Existing franchises that you wouldn't mind seeing take the Soulsborne route?

I know Castlevania may not see the light a day again (that could be an unintentional pun), but I think it'd be cool to see Castlevania take the approach of a Souls game. Another one that I thought about a few of years ago as I went through them was if they bring back the Soul Reaver games, perhaps it could go in a Soulsborne direction. Soul Reaver doesn't utilize a lot of weaponry other than the Soul Reaver, but they could still do something I think. I think the world and style of both franchises can be expanded on with a Souls style game.

Obviously, it could turn out to be bad, but I'm going merely on assuming the final product is good, so take that into account rather than your faith in the end product when imagining what it could be if it ever existed. I've been recently playing Dark Souls 3. I'm currently trying (again) to play Lords of the Fallen, though on PS4 this time as it had originally been on the One as a Gold game but eventually became a free game on PS4. It seems to run better which is nice.

I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing any long-running franchise take the Souls approach, especially if the series in question has been struggling lately. Tri-Ace seems intent on making Star Ocean matter again; I'd totally be down to see them try and make Star Ocean into a Souls-like. It's not like they're having much success with what they're doing now.

Oh, and Ys, cause why not? That series will end up being every type of Action-RPG imaginable at some point, so I'm sure Ys 13: Reliquary of Yequar or whatever the hell subtitle they'll think up will be a souls-like.

And yes, I will take anything that takes place in the Legacy of Kain universe. Maybe not Soul Reaver, for the reason you described, but something else in that world.

None; that shit is already played out as is.

@relkin: I guess it would be the Legacy of Kain series and not specifically Soul Reaver. That said, though not necessarily related, I am not a big fan of anything in the Legacy of Kain series other than Soul Reaver. That's probably why I mentioned Soul Reaver. Man, my brother would hate if they changed Star Ocean into a Souls like game. I'm not sure if I would be able to get into it either, but I can agree that it'd be nice for any long-running series that isn't doing too well right now (or for ones that are doing well). I mean, Call of Duty souls game? Heck yeah! Ha ha.

Hmmm, Dead Space? It's already got that cosmic horror going on, just lean real hard into that and... actually the monsters in Dead Space don't seem particularly interesting (moons aside).

Hotline Miami might be neat. Interesting aesthetic translation into 3D/third-person, gameplay that'd be even faster than Bloodborne. Could be cool. Though, the more I think about it, maybe it wouldn't be able to be fast enough.

Well fuck.

I think the hard part about fitting something into the Soulsborne mold is that it needs to be savage and kick you in the teeth at every turn, I've been playing through Nioh for the first time and I catch myself thinking the difficulty curve they've created is much gentler. Legacy of Kain is probably the right answer, but I would love to see something like Darkest Dungeon. It already kicks you in the teeth on the regular and has randomized environments, which could be really cool if they designed it right.

If you're not enjoying Lords of the Fallen and hoping it gets better, let it rest while you still sort of like it. If you want to see it through to say you did, just power through, it isn't actually very long and if you're using a shield and heavy armor, not actually very hard. Have you tried the Surge? They learned more from Bloodborne on that one and the combat is much more fun.

@charongreed: I just started Lords of the Fallen again on PS4. I got to some part and quit on the Xbox One back in 2016. It was after defeating two or three bosses. It's not that I didn't enjoy it enough, it's just that the part I got to felt oddly tougher than I was expecting, and I was just going to buy Bloodborne/Scholar of the First Sin and DS3 so I was going to quit it anyway at that point. I like aspects of it. I think it looks good and the world that I've seen is decent albeit not all that varied yet. I don't think the voice work or dialogue is great, but I like that it's a nice change from the Souls games as those have deep, but not so in your face stories.

I also like the change in how music plays throughout. The Souls games are good at lacking music until bosses or having it at the main bonfire to set the atmosphere, but playing a game with these slight differences feels somewhat fresh. As for The Surge, I am not sure I want to play it. I love Souls games and I love sci-fi, but I am not sure whether the setting goes anywhere interesting. All I've ever seen was mechanical areas and a bunch of cargo ship boxes. Very sci-fi industrial, which can be cool, but not if it's most of the game. I have no idea though. I didn't see much of it. I took a very short glance at it earlier today. I don't plan on buying it at that price, but maybe if it becomes super cheap.

Both Dark Souls and Bloodborne reminded me heavily of Castlevania, so I think it would almost come across as a cheap copy in that style.

