Mina the Hollower isn't for me. I'm certainly open to a great Zelda-like experience, but, as for many folks, the Soulslike elements make it a no-go. I just don’t find it fun or rewarding to bash my head against the same boss 100 times until I finally win the memorization/RNG game. If that's your jam, that's great! It's just not mine.
Mina the Hollower isn't for me, and that's okay. At least by me. Not by some other folks, though!
I came across this article by a Gamespot writer smitten with Mina and trying to convince people like me to give it a try. It's a familiar argument. Everyone who attempts this argument thinks the take is brand-new, that it will surely convince their target audience - no, you don't understand, listen to me - but it's always the same take. Here's a quote from the article:
But if you’re anything like me, you may lament that its combat is very difficult and inspired by the souls-like genre. If you aren’t especially keen on souls-like games, that may feel intimidating, even if you’re otherwise attracted to its Game Boy Zelda aesthetic and general vibe.
Having reviewed the game, I am here to tell you: It is fine; you can do this.
In other words, it's not that you don't like it - that's impossible! It's that you're intimidated by it - you think yourself inadequate, unworthy of this great game. It's a moral failing on your part. But, sister, I am here to tell you that you are not as lowly and unsalvageable as you believe! You can be redeemed! (Just as long as you accept Mina the Hollower as your personal savior.)
It's this weird, almost fanatical response, one that's grounded in this emotional attachment the author is reluctant to acknowledge. It reminds me of the response to Tetris Effect, where reviewers were rating the substances they took during play instead of the game itself and ended up comparing it to a religious experience instead of, you know, Tetris. Which is an excellent game! Perhaps the most excellent! But it's not going to change your life.
We don't see this reaction with other genres. There are initiatives like Woolie Madden's "Get into Fighting Games" series to make certain niche genres more accessible, but there's not this anxiety, this moral judgment re: abstainers that there is from some Souls folk.
I think I know what's behind it, upon reflection. Appeals to open one's heart to Soulslikes are always followed by a belabored explanation (again: the writer is completely convinced their audience has never heard this before) that it is uniquely rewarding to improve your skills after repeated failures and finally overcome an obstacle in your path. (The Gamespot review: "it does feel great to have your skills tested and slowly feel yourself improving. Like any other game in the souls-like genre, you do actually need to get good.") You know - unlike most any other video game. The difference, of course, is the degree of undertaking, with every Souls boss being a multi-hour ordeal. Souls enthusiasts, though, remain convinced that this cycle is completely foreign to their audience - they're convinced of something healing, almost redeeming, in it, almost as if they're getting something out of this, emotionally, that they're not quite articulating or understanding.
Which brings me to my point. We live in a unrewarding world. Things are horrible - with employment, with climate, in the dating scene, politically - and there's little we can do about it. There's very little opportunity to be efficacious. Games offer one of the few outlets in our lives where effort actually translates to effect. I'm reminded of a response from a therapist on a ResetEra thread discussing a phenomenon where some women were refusing to go out with men who were into video games. Many were aghast, obviously, but the therapist related a pattern from their their clients that perhaps explained it:
Unfortunately, there are a lot of young men for whom video games have transformed from just a hobby into an all-consuming obsession. As a therapist, I've seen this with several of my young male clients. Many feel that the world has become too competitive or difficult to navigate, so they just give up and escape into games all day every day. Games provide a manufactured sense of hyper-competence that men desire and feel entitled to, without the risk of rejection or failure that comes with building real world skills or trying to navigate human relationships.
I think that's it: Souls games give these fans a feeling of accomplishment that, if society were properly functioning, they'd be getting from work or relationships. The degree of effort that Soulslike challenges require and the time investment they require only amplify it.
I believe that's the problem here. You're not describing being uninterested in a particular type of game; you're describing being uninterested in a sense of accomplishment. You're not rejecting the game; you're rejecting the sense of growth they got from the game - in essence, their sense of self. That's why many Souls fans, I think, are so irrationally attached to the genre, why they're so passionate and insistent that others try it, and why they take refusal to engage with these games so personally. That's why they find disinterest downright threatening - if you don't feel lesser for not attempting these challenges, then they're not greater for overcoming them.
