"It's just like Dark Souls!"

This is becoming a VERY popular phrase to describe difficult games, or even just games that bear a slight resemblance to the Soulsborne formula. From Monster Hunter: World to Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, both the media and the fans are quick to cry Dark Souls the second they face even the slightest challenge.

What do you think? Is Dark Souls hard enough to deserve this kind of a reputation? Are there any games you've played that you've thought this about? Is there a different difficult game you've played that you use as a benchmark for difficulty in modern titles?

It's a buzzword, meaningless and doesn't describe much

I dont really use Dark Souls as a measurement of difficulty in games at all (nor any other game for that matter). Mainly cause most of the games I play can't even be remotely compared to DS, but every game is difficult in its own right/way.

People like to do it, thats their thing to do.

Dark Souls being hard or not depends on how one defines hard/difficult I guess

But either way, "it's like Dark Souls" is an odd way for people to say "this is hard" when "it's like Dark Souls" implies more that it plays like a Dark Souls game, yet that's not what they mean.

I'm hardest thing I'm good at is the old mega man games, so that's what I compare by default.

I haven't played Dark Souls at all. But people, especially "journalist" love to exaggerate in their titles or articles. Gotta get them clicks, you know?

KZPumpkinPie said:

I haven't played Dark Souls at all. But people, especially "journalist" love to exaggerate in their titles or articles. Gotta get them clicks, you know?

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To be fair from what I've seen journalists do tend to find games very hard.

I find it almost ironic that people who play video games for a living generally find them more difficult than those that don't. That said, I doubt most journalists - especially those on "mainstream" websites - actually play more than a couple of hours of the title in question to get a feel for it just enough to slap a score in line with expectations on it.

It's something that actually amuses me more than it does irritate me now. I didn't find the Souls titles particularly difficult so I couldn't really relate, but beyond that when they start throwing it around haphazardly with games that are nothing like Dark Souls I can't help but giggle a bit.

What do you think? Is Dark Souls hard enough to deserve this kind of a reputation?

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Don't think it matters if it is hard enough, Dark Souls popularized hard games and displayed that they can be mainstream. So it is deserved i would say. It is a trend that i like.

I didn't find the Souls titles particularly difficult so I couldn't really relate

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well you must be playing only difficult games then, because 90% of all games are easier then dark souls :p
Main stream approach is usually to make games rather easy then difficult.