On most recent Yo Video Games podcast they got into how Phantom Blade is not a souls-like, which of course I already new, but if this guy is right he's talking very specifically about how the game director is thinking about those souls mechanics:
He's talking about how concerned the game director is about player's time. About how enemies do not respawn, and how like if you kill a bunch of dudes guarding a treasure you don't have to kill them again to get back if you need to. Check points near boss fights (and yes, I know FromSoftware have been putting check points closes to boss fights and if it weren't for that I'd have never finished Sekiro or Elden Ring, but they still have plenty of other bullshit time wasting crap in their games).
I just like how conscious people are of these things and as much as I'm glad to have played the FromSoftware games, I am just really not interested in having my time wasted any more with a game style that at this point feels antiquated (I still maintain the 2015 Bloodborne was the peak of the series in terms of both level design and combat- Dark Souls 3 would count for those unable to play BB or who value the character creation/RPG part more than I do- and all the games after have been diminishing returns except for Sekiro which is different enough).
Hopefully, this is the year we start to move away from Souls-like being the gold standard of how 3rd person RPG's have to work. Or Souls-like with endless annoying parrying. It's time for some new shit. If Phantom Blade's parrying works well- is fair, impactful, and rewarding- but not required (and I don't like Lies of P where it's technically possible to play the whole game without parrying but that is effectively doing a weird skill run for that game and therefore I consider parrying required that game because I'm talking about normal first-time play-throughs) and is just good solid action combat otherwise, along with the QoL anti-FromSoftware stuff like letting my try a boss fight as many times as I like without losing resources or doing run backs, then this might actually be my second most anticipated game of the year now (nothing will top At Fate's End).
Gah, the hype is real now... so annoying, I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.
Oh, oh... dare I dream of boss fights with just ONE HEALTH BAR?! Like you finally win... and you have won?! Or if it does transform, you don't have to do the first part again. No, that would just be too good to be true...
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