5 Options To Replace Dark Souls Gameplay

Samurai (although From Software may be too late)

While Dark Souls hasn’t strayed away from including weaponry of the East from far ago (the uchigatana, washing pole and poison throwing knives come to mind), most of its weaponry comes from European, Mid-East, and African origins. Combat, weaponry and armor, specifically, mostly reflects the range between the poor and pompous of a Medieval era, with stories surrounding the trappings of such ideas and settings that utilize castles of stone and iron.

What From Software could do, however, is pivot their ideologies, storytelling and gameplay narrative closer to their homeland of the past. As other companies use samurai to focus their gameplay ideas on “slashing all the hundreds of enemies on screen,” adapting the Dark Souls style of gameplay will net an awesome opportunity to explore the traditions, locations, and inner warrior mentality of those living in a feudal Japan.

To Koei Tecmo’s credit, they may have Dark Souls beat. Nioh, developed by Team Ninja, will explore 17th-century Japanese adventures during the Warring States period, although using a protagonist of a son born with the DNA of a Japanese lord and a Western woman. The environments used in early gameplay footage resemble that dark, foreboding From Software style, with human and monstrous encounters lying in wait. It’s not going to be the same style of game to which the Dark Souls formula would apply, but oversaturating that market by coming into it second isn’t From’s style, either.

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