2017, Sam Blackburn, "Top 5 Console Exclusives", The Courier (Newcastle University), 28 February 2017, page 29:
Nioh, or 'Samurai Souls' as it may be referred to is the first Soulslike game not developed by From Software what's been done right.
2017, Sam Blackburn, "Are free games a plus or do you go for gold?", The Courier (Newcastle University), 13 March 2017, page 29:
Both have had Lords of the Fallen, and whilst a decent Soulslike, I preferred when GWG released, you know, actual Dark Souls for free, but I'll take it.
2017, Robert Hogge, "Nioh", Beastby, April 2017, page 50:
It's because of this that it stands out in my mind as more than “just another soulslike”, because it definitely isn't.
2018, Jem Alexander, "Sci-Fi Soulslike", MCV, March 2018, page 51:
Toadman Interactive is a recently established Swedish company made up of Dark Souls fans who want to cement their place in the annals of Soulslike history with their upcoming title Immortal: Unchained.
2018, "The Surge 2 gets tooled up", PlayStation Official Magazine (UK), April 2018, page 11:
Amid the tsunami of Soulslikes, Deck13's The Surge stands out as the one game to take the genre in a new direction.
2020, Christopher Barney, Pattern Language for Game Design, page 132:
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice—In this Soulslike game, you're in constant danger of dying if you make a mistake in the combat action gameplay.
2020, James Hamilton, "Hollow Knight Video Game Review", TechNews (Illinois Institute of Technology), 28 April 2020, page 13:
And that's what you ultimately want from a soulslike. Challenge, struggle, and ultimate triumph. And in that sense, "Hollow Knight" is a soulslike.
2020, Bailey Tomlinson, "I'm glad Soulslike gaming is dying", CWU Observer (Central Washington University), 20 October 2020, page 8:
If gamers weren't skilled enough to progress in the game, then they couldn't experience the story as it was made to be experienced. Nobody should make an artist 'water down' their art.
In 2017, I was 17 years old. I had money to spend on the latest games and seemingly infinite time to sink into them. At the that time, that argument made sense to me as I ground away at Soulslike after Soulslike, having those experiences as they were supposedly intended to be.
2020, Rafael Magana, "Demon's Souls: A great launch title", Talon Marks (Cerritos College, Cerritos, CA), 9 December 2020, page 6:
Demon's Souls was FromSoftware's first attempt at making a Soulslike game and lacks the open-world nature that “Dark Souls” and it's[sic] sequels offered.
2021, Joshua Bycer, Game Design Deep Dive: Roguelikes, unnumbered page:
Some soulslikes will let the player keep the resources to not overly punish the player.
2021, Richard Lemarchand, A Playful Production Process: For Game Designers (and Everyone), page 63:
"The possible audience for our game is core gamers who love 3D 'Soulslike' action games and 2D 'Metroidvanias,' and would enjoy a combination of the genres."