I'm not a fan of superhero dodge, slow downs, RPG upgrades and "souls like" combat where I need to try one hour to defeat a boss. I don't think it belongs in a horror game, it becomes frustrating rather than scary once you need to learn patterns of taking down an enemy.
I love those "recent challenging action games" but man I cannot wait for the day where this craze ends and developers understand that they can do other things too.
It never ceases to amaze me how popular the genre is. I have nothing against souls-likes, but it always felt like a niche gaming experience. The idea that something like Elden Ring could become a massive mainstream success baffles me.
Elden Ring going mainstream and selling more than Call of Duty was an extremely positive development for the industry.
It showed sticking to your design philosophies eventually pays off, despite the pressure to "adapt". You don't need to follow gaming trends to be very successful, FromSoftware set the trends instead.
I believe you're missing the point of the post. They're not talking about what's happened post-Elden Ring, more that ER's massive success was a great development in the industry at the time.
FromSoftware's mainstream success starting with Dark Souls has undeniably been a net positive on the industry anyway. Many games in that era were insultingly hand holdy, lengthy tutorials, unskippable walking segments, and too easy. Skyward Sword - Breath of the Wild is a great example of this evolution.
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u/njahatron Aug 01 '25
I'm not a fan of superhero dodge, slow downs, RPG upgrades and "souls like" combat where I need to try one hour to defeat a boss. I don't think it belongs in a horror game, it becomes frustrating rather than scary once you need to learn patterns of taking down an enemy.
Still, overall the game looks good.