>>719052337
>>719053380
The general trend is stuff like Khazan, Nioh, Stellar Blade, Lies of P or Phantom Blade, you see how Asian devs are so tempted to bring back soulslike formula to flashier character action and up the ante instead of the "grounded, methodical, dungeon crawling of DeS". And even fromsoft is moving in that direction over time. But even those games that nail exploration, they at best just try to follow the Dark Souls world design template, without trying to change formula too much. "Wuchang, it feels like Dark Souls!" These devs have no other adventure-genre references/influences. Iteration without innovation. I cannot think of such a soulslike that decided to focus on adding puzzles. When it seems like such an obvious way to differentiate in a crowded market.

I was thinking specifically of Lords of the Fallen which got destroyed for having worse mechanical combat, but got interest for adding an exploration/problem-solving mechanic (dual world switching, similar to Soul Reaver, The Medium, and typically it's a mechanic that's used for puzzle-solving). It's a small creative sidestep that says adventure more than action. That's the one gimmick that makes LotF stand out when you discuss all these clones. Broader mix of influences. What HiU is attempting falls more into that category too, let's take the skeleton of souls gameplay but put in more of an investigation game, to try to create a new mix of our own or evoke a broader notion of "adventure game genre" instead of just "Dark Souls" (Belletete mentions Link To The Past or Resident Evil 1 as reference points for HiU, when he'd get more normie marketing points for mentioning Elden Ring). On the opposite side there are the Jedi games, you also see how they took some Souls DNA then tried to merge it into more of a traditional casualized AAA action-adventure instead of strictly adhering to "soulslike".

I don't see Asian devs doing that as much as Western devs. But I'd love to.
Does that make sense?