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What do you think about From Software clones?

Can the clones reach the From quality?

  • Yes

    Votes: 27 26.7%
  • No

    Votes: 74 73.3%

  • Total voters
    101

Spyxos

Member
Havent played many of the clones, but Nioh is pretty good and Lords of the Fallen really bad.

Why is Jedi Fallen Order in the list? The game played like a normal action adventure game to me.
It had Bonfire-like function and the enemies were revived by it, just like in Dark Souls. Only there is no such thing in the Star Wars universe. That was taken 1 to 1 from Souls.
 

GymWolf

Member
Probably not but i very much enjoy some of them like the surge saga because it adds its own interesting spin and i like scifi more than medieval.

Nioh core combat and stance system is superior to souls combat imo (except maybe sekiro), too bad for everything else.
 
Souslike is the only genre that people put too high of an expectation onto, and then they complain when a game deviates from the formula a little and tries to innovate or do something different.

I’ve enjoyed most of the games in the OP. Why they all need to be From Software 10/10 quality just to be enjoyed by others is beyond me.

That’s not how a genre is supposed to work.
 

GymWolf

Member
That's just not true at all. The Surge games ran badly and looked terrible. So did Wo Long. Ashen is a cell shaded indie game. Soul Sacrifice is a Vita game. The rest are all dull and generic.
Not on my experience, both surge looks decent and run well, the average from game runs worse than these.
 

Fluo

Member
Nobody care about Code Vein 😂😂🤣😂
A shame, really. I loved it. People like to bring up how it only had tits going for it, but it's a cheap hot take. Having a companion around was awesome, unlocking new blood codes (classes) and mixing them up for your perfect build was awesome. Once the combat clicks with you and your build starts to shine, it's a very decent souls-like, maybe even the best one. Story was okay, I mean it's anime tropey but whatever. I enjoyed it for what it's worth.
 
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Most of them are fun to some degree, but none really copy Souls games all that well.

Difficulty alone isn’t enough. It’s just a starting point.

If it was just difficulty, then Souls games would sort of be a ripoff of the early Xbox era Ninja Gaiden games.

As an aside, the more I play Wo Long, the more I see that they were at least trying to put their own spin on it.
 
A shame, really. I loved it. People like to bring up how it only had tits going for it, but it's a cheap hot take. Having a companion around was awesome, unlocking new blood codes (classes) and mixing them up for your perfect build was awesome. Once the combat clicks with you and your build starts to shine, it's a very decent souls-like, maybe even the best one. Story was okay, I mean it's anime tropey but whatever. I enjoyed it for what it's worth.
There are people here who liked and enjoyed the game including myself. I think Heimdall_Xtreme Heimdall_Xtreme either really doesn’t like it or was just trying to bait the people who do like it.
 

Griffon

Member
From Software already gave me my fill until the next From Software release.

I don't feel the need to play lesser knock offs.

I did try Nioh 1 (which is arguably the best of the bunch) and I didn't enjoy it much.
 

TrueLegend

Member
No because Uncharted 2 is still the best Tomb Raider game ever made :messenger_alien:
Oh you poor child. Lara is still the queen. Uncharted is much more combat based but Tomb Raider is about exploration. Shambala was never that exiting. And no uncharted games are match of classic TR.
 
In level design none of them surpassed From. In gameplay Nioh 2 managed to do it. In story, a lot of them do it cuz souls lore is just garbled nonsense that fans want to believe its some mindblowing shit. Graphically wise, eh not really even tho Souls engine is kinda trash and it shows its age in Elden Ring but the art style of its outdated graphics carries their entire games. Audio wise? Eh its a toss up.
 

GymWolf

Member
In level design none of them surpassed From. In gameplay Nioh 2 managed to do it. In story, a lot of them do it cuz souls lore is just garbled nonsense that fans want to believe its some mindblowing shit. Graphically wise, eh not really even tho Souls engine is kinda trash and it shows its age in Elden Ring but the art style of its outdated graphics carries their entire games. Audio wise? Eh its a toss up.
Surge saga level design beats ds2 at the very least.

If you played it, you know.

They are the second best level design wise after from by a landslide from the third place.
 
Surge saga level design beats ds2 at the very least.

If you played it, you know.

They are the second best level design wise after from by a landslide from the third place.

I loved the first Surge and the second was decent too and while the level design in those games is high on the list, From games have more depth to them, while the Surge feels more like just quick shorcuts. In Souls games you can see most zones in the background that you can reach and it feels overwhelming. Never felt that with Surge, but still, good attempt.,
 

GymWolf

Member
I loved the first Surge and the second was decent too and while the level design in those games is high on the list, From games have more depth to them, while the Surge feels more like just quick shorcuts. In Souls games you can see most zones in the background that you can reach and it feels overwhelming. Never felt that with Surge, but still, good attempt.,
I felt overwhelmed in surge 2 tbh, so many routes and it is interconnected AF.

It's the only clone that gives me that From feeling.
 
This is one of those threads where I’m really relieved that GAF isn’t the majority opinion on the matter.