A NieR game in that style would be neat, but it would never happen.

...Final Fantasy XVI, why not?

@ntm: I remember loving Lords when I first started it, no small part being that it was the first game that I cranked the graphics all the way up on my newly built pc, and felt very differently by the time I finished it. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on it if you finish it. I think you're on the money style-wise with The Surge, I've spent almost all of my time with it stabbing dudes between cargo containers. I liked the faster, more aggressive combat quite a bit though and it carried me pretty far until I hit an ungodly long run from a bonfire equivalent to new content and that content pretty quickly turned out to be a chore. But, if you like sci-fi I think you'll enjoy the story. It's done some interesting stuff and there have been some good smaller interactions with people you meet in the world. I think I'm only about halfway through, though.

Having now slept on it, I thought of Rogue Legacy. Those mechanics layered on top of a Souls-y game would be pretty incredible.

Bloodborne 2

I would be down for a Dead Space game that is slightly slower and more methodical. Not sure if this "shit" is as played out as @ripelivejam suggests, but I would want some more variety added instead of just a rinse/repeat formula we've seen so many times before.

Then against with The Surge 2 maybe I'll get something close to a Dead Space in souls variety. Honestly I would just wnat more Dead Space..

I've got enough games of that niche. I'm playing The Surge now to see how far I get in terms of tedium, and hoping for a better Surge 2, already announced. The DLC looked promising of them tightening it all up. Salt and Sanctuary needs to be re-started. and we will see about re-playing the Dark Souls series. And NIOH. Bet there will be a NIOH 2. Didn't like Blood borne that much, but it was successful, so.... And oh yeah, Dead Cells I hear? I have that too, for the future. Isn't that a Castlevania/Metroid type game? Not too sharp about that sort of thing.

What makes the Dark Souls genre so nice is that it adds to the over-all availability of different kinds of games. I do respect the OP's question. There might be existing franchises that would lend themselves to being re-worked into a Dark Souls sort of thing without destroying what they were before.

@humanity: Yeah, I don't think I'd want a Souls inspired Dead Space game, but I would love more Dead Space. Dead Space is an important franchise to me.

@charongreed: Oh, so I already took Lords Of The Fallen off of the PS4. I don't have an issue with the gameplay, but the game got overly buggy on me. When I say overly buggy, I just mean in one aspect, and that's sound. The sound once you reach the woman, in the beginning, all but dropped in regard to environmental sounds as well as voice work. I restarted the game both from the main menu and by quitting the game altogether and neither fixed it. I remember the One version had an unsteady frame rate as well as even screen tearing.

The PS4 version also had an unsteady frame rate but it didn't look like it had screen tearing. The one bug was too much for me coupled with the unsteady frame rate that I just stopped. I find it really unfortunate. So, I reinstalled Darksiders 2 (remaster) because I stopped a few hours in when I originally played it (I thought I played it for more than a few, but the game says it was only four). I'm enjoying it and it honestly scratches the Souls itch despite not being entirely alike. The Surge sounds somewhat interesting. If the story and what goes on in the world is interesting enough I suppose that might warrant a look at some point.

I never got into the Souls series but I've always wanted an Onimusha revival so I'd be into that. It's already got the soul sucking mechanic so seems like a good fit. At this point Ni-Oh is probably the closest thing to it we'll ever see.

@liquiddragon: Yeah, Nioh is the closest thing to that. I actually didn't experience Onimusha too much, and what I did was mostly in Demon Siege which I hardly remember. I watched the intro sequence online an excessive amount though. Despite not playing them much, I for some reason have fond memories of them. They always looked like my type of game. I remember reading that the first (and second) had tank controls? I think back then it's the reason why I didn't go back to the old ones. I am not sure about them bringing it back to make it like Souls, but with all these remasters coming along, I wouldn't mind seeing all four of the games remastered. I also would like to play Shadow of Rome again.

@ntm: That's a bummer to hear, but my suspicion is that you might have ended up dropping it when you realized the game has exactly three zones that I spent more time lost than fighting in and half a story that it yelled at me for not completing all the quests in, for a total of 18 hours. Darksiders 2 though, now there's a game. That version has all the DLC too, which I've never played but looks really good. I think the connection makes sense, I've always thought Soulsbornes are a descendant of the Zelda games and Darksiders are basically Zelda games, but then my favorite Zelda was Majora's Mask, so I'm probably predisposed to obscure mechanics and spooky environments. There are a couple of videos that show off some early gameplay of The Surge, but I'm not in love with it enough to say go out and buy it without a sale.

