10 Games That SHOULDN'T Have Been Soulslikes

10 Games That Shouldn’t Have Been Soulslikes

Welcome to MojoPlays and we can’t be the only ones longing for the days when every game wasn’t infused with some kind of Soul-Like DNA. As always, we’re not saying these games are bad in any way and if you love a good Soulslike, more power to you. We just miss the good old days of action games simply being action games.

“Stray Blade” (2023)

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: a barren land in which a warrior is mysteriously resurrected and must battle their way through hordes of enemies to save the dying world. Pretty standard Souls-Like fare. However, Stray Blade is at least bright and colorful rather than the usual drab color palette, but that’s about all the game has going for it. Beyond the formulaic setup, the inclusion of Souls-Like combat only further drags down an already mediocre experience. Enemies are uninteresting to fight, the typically strategic Souls combat is extremely simplified, further hindered by an abysmal lock on system that makes exploring the unusually bright environments the only bright spot. Had the developers adopted a combat system more akin to
The Legend of Zelda or even God of War, Stray Blade could have been a decent action game rather than a forgettable Souls-Like.

“Tails of Iron” (2021)

Soul-Likes aren’t only in the 3D space, and while there have been some 2D games that utilized the formula brilliantly while also putting their own spin on it, Tails of Iron doesn’t do quite enough to make the use of the Souls genre worthwhile. The weight of attacks can make them painfully slow and the 2D plane makes boss fights and enemy encounters mundane as the perspective doesn’t allow for a ton of variety in their attack patterns. It’s this lack of variety in encounters that make combat feel tedious alongside your little rodent’s lackluster jump making platforming more of a chore than a core element of gameplay. The fact that a large chunk of the game revolves around combat makes these fights and hunts even more laborious and despite the engaging story, not even Geralt’s dulcet tones may end up being enough for players to make it to the end.

“Lords of the Fallen” (2023)

This one might seem like a strange pick since the original Lords of the Fallen was one of the very first Souls-Like clones, but after almost a decade since that game and the formula being widely adopted by nearly the entire industry, this sequel could have done with a different direction. With a stunningly detailed and dying world, two of them in fact, exploring Lords of the Fallen and uncovering its mysteries is arguably more fun than the game’s combat. Although solid enough, if at times wildly unbalanced, the Souls-Like combat actually hinders the experience here and the game could have benefitted from something more akin to The Legend of Zelda rather than retreading old ground for a series that already didn’t have a rabid fanbase waiting for the franchise to return in the first place.

“The Surge” Series (2017-19)

Deck13 has made quite the name for themselves as one of the OG studios to go all in on the Souls-Like formula, but after Lords of the Fallen failed to find an audience, their follow-up series The Surge would have greatly benefited from taking a different approach to the game’s combat. Everything about The Surge series is well designed, from its lore to level design, and the implementation of gear and upgrades. The games offer players a lot of freedom in crafting their character to suit their playstyle. While certainly an upgrade from their previous game, combat, given everyone is basically a walking cyborg, would have been much more impactful with a more action focused approach. With the main character and enemies, all basically being superhumans with their numerous upgrades, combat should reflect this strength and speed and most likely would have had a broader appeal rather than the niche Souls audience.

“Steelrising” (2022)

Shortly before Lies of P would take the Souls world by storm, another puppet failed to ignite the same firestorm. Despite an intriguing premise as well as location and world building, the game’s combat felt janky, as if the Souls-style was added late in development to try and appeal to the FromSoft fans. There’s still a lot to enjoy about Steelrising, the aforementioned world and lore are very well detailed, and the inclusion of real-world historical figures helps the narrative stand out from what easily could have been a generic steampunk style adventure. The inclusion of an “Assist” mode at least lowers the bar of difficulty for newcomers, but even with this advantage, the game’s combat severely hampers the experience. With its gorgeous environments and alternate history aesthetic, Steelrising probably would have found a bigger audience had they just stuck to delivering a solid action experience rather than a mediocre Souls one.

