I always thought that the stigma of souls beings the roll, dodge and attack gameplay was off.

If you look at souls and think this is what These games are about. You will fail

People that find it hard tend to be rushing into things like they're superman or they fail to learn from their mistakes

At it's core it's all about learning from your mistakes, learning that you can lure an enemy away from a group, learning boss animations/moves, attack patterns etc. Once you figured that out you should be fine and Souls is forgiving in the sense that people can just go grind souls if need be.

People just need patience and the ability to learn at the end of the day. The most complicated or hard part is like the random exploration s*** to find xyz, that pretty much everyone googles anyway.

Its a lot for context sake so buckle up

LONG ASS ANSWER AND INFO

So UE5 is the engine getting compared to the most for "next gen" graphics. UE5 is a general engine that Epic Games licenses out. Its an engine thats been around forever (Gears of War 1 to 3 is made on, a bunch of PC shooters etc.).

Every time there is a new UE version its a big deal for studios, especially mid tier studios. It costs a lot of time, talent & money to develop a personal in house engine - so UE being the most capable to standards engine that is easily rentable and its been around forever is a good thing for those studios, & also for testing for bigger studios. That is a legit positive.

The BAD thing of UE, specifically UE5 but its always been an issue with UE, is the sterilization & generic/bland graphical system it has based on being "realistic".

Another big selling point professionally of UE5 is that it now has a legit ASSET & NPC store n creator. So now its selling pre made models & logic based off its generic built-in basic graphic system. Its good as a starting point, but the issue comes where studios just slap them altogether without much thought. It will be a Steam PC flipped asset store issue but now also for the console space.

Another thing from public reception side is that there hasnt been any truly "next gen" games for the most part. Only 3 games that are worth anything are STILL the only "true next gen" games. Demons Souls Remake, Returnal & the Ratchet game. Everything else is cross gen so far, & a few more titles that were worth something that were originally "next gen" only - well they also later on got a backwards port to last gen shortly after such as Deathloop, Ghost Wire etc. lol. Its been 3 years of "next gen" and its mostly been a scam. With barely a handful if that of "actual next gen" games.

So, fanboys have a hard on for UE5 graphic showcases of how "CRAZY" it looks and now they want "every" game to be made on UE5. Hence the Armored Core "controversy", even tho Armored Core looks like most other games on the market lmao. Its fine. Just a level below the top tiers of like Sony's top studios such as LOU2 & Horizon 2. Which are probably the 2 best looking games overall (funnily enough also cross gen, yeah the ps5 was really worth it huh LMAO). Fans are dying to see anything "next gen" & they think UE5 is the supposed answer.

Now why is this a problem? As said UE5 has a very specific & simply put generic graphic system and quality. It is very high definition & advanced in technical aspects, but there is no "art" or style to it at all. It is part of its deal for a base point. But most developers dont even really edit UE assets that much outside of fitting its own world.

There are real world examples of this already:

Check a lot of your xbox 360 & ps3 very mid tier games of UE3, or check your steam library of early 2000s PC shooters of UE2. They all look VERY similar in terms of "style", animations & UI. Its all very samey but also incredibly bland & generic. Also, 90 percent of those games do not age well in terms of looks. Even some of the more high budget & more "unique" games did not age well. Because even a more in depth n budgeted game like the original trilogy of Gears of War still cant shake off that Unreal engine "stench" completely. Only a handful are able and most of those are Epic Games in-house titles such as Borderlands, which makes sense because they have the most knowledge and backdoor access of their own engine.

It is also part of the reason why the first half of the xbox 360/ps3 era has so little color in its graphics & why the huge emphasis on faux realisim happened. Because of Unreal Engine. And UE basic graphic generic style again, is hyper "realisim" & "grittiness" without much else thought (which doesnt even make sense because REAL LIFE HAS HELLA COLOR LMFAO). And also part of the overly cinematic hard-on games had during the entirety of that gen that has aged poorly. Or why most of your early 2000s PC shooters have the same "industrial gothic" blocky look to them.

So why is this an issue for current gen on a mainstream level? Well Epic is also trying their hardest to sell UE5 to as many developers as much as possible. More than they ever tried with their other iterations - thus the added focus on NPC models & environment/level design assets in a PAID STORE. They are trying to sell this engine to as many low tier to high tier studios & developers as much as possible. They are trying to take over the 3rd party engine space. And they are even marketing it to the general public so fanboys can pester and potentially peer pressure other game developers into adopting UE5 as well. Which means more branding and money for western gaming's most profitable game company. They are even using Fortnite to market UE5 as well now too. Which, obviously, Fortnite the still biggest thing in Western gaming is also made by Epic.

Which again, will make everything painfully generic, bland & sterile in & ALL OVER gaming. Mainly graphics yes, but even down to certain gameplay & UI elements. It will be 360/ps3 bargain bin era & early 2000s pc games all over again but on an even bigger scale. From the small to the big fish - again, if Epic Games gets their way. And fanboys whining they dont have 4k and that they should "just" get UE5 for easy 4k+ implementation isnt helping, at all. And of course is a very selfish & idiotic etc. etc. simple way of looking at things. Plus the monopoly implications of the ever growing Epic machine.

Its stupid but of course most gamers dont even know what theyre talking about even tho its the hobby they engage with the most.

