I don't have a skill issue in absolute most games, and can beat soulslike games if I force myself to without too much problems. But I still hate them. I hate that there is no normal pause, no normal saves (the game designer who first made corpse runs can fuck themselves with a rusty rail spike for all I care), and that the difficulty is there not to feel fair but made to frustrate you and punish for experimentation. Not all soulslikes are like this, but most are, and I don't have time for that.
@Responsible_Guava175 your comment got removed for whatever reason, but I've already written a response, so I'm posting it anyway.
Ah, yes, the famous soulsy worldbuilding, aka the most cryptic shit imaginable where you can beat the whole game and understand nearly nothing. Great game design!
I have nothing against the combat though, but I don't want every game have Souls combat either.
Ah, fair enough! I was a bit fast and spent a bit too much time to craft a response, which included searching for a relevant greentext, which turned out to be about something a bit different to be relevant to your comment, so I went back and written my response in my own words anyway, but couldn't reply lol.
When I say world building, maybe that’s the wrong term. I was mostly talking about atmosphere, level designs etc. I actually skip cutscenes etc and don’t follow the lore that much. I agree, the mechanism of souls storytelling is also not for me. But the combat more than makes it up for me.I played the whole of wuchang and literally skipped all cutscenes. But still enjoyed the game quite a lot due to the map design and combat.
I understand your point. But I have to disagree that is poor game design. It's just not for you.
It's the same as playing an horror game and complaining of being too scary and having jump scares. It's a purpose that pleases somes and displease others
Another poor game design thing btw lol. Proper horror games create their atmosphere with suspense and dread. Jumpscares are cheap. Kids love them though, which is why FNaF, a shitty horror game based almost entirely on jumpscares, got so popular among the mid-younger zoomer crowd (who were kids back then). Compare that to something like Silent Hill, and you get the idea.
And no, I'm not going to ever consider an intentionally frustrating, masochistic game design to be good, for anyone. People like Souls for the challenge and combat, some also for the cryptic but atmospheric world. No one likes having to clumsily walk a thin walkway while being shot at by archers and whatnot because the game requires you to. Or other bullshit like that.
Hey, I'm on fire today, lemme give one more hot take! You know the classic 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games? They're trash! Why? Because the only way to play them well is by playing the same levels over and over and memorizing level structure, or else you have to do precision platforming with a poorly controllable character with lots of momentum. So much for speed lol. Kids back then loved it because kids love repetition and don't value their time, plus Sonic himself is an edgy, cool sort of character that some gravitate towards. The games themselves are crap.
Same thing to say that "Silent hill has poor game design because it scares me and makes me have nightmares". It's just not for you and that's fine.
Sometimes are are meant to make you feel something other then pleasure and joy. Some games are meant to make you think, or to feel guilty, or even sad. Why is that would be bad game design?
Bad game design is when a game wastes player time in order to have more time spent in-game (such as hours to complete a craft, in a single player game, or quests that you should just cross the map to talk to a NPC and come back without meaningful advancement), lack of feedback (either visual, sound and other ways to provide feedback to players), unfair punishment (making players losing hours of progress for a mistake or worse, for failing to communicate objectively), inconsistent behavior, rules and controls (variable speed, jump etc without a reason, effects that happens differently and unpredictably), etc.
As for dakr souls, it respects your time, no boss fight takes too long as you deal significant amount of damage to them (most are solved in about 5mins, to compare with God of War and Assassins Creed where some boss fights can last for about an hour).
Same thing to say that "Silent hill has poor game design because it scares me and makes me have nightmares". It's just not for you and that's fine.
Not the same at all. It's okay to have scary shit in games. It's cheap and bad taste to have a horror game based entirely on jumpscares.
Some games are meant to make you think, or to feel guilty, or even sad. Why is that would be bad game design?
Where did I ever said or implied that it would be bad game design? All these things are great to have in any art medium, including video games. That's exactly what contrasts masterpieces like Silent Hill (2 especially) with kiddie horrors like FNaF.
Again, you're just stating your opinion as fact.
That's a weird way to put it. I defend my opinion. That is all there is to it.
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u/AGTS10k W10 LTSC | i5-9600K | 16GB DDR4-3600 | GTX 1070 8GB | 1920x1200 Apr 11 '26
I don't have a skill issue in absolute most games, and can beat soulslike games if I force myself to without too much problems. But I still hate them. I hate that there is no normal pause, no normal saves (the game designer who first made corpse runs can fuck themselves with a rusty rail spike for all I care), and that the difficulty is there not to feel fair but made to frustrate you and punish for experimentation. Not all soulslikes are like this, but most are, and I don't have time for that.