I sometimes wonder what we possibly could do without hack and slash. It gave birth to numerous wonderful genres due to its engaging structure, and the gaming industry continues to benefit from it.
It all started with The Legend of Kage, which is a very primitive example of it, by the way, and it wasn’t until Devil May Cry that it truly gained its identity.
Then it continued with Ninja Gaiden, God of War, and Metal Gear Rising, etc.
But what made it so popular that people decided to branch its roots with new ideas?
Maybe it was the challenging nature of it?
Or simply its flashy gameplay?
People loved these two aspects so much that they eventually decided to create new genres based on them.
The challenging part gave birth to souls-like, and the flashy gameplay spawned musou.
Of course, they both are fun in their own ways, but while one of them rises to the top, the other rots in the gutter.
Death and Success
Souls-like has been around since Demon’s Souls, which came out in 2009, but it wasn’t until a decade later that it gained popularity.
The essential gameplay mechanics are usually associated with its difficulty, but in reality, it’s all about memorizing patterns.
That makes me think, we are still not fond of trial-and-error in platformers to be successful, right?
I mean, that’s the reason why the term “Nintendo hard” was invented in the first place. The artificial difficulty of the NES games drove people nuts; thus, they ended up shunning them.
However, souls-like games continue to benefit from this technique, nonetheless.
What could be the reason behind this?
It’s simple: slow gameplay and freedom.
The majority of souls-like games play slowly, and they don’t punish you right off the bat by instantly killing you or not giving you enough time to react like in the old platformers.
It gives you time to think and plan your attacks. Freedom to make your own mistakes.
In other words, you suffer the consequences of your actions, and the bad game design has nothing to do with it.
Hacking, and Slashing, and Slashing, and Slashing…
Most of us are familiar with hack and slash and souls-like, right? But what about musou?
Why did it never gain popularity, unlike its colleagues?
Was it the lack of PR?
The lacking gameplay?
Maybe it was all… too much?
While musou seems like fun from the trailers and the screenshots, one or two hours of gameplay is usually enough for them to become repetitive.
Facing off thousands of enemies as a one-man army and killing at least a dozen with one swing may sound cool, but they don’t really offer anything beyond that.
Yet, Samurai Warriors spawned several sequels and prequels, and even Nintendo hopped onto the hype train with Hyrule Warriors Legends.
Berserk also had a musou adaptation called BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk, and it was surprisingly fun since it kept giving you new characters and powers to keep the game fresh.
Hack and slash plays a very important role in the gaming industry, and it’s without a doubt, one of the most important genres out there, with many spawning branches.
Whether you want something difficult or something stylish, it’s got you covered!
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