Soulslikes Don’t Work in First-Person — Yet
Polygon published a critical analysis of first-person Soulslikes, examining whether the punishing genre can function effectively from a first-person perspective. Using the recently released Valor Mortis as a case study, the author—a self-described Soulslike devotee since playing Bloodborne in 2015—investigates this design question. While Valor Mortis retains the hallmark mechanics of the genre, including demanding combat difficulty and the significant resource-loss penalty when players die, the author concludes that the first-person viewpoint fails to capture the essential combat experience that defines Soulslikes. The game tasks players with fighting plague-infected soldiers in a Napoleonic setting, but despite delivering the mechanical difficulty fans expect, something crucial appears lost in translation. The piece suggests that the genre may have fundamental limitations in first-person adaptation, where the visual language and spatial design that make third-person Soulslikes distinctive operate differently than expected.