Hecatom

So.
There is a supposed leak that says that Microsoft is planning to bring all their games to PS5.
Basically giving up on exclusives altogether,

8 hours ago, Chadouken said:

I want to play a souls -like metroidvania.

Soulslikes are already 3d metroidvanias 🤷‍♂️

1 hour ago, Lantis said:

Hard to believe Fall Guy bombed so badly. It had all the right ingredients too

Most movies are bombing nowdays 😕
I think Boy kill World also did poorly, which sucks ass, because those 2 are high quality action films (Speaking purely on the action element)

We need more of those, that are not part of a cinematic universe/comic book movie or that are sequels.

I have to say, that to this day, the matches on P4A are always hype to watch.
I am glad that the community is still active.
 

On the topic of Genres/Subgenres.

I would say that is more easy to see them as something that grow naturally as we get more  exponents within a genre.

Once you have a good amount within a genre with similar conventions you can say that it can become necessary to have a label to make a distinction between them and other exponents.

 

3 minutes ago, Darc_Requiem said:

I've seen people call Stellar Blade a Souls-like game and I don't just don't see it. I mean maybe at the very beginning before you unlock a lot the skill tree, but I still think that's  a stretch. Of course I only played the original Demon Souls and a little bit of Dark Souls, so my recollection could be off. I'm hardly a top tier gamer and Stellar Blade doesn't seem difficult enough to draw that comparison.

There will always be people who will misuse the labels and try to slap it on everything that remotely resembles the genre they are talking about. Which you can say, defeats the purpose of having genres, since makes it difficult to communicate properly what we are grouping on the collection we are making a genre.

Is something that I see happen often on the metal scene.

It doesn't help that people don't understand the differences between Meta Genres, Genres, Sub Genres, Themes/Sound, etc.

Keeping it with the music thing.

On metal, you see people saying that Viking metal is a genre.

When it is really a theme that can be found on multiple bands across different genres.
The same with White Metal.
Or how Melodic/Symphonic are not genres, but sounds that a band/song can have within a genre/sub genre.
The same how Progressive is a meta genre, that can be a qualitative indicative of the type of song writing that is independent of the genres.

Hence why we can have something like
Progressive Orchestral Symphonic White-Roman Power-Blackened Death Metal 🤣

Sounds dumb.
But you usually only bother to go this far when going for specifics.

And most of the time, there are better ways to make it more simple to understand when typifying subjects, depending of the notations/presentation you have within the communities, sites, etc

For many people just saying Prog death will suffice.
For others, you can say Prog death with Symphonic elements.

And for people that want to know the types of lyrics, you could go and add the white (aka christian) roman part.

Convoluted, maybe, but you go as far is needs to depending of how much is needed depending of the context.
 

8 hours ago, RSG3 said:

So is Dragons Dogma a Souls-Like?

I say no.
The 3d world is way more open ended than any of the souls/borne games.
The combat options are way more robust and open for the player.
The monster encounters are less tough in general imo.
They share some elements dues being action games, but the over all vibe of the game is rather distinct.

Most souls games have other elements tied to them besides the stamina bar.
Those conventions make the "genre" rather obvious.

Kind of how when you can tell a game has the conventions of a character action game has, like DMC and Bayo.
Or how a Musou has certain elements that make them obvious.

Yes, the souls like term is at times thrown on games that don't really have much to do with what with most people will say is a soulslike game, but that doesn't mean that there are certain conventions tied to the games that make them unique and easy to identify.

Heck, even on the character action game, you can have 2 branches depending if the game is more like Bayo/DMC or if the game is more like God of War.

The thing with genres is that while they have defining features, you can play with them and explore them in different directions.

Soulslikes after all are Action RPGs for the most part (And with Sekiro, we can say the RPG element can be optional).
But is how their elements have been codified in a group of games that makes them very distinct from other action rpgs that has made them a genre on themselves.

Hence why it is made a distinction between them and other action RPGs.
Since is more easy to make clear what kind of action RPGs we are talking about.

If I just say that I like ARPGs, but I am talking something like FFXVI which has more in common with DMC than with BloodBorne, if I am asking recommendations for more ARPGs and just get Soulslike games, I wouldn't necessarily find those recommendations useful.

2 hours ago, Darc_Requiem said:

Souls-lke is the new Metroidvania. @RSG3has a point. It gets slapped onto too many games to the point of the descriptor being meaningless. Is the game 3D with slightly unforgiving combat? Souls Like. Do you have to save at camp sites? Souls Like. *shrugs*

I think most people would agree that souls like is a game with
Stamina
Slow paced fights
A some what limited combat options when compared to a character action game like DMC/Bayo
RPG elements (but not always)
Emphasis on exploration (A 3d metroidvania if you will)
Tough encounters
(Optional) Most if not all enemies towering over you to give the David vs Goliath vibe.

At least from that tweet, I feel that it is what is meant to be.

If we go to Steam, you will find that most action games nowdays have a lot of those elements on them.
Which is fine to me, but I can see how fans of other type of action games will feel burned out.

Went to see this one yesterday.
Is a nice action flick to go to see with the lady.

It has both really good action, comedy and a romance story with "literally me" for the ladies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwTe97lyvZw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSjxZ5RFDBA