More Souls-Like: Why Every Game Developers are Now Following the Elden Ring Formula?

More Dark Souls­-like games have popped up over the past few years to the point that a whole new game genre has been developed around games following a similar formula as Dark Souls or Bloodborne.

The release of Elden Ring in 2022, and its subsequent Shadow of the Erdtree rollout this year, has only further solidified how more developers are seen following the FromSoftware approach to difficulty.

But why?

Offer Gamers Harder Challenges

One notable trend currently growing in gaming communities is players looking for well-thought-out challenges rather than just making enemies faster or having larger health bars.

The Dark Souls/Demon's Souls' approach of constant difficulty provides varying and unique experiences on their journey as each gameplay varies in challenges and ease depending on how the player approaches the game.

For game developers looking to make their combat mechanics more dynamic, this approach has become more popular to appeal to people wanting more freedom in combat.

Bigger Risk/Reward System

In the same manner, Souls­-like games often offer players big reward opportunities with an even bigger risk.

While some players may see this approach to be too punishing, the "risk-over-reward" approach is giving games more attention as more people talk about its difficulty or the challenges players must first clear before reaching the reward. Sort of boasting privileges.

This can be seen with certain games being the so-called "Dark Souls" of the genre or series, encouraging more players to test their skills on this notorious game.

Reinventing Open-World Genre

Much like how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has spawned various copies based on its open-world exploration mechanics, Elden Ring and Dark Souls are providing developers new ways to reinvent the open-world genre.

Instead of simply checking boxes in the missions list and being "story-locked" on most endgame areas, Souls-like games are encouraging back-tracking and more freedom over their journey.

This means that players can suddenly wind up in the final area of the game or discover difficult opponents in hidden places, all of which are available for exploration as soon as they start the game.