FromSoftware inadvertently created an entire subgenre with its dour dark fantasy classic Demon Souls, which then got widespread recognition in the very similar Dark Souls. But the developer behind Peak and crustacean action-RPG Another Crab's Treasure thinks the Soulslike moniker has "kept a lot of devs stuck in a loop of recreating" what was already imperfectly perfect in the original Dark Souls.
Speaking to Game Informer about the subgenre, Aggro Crab creative director Caelan Pollock said, "I think calling games 'Soulslikes' has kept a lot of devs stuck in a loop of recreating Dark Souls. And in my opinion, the best Dark Souls game has been made already, and it's called Dark Souls."
The question of what makes a Soulslike has come about again and again in the years since. Stamina-based combat, heavy movement, tough-as-nails enemies, pattern-recognition in boss fights, and retrievable corpses? A mix-and-match? There's no clear cut definition apart from the understanding that a Soulslike is a game like Dark Souls.
"It's a deeply imperfect game, and that's why people like it and why it's resonated so deeply with players and throughout the industry," Pollok continued. "I think when you try to mimic every aspect of that experience, you're really not ending up with something worth paying attention to."
Pollock explains that the team's decision to wade into the Soulslike waters with Another Crab's Treasure came from "a deep belief that the genre can be more." Another Crab's Treasure puts you in the shoes of the titular shellfish who's fighting through a polluted kingdom and recycles various bits of plastic junk as a shell because, you know, climate change. "We made a gamble on the community being ready for that."
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