The replacement large Soulslike out this week has some Bloodborne and Shadowy Souls 3 in its fight, dev says, however “we would possibly possibly presumably moderately call AI Limit an action RPG”

AI Limit, the contrasting significant Soulslike that launched this week alongside The First Berserker: Khazan, incorporates robust elements from FromSoftware titles in its combat, though its creator prefers to label it as an action-RPG because of the features that set it apart from other titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

In discussions with GamesRadar+ during this year’s Game Builders Conference, AI Limit producer Yang Bin did not completely dismiss the Soulslike label that is the primary descriptor on the game’s Steam page, but he did confirm that it is not his preferred classification.

“In terms of combat, AI Limit is indeed a Soulslike game, inheriting many conventions of the genre, particularly from Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3,” Bin remarked. “However, we aspire for players to see beyond just this aspect. AI Limit features various distinctive elements such as the Sync Rate system, cel-shaded art style, and a post-apocalyptic wasteland environment, which transcend the ‘Soulslike’ label. We would prefer to define AI Limit as an action RPG.”

I am unwilling to engage in the trivial and tiring debate about what criteria define various video game genres, but AI Limit studio Sense Games is absolutely within its rights to categorize its games as it sees fit. That said, it’s reasonable for Bin to highlight AI Limit’s Sync Rate system, which is a meter that fills and depletes when the player character deals and receives damage. This appears to be a genuinely innovative twist on action-RPG combat that I don’t recall encountering elsewhere, so while the anime aesthetic and post-apocalyptic setting may not be enough to set AI Limit apart from other Soulslikes, its combat is certainly not entirely derivative.

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