Essential Soulslike Games [part 1: 3d variants] - GUI 84

So we've established[i] that games coverage (and the rote “gamer”) tends to reduce its object to subject-or-market immanent metrics: desire, pleasure, value, profit. Further proof this week shit-blazed across the internet as kojima fans petitioned for a new game to be canceled for its Microsoft affiliation (an affront to their market-immanent substitute for "games", a channel for their desire: brand identity). What is the alternative to these loci of criticism entirely extrinsic to the work? We can start by establishing the taxonomy of the work to be analyzed. Taxonomical approaches, which are oriented to the game in-itself and attempt to classify its parts[ii], purse the [interrelated] essential components of form & matter, concept & mechanics[iii]; what is the game world and how is it mechanically & symbolically expressed? Today on GUI 84 we offer just these kinds of thoughts on our staple genre: the soulslike (which we have defined here in a mechanical sense[iv]), with the intentions of establishing the loose outlines of a genre canon. We will divide the genre into 2D & 3D subcategories; this week we talk about the latter.