u/Technical_Extreme_59

This is going to be a deeply unpopular post. This is a followup to a post I made about a year ago, and since then, I've played through and 100%ed many more soulsgames and have a better perspective than before.

Many people have many different ideas as to what makes a game a soulike, but my point of this post is that you cannot pin down any "one specific thing" as a definition there are many games that innovate, expand, and subvert the genre both made by fromsoft and by other companies. In total, it is the summation of the experience of a souslike that determines it. And Nier Automata fits this summation. Nier Automata has also been compared to soulslike games in the media since its release, so at the very least it is inarguable that it was greatly inspired by the genre.

To start here is a summary of game mechanics which I think match or have similarities which cumulate as a whole to this:

• XP and Plugin Chips are lost on death
• Player gets a single chance to regain lost XP on death by going back to the spot where they died.
• Restricted Save mechanics restricted to specified locations (Access Points)
• Interacting with / Performing a save at a specified access points respawns enemies.
• Multiple Endings based on player choices
• Map that changes certain areas depending on the part of the game that you are in that also changes the kind of enemies that spawn
• Individual levels are mostly linear but have level design that can often wrap back in on itself (Forest Castle is one of the best examples of this in nier, but amusement park also has some sections with this as well)
• Limitations placed on healing abilities through a resource
• Higher difficulty levels are extremely unforgiving: Hard prevents lockon, and Very Hard causes you to die from a single hit.
• Upon death, the android that is left behind can be used as a rudimentary summon via repairing it by other players if you are playing online.

I also want to address some common counter arguments by comparing what nier does to other soulsgames that are accepted as such by the community, have it as a steam tag, etc.

• Nier has a different healing system with tiered healing items that aren't flasks, isn't this incompatable with souls games? No. Bloodborne has primarily consumable and farmed healing items just like Nier. And every other souls game fromsoft has made has consumable healing items that you can use in addition to your flasks, such as pellets from sekiro which are a lower teared healing item that gives health regeneration, Or the Blessing of Marika from elden ring whifch completely restores health to full, or a sunwarmth stone from elden ring which creates an AoE healing over time effect.
• Nier's combat feels different from dark souls, it is much more 'hack and slashy' and so it can't be a soulslike: There have been a great variety of types of combat in soulslike. There is even a variety between dark souls 1 and 3, where the combat in 1 is much slower. In sekiro the game is focused mainly on parrying instead of dodging. In the First Berserker: Khazan it is a combination of parrying (brink guarding), counterattacking, etc. and tends to be more combo-focused as well.
• Nier's leveling system does not have attributes therefore it cannot be a soulslike: Both Sekiro and Code Vein do not have attribute systems for their leveling either so if this were a dealbreaker for you, you would have to also accept that Sekiro and Code Vein are also not soulslikes even though they have the souls-like steamtag and are considered such by most people and also through media coverage.
• Nier is more focused on fighting multiple enemies at once compared to soulslikes being more 'one at a time': This is also not true. Level design in every single soulslike from dark souls 1 to Elden ring, to Lies of P makes it at times unrealistic to try and fight only one enemy at a time. First berserker Khazan notably has combo moves that are meant specifically for dealing damage to multiple enemies at a time through AoE.
• Nier has more platforming than many soulsgames therefore it cannot be a soulslike: The best items in most fromsoft games are gatekept through difficult platforming. Beyond some of the best weapons in eldenring such as the fingerprint shield being locked through difficult platforming, required items in dark souls 1 and 3 that you need to 100% the game need platforming to get to. Sekiro is also very vertically focused and has an entire grappling hook mechanic. Sekiro has entire bossfights designed with requirements to utilize its grappling system such as Divine Dragon, Folding Screen Monkeys, and to get a death blow in phase 2 of True Corrupted Monk. Even in the very first part of sekiro before you get your sword the tutorial shows you how to do platforming.
• Nier has difficulty settings therefore it cannot be a soulslike: Both Lies of P and the First Berserker Khazan have difficulty settings and are regarded to be a souslike.

In summary, I think the only thing keeping nier from actively being called a soulslike was only that it wasn't marketed as one because at the time a lot of other soulslike games that innovated the genre hadn't been released yet. It was, you could say, ahead of its time without realizing it. I think the only argument that at this point that is particularly compelling to me as to why nier isn't a soulslike is because its designers didn't call it one. But even then, it is okay for something to touch multiple genres...

Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.