[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and have you ever bought an entire system for a specific Soulslike?

4 days ago by Druid to c/soulslike

I haven't played any soulslikes recently but am thinking of playing some. Don't know which. Kinda not feeling lately.

Between console exclusives, like Demon Is Souls™ or 2 Blood 2 Borne, or general lack of systems to play these games on, have you ever bought an entire system for one specific soulslike? Back when the PS5 launched, I've heard of many a fan who bought the console for Demon's Souls alone. It is kind of a system seller - same goes for Bloodborne. Maybe a Switch 2 to finally play Lies of P on? Or an Xbox 360 for the original Dark Souls back when it launched?

Keen on hearing your experiences?

caseyweederman 4 points 2 days ago

I bought a cheap second-hand PS3 to play Demons' Souls on private servers.
I should see if those are still up.

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astar26 4 points 4 days ago

Going for Mortal Shell 2 this weekend.

And as for a system I actually bought my ps5 for elden ring (among other things, but this was the concrete goal). My. Gaming pc was really aging at the time and didn't have the room for a full desktop, so went for consoles just to keep it simple.

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MissingInteger 3 points 2 days ago

It could be argued that I bought my Steam Machine just to play modded Elden Ring?

That's not the entire truth but 75% of my entire playtime on my Steam Machine is Elden Ring Randomizer (most of the rest is vanilla Elden Ring).

Speaking of which: I'm addicted to Elden Ring Randomizer. I'm now doing my second RL1 playthrough with slightly tweak settings and a new seed and I'm getting incredibly lucky; I started with the Ringed Finger and have now for the first time in a Randomizer found Death's Poker (and it's just as busted as I remember).

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v4ld1z 3 points 2 days ago

Whenever you gush about Elden Ring, I have a feeling of FOMO, and I meant to ask you before: how exactly do you manage to come back to the game over and over again and still find enjoyment in it? I'd really love to like the game at least a little bit like you do, but I have so many issues with it. Sure, tastes are different and I don't have to love every game I play but still. Any tips?

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MissingInteger 2 points 3 hours ago

Variety. The variety of ways I can engage with the game.

Many Souls are about the master of moment-to-moment gameplay. And Elden Ring is also definitely one of them. I can now pretty confidently have a no-hit parry fight with a Crucible Knight or a Bell-Bearing Hunter. But Elden Ring is also about choosing between a myriad of options outside and before fights. Where do I go next? Why would I go there? And then choosing between all your options in your toolkit for a fight. There isn't one definitive best option. It all depends on what you have access to and your capabilities in moment-to-moment gameplay.

On the other hand, Elden Ring has now become my comfort game. I know it so well, and this immense game knowledge flows perfectly into my points above to make each playthrough, heck, each play session, a fun one.

I don't know how helpful my description of what draws me back to Elden Ring again and again is in serving as a tip? But maybe you can glean something from it.

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Kolanaki 3 points 3 days ago

I got a PS5 just because I wanted both the Demon Souls Remake and Bloodborne, and since I had unexpectedly gotten about $1200 from the state of California for something related to Covid, I had the money to burn to do it.

Got platinum in Bloodborne; haven't beaten Demon Souls yet.

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v4ld1z 2 points 3 days ago

Now that's a windfall. You gotta go back and finish DeS though. It was a little tedious at times, but I did enjoy my time with it overall

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Kolanaki 3 points 3 days ago

Believe me, I would if I could. I keep running into a bug where the gimmick dragon boss won't even let me get down the hallway to the room with the levers. There's no alcoves or anything to hide behind and you can't just use iframes to dodge the fire he breathes at me. Everything I have looked at trying to figure out what I am doing wrong suggests it shouldn't even be breathing fire at me until I am pretty much in the circular room at the end of the hall.

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gastroglizzy 3 points 4 days ago

Lies of P is available on other consoles besides Switch 2. Of all the consoles on which it's available, Switch 2 offers the worst experience.

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition runs at 30 fps on consoles. PC CD keys used to be available on G2A and GOG. If you can find one, installing the DSFix mod lets you play at 60 fps and puts the graphical quality on par with the remaster. The remaster is just PTDE with DSFix and a few other quality of life mods baked in.

PTDE with DSFix is my preferred way to play DS1, but way more people play the remaster and there's no crossplay, so multiplayer basically doesn't exist on it (although some people may argue this is a benefit).

I bought the Demon's Souls remaster on PS5. It was good, but I think I slightly prefer the original. To me, the janky look is part of the atmosphere and the appeal. But, again, the OG Demon's Souls servers are offline so no multiplayer is possible on that version, but DS multiplayer is.... well, if you know, you know.

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eyelevel 2 points 3 days ago

Currently finishing up a first run-through of Black Myth Wukong. Not sure if I'm going to play any NG+ cycles of it, though. The game is meant to be played several times to unlock all of the content, but I've been kinda disappointed with it overall. Many things are done incredibly well, like the atmosphere and level design are super engaging, but the combat is kinda repetitive, and you can button-mash your way past most bosses, rather than having to learn their moves. I might try installing a mod to increase the enemy health and see if that makes the combat any more engaging.

As for buying consoles, once upon a time my then-girlfriend-now-wife bought me a used PS4 because I kept whining about how I couldn't play Bloodborne on PC. A bit later, I think I used it to play the Last of Us and Demon Souls, too. All of those were great, and games I've played many times since.

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v4ld1z 2 points 3 days ago

I've never touched Wukong before, and I likely won't, but I'm sorry to hear that it's not meeting your expectations. But it kinda makes sense that the bosses aren't as challenging as it's not exactly meant to be a soulslike but more of a character action game, right? It's got some elements of a soulslike but not enough to actually be one is what I'd heard.

That's so nice! Although small caveat: Demon's Souls Remake is a PS5 exclusive. So unless you somehow found a way to play the PS3 version on the PS4, you probably didn't play it on the console. Maybe PlayStation Now or something?

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eyelevel 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I thought Wukong was a souls-like before I bought it; but I'm now finding out it's more of a button-masher. There is a lot to like about it, just not the type of game that I thought it was.

For Demon Souls, I've actually played both the original and the remake. I played the remake on PS5, and I was thinking that I had played the original on PS4 with backwards compatibility. But as I'm writing this now, I think that what actually happened was that my wife bought me the used PS4 for Bloodborne, and then I liked that enough that a bit later I also bought myself a used PS3 for Demon Souls.

I don't think I'll buy another console for any specific games in the future though. Emulators are probably a better choice going forward, and the work that emulator modders are doing is really incredible!

I'm looking forward to doing a future Bloodborne run though an emulator, and I've been thinking of trying that once the character creator is sorted out. From some of the Bloodborne lore videos, it seems like being a female character makes more sense than being a male one, so that would be my preference for the next play-through. Also, I know there are some mods that add a lot of cut content back to the chalice dungeons, and I'm curious to see if any modders might also being working on things that can improve or expand the procedural generation components. Maybe they can put Bloodborne Kart somewhere down there, too!

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v4ld1z 2 points 2 days ago

That makes more sense then :)

Oh yea. I'm thinking about buying a used PS5 just to jailbreak it and use it to play virtually anything I'll set mind to. The emulators running on it aren't as mature yet, like the Xbox (360) emulator for example, but it won't take long for them to get to the needed level. It'll be the emulation console

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eyelevel 2 points 2 days ago

That seems like a smart plan!

With how much the price of PC parts keeps going up, using an all in one system like the PS5 for an emulator base is probably a really good bet. And, considering all the talented designers and artists that the major game studios have been throwing away lately, the future is probably going to be pretty bright for both the emulation and indie game communities!

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