At times, I need to remind myself that I embody a cliché, drawn into writing about games after I vanquished Dark Souls’ Gwynn, Lord Of Cinder and sat in silence for a moment before telling myself, “Hit me, come on, hit me!”. No, I wasn’t alright. Yet, my perception of games transformed in that small university room: they could be conquered, not merely finished. FromSoftware’s grim fantasy realms, with their intricate puzzle-box designs and drooling inhabitants, heralded the “Soulslike” genre as other creators aimed to capitalize on masochists like myself.
Here I stand, still a masochist, still an enthusiast of Souls and/or ‘like, but who gazes at the current offerings and thinks, “Please, someone hit me”. These games have plateaued, to the extent that it seems we are all anticipating FromSoftware to emerge from the mist and deliver a beating unlike anything we’ve previously experienced.