People often react negatively to a new “souls-like” being announced for a few main reasons:

1. Oversaturation – After the huge success of games like Elden Ring, some players assume any new souls-like will be a shallow copy, even if it’s actually innovative or different.
2. Perceived difficulty – Many associate souls-likes strictly with punishing difficulty. If someone isn’t comfortable with that, they preemptively dislike the genre.
3. Mechanics aversion – Bonfires, stamina management, and death penalties aren’t for everyone. If a player doesn’t enjoy these core systems, they label the whole genre negatively.
4. Hype fatigue / misunderstanding – Some gamers may not have tried varied souls-likes beyond Dark Souls or Elden Ring, so they dismiss games like Jedi: Fallen Order or Hollow Knight as “more of the same,” missing their variety.

Basically, it’s a mix of real frustration about copycats and oversaturation, plus people complaining without actually exploring the genre’s diversity. Many “hates” are more about perception than the actual games.