FromSoftware is best known in the modern age for its genre-creating Souls games, and it's easy to say that the studio mastered them almost right out of the gate with Dark Souls. But with Armored Core 6, the company reminded players that they had a past before Demon's Souls, and have not lost sight of what made it excellent.
5 Settings FromSoftware Should Explore
These interesting settings would make great additions to Fromsoftware's library of games.
However, after over a decade of the expected, the release of the massive Elden Ring may have wrung the developers for ideas. It'd be hard to blame fans, then, for wanting to see FromSoft retry their hand at a genre they have previously done or try out something new entirely. Luckily, the souls of their most recent successes would be easier to transfer to another style of game than one would think.
5 Musou
Mow Down Dozens Of Monsters At A Time
Games To Take Inspiration From:
- Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
- Arslan: Warriors of Legend
FromSoft games are known for slow, methodical combat, with smaller, manageable fights. Musou games, on the other hand, emulate the true breadth of an all-out war by having players scour a battlefield while taking on dozens of enemies at a time. These types of games typically involve hack-and-slash gameplay, which is actually a style of game that FromSoft is fairly well versed in, from games such as Otogi back on the PS2. Conflicts between factions are not an unfamiliar story element in FromSoft's repertoire either, though in Souls games they're usually relegated to lore.
6 Best Anime Warriors Musou Games, Ranked
Fans of Musou games should take a crack at the following titles if they haven't already.
So, why not bring those conflicts to the forefront and take a queue from games like Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, or Arslan: Warriors of Legend? Sure, these games emphasize their stories with some fun power fantasies, but FromSoft's spin on the genre could simply avoid imbuing the player character with immense power from the start. Resulting in a more difficult take on this style of game.
4 First-Person Shooter
Make Every Bullet Count
Games To Take Inspiration From:
- F.E.A.R.
- Immortals of Aveum
- Far Cry 3
FPS games typically rely on fast-paced action to drive players forward in their worlds. However, some games in this genre, like F.E.A.R., are interspersed with genuine scares and an eerie atmosphere that players must navigate to stay alive. FromSoft has actually dabbled in the first-person perspective with games like Echo Night and its sequels, so bringing those experiences to the realm of an FPS wouldn't be a completely new venture, but one worth giving a try, nonetheless.
What's more, it's been proven that an FPS story can be mature, complex, and interesting, while also providing some fun mechanics that make the game wholly unique. A game like Immortals of Aveum is an example of this and even swaps the genre's traditional gun for magic, something that would be a perfect bridge for Souls players who prefer to play as a spell-caster. Finally, add some of the goofiness of a game like Far Cry 3 to give the game a range of emotional tones, and FromSoft has a recipe for success.
3 Fighting
Go Toe-To-Toe With The Enemy
Games To Take Inspiration From:
- Mortal Kombat
- Samurai Showdown
- Soul Calibur
1999's Frame Gride was FromSoft's attempt at a 3D fighting game, with players free to move their mech around the stage in any direction, similar to a game like Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi. However, the developer might have had more success in the space by tightening the perspective, making something more like Soul Calibur. Players would be dodging punches by rotating to the side of their opponent, creating an opening for the perfect counter-attack. Another avenue to go down would be a game like Samurai Showdown, where the name of the game is to master the weapon-based melee combat in order to capitalize on an opponent making the wrong move.
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NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat might be the top dog of the fighting genre, but fans will love these similar games.
Another key aspect of a FromSoft game these days is blood. Whether it's dripping off of one of the many large, grotesque bosses, or spraying out of the body of a ghoul, it's a great, and often satisfying indication that the player is doing something right. The Mortal Kombat series, with its disgustingly cool fatalities, is really the only mature fighting game in the space currently, and could frankly use some competition.
2 Survival-Horror
It's Not All About Scares
Games To Take Inspiration From:
- Resident Evil 4
- Dead Space
- Silent Hill 2
Kuon was FromSoftware's original take on the survival-horror genre, and while it got middling reviews, it was a solid attempt at the genre that largely holds up. But this is a post-Resident Evil 4 world, where developers have spent the last 20 years building the genre into what it is today. For instance, set pieces like the Leviathan dragging Isaac through the halls of the USG Ishimura in Dead Space are loud, bombastic, and still incredibly scary.
5 Best PS2 Survival Horror Games, Ranked
The PlayStation 2 had an enormous library, and there were many great survival horror games for players to enjoy.
However, it shouldn't be understated how important a story is to a modern FromSoft game, however hard they may try to bury it in pretense. That's why Silent Hill 2 is such a good example of how to do it. Over the years since its release, players have picked apart the game's story, finding symbolic parallels between the main character, James Sunderland, and the settings he visits or the enemies he fights throughout the game. That's by design, and it's something that FromSoft should take note of if they ever give the genre another try.
1 MMO
Take On Eldritch Horrors With Friends
Games To Take Inspiration From:
- Final Fantasy 14
- World of Warcraft
- Guild Wars 2
An MMO is probably the most straightforward way to go after the incredibly successful release of Elden Ring proved that an open world in the Soulslike genre is entirely possible. Mods have also let eager players The Lands Between with friends. The only thing left is to fill the game with an endless stream of quests as well as the Souls games' many factions for the player to join. Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is a perfect example of a direction that can be taken, with its post-post-apocalypse setting and dire, world-changing storylines.
Games like FF14, World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars 2 also carry some incredibly far-reaching lore. Something that FromSoftware is no stranger to. Souls games are already filled to the brim with world-building and side character backstories that are largely given to players in unconventional ways, like item descriptions. So, just assign some of that lore to NPCs and FromSoftare has got themselves an MMO.
