Controversial opinion, but I'd probably pick Dark Souls 1. It's the one I'm most disinterested to play. DS2 is the outsider and has earned its accolades via that alone, plus it's the most experimental DS game, which is cool. DS3 has fun world building and good combat, or rather my preferred speed, so it beats DS1 in that regard too. DS1 wasn't particularly fun to play for me in comparison.

The others are one-ofs and have all brought something truly unique to their catalogue, culminating in ER which is arguably, next to DS1 maybe, the most influential Soulslike in existence.

What's your take?

Setting aside the obvious and superfluous discussion of whether or not these actually are soulslikes, I want to know what your favourite 2D soulslike is.

Think, Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, Nine Sols etc.

Mine would probably be Hollow Knight simply because it's the one I've finished front to back. I haven't achieved 112%, but I never really wanted to pursue that anyways - not that crazy on full completion. I love the world and lore and atmosphere, the combat is really fun and leaves a lot of room for improvement over the course of the game, the design of the world and the characters that reside in it are beautiful and so charming. Can't stop gushing over how amazing Hollow Knight (and Silksong) is.

What's your favourite? Anything that people might not have on their radar? Don't be scared of mislabling a game for fear of backlash - let's have a discussion. :)

I've been playing anything but soulslikes recently. Climbing my way up the ranked ladder in League, played some Darkwood, and recently got obsessed with Pokerogue which has been a lot of fun.

Soulslikes can pose quite a challenge for players with their oftentimes quite brutal difficulty: insane boss patterns that leave no breathing room, high amounts of damage, status damage. Luckily, many bosses allow for strategies that exploit intended as well as unintended weaknesses to make the fights a little more bearable. So following up on @[email protected]'s suggestion, I want to know what your favourite ways to cheese a boss in a Soulslike is.

Cheesing could be a glitch in this case, like glitching out the final boss of the Bloodborne DLC to stop them from attacking or having Gyoubu or a certain hateful spirit jump off a cliff in Sekiro, as well as "intended" cheeses, like chugging consumables and Fable Arts at bosses in Lies of P.

I haven't done it myself, but I always found it incredibly funny to think about that the Capra Demon from DS1, a wall for many new players, can be killed from outside their fog of wall with stones and dung piles. Or a certain simian boss from Sekiro being very weak to the Mortal Draw to a point where he's in a constant stagger animation and just dies without any counterplay.

What are your favourite cheeses?

Publisher Team17 and developer The Game Kitchen have announced Blasphemous II free update “The Third Sin.” It is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Switch, and PC, and will be available for PlayStation 4 at a later date.

“The Third Sin” takes place within a huge and foreboding gothic castle that’s a quarter of the size of the entire Blasphemous II and “Mea Culpa” world maps combined.

“The Third Sin” challenges players to explore and overcome a part of Cvstodia that once served as a refuge for the nobles, until The Miracle wrought devastation within the castle walls. Set across the fortress’s meandering halls, twisting towers, cavernous library, and dank crypt, the expansion also features a gallery allowing players to replay previous bosses, and introduces a new gameplay experience in the form of three Familiars—magical entities that accompany The Penitent One, supporting them in both combat and exploration.

Added to the player’s armory is a new weapon, a blade-tipped whip, enhancing The Penitent One’s move set with a series of standard and special attacks to vanquish foes into dust. Blasphemous II: The Third Sin also includes new prayers, unlockable outfits, five new achievements / trophies, and an additional six music tracks by series composer Carlos Viola to further immerse players into the castle’s uneasy ambience.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=97ydHJeqHi8

Who's looking forward to this?

I've been sick for the past week, so gaming was kinda tough for me in general. Been playing League, as always, and have started Darkwood today (@[email protected]). I like it so far, but it's a very different game from what I expected it to be.

My favourite aesthetic in a soulslike definitely goes to Sekiro. I like its use of colour, I'm a sucker for Japan and its culture, and I think it's definitely the best-looking FromSoft game from a visual-fidelity point of view (next to Elden Ring, maybe). Fountainhead Palace might just be my favourite area in any soulslike I've played.

What about you?

https://www.metacritic.com/game/mina-the-hollower/

From what I've seen, the game is lovingly crafted and is kind of a mix between old-school Zelda titles and open world games like Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring. The developers have stated that they've been inspired by Dark Souls during the development and it shows both in terms of combat as well as exploration.

Have any of you checked this out?

Only half-joking since I am always a little weary of Elden Ring's open world

Edit: s/o to @[email protected] for this weekend's discussion topic 💜

A tale as old as time, League of Legends is a garbage game that I cannot stop playing. At least I also fired up Dishonored for old time's sake which got me a little nostalgic. Neither are soulslikes, sadly.

Inspired by @[email protected]'s post on how the Elden Ring maps match up, I'd like to know what your favourite soulslike theory is. I don't really have any - I leave that to people who know more about the lore of the games. :)

I'm new to Soulslikes and did some research. Apparently, this is the first Dark Souls game that was released for DS. The gameplay looks solid, but from what I've heard, the difficulty of Soulslikes is quite high plus I'm not sure if I'd be down for a DS title at that since the graphics would likely be pretty bad.

Have any of you guys played this? And will I be fine playing this as my first Soulslike?

Appreciate all your thoughts on this - hope I'm not breaking any rules 🙏🏻😊

I was thinking about starting Dark Souls again since my last save got deleted. I'd probably play on PC this time around for convenience. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend. :)

I've got two tattoos and both are kinda related to soulslikes. The first one are two koi fish circling a sunflower against a backdrop of waves. While not originally intended as such, I do love Sekiro a lot, so the koi also represent the big carp in Sekiro who's just really cool.

My second tattoo is quite clearly inspired by soulslikes. It's a blue butterfly with two white lilies under and over it. The butterfly is in reference to the butterflies found in Lies of P as well as a direct nod to Sophia while the white lilies can be found in Gehrman's boss arena in Bloodborne. Love both games, so I was looking for a way to incorporate them both into one tattoo.

Do you have any Soulslike-inspired tattoos? Would you like to share if you do?