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GameSpot: History of Soulsborne Games

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


To celebrate the launch of From Software's Elden Ring, we chart the history of the Soulsborne games, from the early success of Demon's Souls and breakout hit Dark Souls, as well as its sequels, to Bloodborne, a spin-off that is regarded as one of the best games ever made, and Elden Ring, a collaboration between Hidetaka Miyakazi and George R. R. Martin. #eldenring

It’s hard to overstate the impact From Software has had on gaming. From birthing its own genre to acting as the inspiration for countless developers, the studio’s games have not only left their mark on how games are designed but also how players interact with them. To celebrate the release of the studio’s latest title, Elden Ring, here’s the history of Soulsborne games.

In the above video, we chart the history of From Software, and how Hidetaka Miyazaki took its games in bold new directions. Beginning with King's Field, the spiritual predecessor to the Souls games and then charting the course of the series from there. We also take an in-depth look at the creation of Demon's Souls and the daring ideas that Miyakazi brought to the game, which Sony deemed too difficult, and bombed at release, before coming a cult hit in the West. From there, we take a look at the enormous success of Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, and Dark Souls III, and the communities that sprung up to mine every last secret from the games. While we don't linger too long on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, as it's not typically considered a Soulsborne game, we do delve into Bloodborne, and chart the evolution of From Software's approach to game design and how it's changed over the years in the lead up to Elden Ring.

Elden Ring launches on February 25, 2022 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

00:25 - King’s Field (1994)
01:20 - Demon’s Souls (2009)
07:27 - Dark Souls (2011)
11:51 - Dark Souls II (2014)
14:27 - Bloodborne (2015)
17:46 - Dark Souls III (2016)
20:16 - Elden Ring (2022)
 

GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
Pretty cringe they went with the forum term Soulsborne even though Bloodborne is my favourite instalment.

What about Sekiro and Elden Ring?

Just call them Souls games and stop trying be edgy.
 
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why couldn't we call them souls games instead of soulsborne

Pretty cringe they went with the forum term Soulsborne even though Bloodborne is my favourite instalment.

What about Sekiro and Elden Ring?

Just call them Souls games and stop trying be edgy.
Go Away Reaction GIF


Anyway.....great video, thanks for posting. I was initiated by Demon's Souls when it came out on PS3, but never played Dark Souls until last year. Bloodborne is my favorite overall; I just really love the Lovecraftian vibe and the aggressive combat. It's amazing to see how far they've come and Friday can't arrive soon enough.
 

jakinov

Member
Go Away Reaction GIF


Anyway.....great video, thanks for posting. I was initiated by Demon's Souls when it came out on PS3, but never played Dark Souls until last year. Bloodborne is my favorite overall; I just really love the Lovecraftian vibe and the aggressive combat. It's amazing to see how far they've come and Friday can't arrive soon enough.
If Elden Ring becomes your favorite too lets keep appending to the genre and call it Soulsdenborne
 

jakinov

Member
Why does this matter? The OP posts a cool video and your first reaction is to post some weird, petty shit about genre nomenclature.
Because I think that’s it’s silly that the term expanded to include a reference to a game. How is it petty to ask why something happened, I think the new term floating around is dumb and what point to do we stop? You replied to me by posting a gif trying to say you ignoring me so I’m just replying by teasing you further about the naming.

In regards to the video, people comment differently, they think differently and have different levels of knowledge. I already know the history more or less and all the videos that come from these bigger companies with YouTube channels are usually somewhat high production value with more or less accurate content. What stands out to me personally is after hearing the term “souls-like” used in so many reviews over the years that now we’ve appended a game with a single entry to the term. So yes that’s my first reaction when I saw the video.
 
Because I think that’s it’s silly that the term expanded to include a reference to a game. How is it petty to ask why something happened, I think the new term floating around is dumb and what point to do we stop? You replied to me by posting a gif trying to say you ignoring me so I’m just replying by teasing you further about the naming.

In regards to the video, people comment differently, they think differently and have different levels of knowledge. I already know the history more or less and all the videos that come from these bigger companies with YouTube channels are usually somewhat high production value with more or less accurate content. What stands out to me personally is after hearing the term “souls-like” used in so many reviews over the years that now we’ve appended a game with a single entry to the term. So yes that’s my first reaction when I saw the video.
Fair enough. I guess I just didn't realize this was a thing people wanted to "stand up" against. Seems arbitrary to me, just like "metroidvania" or the myriad of other buzz words thrown around in the industry.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


With the new Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, announced, we took it upon ourselves to rank every FromSoftware DLC from Dark Souls and Bloodborne from worst to best. Check out how our list ranks up and tell us in the comments what you think are the best SoulsBorne DLC.
 
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