Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption
Upcoming Souls-like Games
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption looks rather like a cutesy Dark Souls. Its dark-fantasy art meets an almost chibi-like character aesthetic. But don’t let that fool you into thinking this adventure will be any less brutal. In fact, given that the game is entirely boss fights, each combat encounter is likely to be savagely difficult, testing every scrap of your reflexes and courage earned from years of Souls games.
The clue as to the game’s trump card is in the name. In between each encounter players must sacrifice a stat and level, so rather than gaining power as the game progresses on, you’re instead being worn down. At least you’ll have unlockable weapons to give you an advantage, though.
I quite like the idea of zeroing in on a single feature of the Souls series rather than try to mimic its intricate level design or weave-in a mechanic in which players lose gathered experience for each death. Instead, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is a visceral combat experience that is designed to push your ability to the edge. You’ll face-off with eight unique boss fights in the game, each with their own backstory to keep you invested in the pushing forward, and each presumably ramping in difficulty.
Ashen
Upcoming Souls-like Games
Announced back at E3 2015, Ashen looks like a blend of Dark Souls and Absolver in terms of its minimalist aesthetic. It takes places a bleak world in which the sun’s light has been blocked by volcanic ash, and the gameplay design is heavily inspired by the deliberate, high-stakes combat of the Souls series. But where Dark Souls was mostly about traveling solemnly in isolation, guided only by fleeting interactions with riddle-talking NPCs, Ashen is about forging more substantial relationships along the way. You’ll be given access to a range of skills and upgrades by taking the time to rescue people you meet out in the wilderness and bringing them back to a town, which forms your safe area.
Multiplayer has always been a component of the Souls series, and Ashen is putting a slightly different spin on its own take on co-operative play. Here, there’s a passive multiplayer connection at all times, so you’ll constantly meet other travellers along the way without having to invade or lay down co-operative markers. When you do play cooperatively, other players will sometimes appear as rescued NPCs, with the idea being that it breathes life into their quests and story. It all works by proximity, meaning that if you choose not to engage or cooperate, putting distance between each other removes the connection, and you’ll then walk into another players server. You’ll also be able to matchmake with friends if you prefer.
Ashen is coming in 2018 to PC and Xbox One.
Dungeonhaven
Upcoming Souls-like Games
Of all our upcoming Souls-like games here, Dungeonhaven certainly looks as though its design and aesthetic is most heavily inspired by FromSoftware’s iconic series. The bleak dungeons and dark-fantasy design look right out a Miyazaki concept art-book, and the combat is quite clearly classic Souls. But Dungeonhaven is bringing something new to the table. Here, players won’t use a shield to block incoming attacks, they’ll instead turn to stone, which freezes movement entirely but completely protects from incoming damage.
It is explained that the Earth Core, a manifestation of a living dungeon, has called a knight out of the stone, tasking them with draining the powers from the other living dungeons so that she can possess them all. Players will navigate different dungeons, each with their own elements to drain and control, presumably acquired by defeating a boss. So there won’t just be a single trick to differentiate it from Souls, with what we can assume are offensive abilities one can use to keep traditional melee combat feeling fresh throughout.
Dungeonhaven is scheduled to launch in 2019, and this ambitious project is only being worked on by a studio number just two individuals.
Code Vein
Upcoming Souls-like Games
“Prepare to Dine,” Bandai Namco’s Code Vein makes no apologies for looking to capture the Dark Souls audience with its own blood-sucking iteration on the formula. The dystopian action-RPG features the same sort of dark narrative themes and the unforgiving combat of the Souls series, except here things have a distinct anime feel about them. The plot centers around a hidden society of vampires called Revenants, and your time will be spent navigating dungeons and killing enemies for Blood Veils (think souls), which can be used to upgrade attacks. Leaning too heavily into your bloodlust, however, will see your character lose his mind, turning into a ghoulish “Lost,” void of humanity.
Early preview impressions put the pace of combat as somewhere in between Dark Souls and Bloodborne —slightly faster than the Dark Souls 3 but more measured than the intensity of Bloodborne. From what we’ve seen in gameplay videos, the spectacle of special attacks and the blood splatter of fallen enemies has been dialed-up in anime fashion, and that’s a cool point of difference we can’t wait to see more of. Let’s hope it mimics anime with respect to story, too, with a meaty narrative that drives players forward beyond just flashy combat.
The Surge 2
Upcoming Souls-like Games
Developer Deck 13 has essentially positioned itself as a Souls-like studio. Its first game, Lords of the Fallen, was a dark fantasy action-RPG that followed a very similar beat the Souls series, both in aesthetic and design. It wasn’t a bad game by any stretch, but it did often feel like a lesser version of FromSoftware’s own series. Deck 13 needed an aesthetic and setting to differentiate itself. Enter The Surge, a sci-fi take on the Souls blueprint.
The Surge 2 already looks like a massive improvement over the original from what we’ve seen so far. Gorgeous graphics and an impressive quality of production catch the eye immediately, but it’s the pace of combat and the variety of different offensive abilities that have us super excited. What we’re hoping is that there’s a better balance of difficulty this time around; a skill-based challenge that feels authentic rather than artificial. Souls games are accomplished because their enemies and level design feel oppressive in a well-thought-out way, whereas The Surge sometimes just felt obnoxious and forced. We’ll have to wait to get our hands on it before we can tell if that nuance has been achieved this time around.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Upcoming Souls-like Games
We couldn’t really write a list of upcoming Souls-like games without mentioning FromSoftware’s upcoming title, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Of course, Miyazaki himself won’t appreciate the inclusion on the list since the developer has been careful to distance the new game from Dark Souls. And, indeed, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice certainly doesn’t look as though it’s going to be following the same mold. There’s a heavier emphasis on story, more fluid traversal, and it abandons the loss of experience upon death mechanic of the Souls series. Well, sort of… Sekiro has its own take on that. FromSoftware themselves haven’t detailed that component in too much detail but it centers around the ability to resurrect yourself immediately after death, hence the name Shadows Die Twice.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of Sekiro purely from a Souls perspective is the combat, which looks like a more arcadey version of FromSoftware’s typical style. In our E3 preview, we noted the hack-and-slash action had the same stamina management and weight to it as Dark Souls, but with a greater intensity that centered around quick movement and parries.
Sekiro doesn’t yet have a release window, though we expect it to release across PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Check out the trailer.
Nioh 2
Upcoming Souls-like Games
Team Ninja’s Nioh is easily the most successful title to base itself on the Souls design, and at E3 2018, a sequel was announced. The reveal took us somewhat by surprise, though it probably shouldn’t have given just how well the game was critically and commercially received. Nioh’s action-RPG combat amped up the pace beyond even that of Bloodborne, and its multiple fighting stances gave a whole new dimension to melee combat. In particular, the game was lauded for its Yokai monster designs and eerie feudal Japan setting.
Basically, we’re salivating at the prospect of getting to play more Nioh and can’t wait to see the game in action for the first time. But that’s about all we can say so far since the brief trailer reveal didn’t give us too many clues and Team Ninja is tight-lipped on characters and settings. Fumihiko Yasuda, director of the original Nioh, has spoken of the sequel as an evolution of the series but “not a dramatic change.” But creative director Tom Lee added that “this time around, the gloves are off. We’re gonna go in hard. The experience is going to be closer to what we really had in mind [the first time].”
We’ve no idea what Lee is referring to but we’re certainly on board!
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