How FromSoftware Shaped – But Didn’t Own – the Soulslike Genre

Over the last decade, the word “Soulslike” has gone from niche forum slang to a mainstream genre label. It’s used in store tags, marketing blurbs, and reviews for everything from 2D platformers to sci‑fi action RPGs. At the center of that conversation is FromSoftware, the studio behind Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. Yet even as the term has spread, the studio’s leadership has been notably hesitant to claim they “invented” the genre at all.

This article explores how FromSoftware helped define the Soulslike template, why its creators are wary of the label, and how other developers have taken those ideas in new directions. It draws inspiration from interviews and coverage of the studio’s work, but reorganizes and expands those ideas into a broader look at the design, culture, and legacy of Soulslikes.

What Do Players Actually Mean by “Soulslike”?

Unlike official genre labels such as “action RPG” or “MMO,” the term Soulslike emerged organically from players and critics. There’s no single authoritative definition, but most games tagged as Soulslikes share several recognizable traits.

Common Design Pillars

• Deliberate, stamina-based combat: Encounters emphasize timing, spacing, and resource management over button-mashing.
• Meaningful death and recovery: Dying usually drops a key currency at the spot of your demise; reaching that spot again lets you recover it.
• Interconnected worlds: Levels often loop back on themselves with shortcuts rather than being linear corridors.
• Sparse, environmental storytelling: Narrative is conveyed through item descriptions, level layout, and vague NPC dialogue.
• High challenge, perceived fairness: Games are tough but structured so that players can learn and adapt rather than rely on luck.

These elements map onto broader design discussions in game studies, such as how difficulty and failure can create a sense of mastery when communicated clearly to players. Academic work on game difficulty notes that players tolerate harsh penalties if they feel those penalties are predictable and under their control, rather than arbitrary punishment.¹

FromSoftware’s Role: Popularizer, Not Sole Inventor

FromSoftware did not invent challenging action RPGs, nor was it the first to use mechanics like losing currency on death or looping level design. Older titles such as Rogue, Castlevania, and certain arcade games experimented with unforgiving systems decades earlier. What FromSoftware did achieve was to combine a set of ideas into a distinctive, cohesive style—and bring it into the mainstream.

The Turning Point: Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls

Demon’s Souls and especially Dark Souls established a model for modern Soulslikes:

• Checkpoints that fully reset enemies but allow fast recovery and experimentation.
• A currency that functions as both experience and money, dropped on death.
• Level designs that twist and reconnect, offering a sense of place rather than just a sequence of stages.
• Minimalist, often ambiguous storytelling that trusts players to piece together the lore.

Players and critics gravitated toward the uniqueness of this formula, and the name “Soulslike” naturally attached itself to anything similar. But in interviews, key creative voices at the studio have emphasized they see themselves as part of a lineage, not the origin point. That reluctance to claim ownership reflects a broader industry reality: game genres are cumulative, built over decades by many contributors.

Why FromSoftware Pushes Back on Ownership

There are several reasons creators might resist being credited with inventing a genre:

• Respect for predecessors: Many design ideas in Soulslikes draw from older Japanese and Western titles, including tabletop RPGs and earlier action games.
• Creative flexibility: If a studio is locked to a genre label, expectations harden. Developers may feel boxed in by what fans think a “Soulslike” must be.
• Industry culture: Game development is intensely collaborative across studios and regions. Claiming to “own” a genre can feel like erasing that shared history.

Game design writing often stresses that genres evolve collectively: new titles respond to existing conventions, subvert them, or recombine them with other influences.² FromSoftware’s stance aligns with that perspective.

Core Soulslike Principles: How They Work in Practice

To understand why Soulslikes resonate—and why so many studios borrow from them—it helps to break down a few key principles and how they affect the player experience.

1. Failure as a Learning Tool

Soulslikes are built around the assumption that you will die. A lot. Rather than treating failure as a dead end, they treat it as a feedback loop:

• You encounter a new enemy or trap.
• You die, losing your accumulated currency.
• You now know the threat, and you must decide whether to risk returning for your lost resources.

This loop leverages a well-documented psychological cycle of challenge, failure, and mastery in games, where repeated attempts with clear feedback can fuel intrinsic motivation.³ The harshness of the penalty heightens tension, but its consistency gives players confidence that they can improve.

2. Ambiguous Storytelling and Player Imagination

Soulslikes often rely on “environmental storytelling.” Instead of cutscenes or lengthy exposition, they present:

• Ruined architecture that hints at a fallen civilization.
• Cryptic NPC monologues that reference unseen events.
• Item descriptions that provide fragments of backstory.

This design echoes broader transmedia storytelling principles: fragmented narratives encourage communities to collaborate on interpretation, creating a sense of shared discovery.⁴ For many, deciphering the lore becomes as engaging as mastering the combat.

3. Interconnected Worlds and Spatial Memory

One of the most distinctive features of Soulslikes is their interconnected map design. Instead of moving from Level 1 to Level 2 in a straight line, players explore a world that:

• Loops back on itself, revealing shortcuts that recontextualize earlier areas.
• Contains multiple possible progression routes rather than a single path.
• Rewards careful observation with secret passages and optional bosses.

The result is a strong sense of place. Players build a mental map and feel rewarded when they unlock a shortcut that proves the world is coherent. This aligns with level design principles seen in other genres, where strong spatial structure supports player orientation and satisfaction.⁵

From Dark Castles to Open Fields: Elden Ring and Beyond

With Elden Ring, FromSoftware applied Soulslike ideas to an open-world structure. This changed the feel of the experience while preserving core values.

