Digital Extremes is hard at work developing the new free-to-play fantasy MMO, Soulframe, and its name has confused parts of the gaming community who are under the impression it’s aSoulslike game.FromSoftwaregamesDark Souls,Demon’s Souls, andBloodbornehave coined the subgenre “Soulslike” and “Soulsborne” over the years for their specific gameplay style and combat difficulty, but Soulframe has no relation.
Soulframe is considered to be a sister title to the 2013 online shooterWarframe, which was also developed and published by Digital Extremes. The multiplayer recently received a cross-platform update that became available to all players at the start of the year, which should be enough engagement to bide fans' time until Soulframe’s release.
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Soulframe’s Themes Helped Retain The Title Despite Connection To Soulslike
In an interview withGamesRadar, creative director Geoff Crookes is all too aware of Soulframe’s title similarity to FromSoft’s catalog of games. When asked why the studio decided to go with “soul” in the title, Crookes replied “Cause we’re fools,” said in jest. “We agonized over it,” Crookes continued, but the game’s themes encouraged the team’s decision to keep it.
Being careful not to tread on FromSoft’s toes, the devs at Digital Extremes filtered through a lot of different names before acknowledging the game’s themes called for the Soulframe name. Crookes explained that gameplay involves “fixing the soul of the world, finding your ancestors through collecting their souls in the game, interacting with other players and connecting to them and having remnants of their souls in your world.”
In other words, a soul-less title seemed out of the question to keep in theme with the game’s primary elements.
The devs didn’t “want to compete with people that are making some of the best games ever made and what they do.” So instead, Crookes shared the team’s goal to “step up our game and make a really good first impression, when you kind of see the game and the potential for optimism that’s kind of there, the romanticism that we want to lead into with what’s presented in the game.”
In contrast to Warframe’s “fast, hyper-stylized chaos”, Soulframe is a slower experience without being casual, says Crooke. Since it doesn’t dip into the Soulslike genre (despite the name suggesting otherwise), Soulframe combines the game’s relationship with soul elements mixed with Warframe to keep a connection between the two and the team wanted the upcoming title to be a “counterbalance to what Warframe is.”
Soulframe is scheduled to be released some time in 2024.
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