Greentext

I beat this game back in the 80's and I still don't know how

Why can't/shouldn't a game be both? Plenty of games have easy modes and cheat consoles.

I'd agree with you mostly except that nobody out there making a "soulslike" actually seems to understand what makes Dark Souls so good. There are so, so many garbage soulslikes out there, and exceptionally few good ones.

This is why I want a remaster of Space Channel 5, the timing is impossibly difficult (ESPECIALLY when emulated as video and audio isn't synced), but it's on purpose because if you aren't stonewalled the game will only take one hour.

Nowadays buying a game that only lasts an hour is fine because the game's usually not sold at full price anyway.

Some kind of plucky green dinosaur would fit in well.

Time-wasting respawns/progress loss seems like a very blunt tool with which to motivate the player to keep playing.

Tried playing a game of tennis with my friends. 0, 15, 30, 40, Point. Then if you're two scores ahead the game resets. Wtf! Why did the game reset? I was 30-40 and now I'm back to 0? I should be allowed to keep my 30 into the next game.

Now I'm being induced into playing more tennis! I hate this.

And tennis has so few maps! Almost everywhere I go is concrete. Very luck to find a clay court anywhere. You need to buy the DLC to find grass, and only if you're really lucky.

Its repetitive. Its exhausting. The rules barely make sense. And the match-making is completely fucked. I'm either playing people I trounce or getting my ass handed to me almost every time I go to a court.

I think I'm going to try and pick up chess instead. Does anyone know how I can upgrade my pawns to queens, though?

It's not quite the same though, souls still keeps the items you dropped, its just up to you to retrieve them.

You can't claim you climbed a mountain, if each time you fell you just resumed from where you lost grip. Falling and reclimbing with renewed tenacity means that when you finally conquer the mountain, the view is all the more sweeter for the huge experience you've gained along the way.

I think soulslikes are appealing to a certain type of player. Personally I love Dark Souls it's my favorite game.

But I like playing with stakes. I remember stumbling around in the forest, down to my last scrap of health, with no more heals, desperately trying to reach the next bonfire. That for me is fun. Is it frustrating to lose your progress? Sure. But the only "penalty" is you have to try again or change your approach and try something else. And really, is being forced to replay a section inherently punishing? If the game itself is fun, you should still be having fun fighting and exploring even if you aren't progressing.

It can be the only way to punish people in certain games.
If there's no punishment for failure, there's no reason to respect any dangers the game presents.
In Minecraft, what should happen if you walk north for an hour and die? If you respawn with your inventory, why not just do that again and die as a quick way to get back? Why even bother with equipment or food at that point? Suddenly, half the game mechanics have lost their meaning, and there's a lot less to do for the player.