbage.). It’s a genre that I don’t get, I don’t enjoy, and I really wish the industry would move on from.
My exposure to Souls goes way back. Waaaaaay back. Back to when “Souls two” sparked a hot debate that Demon’s Souls was the first “Souls” game, and Dark Souls II was technically “Souls three” thank you very much. I played Demon’s Souls on my roommate’s PS3 when our friend from down the hall picked it up. It was… fine. We spent maybe a week or two going back and forth with bosses and who could make it further. I made it a few bosses in and never finished. I didn’t care to.
Dark Souls came and went. I remember it coming out, but I didn’t really care to get more of the same experience I had with Demon’s Souls. Dark Souls seemed to be more popular, but I couldn’t really place why.
My next chance to play around with Souls was Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I made a couple of posts back a few years ago cataloging my journey through DS2 after a coworker let me borrow it. Again, it was fine, but I didn’t love it. I played it because it was one of the few games I had available. Looking back, I wouldn’t have sunk even that much time into it if I had other games available. I played through maybe half of the game and put it down permanently.
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/2016-04-20-dark-souls-collection/
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/2016-05-25-dark-souls-ii-scholar-of-the-first-sin/
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/2016-06-22-dark-souls-ii-update-2/
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/2016-07-13-dark-souls-ii-update-3/
Earlier this year, I picked up Bloodborne from the library. This was it. This would be the breakthrough that finally made me like Souls games. Several friends loved it, and I was chatting with them about what gear I should use. I was confident that this would be the Souls game that really drew me in.
Turns out, I was wrong. I spent a few hours one day really giving Bloodborne an honest attempt. I took the deaths in stride. After I really got the hang of it, the frustrations of the first little bit would pay off, I was sure. I got through the tutorial and I kept trying to rush at the first boss. The first real boss, so I was told, wasn’t really much of a challenge. That was encouraging.
I got to the first boss a few times, but I kept dying to random enemies. I would rush through and try to kill only the things that got in my way, but eventually I would make a mistake and get mobbed. I tried a few times to be thorough and methodically eradicate each group of enemies that I came across. This, too, caused problems when I eventually made a mistake and pulled the attention of more enemies than I meant to attract.
Over those few hours, I got more and more frustrated. “Is there a map somewhere,” I asked one friend. He laughed. This is Souls, you don’t get a map. Pardon me for thinking that the lack of a map is just lazy, and not a valid way to increase the difficulty of a game. Hard games have maps. Not having a map is frankly stupid.
After those first few hours, I put the game down. If I let myself get this frustrated so early on, there was no way I would go back and actually finish the game. When I came back to continue playing the next day, it turns out that some problem with installing the game had rendered my save file unplayable.
I hadn’t made much progress anyway, but it was the principle of the matter. Beyond the annoying experience of actually playing Bloodborne, hardware frustrations only made it worse. It was then that I realized, this whole genre isn’t for me.
This isn’t to say that people are wrong for enjoying Souls games. You like what you like, I wouldn’t want anyone to tell me that Metroidvania games are inherently bad. I also want to be very deliberate in saying I don’t mind a difficult game. I’m not whining about how hard modern games are. What I’m saying is two things: 1, Souls games are beyond difficult to the degree of just being unfair and 2, I don’t want to play a game that makes me more frustrated than the struggles of real life; I want to play a game that lets me escape from reality for a while.
Souls games and their imitators are still wildly popular, and I’m sure they will continue to be for at least some time into the future. That’s fine, I hope you guys get your fill of them. But for me? I’m done. They aren’t fun. They aren’t gratifying. They’re just annoying, and I would much rather spend the little time that I get to play games with something that is more fulfilling than running the same frustrating path over and over, getting killed in a plethora of different ways. No thanks.
My exposure to Souls goes way back. Waaaaaay back. Back to when “Souls two” sparked a hot debate that Demon’s Souls was the first “Souls” game, and Dark Souls II was technically “Souls three” thank you very much. I played Demon’s Souls on my roommate’s PS3 when our friend from down the hall picked it up. It was… fine. We spent maybe a week or two going back and forth with bosses and who could make it further. I made it a few bosses in and never finished. I didn’t care to.
Dark Souls came and went. I remember it coming out, but I didn’t really care to get more of the same experience I had with Demon’s Souls. Dark Souls seemed to be more popular, but I couldn’t really place why.
My next chance to play around with Souls was Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I made a couple of posts back a few years ago cataloging my journey through DS2 after a coworker let me borrow it. Again, it was fine, but I didn’t love it. I played it because it was one of the few games I had available. Looking back, I wouldn’t have sunk even that much time into it if I had other games available. I played through maybe half of the game and put it down permanently.
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/2016-04-20-dark-souls-collection/
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/2016-05-25-dark-souls-ii-scholar-of-the-first-sin/
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/2016-06-22-dark-souls-ii-update-2/
https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/2016-07-13-dark-souls-ii-update-3/
Earlier this year, I picked up Bloodborne from the library. This was it. This would be the breakthrough that finally made me like Souls games. Several friends loved it, and I was chatting with them about what gear I should use. I was confident that this would be the Souls game that really drew me in.
Turns out, I was wrong. I spent a few hours one day really giving Bloodborne an honest attempt. I took the deaths in stride. After I really got the hang of it, the frustrations of the first little bit would pay off, I was sure. I got through the tutorial and I kept trying to rush at the first boss. The first real boss, so I was told, wasn’t really much of a challenge. That was encouraging.
I got to the first boss a few times, but I kept dying to random enemies. I would rush through and try to kill only the things that got in my way, but eventually I would make a mistake and get mobbed. I tried a few times to be thorough and methodically eradicate each group of enemies that I came across. This, too, caused problems when I eventually made a mistake and pulled the attention of more enemies than I meant to attract.
Over those few hours, I got more and more frustrated. “Is there a map somewhere,” I asked one friend. He laughed. This is Souls, you don’t get a map. Pardon me for thinking that the lack of a map is just lazy, and not a valid way to increase the difficulty of a game. Hard games have maps. Not having a map is frankly stupid.
After those first few hours, I put the game down. If I let myself get this frustrated so early on, there was no way I would go back and actually finish the game. When I came back to continue playing the next day, it turns out that some problem with installing the game had rendered my save file unplayable.
I hadn’t made much progress anyway, but it was the principle of the matter. Beyond the annoying experience of actually playing Bloodborne, hardware frustrations only made it worse. It was then that I realized, this whole genre isn’t for me.
This isn’t to say that people are wrong for enjoying Souls games. You like what you like, I wouldn’t want anyone to tell me that Metroidvania games are inherently bad. I also want to be very deliberate in saying I don’t mind a difficult game. I’m not whining about how hard modern games are. What I’m saying is two things: 1, Souls games are beyond difficult to the degree of just being unfair and 2, I don’t want to play a game that makes me more frustrated than the struggles of real life; I want to play a game that lets me escape from reality for a while.
Souls games and their imitators are still wildly popular, and I’m sure they will continue to be for at least some time into the future. That’s fine, I hope you guys get your fill of them. But for me? I’m done. They aren’t fun. They aren’t gratifying. They’re just annoying, and I would much rather spend the little time that I get to play games with something that is more fulfilling than running the same frustrating path over and over, getting killed in a plethora of different ways. No thanks.
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