Do you know how dead the video game industry would be if we acted this way with other genres?

Like saying “only Blizzard is allowed to make ARPGs” and then suddenly games like Titan Quest, X-men Legends, Torchlight, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Path of Exile, Fallout 1 and 2, etc. would all be seen as worthless games because they aren’t made by Blizzard and don’t do things exactly the way Blizzard would do them.

That would be unbelievable.
 

SaintALia

Member
There are a lot of clones. I watch Iron Pineapple's videos of him playing Souls clones. Some are barely clones, while others are pretty blatant, some of them do look pretty decent though, but lack the art, finish, animation and polish of FromSoftware, so no matter how cool they seem, they always come off as 'lesser'.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
The Souls approach is so openly formulaic that cloning them really shouldn't be such a challenge. Salt and Sanctuary came closest, in my mind, but Souls clones have made me increasingly certain that a goodly number of developers don't actually play games. There's no other explanation for it: most players can immediately tell if something is off, but developers, after hundreds of hours with the game, can't tell that the combat is lame and woolly or the level design is boring, or if the enemies are annoying or repetitive.
 
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Kataploom

Gold Member
So far I've enjoyed all of the ones I've played:
Jedi Fallen Order
Darksiders 3
Mortal Shell
Code Vein

Currently on Nioh so I'll let you know if I end up hating it.

I was enjoying Lords of the Fallen until I went out of the first monastery area to one where you could see the sky and the camera gave strong motion sickness due to the wobbling it has, I tried continuing a little until getting used, I tried putting it aside for some hours and then try again, I tried finding a mod to remove the (d)effect, I tried going into some .ini file to see if I could remove it myself, etc. I just couldn't, it's WAAAAAAAAY too pronounced and instead of getting used to it I felt I was noticing it more and more... It's sooooo badly done, other games have some camera movement on walking but I've only noticed it there, I think I would have enjoyed the game a lot if it wasn't for it...

Edit: Oh, I tried "The Surge" but the game felt so... bland and uninspired... Also "meh, guns and shooting", so I just left it after the first tutorial mission, I just can't "feel it", guns and shit are almost always on my bottom list, except for some stuff like Remedy games.
 
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I don't think anyone is cloning the studio From Software.

And From Software games aren't all so incredible that they're unapproachable by other devs attempts at making games in the same genre.

E.g. to me, Monster Hunter games are infinitely more fun and playable than From Software's stamina-based combat games. Outside of the combat and aesthetics, I don't find much else compelling about From Software's soulslike games.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Nobody care about Code Vein 😂😂🤣😂
I LOVED it, hell, I still listen to its soundtrack, it's so supreme! But yeah, you won't see many here care for anime stuff unless to shit on it because "oh no, animu in my soup!"... The game was SOLID to me, hell, I'd say it's my favorite of the list and I liked the others a lot too. I've seen many shit on it because they literally expected "Dark Souls but anime" and nope, sorry, it's its own thing, you gotta play it by its own rules.
 

Ribi

Member
I dont play copies but then again i played Elden ring, Dark souls, and Bloodborne which are all just copies of assets from demon souls. So really, From Soft is just a copy of the souls formula.
 

Arachnid

Member
I love them as long as they're done to quality like Surge 2 or Hollow Knight.

Lords of the Fallen type stuff, not so much
 

Labadal

Member
I have tried a few. Mortal Shell, and Code Vein, I abandoned quickly. They never clicked with me.

I played Lords of the Fallen, but abandoned it after a few hours.

Hellpoint is janky, but had good level design, imo.

I don't think Fallen Order is a Soulslike per se, but it's decent.

Is Darksiders 3 a soulslike? I beat it, and found it to be an okay game, but it's my least favorite of the series (1-3).
 
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Spyxos

Member
What did Fallen Order clone from From?
It had Bonfire-like function and the enemies were revived by it, just like in Dark Souls. Only there is no such thing in the Star Wars universe. That was taken 1 to 1 from Souls.

And as Ansphn said: Because it's heavy on parry and you lose upgrade points (Souls) when you die and you have to go get it or it's lost forever.
 

Laptop1991

Member
Reminds me of the GTA clones back in the noughties, well they never beat GTA back then, so i'll have to assume no.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
It had Bonfire-like function and the enemies were revived by it, just like in Dark Souls. Only there is no such thing in the Star Wars universe. That was taken 1 to 1 from Souls.

And as Ansphn said: Because it's heavy on parry and you lose upgrade points (Souls) when you die and you have to go get it or it's lost forever.
So From games are Zelda OoT clones? Combat with lock-on, shield, parry, rolls...
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
You are describing a standard game mechanic that has been around for a very long time. And it is not comparable at all.
Except it's not standard and and started with OoT, so by your logic From games are OoT clones. And these games are more OoT clones than FROM games clones.
 
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Spyxos

Member
Except it's not standard and and started with OoT, so by your logic From games are OoT clones.
Lock on might have been invented by Zelda. Parry already existed before that. What do you mean by shield? Block with a shield?
 
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