SO! Soulsborne games!

From Software's Souls games are a fascinating study. This is a thread to answer the question "Steven, I've always WANTED to play a Souls game, but every time I try, I hate it. How can I (anyone??) have fun with this?" https://twitter.com/Silent0siris/status/1333362921129308163

(and also, cheekily, "can you talk about why the design of these games specifically pushes me towards that mental shift?" Yes, dear reader, I hope to.)

Before I go any further, some caveats:

* This thread will mostly be about Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne; Sekiro is slightly different, and I haven't played the DaS sequels (yet!)
* No style of game (Souls or otherwise) is better or worse than any other, or makes you more or less of a gamer.

* I'm not really a Souls-EXPERT so much as a Souls-ENTHUSIAST, so some of you with more hours on board may disagree- but then, this thread is aiming at newcomers anyway. I hope you'll forgive me any indecencies.

Let's get started.

"Why, Steven, don't I like these Souls games that everyone seems to love so much? And, if I were so inclined, how could I change my approach to them in order to maybe experience some of that enjoyment?"

Because From Software's Souls games have a radically different design philosophy underpinning them than the vast majority of commercial products out there- the exact commercial products that have probably defined your expectations for how it feels to play "games."

I'd like to propose that most (ostensibly*) single-player, story-driven, combat-focused games out there are "player-success positive." The design of the game TRENDS TOWARDS player success. Fundamentally, these games want the player to succeed, and to feel like a badass.

(Wait wait, why *ostensibly? We ARE talking about single-player, story-driven, combat-focused games... right?

Well. We're talking about Souls games... which LOOK single-player, story-driven, combat-focused... but... well, we'll get to that later. That's why Ostensibly.)

Back to the topic- "player-success positive."

Single-player, story-driven, combat-focused games are really power fantasies- the fantasy of your own personal power.

Games like Control, God of War, Miles Morales, and others all want to create the feeling of exultation in you. The Souls games do as well, of course, but the philosophy is different. These aforementioned games are "player-success positive":

In games like these, your success is not just ASSUMED, but also the rules of the game build you towards success. You get the new weapon right before you need it; The door opens and the next enemies are just a hair harder; The loot is JUST the healing items you were low on, etc.

And as a reminder, these games are great and I love them, and this isn't a knock on them at all. But philosophically, the games themselves- the interlocking gears of rules and code- they WANT you to win. They're rooting for you.

. @Gaohmee wrote a great thread once on all the kinds of tricks these games use to make you FEEL under threat, while pulling ahead at the last second! These games lie to you to fulfill their promise of a power fantasy, and it RULES.

To be fair, you may fail in these games! They're not by any means "easy" or anything. But really, I'm confident that these design teams have heat maps of death metrics, and work to smooth those out. Overall, they want the average player to win, and feel great doing it.

So you've spent much of your gaming time playing "player-success positive" games and you hear about this cool single-player(ish), story-driven(what?), combat-focused(well-) game called SOMETHING SOULS and you fire it up and you...

Well, you hate it. Why?

Let us count the ways.

1- You play through the tutorial, and right off the bat, at the end of the tutorial, the game throws you against some RIDICULOUS boss that just absolutely pancakes you. You never had a chance. What the hell?

2- The easiest trash enemies in the game hit SO hard and can kill you pretty quickly no matter how far you've progressed if you're not paying attention- not even mentioning at the start of the game.

3- You earn this currency ("souls") and when you die you just... drop it on the ground! And if you die again AGHHHH it's gone and you just lost SIXTY THOUSAND SOULS and I'm gonna put this CONTROLLER through that- no, Steven, no, the game can't hurt you, it's turned off right now

4- You're having a fine time, finally getting into the swing of things, took out your first boss, and then--

BLACK PHANTOM xXWEEDLORD420Xx HAS INVADED

And now you're dead.

5- You keep going, choose an available direction to go, go down past a graveyard, and all of a sudden you're surrounded by enemies with WAY more health than anything you've faced before, and they hit WAY harder, and you DIE. What??

6- I thought there was supposed to be a story but I'm just murdering things?? Everybody raves about Gwyndolin and cries over Father Gascoigne and.... what??

So to summarize:
* The game will put you in unwinnable situations
* Even the most basic enemies remain a threat
* You can lose a ton of progress
* There's weird multiplayer that intrudes
* There's no guidance to the correct direction
* The story is obscure and hard to find

Why?? What's up with these games??

Firstly, I submit that Souls games are "player-success NEUTRAL."

They do not care if you win. The game exists, and if you want to beat it, it's up to you.

So how can we approach them?

(Reached the end of "add another tweet!" Will continue in a moment!)

Before I go on, I absolutely would like to see these games- and all games- embracing Accessibility options more. The possibility of Easy Modes (as separate from Accessibility options) is trickier, which I'll talk about later, but I think Hades is a very strong example here.

So

The first mental shift Souls games ask of players is to FAIL FORWARD.

If you want to have a good time, you first must accept that death is a part of the core play loop. It's so core to the game, that most of these games BEGIN by throwing you against an enemy you CANNOT kill.

These games also have gotcha situations aplenty! A flaming boulder crushes you; an enemy jumps around a corner and skewers you.

But what does that have to do with failing forward? A: You learned. You died, and failed; but now you know, and you'll be more careful there.

