Written by: Josh (Double Felix Records)
When I was a 5 year old growing up in the Midwest United States, I was given my first Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). That’s where I developed a love for difficult games early on. I cut my teeth on Ninja Gaiden, Contra (Probotector), Rygar, Castlevania, and so forth. I learned to get good early on.
As consoles evolved, I found that gaming got easier and easier for the most part. It’s not that I continued to get better and better, it’s that games became more cinematic and took away some control and agency from the players. Gaming just no longer offered up the challenge it used to, overall.
Then in 2010, I started reading about a new game called Demon’s Souls. Apparently, it presented a challenge that was often described as “Nintendo-hard.” I knew I had to try it. I went down to GameStop, grabbed a copy, and loaded it up into my PS3. The first time I played, I didn’t make it very far. The game was kind of clunky and obtuse with weird gameplay mechanics. Soul Tendency? World Tendency? What is this nonsense! I put the game down.
Fast forward about a month, and it had firmly rooted itself into my brain. I knew I had to pick it back up and figure out how to get good at it. I made it past the first boss, and the sensation of accomplishment was incredible. I explored all the sections, learned all the mechanics, and figured out all its secrets.
Soon after, Dark Souls was announced and came out. It was, in many ways, a refined spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls. I played through it and absolutely loved it. But I learned a difficult truth along the way: it had ruined gaming for me. The dodging, parrying, and timing just put other narrative-based games to shame. Titles like God of War, Uncharted, etc. were fun, but they just weren’t the same.
Once Bloodborne hit the scene in 2015, the ruin was complete. The gothic setting turned cosmic horror, trick weapons, and ultra-quick gameplay were right up my alley. My wife then decided she wanted to give it a shot. She ended up putting over 600 hours into the game. She was ruined, too. Now she claims she can only truly enjoy games developed by FromSoftware.
My title may seem a bit sensational, but I’ll tie it all together. The first time I heard punk rock, I absolutely hated it. It just sounded like an utter cacophony of noise. But I gave it another shot and it became my favorite genre of music. Souls-likes are just like that. They are initially chaotic and punishing, but once you master the rhythm, nothing else satisfies.