I’m currently playing lots of games none of which are soulslikes, though, funnily enough :D Juggling Hunt Showdown, Slay the Spire 2 and Esoteric Ebb right now - enjoying my time with all of them.
What I mean by genre mash-up is a game of a different genre that uses aspects of soulslikes and incorporates them in a transformative way to create something new. Think, something like Nine Sols which is a sidescroller, maybe a metroidvania too? (please correct me if I’m wrong) that took inspiration from Sekiro’s combat with its heavy focus on parries to create a cool mix of both. Or Hollow Knight for an easier example.
I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like that before outside HK, maybe, but purely concept-wise, I like the idea of Remnant. Shooters are usually relatively light on using gear and spatial movement during combat, exceptions like DOOM or Borderlands proving the rule, which makes Remnant an interesting mash-up. It borrows from soulslikes but is primarily a shooter, still.
What’s yours?
You can play Dark Souls 1 - 3 in VR with that mod as well as ER, if you can find it and have a VR headset that can do SteamVR. It’s the Luke Ross RealVR mod, recently got taken down by DMCA threats. It’s a Windows-native mod, not made for Linux, but works mostly OK with Proton somehow.
The Souls games all work well in VR with the mod, when I used to play on Windows 10. Personally I found it a lot better than playing on a 2D monitor or TV, and I actually got better at Elden Ring due to having a better perspective of the distances between things in 3D (better at dodging, landing hits, etc). It wasn’t hard to get used to but I’m experienced with VR gaming and don’t have any motion sickness troubles with it.
So far I’ve tried DSIII and ER this way on Linux and they both worked. I assume that all 3 Dark Souls would. Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Demons Souls can’t be played in VR as far as I know.
That’s so cool. Are the games in first person then? That would probably give me trouble. It would also make some of the areas quite scary to traverse through, I imagine D:
It defaults to a closer 3rd-person view but you can change to 1st person in the mod menu. It’s harder to play in 1st-person to me, but would be more immersive. The close 3rd person view is like hovering along behind your character, but the world is still in 3D all around and you can just move your head to look.