The action genre and the souls genre are very intertwined right now, games like Stellar Blade show that bits from all niches can be sewn together and come out brilliantly. Aside from Sekiro, Fromsoft are stuck in state of aging mechanics and is likely to go out of style soon enough with the amount of mew action games releasing that borrow heavily from souls. Many from China that look to take the souls genre and bring about Action genre quality. Think Wu Kong and Stellar Blade to start with, already proving FromSoft need to evolve aswell as merge Souls with Sekiro but then you have these....

Phantom Blade 0

Wuchang Fallen Feathers

Hell is us

And there is more but these are the top three. The vibe is leaning more towards faster play, evolving alongside soulsborne and taking aspects of older action games, marrying the two. Fromsoft need to adapt. I think they could really get hurt by Soulsborne burn out (See Demon souls sales) and the direction that other studios are taking the genres which as a Soulsborne and Sekiro veteran I find this new approach to be a better one. 

Stellar blade has shown me that combat can be fast, and fluid with combos like the olden days and still retain the souls borne challenge at it's core. I booted up Sekiro for a NG+ run, hence this thread, one of my favourite games of all time, it's in my top 5 and what I found was something felt missing after Stellar Blade and among other things, there's no style to the combat not to mention the camera work. I think Stellar Blade has spoiled the hardcore of the genres. 

Do you think people are getting souls fatigue and do you think FromSoft need to evolve in the face of incoming competition or do you just want more Soulsborne, slow and methodical?

They will need to innovate, for sure, but I think they will. So far, pretty much every one of their games has been the gold standard of that particular specialty. Bloodbourne was all about dodging, Sekiro was parrying, etc. Until they have a miss, Im giving them the benefit of the doubt.

FromSoft's most recent Souls game has sold nearly 30 million copies with its dedicated expansion selling more than 5 million copies in just 3 days.

Meanwhile Stellar Blade took 2 months to sell 1 million copies. I don't think FromSoft are shaking in their boots lol. That being said, a company always wants to improve and iterate. Which I'm sure Hidetaka Miyazaki will have his own ways of pushing the Souls genre forward.

Armored Core 6 has also proven that FromSoft is more than capable of making fast paced action while still being incredibly difficult.

EDIT: You mention Demon's Souls. I imagine you're referring to the 2020 title. A game FromSoft had nothing to do with. They only made the original 2009 game. Bluepoint Games and Japan Studio worked on the remake. The game is nearly a 1:1 remake of the original, but that includes ALL of its 2009 flaws. It's primarily a shiny coat of paint, but FromSoft themselves have clearly come a long way in their game design than they did in 2009 that now appeals to many more players.

I do not think From Soft needs to change that much. Ubisoft needs to change and innovate way harder than Fromsoft. I would say like a some of PlayStation studios and Nintendo Fromsoft tend to be the golden standard in their respective genre.

So a Fromsoft game for now will sell by the name alone. Besides they do innovate. Sekiro and Bloodborne where pretty different.

I'd be overjoyed if they only ever made uncompromising Souls games for the rest of my life tbh.

From's games do change with time and at a decent pace. ER could have been a bit faster, especially given the DLC bosses, but they are probably aware of that.

Bring back Otogi. They brought back Armored Core. Now bring back Otogi. Let's get a new Metal Wolf Chaos. Frame Gride! Don't need a new Cookies and Cream but that would be funny. Look up that game if you want your mind blown From made that on PS2 lol

You act like Elden Ring didn't receive massive praise for evolving the Souls formula. From Bloodborne to Sekiro to ER, FromSoft has never been afraid to change the formula with the times and successfully so. Saying they should be worried by some potential competitors that we don't even know are any good yet - especially when FS has never been more successful than now - is premature at best.

From Software needs to keep evolving, because this is what we expect studios to do, to become better

This has nothing to do with Stellar Blade, which t was an uneventful game. With some lucky, it will be something like Bayonetta, a game with a loyal cult-following but hardly genre-defining, let alone something thet will set new industry standards

Age will catch up with you as well ;)

That's something I would have said 15 years ago! Now I still haven't even started Elden Ring yet :/


FromSoft doesn't need to be worried yet with the sales Elden Ring got. They have the name, just see how long CoD etc last without innovation...