Although we’re a few months away from The Game Awards, players are already debating which of 2025’s heavy hitters deserve to be in the Game of the Year running. Most discussion seems to center on whether or not Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserves it over Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, but one particular fanbase has been quite vocal. FromSoftware loyalists are arguing that Elden Ring: Nightreign deserves to be included in that conversation.
While Elden Ring: Nightreign is incredibly successful in its own right, gamers have been steadfast in their support of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being the best game of 2025 so far. The Game of the Year war between Nightreign, Clair Obscur, and Death Stranding 2 players has devolved into both good and bad faith discussions about the success and failings of their respective games. Of course, when it comes to Elden Ring: Nightreign, the response to criticism, primarily, has been “get good.” If someone has an issue with a game like Nightreign, it doesn’t always mean they aren’t good enough to understand it.
We have to be able to criticize the Soulslike genre.
While this isn’t necessarily an issue exclusive to FromSoftware games, that fanbase has a reputation for being resistant to criticism. FromSoftware fans are loyal to a fault. They love their games for good reason: The Dark Souls franchise is home to some of the best games of all time. But these games aren’t perfect. Ever since the release of Elden Ring, the series has taken a different direction. Some people, myself included, are a bit wary of that direction in terms of difficulty and presentation. Expressing that opinion can put you in fans’ crosshairs.
Here’s a small example: I recently came across a post in Nightreign’s Steam community forum, in which one fan complained that players they were being paired with were bad relative to their own skill. While their criticism isn’t perfect, it is valid. In Nightreign, how well your team can work together directly affects the quality of the run, and in a game without voice chat, being paired with a “bad” player can doom a run. The replies aren’t exactly sympathetic to the criticism. “Sounds like a skill issue on your part,” one reply reads.
Anyone who frequents Soulslike spaces has seen this mantra at least once. I saw it in a Facebook community post, where, on the day after Nightreign’s release, the writer preempted any criticism levied in the game’s direction with, “If you don’t like Nightreign, it’s a skill issue on your part …” Any sort of critique of these games is dismissively waved away by a minority of the most hardcore fans, but this isn’t to say there hasn’t been any pushback within the community.
Nightreign has been widely criticized by fans and critics for its unbalanced difficulty, especially since it was so punishing to play alone at launch. Since the release, FromSoftware has also introduced a Duo mode, but it has struggled with its own balancing issues. In response, FromSoftware has been rolling out patches to improve the experience for solo players. Some believe that specific design issues reveal fundamental flaws, rather than player incompetence. Even though FromSoftware itself has acknowledged its shortcomings with these patches, you will still find some loyalists telling disappointed newcomers and fans that it’s just a skill problem on the player’s end.
Not all difficulty is good difficulty, and just because a game is challenging does not mean it is well-designed. Soulslike games are renowned for their difficulty, but there have been instances where that’s gone too far, creating a rift in the community. One prime example is Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, a DLC so difficult that it took series veterans aback. Many seasoned players quit in frustration, especially because of the final bout with Promised Consort Radahn (before they hard nerfed him, of course).
Players have been calling these cranks in difficulty lazy substitutes for good design since Dark Souls 3. It is valid for a player to be frustrated when a game is challenging in ways that are cheap or arbitrary. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also has this problem.
A challenging experience can be rewarding, and in Soulslike games, that is usually the case. However, not every developer has the power of FromSoftware. Some studios have had to learn the hard way that sometimes dialing back on difficulty is better for a game’s health in the long run.
Some examples of games that weren’t afraid to revisit their initial design philosophy include Dead Cells, Celeste, Sifu, and Lies of P. Dead Cells and Celeste have both implemented Assist Modes to accommodate players with less skill and those with disabilities. At the same time, Sifu and Lies of P took it a step further by adding difficulty settings, allowing even more players to enjoy them. Before that, the director of Lies of P, Jiwon Choi, even doubled down on the FromSoftware formula, stating, “Soulslike games shouldn’t have difficulty options,” in interviews. However, with the release of the Overture DLC patch, the team behind Lies of P made a complete U-turn.
Much to the culture’s dismay, the developers of these challenging games are showing a willingness to change and adapt. Even the stewards of the Soulslike genre are listening to feedback, and with it, more players than ever are enjoying some of the best games in the medium. We got there through good criticism.
And good criticism isn’t limited to just screaming into the aether about how hard these games are. The Soulslike genre tends to be filled with other issues that get lost in the conversation because we’re so interested in arguing back and forth about whether these games are too hard or not hard enough. Common stumbling blocks are camera and controls. Sometimes, the lock-on camera in these games can behave erratically in cramped spaces or when targeting large bosses. It isn’t uncommon to die to a large enemy because the camera wasn’t zoomed out enough for you to be able to see what it was doing. Input buffering has also been another point of contention. If these games insist on being difficult, then it’s essential not to make the game difficult in a way that has nothing to do with the enemy. It isn’t fun to fight against the game’s interface and lose.
Another common barrier to these games is their opaque storytelling and lore. Rather than presenting a clear story, Soulslikes tend to fragment their narratives through item descriptions, environmental clues, and easily missed NPC dialogue. This is an intentional stylistic choice, but it is a common fair complaint. Without the help of wikis, YouTubers, or streamers, it isn’t unusual for a player to be unsure about what even happened in a Soulslike title.
These games, as beloved as they are, do have quirks and rough edges beyond their difficulty. As the genre grows, developers are addressing some of these issues whether it’s a wonky camera or a convoluted quest trigger. Soulslikes should — and can — be even better, but we can only get there with good criticism. Not everything is a skill issue, and if developers want to hold us accountable and want us to get good, we should help them do the same.
