The Canadian gaming company “Digital Extremes” has a successful SF MMO on the market with Warframe. With “Soulframe” they are planning a fantasy MMO, but the name is giving them trouble. It evokes too many comparisons with “Dark Souls” and they apparently don’t want these comparisons, says the creative director. “But why does it look like Dark Souls?” critics ask.
That’s the problem: The new free2play MMO from Digital Extremes is called “Soulframe” and this draws comparisons with “Dark Souls” from FromSoftware. The dark fantasy action role-playing game Dark Souls (2011) is such a milestone in gaming that it founded the genre of “Soulslike” – games that are similar to Dark Souls.
In an interview with Gamesradar, Soulframe’s creative director, Geoff Crooks, is asked why they only put “Soul” in the title.
He says: “Because we are idiots. We torture ourselves with it, you are right.”
But Soul had to be in the title somehow. Because the idea of the game is, explains Crooks:
Consolidating the soul of the world, finding ancestors by collecting their souls in the game, interacting with other players and connecting with them, and the presence of remnants of their souls in the world
Soulframe finally got a new trailer after half a year
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Developers hope players will see the “Frame” rather than the “Soul” in the title
Do you want to compare it with Dark Souls? No, you don’t want to. Soulframe isn’t such a dark game, says Creative Director Crooks.
Digital Extremes is probably hoping that players will see the “Frame” rather than the “Soul” in the title, because they want Soulframe to be strongly associated with the SF MMO Warframe:
I would say we lean a lot into the ‘sister’ aspect of it being a sister project to Warframe. I think people who know Warframe have an expectation of what Soulframe could bring. There are a lot of similarities with the free-to-play action RPG setting, but we want it to be a counterbalance to Warframe.
Compared to Warframe, Soulframe is a little less hardcore. You should fight one opponent rather than several at once. Soulframe should also not punish players as harshly as Warframe.
Fans believe: Comparison with Dark Souls is already planned
How is this discussed? On Reddit, Crooke is not entirely believed. They say that the first gameplay is very similar to “Dark Souls”. That would not have helped to avoid comparisons to “Dark Souls” at least.
On Reddit, some are hoping that Soulframe will be a slower, more melee-focused game than Warframe.
Warframe is one of the most successful MMOs of the last 10 years and is considered one of the games with the best development after humble beginnings. Therefore, Soulframe is now also being followed and eagerly awaited by genre fans: Chef shows 75 minutes of fresh gameplay from the new hope for fans of fantasy MMORPGs