Maintaining a Soulslike Identity in an Open World

In Elden Ring, players can explore a large map freely, but key elements remain:

• Checkpoints (Sites of Grace) that restore resources and reset enemies.
• Major legacy dungeons that echo classic Souls interconnected design.
• Tough boss encounters that gate certain progress paths.
• Optional content that rewards curiosity rather than checklist completion.

What changes is the pacing of difficulty. Instead of being stuck for hours on a single boss, players can ride away, explore another region, and return stronger. This approach addresses long-standing debates about accessibility and difficulty without abandoning the series’ identity.

Contrast: Focused Action in Sekiro

Where Elden Ring leans into RPG flexibility, Sekiro doubles down on action. It removes traditional leveling systems and equipment-based builds in favor of a single, agile protagonist. This provides an instructive contrast:

This illustrates why FromSoftware is wary of a constricting genre label. Even within their own catalog, games experiment with the formula in different directions.

How Other Studios Interpret Soulslike Design

As Soulslikes gained popularity, other developers began to integrate similar design ideas into their own projects. The result is a broad spectrum of games that are “Soulslike” to varying degrees.

Key Trends in Soulslike-Inspired Games

• 2D Soulslikes: Platformers that adapt stamina-based combat and checkpoint systems to side-scrolling worlds.
• Sci‑fi Soulslikes: Games that transplant Soulslike mechanics into futuristic settings with robotic enemies and advanced technology.
• Hybrid systems: Action RPGs that keep traditional quest structures but borrow elements like punishing death penalties or intricate boss design.

Industry coverage and market analyses highlight Soulslikes as a recognizable niche within the broader action RPG space, influencing design across indie and AAA titles.⁶

Innovation vs. Imitation

Not all Souls-inspired titles are equally successful. Some copy surface features—such as high difficulty—without capturing the subtle fairness and clarity that makes FromSoftware’s work compelling. Others innovate by:

• Introducing new movement systems, like grappling hooks or parkour.
• Reworking death mechanics to avoid heavy currency loss.
• Emphasizing accessibility options while maintaining challenge.

The healthiest direction for the genre is evolutionary rather than derivative: treating Soulslike conventions as tools, not a checklist.

Why Soulslikes Inspire Such Strong Community Culture

FromSoftware’s games and their Soulslike cousins generate unusually active communities. This is partly due to their difficulty, but also to how they structure discovery and knowledge.

Shared Knowledge and Player-Led Teaching

Soulslikes rarely spell out all their mechanics. As a result, players often:

• Share build tips and boss strategies online.
• Create detailed wikis documenting items, quests, and endings.
• Organize challenge runs that stretch the games’ systems to their limits.

This collaborative culture mirrors broader findings on how complex games create informal learning communities, where players teach each other advanced strategies and concepts.⁷

Player-Driven Lore Interpretation

Because Soulslikes present story fragments rather than explicit narratives, fans have room to interpret:

• Timeline theories connecting different locations and factions.
• Speculation on ambiguous character motivations.
• Fan art and fiction that fill in gaps between in-game events.

Developers can lean into this by leaving deliberate ambiguities. That sense of mystery contributes to long-term engagement, as players continue debating interpretations years after release.

Challenges and Critiques of the Soulslike Label

While the popularity of Soulslikes is undeniable, the label itself isn’t without problems—for both players and developers.

The Risk of Narrow Expectations

When any difficult action game is labeled a Soulslike, subtle differences in design philosophy can be overlooked. This can lead to:

• Player frustration: Fans expecting a “true” Soulslike may be disappointed by a more forgiving or story-driven experience.
• Developer pigeonholing: Studios may feel pressure to mimic specific mechanics to meet genre expectations.
• Critical shorthand: Reviews might compare every tough game to Dark Souls, even when the inspiration lies elsewhere.

Difficulty vs. Accessibility

Soulslikes sit at the center of an ongoing debate about difficulty and accessibility, including whether games should offer adjustable difficulty settings or alternative modes. Research into accessibility in games highlights the importance of inclusive design and assistive features—such as remappable controls, subtitles, and visual cues—without undermining core challenge.⁸

Some Soulslikes experiment with:

• Assist tools like AI companions or optional buffs.
• Subtle difficulty tuning via side content and progression routes.
• Robust accessibility settings for input and visual clarity.

This experimentation suggests the genre can adapt without losing its identity as a space for demanding, skill-based play.

Looking Forward: The Future of Soulslike Design

The Soulslike label may remain fuzzy, but the design conversations it sparked are unlikely to fade. Studios are already testing new boundaries for the formula.

Possible Directions for Evolution

• More systemic open worlds: Expanding on Elden Ring with worlds that react more dynamically to player choices.
• Cooperative and competitive twists: Deeper integration of multiplayer systems that build on the asynchronous hints and invasions pioneered by FromSoftware.
• Narrative experimentation: Soulslike mechanics applied to more character-driven or dialogue-heavy stories.
• Accessibility-forward Soulslikes: Games that preserve meaningful failure while offering varied ways to engage with difficulty.

Crucially, the healthiest path forward is one where no single studio is seen as the sole authority. FromSoftware’s catalog will continue to influence the landscape, but the genre’s future depends on reinterpretation and expansion by many voices.

Quick FAQ: Soulslikes and FromSoftware’s Influence