Trust me, we do not want UE5 to become as prevalent & as ubiquitous as Epic Games wants it to be.

Yeah "next-gen" is mostly ass & a lie at the moment, but we dont need to sell our souls & art to Epic to feel better about the piece of plastic we bought into too early.

Or else

It is & its boiling the game down to its bare essentials in a dishonest way.

You can say Ninja Gaiden & Devil May Cry is "just button mashing" especially since thats how most people more often than not end up playing them even if its not designed on purpose to be played that way (which is also part why those games are harder for people than it needs to be but thats a different story).

This type of elitism & "um actually" attitude has been around in the Action gaming space forever, similar to the RPG & fighting game communites.

Funny thing is tho is that one of the few that is DEEPLY familar with the 3 series/types of Action games that people of the genre fight about:

• Hey guys so whats "actually" harder and the most hardcore - Monster Hunter series, DMC/Ninja Gaiden titles or the SoulsVerse who is actually the most cool, challenging & skilled 🤓🤓😈

The matter of fact is if most people consider something hard/complex then it IS hard/complex. It might not be for you, but youre the outlier/minority/exception to the rule.

And obviously of course if youre extremely skilled in a type of style of game your perspective & ceiling is going to be warped & twisted compared to the GENERAL person & player lol.

Just classic d*** swinging contest amongst the "top percent" while being ignorant of the majority.

Also all those games play completely different from one another anyways - the only commonality between all of them is THEIR DIFFICULT & COMPLEX REPUTATION amongst the general public, and the "hardcore" niche community they cultivate which does have crossover - DUE TO THE HARD & COMPLEX REPUTATION

@Water_Giver Really appreciate the thorough-ass answer man, I always thought the UE5 demos looked amazing but I didn't consider the issues of making it ubiquitous. I TOTALLY get what you mean about the 'Unreal stench', for a good while if you saw the Unreal logo, you knew the game was gonna handle like Outlast, like competent, but imprecise and a bit too smooth if you get me

Epic finding a way to profit off of and push for a future of asset flips is horrible, I'd always take lower fidelity original work over a hyperrealistic combination of templates. Also fully agree re: The Last of Us 2, it's crazy that the best-looking game ever made is still a last-gen title

No problem & Im glad I was able to answer & give insight

Its actually really easy for me to talk about this s*** - game mechanics and game behind the scenes is my s***. It was gonna be my minor in college while psychology was gonna be my major until my health issues happened that took me out of college. Which js why video game sxn & life sxn are my two main sxns

I think the general use n access of UE is good, just that the overuse of it all & of course an engine monopoly (which has many potential negatives some of which I didnt even get into or else the whole page whould be taken over by my words lmao).

But yeah this is one of my deep easy bags I can talk about the s*** all day easy which you'll find around this sxn from time to time - glad I could help

Pretty much every single one of those dozens of games is a niche of a niche of a niche lol. I wouldn't say "most" Souls fans haven't played any of those. Worthless to go back and forth over it though since this is just going off feeling/sales numbers that can't be tracked to individuals anyway

The premise of this post is incorrect. Unreal Engine itself doesn't have a "generic quality" or even a look to it. Some of the most stylized games of all time have been made on Unreal Engine. It's just a set of development tools at the end of the day. The games can look and play like anything. Dragon Quest XI and Octopath Traveler are both Unreal Engine. SMT5 is UE. A f***in Yoshi game was made on Unreal Engine lol. Most AAA devs are not using stock store assets on a third party engine and they most likely never will. They have their own in-house assets.

Games had that uniform look you described in the PS360 era because that is what audiences responded to. Has nothing to do with games being made on UE lol

Unreal already dominates the third party engine space as is.

Sandland is UE 5 lol dont blame the engine

Crying. They got sand land looking better than this.

He said all of that but LOVES Pikmin 4 which just switched to Unreal Engine

oh they arguing Graphics here? I didn't want to read all those paragraphs in this case. I just saw UE makes all games look the same

In the case of Armored Core its keeping a similiar style to old games and most from games. Do I wish it had more color? Yeah but its post apocalyptic. Like environments are going to be similiar

lol if we posted a picture of UE, Unity, custom engine games there is no way many would be able to accurately guess

They are making a choice to look realistic its been that way since last of us 1 took off and many sony games

This isnt a diss to sony this is gamers crave realism over art styles a lot of time

Armored Core games have always looked visually this bland

Quite frankly who gives af about the game engine

nobody who’s actually looking forward to the game lol

It’s coming this month

People may be iffy about mecha games cause they can’t relate to a robot but honestly people don’t understand how influential this game will be.

Just like FromSoftware the Lore is there. Hell there’s probably a mecha style dragon boss and it’s own version of moonlight great sword in the game

Added onto customizing your mecha so the build variety is there

This will be my first AC game but I'm familiar with Elden Ring & Dark Souls and I've been needing something to scratch that mech customization itch since Gundam Breaker 3. Been watching gameplay footage and I'm excited

Moonlight originated with Armored Core I'd be shocked if it wasn't

Not enjoying this cause it's a robot is crazy. People need to embrace their inner mech

Yeah I’m hoping this inspires more mecha games I think they could be fire. Need something to combine the feeling of Ace Combat into mecha