“Remnant” Series (2019-2023)

The Remnant series has a lot of potential if not for the difficulty barrier holding it back from reaching a broader audience. The adaptation of the Souls formula into a 3rd person shooter is an ambitious one and it’s honestly surprising no one had done it before. In practice, however, there’s no way for the speed necessary to avoid incoming attacks and projectiles can be adapted to this particular style of 3rd person combat. Souls-Like combat is generally full of deliberate dodging and parrying, whereas the shooter mechanics at work here cannot accommodate this level of precision and instead feels like Marcus Fenix from the Gears series was dropped into a Souls game. It just doesn’t gel well. The sequel did make significant improvements in this department, but as a whole probably could have reached more players by focusing on being a solid multiplayer experience rather than a Souls game.

“Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin” (2022)

People have come to expect certain things from any game that carries the Final Fantasy moniker, specifically a rich story, likable characters, and fun, rewarding combat, whether it be traditional turn based or the modern action heavy style. At least Stranger of Paradise got a couple of these right. What they don’t expect however, is to be inundated with near endless loot and gear, as well as combat lifted straight from Team Ninja’s “Nioh” series. While obviously nowhere near as difficult as those games, Stranger of Paradise did suffer from balancing issues as some enemies could crush the players’ health bar as quickly as looking at them, and with so much gear and new weapons, the goal of finding new equipment becomes meaningless as you’re drowning in options. There’s still some fun to be had even with its nonsensical story and cardboard characters, but the experience is Final Fantasy in name only.

“Darksiders III” (2018)

The Darksiders series has always taken inspiration from other franchises, specifically the Legend of Zelda games, but for Darksiders 3, they instead decided to follow the trend of the time and turn the 3rd entry into a Souls-Like. This decision created a massive roadblock for longtime fans who, after becoming accustomed to the series’ combat, were suddenly struggling to get past what should be the tutorial. Everything else about the game was spot on - the characters, the lore, the world and puzzle design were all there for those who could survive the combat. After waiting so long for a continuation of the series with its future being so uncertain, it's a shame the developers so drastically changed the formula of the original two games that was such a hit with fans just to chase the “current thing” sweeping the industry which alienated longtime fans and did nothing to entice newcomers to the franchise.

“Stellar Blade” (2024)

The inspiration for this list, when Stellar Blade was first shown off, it seemed to be reminiscent of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta with flashy combat, over-the-top encounters and moves, and easily would’ve filled the void while we continue to wait for the next DMC game. The truth, however, was that Stellar Blade was in fact a combination of DMC and Dark Souls. With all the hallmarks of a Souls-Like, minus the dreary, decaying world, Stellar Blade lured a lot of unsuspecting players in with its attractive protagonist and what initially appeared to be DMC-inspired combat. While the game is still solid and the Souls elements, especially the combat, are well implemented, we would have loved Stellar Blade to lean more into action heavy combat, only without the Souls-like difficulty which is oftentimes unfairly balanced and can lead to quite a lot of frustration.

“Star Wars Jedi” Series (2019-2023)

We’ll admit this one will be a bit contentious. Even though we’re big fans of the series and the direction Respawn has taken - Cal’s journey is better than anything Disney is doing with the license these days, narratively - the Souls-Like elements just don’t work. Adapting the Souls combat style to a Star Wars game is a surprisingly solid fit, with Cal's numerous lightsabers and different stances each carrying their own weight and strategy. However, it does kind of break the immersion of being a Jedi and getting absolutely bodied by a basic Stormtrooper. The save points also don’t fit into the Star Wars universe. While we love customizing Cal and his abilities, having the enemies simply respawn upon saving doesn’t work within the lore of Star Wars and could have easily been replaced with players watching a drop ship fly off upon exiting a save point rather than every enemy just magically reappearing.

Which game do you wish hadn’t ended up as a Souls-Like? Let us know down in the comments.