Or- even better from the game's perspective- you learn about the KINDS OF GOTCHAS it's going to pull on you. Next time someone jumps at you from around a corner you've already got your shield up out of habit! You've adapted your entire approach; you failed forward.

Consider the "souls" currency mechanic; you kill enemies, you accrue souls, and when you die they're dropped close to where you died. If you make it back there you can pick them up, but if you die before... they're gone.

This is a fail forward mechanic as well!

The game expects you to fail (your souls are ever so kindly preserved right there)- but it also expects you to move forward from that failure (you want 'em back? Come get em, and don't make the same mistake this time).

The checkpointing system and respawning foes is a fail-forward mechanic!

The LEVEL DESIGN is a fail-forward mechanic! Play for long enough and those intricate levels loop back on themselves and- sigh of relief- you open a shortcut. Now you've moved forward.

So, if you want to love these games, first and foremost approach them with a mindset of learning from failure.

The second mental shift Souls games ask of players is a realization: these aren't combat games.

They're EXPLORATION games, in basically every way.

Yes, it's true that you will have to fight. But if you blitz the main path, you'll miss out on incredibly valuable resources- including precious items that give you souls! Souls you won't lose if you die, because they're in item form!

Here's the key. You die, over and over and over again, and then, on your 7th run up to the hard section you may say to yourself: "Wait, what's that over there?" And realize there's an entire other chunk of the level to explore- or a crucial item- or a shortcut to open.

The pressure of the difficulty of the game practically forces players to comb over the game's space again and again, noticing critical details.

And it ain't just the physical space, friend-o; no. These games want you to explore their STORY, and the two are deeply linked.

The story in souls games is hidden- in item descriptions (which you may not find), in character dialogue (if you find THEM), in subtle changes to the world after you've met certain seemingly arbitrary conditions.

The story is hard to find and hard to piece together because these games are about exploration. They want you to go back, check side passages, engage curiosities.

But it doesn't end there! It's not just the physical space and the story!

It's the combat as well.

These games have different tools and different damage types, and- though it's communicated pretty subtly- the enemies in these games respond drastically differently to different approaches and damage types, in ways that become consistent as you begin to learn the pattern.

As an example from Demon's Souls, the Skeletons in the Archstone of the Shadowmen are IMPRESSIVELY weak to Blunt.

These are not games that want you to make one build and stick to it. These are games that want you to EXPLORE your options.

You hit an enemy and all of a sudden your sword is like tissue paper? The game wants you to explore. Is this enemy weak to fire? Magic? Poison? Should you kite it with ranged attacks?

You might have to die 5 times (fail forward!), but each time you might say: "not this!"

So that's mental shift number two; the physical space, the story, the combat... these are games about exploration-

and also about the satisfaction that comes when you've done the work and now deeply, intuitively understand.

The third (and I think final for tonight) mental shift these games ask you to make is to realize:

Souls games are not singleplayer games. And I'm not even referring to summoning phantoms to help, or invading black phantoms.

Souls games are OFFLINE CO-OP GAMES.

(What??)

These games are hard. You can miss a lot in any given playthrough- maybe even entire characters. You may reach a boss and only have a certain subset of options available.

This may be just faith but I truly believe:

These games want you to talk to other players about them.

Outside of the game, to be clear- but consider even the in-game multiplayer options, and how infuriatingly "imperfect" they are!

Do you have a friends-list of friends you can co-op with? Are the messages written in clear language? Absolutely not!

When I first played Demon's Souls a decade ago, I was going it alone and bounced off it.

When Bloodborne came out, I picked it up and discussed with my friends every step of the way, sharing tips and tricks and hints and commiserating- and WOW what a different experience.

I'm on another playthrough of Bloodborne now and leaning heavily on the community wiki- which I also dipped into from time to time when I got frustrated in Demon's Souls.

Exploring these games reveals a small amount of information to each player which many people need, and that drives those players to discuss, congregate, and form resources and communities around them. I also think of features like Minecraft's original recipe-less crafting.

At their heart, I truly believe these games are intentionally hard and obscure at least partly IN ORDER TO push players together.

So the third mental shift here really is: IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE; BRING FRIENDS.

And listen. In absence of friends, the wiki is just fine.

So that's my pitch for Souls games, and how you might adjust your mental models to enjoy them a little better.

"Steven," you might say, "that all sounds like bull. None of that sounds very fun, and it sounds super punishing. I'm not convinced."

So here at the end I'm here to tell you:

That's okay. The FUN of these games, for me (and I think for many!) is the feeling of deeply wrestling with these success-neutral systems, figuring out my advantages, discussing with friends, reading theories online, and finally- FINALLY!

*sigh of relief*

Succeeding. Because WOW that success tastes sweet to me when it's earned through the efforts I described above.

These games don't let you win.

*You win them.*

But! That doesn't have to be your thing. If you're not convinced yet, that's okay. I haven't always loved these games, and I don't love ALL of these games. Some that offer similar experiences that just miss the mark for me and my proclivities, and it's okay if that's you.

But I hope- if you've read this whole UNEXPECTEDLY MASSIVE thread-

That by the end of it I've given you some new things to think about for your potential playthrough, or a new insight into WHY some people might love these infuriating contraptions.

Have a lovely evening!