Within the past decade, one style of game that has become immensely popular is the Soulsborne subgenre. These are video games that are modeled heavily on releases like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, and most recently, Elden Ring, which was made by FromSoftware. Since their explosion in popularity, other companies have taken inspiration from the grueling, difficult experiences that look and play very similar to Dark Souls, and have released new titles that cater to the same audience. Unfortunately, it's a genre that hasn't always connected on a deep and fun level with me, especially with how incredibly difficult these games can be to play. Most Soulsborne fans don't always understand that not everybody wants to be beaten down harshly when they sit down to play video games, and skill has nothing to do with it. One can only endure the repetition of seeing "You Died" and replaying a large portion of gameplay only so many times before it becomes no fun anymore.

But one pairing of games from an unexpected source has softened my outlook on the entire subgenre. Playing through Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor has gotten me to be more open to exploring Soulsborne games again at my own pace. And while I may never truly become a die-hard fan in the same way many others have connected with them, playing through these Star Wars titles hasenabled me to better understand their appeal. Here's why I accepted Dark Souls-style games more after playing through the Star Wars Jedi games.

Punishing isn't always fun

A difference in challenge

Although the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring pride themselves on being prohibitively difficult for most people, there was always a part of them that I never enjoyed. I'm no stranger to challenging games or titles that test your patience with obstacles that require precision and skill, having played games for a long time. However, I never felt the genre had a grasp on balancing the difficulty with the fun of playing. The concept of fun is a subjective thing for each person, but most people have many similar outlooks on what they consider to be enjoyable to play. And for me, how gruellingly difficult and punishing Soulsborne games are by design was always a major detracting factor to my enjoyment of them.

And yet games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Jedi: Fallen Order don't thrust this onto players. Rather than making every little obstacle a life-ending threat that forces you to redo things from the start, it instead adopts a better approach of gradually increasing the difficulty of tasks. The games let players want to go into that deeper end of the challenge and take on what comes next, which makes the overall experience so much better. That doesn't mean that something like Jedi: Survivor is automatically easy or lacks any sort of tough battles throughout, but it allows players to get to that point without forcing them to be there from the start. Constant frustration doesn't become a distraction from what the game presents to players, allowing them to fully take in everything and want to explore more often.

With both Star Wars Jedi games, I can feel like I'm going on an adventure where I have my footing beneath me. It's something I never felt or got from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, or anything else that was similar. As graphically impressive and intriguing as those games are, it always felt like a chore to me just to get in there for a short time. And because of it, the feeling of playing just wasn't the same. Spending more time playing through these Star Wars titles gave me a better grasp of how this genre can work as a whole, even though I still feel they aren't going to be enjoyable to everyone.

The appeal that guides you through

Connecting gameplay in a different galaxy

An obvious part of what makes Jedi: Survivor and Jedi: Fallen Order more appealing is that they take place in a popular universe that many people know. Almost anything with a Star Wars title on it is going to attract people, including me, to what it has to offer. Despite other Soulsborne games being mostly original creations with their own lore, their appeal often gets lost because of other factors, like the difficulty of playing them. The conversations about them are usually dominated by that, instead of the interesting worlds they build and the characters that populate them. This is why having the Star Wars license for Jedi: Survivor and Jedi: Fallen Order is a significant asset, as it has enough appeal to draw people in and encourage them to delve deeper into the experience.

This is the one aspect of those games that prompted me to delve deeper into the gameplay of the subgenre. Seeing many of the same kinds of enemies and attack patterns given a Star Wars visual helped me pick up on the nuances of them easier, since they were familiar things from a universe I was a fan of. Although there are going to be many differences between a Tomb Guardian from Jedi: Fallen Order and a Sentinel from Dark Souls, there are enough similarities in how to approach these enemies between both games. The same can be said of some of the bosses found in titles within the subgenre. The familiarity with Star Wars makes it easier for someone to tolerate more of the frustrating aspects that these types of games could provoke.

The same thing can be said for how one can explore the environments in all these games. Finding secrets in the Star Wars Jedi games is almost exactly the same as anything you could run into with Elden Ring or Dark Souls, right down to where some secrets are placed in hidden locations. But the fact that I'm exploring a planet like Kashyyk or Jedha instead of an unknown dark castle or the valleys of Limgrave enticed me enough to keep exploring. It just so happens to have many parallels to how one can explore locations in all of these games.

There are levels to this

Not all Soulsborne are built the same

And yet, the one big takeaway that I get from exploring these games is that there's no one right way for them to be made, regardless of how much Soulsborne fans want to shout otherwise. Hidetaka Miyazaki may have been the creator of the entire genre with his work on Dark Souls, much in the same way Shigeru Miyamoto created for Super Mario Bros. and established 2D platformers, but there's no one exact blueprint that these games need to follow. One could have a Dark Souls-style game without the punishing difficulty, and still maintain an incredible overall experience for the player, while still remaining part of the subgenre. The design of combat, movement, visuals, and overall approach don't necessarily need to be the exact same in order to make a game people want to play.

Most fans of these games would look at something like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor or Jedi: Fallen Order and say they aren't true Soulsborne experiences because of what they lack, rather than how they deliver. A game like Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis looks and plays somewhat differently than Super Mario Bros. on the NES, but they're both part of the same genre with their similarities. We don't look at either one as less than the other because of how they aren't the same, in terms of gameplay or presentation. And the same can be said for all titles within the subgenre that is Soulsborne games. They can all be experiences worth playing and enjoying without being placed behind others for one reason or another.

Understanding and acceptance

As someone with experience and hours of play time with these games, I'm still never going to find myself at the same fandom level as others who love Soulsborne games. But after playing through both Star Wars Jedi games, I can find a lot more common ground with other titles in the subgenre and understand why other people find them so appealing. There's a common emphasis on challenging action and adventure between them, despite their executions being wildly different in good and bad ways. Maybe someday, I'll find myself going back to games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring for another run at it, or maybe not at all, and just be happy with my time in a galaxy far, far away. But it's always better to find ways to level the ground for understanding and accepting what you may not like at first, rather than letting the frustration of dissonance always be present.