Such as "Souls-like" & MetroidVania.

Which, by the way, names I came up for Souls-like should be called Strategic Action (or Strategy Action) & MetroidVania should be called Labyrinth Platformer. Imo those explain most to all those type of games nicely, simply & professionally while still being descriptive.

Which is what a genre name & overall purpose should be imo in film & gaming. You shouldnt have to know what Souls or Metroid or Castlevania is to know what the genre means or suggests. A genre name should be able to explain what it is adequately enough (like in film & gaming) or the work within the genre should be able to represent itself adequately enough (like in music or book) to anyone without a reference to another piece of work.

I know there are some other genres like this as well such as "Rogue-like" etc. in gaming too.

Would like to hear other's ideas for other genres or even the two I did, & thoughts on my suggestions.

Also yeah, I dont think its a big deal nor is it that serious, but I do think its interesting & even kinda fun.

I get what you’re saying and I think those are good names for them but sometimes games completely redefine gameplay in a genre all by themselves and can warrant an entire genre based off their originality.

Dark souls can even be considered a 3D metroidvania.

Otherwise to be bland I’d just call DS a third person action RPG and Metroidvania a 2D action platformer.

I respect that, although i do think its kinda lazy & mainly propagated n created by reviewers, but i do understand & respect that take.

"MetroidVania", more specifically Castlevania, one of the main creators of the whole series that now does those Blood games as independent (i forget the name), said he always called the games style as "Search Action", but due to language barriers back in the day, critics just coin the term MetroidVania & pushed it alot which becomes part of the fans/consumers vocab through them. Pretty much a similar situation with Souls, to where they just slap "souls" to anything slightly difficult regardless of anything else for a good few years there.

I disagree with Dark Souls being Metroidvania, only DS1 has a very few sections that require another item to get through, like maybe 2 or 3 at most (but i dont think that warrant a MetroidVania tag imo), & there isnt really any playforming beaides two important janky jumps. I dont doubt it was influenced by Castlevania specifically to whatever degree, but the MCV dna gameplay n template is very very sparse, but yeah I know what u mean.

I think they are only good genre names for people in the know or people that are already fans of those sourcd/referenced games, but even gamers today that are outside the FromSoft ecosysyem or havent had a chance to play any, they dont really know what "souls-like" means & a lot of younger gamers dont know what "metroidvania" means.

Even if they do play one that isnt directly those named titles (Dark Souls, Metroid & Castlevania) such as Nioh or Hollow Knight they still have no idea what it means overall. It's alienating & offputting to those imo, & its even expressed by those people a lot.
They have to experience a very specifc game or read a whole write up to get even a grasp on an entire genre.

Souls specifically, i think the strategy element plans a way bigger part than the interconnected areas and especially the difficulty. Such as build, stamina management, know when to hild back, when to be aggressive, certain methods work better for vertain booses and areas etc.

But yeah, I find it really interesting.