Game Design Deep Dive

9 The Future of Soulslikes

DOI: 10.1201/9781003450078-9

9.1 How Elden Ring Redefined the Genre

Throughout this book, I’ve referenced Elden Ring in passing, and it’s finally time to look closer at the game. This is the one that prompted me to write this Deep Dive on soulslikes, and it is without a doubt the most successful game From Software has put out since its inception to date. And with it, they have easily set a new benchmark for soulslikes for the rest of this decade (Figure 9.1).

Figure 9.1 Elden Ring’s success marks the highest point that soulslikes have reached to date, and it is unclear if we will see another studio this decade attempt ...