Subsequent week sees the discharge of the very cool-looking Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, an motion sport the place you play as a badass pirate warrior with amnesia. Whereas determining what’s up together with your recollections (hell yeah), you spend your time preventing big monsters (hell yeah!) inflicted by a mysterious feathery sickness (hell yeah!!!), and must– Ah, dammit, it’s one other Soulslike? Significantly?
To be clear, I haven’t performed Wuchang Fallen Feathers but, however the style it’s ostensibly a part of is emblematic of a gaming development that’s gone on for a lot too lengthy: There are too many Soulslikes! Largely impressed by FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls and Darkish Souls, these action-adventure video games are inclined to put a heavy deal with blocking, parrying, and dodging assaults, and like to throw a difficult boss combat in your path. Usually, they’re moody in tone. Extra typically, they make me moody.
Picture: Spiders / Nacon
The style has been round in some capability for a few decade, however I first observed it reached a saturation level in 2022, following the discharge of SteelRising. Developed by Spiders, the French studio recognized for Greedfall, SteelRising casts you as an automaton in an alternate historical past timeline of Revolution-era France the place it’s a must to carve by means of a military of 18th-century robots defending King Louis XVI. That’s, like, a five-exclamation level “hell yeah,” minimal. Then I performed it, and regardless of the fascinating setup, discovered a sport very similar to many I’d performed earlier than. Parry this. Dodge that. Get ass kicked by boss just a few occasions.
The next 12 months, Lies of P caught my consideration. A Pinocchio sport! With steampunk vibes! Additionally: automatons! Then I performed Lies of P, and located it very similar to SteelRising: Parry this. Dodge that. Get ass kicked by boss just a few occasions. Additionally that 12 months, Workforce Ninja’s motion sport Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty let me down in an identical means. (I’ll by no means forgive you, Zhang Liang.)
Even video games that aren’t technically Soulslikes are nonetheless absorbing the style’s DNA. This began to turn out to be clear in 2024 with the discharge of Stellar Blade, an anime-as-hell motion sport that appeared like what you’d get if Nier: Automata was developed with an precise colour palette. The gameplay? Parry this. Dodge that. By the point Black Delusion: Wukong — a boss rush with heavy Souls vibes that nabbed a number of Recreation Award nominations — rolled round later that 12 months, my style fatigue was so overwhelming that I didn’t even trouble enjoying it.
(You may even make the case that the Soulslike plague has contaminated harmless genres as effectively, like turn-based RPGs. As an example, did Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actually profit from centering its battles round a parrying mechanic with home windows so tight that nobody over 30 possesses the reflexes to react to them? Or wouldn’t it have been a extra assured sport if it caught to a standard turn-based system?)
Picture: Neowiz
I’ll admit that a part of my aversion to the style is a ability problem. There’s after all a time and a spot for difficult video games. However after a decade, beating my head in opposition to a boss three, 5, ten occasions in a row earlier than cracking its sample has misplaced its luster. So many settings in Soulslike are genuinely fascinating, distinct and well-realized in a fashion that’s simply begging to be explored. (See: French Revolution automatons. See additionally: Pinocchio automatons.) Generally, I simply need to study extra about these worlds with out having to cross a ability verify. Can’t a man get a stroll within the park once in a while? As a deal with?
Look, I’m not saying we must always reside in a world devoid of Soulslikes. (Repsawn’s Star Wars Jedi video games are amongst my favourite video games of the previous few years.) I’m simply saying it’s been a lot. Regardless of how cool a specific sport seems to be, or how intriguing its premise, or how distinctive its setting, I’m discovering it increasingly more tough with every passing 12 months to get enthusiastic about video games which might be marketed as Soulslikes.
On premise alone, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers seems to be completely dope. I’ll seemingly test it out. I simply want I didn’t have to determine the timing of yet one more parry.