Writing SoulsBorne Storytelling

[Venusaur26]

What makes this kind of interpretative storytelling with a dose of Cosmic and Psychological Horror so good and fascinating for those who enjoy it, and how to use this in a novel rather than a game?

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Hopeless. See lovecraft

 

[AliceShiki]

What makes this kind of interpretative storytelling with a dose of Cosmic and Psychological Horror so good and fascinating for those who enjoy it, and how to use this in a novel rather than a game?

It's interesting for people that care more about the lore of the world than about actual storytelling.

Souls games have a very shallow and simplistic story, but they have a decently rich lore that is told by item descriptions and NPC dialogue... If you don't like playing games and watching the story unfold, but like seeing the lore of the world and whatnot, then you might like the way that Souls games do the worldbuilding.

For anyone that actually cares about seeing a story though, then there is nothing appealing on the way that Souls games tell the story... At most, you might enjoy seeing a fantheory video made by someone that played the game a lot. Like the videos made by VaatiVidya and the like.

 

[ArcanePunkster]

Don't know whether you could class this as Souls-Like, but particularly in the psychological scenes that have shown up so far definitely gave me that vibe.

It's a dark fantasy that has a dose of sort of everything involved in that genre. Just reading it made it feel there will be a lot more of that psychological horror that you're looking for, but it's too early to tell.

Black Earth - Volume One

 

[SailusGebel]

Hidden meaning search syndrome. You can't do it alone.

 

[Temple]

Not sure how well that'll work in web novels because it's the opposite of web novel story telling style.

 

[SakeVision]

It's good story telling for a video game, in the sense that it allows you to delve into the story into care, or totally ignore it if you don't care and you'll still be fine.

 

[War_and_Poetry]

This wouldn't work in a novel. A novel is literally telling a story, something Soulsborne games tend to avoid except in the narrowest sense with items and NPC's stuff like that. I can't imagine how this could successfully transition into a novel concept. Even if it was a Dark Slice-of-Life (which is the closest I could imagine you getting), it would still end up having more of a storytelling process than a Soulsborne game would.

 

[Cipiteca396]

The appeal of souls games as I see it is the Mystery, not the horror or whatever.

A player runs through looting and feeling accomplished because of their incredible skill at beating the strong enemies. This becomes LitRPG, in novel terms.

A players runs through, talking to every NPC, reading item descriptions, exploring scenery... Because they're curious. They want to know what everything means, if it has meaning, and if there's no meaning, why is it there at all? It's a Mystery, and there just happen to be horror elements as a spice.

So... To recreate that 'feeling' in a novel, you'd need three things.
A protagonist who experiences a cathartic flavor of growth over time, either through stats or character development. Defeat this obstacle that stumped you for four chapters, encounter new obstacle.
A mysterious and deep world, where the readers have plenty of opportunities to guess what's happening in the background, but these details are never explicitly stated except as a reward for the MC's growth from rule 1.
And Some random dark, horror, or dysmorphia to wig out the readers, mixed with bright sparks of humanity and courage. There's a reason the most remembered characters from the games are heroes and companions like Solaire and Onion Knight: They're the thing that readers can cling to in the darkness.

 

[Venusaur26]

Oh yeah, I forgot there is also lore revealed through items

 

[Anon2024]

It uses the same story telling as the game L4D did before it. That kind of story telling can only be done in video games. It wouldn’t work for a movie or book.