Articles AI Limit

The soulslike genre owes its existence to Demon's Souls, released by FromSoftware in 2009. A PlayStation exclusive, it first earned a cult following among hardcore players in its homeland of Japan. From its core mechanics, FromSoftware's lead designer Hidetaka Miyazaki built a new game — Dark Souls — which launched a series that became iconic the world over. Soon the "soulslikes" started arriving: games that copy the Dark Souls formula of success. An entire genre was born, built on the hallmarks of Dark Souls — punishing difficulty, "bonfires" (checkpoints for saving and leveling up), enemies that respawn on a location once you die, collecting experience ("souls"), stamina management in combat, fragmentary storytelling, and — most importantly — gruelling boss fights that force you to learn every move set.

The seasonal Steam Next Fest has recently concluded, offering small and independent studios the opportunity to showcase their projects without expensive advertising and PR. For several days, players had the chance to try out demos of unique projects and unusual indie games, discovering new genre branches and mechanics. We couldn't miss such an event and tested most of the projects presented at the festival. In this article, we will talk about the most interesting games, in our opinion, that are worth waiting for no less than big-budget blockbusters.