Do you think the combat system in For Honor could work in a Soulsborne? I've always wanted them to create a real PvE thing with that system but I don't know if I just want that because it's a good idea or if I want them to make the game I like more like the games I like more.

@ntm: Yeah, I wouldn't minded an HD collection. I think either they've aged really poorly or it's not worth it for Capcom to renegotiate the contracts with all the actors. If it hasn't happened yet, it'll probably never happen cause you know Capcom doesn't shy away from a quick buck. I've love to get my hands on Shadow of Rome, missed that one.

@charongreed: I'm not sure, it could? I didn't play For Honor mainly because I heard it doesn't have much in terms of a campaign and I'm not a huge online player. I also heard relatively recently that that game itself has some issues in terms of frame rate and bugs? I've only seen some of it and it looked cool from a gameplay perspective and art design.

@liquiddragon: Yeah, but it's still unfortunate as you pretty much said, that they didn't do more with the series. It's a weird one to just drop and never pick up again.

If all you mean is the way the game expects you to explore and struggle, I might agree although i don't know of any franchises to add to the list. If you're just talking about Dark Souls: Alucard Edition I don't know if I'm interested.

I generally wish more games were more interested in providing opportunities to explore and discover without guidance.

I'd be super curious to see an Elder Scrolls game take a lot of the Souls principles, but it would probably be unimaginably bad or difficult to make.

Sure there are mods to take away a lot of the guidance and such but I'd be more interested in a game built from the ground up with some of those elements.

Lots of games in existing franchises are already taking cues from Dark Souls, albeit not 100% directly. The new Zelda basically has Dark Souls-like combat and many game series have adopted the go to your corpse before you die again mechanic among other things DS has done. Now if you're talking series that could benefit from some of Dark Souls' design chops, maybe Dynasty Warriors? Actually no, that wouldn't be great. I think DS is such a specific beast that not one element could make a game franchise better. The game would have to be designed to specifically cater to that playstyle.

@shivermetimbers: Yeah, Zelda did take a similar route. I'm just disappointed that the lock-on targetting wasn't like the Souls games. It wasn't as easy to lock on to different enemies that were coming at you.

@ntm: Honestly, last time I played the original Soul Reaver it struck me how close it already felt to the idea I have of a Dark Souls-type game. The differences beyond a surface look are obviously massive, but things like the setting, the enemy placement and the reliance on dodging in combat made me feel as if I was playing some kind of proto-dark souls (Demon Souls I guess)

I don't see it as played out as I've enjoyed all the notable clones. However, it's something best applied to a new product, rather than something old. Servicing one specific blueprint and straying from it is a lot easier and freeing than catering to two.

I think it would be more apt to say Dark Souls has Zelda-like combat considering it's been like that since Ocarina of Time. I do agree that other games in well established franchises are taking cues from it though. Most notably (and recently) Asssassin's Creed.

Personally i'd like to see less Dark Souls elements in new games since a lot of developers are taking the wrong things from it or not implementing it well. (well thought out level design, great atomosphere, tough but fair gameplay) But if I had to choose one it would be a first person game like Condemened, Breakdown or Dark Messiah of M&M just because I think that would make it feel fresh. (I know Fromsoft has already made games in this vein that are first person but they dont seem to have aged well)

World of Warcraft........... 2!
A MMORPG with Dark Soulsy combat is a dream I've had ever since TERA showed me
that proper action combat might actually be possible in a MMORPG setting.
Sadly no one ever copied them or improved on it and we got half-ass pseudo-hybrids like Wildstar, BnS and BDO.

The honest answer for me would be nothing, I REALLY dislike Soulsborne games and the trend of more and more games moving in that direction is not appealing to me. I was interested in Nioh until I heard it was 'samurai dark souls'. I'm cautious of things like the new God of War, because it looks kind of Souls-ish.

On the other hand, if you just mean character action-games with a more deliberate combat style (like Monster Hunter) I could be on board. I just would rather not see the new God of War game have bonfires, "souls" style currencies, and stupid difficulty curves.

Castlevania man

Castlevania makes the most sense to me.

Not a fan of the soulsborne name. Are we going to call it the SoulsBorneTenchu games soon?