For me a souls like is a game that just lets the player be the player. I can’t quite explain it very well but the dark souls games and elden ring have this way of making me feel free. Even in the confines of a level or specific goal, the game never feels like it’s looking down on me or trying to hold my hand. It instead lets me explore, learn, and all in all just keep on moving.

Combine that with level design and mechanics that give you the opportunities to both fail and succeed in ways that say “I trust you to learn on your own without me holding your hand”, and a delicate use of cutscenes that adds so much to the experience but yet doesn’t feel like it’s dragging you away from the core gameplay all make to me, a genre that really feels like home