I knew I'd get shit for this :D
But Sekiro fundamentally isn't Dark Souls. It's very much its own thing and other than being difficult and made by FROM has more or less fuck all to do with the Souls series.
Yeah, you're right. I meant that they share a similar formula/template, in the broadest and most reductive sense, and it is one that works - I think - with or without the additional layer of stats.
I'm not going to convince anyone about that, am I? Okay, forget Sekiro then.
I think Dark Souls is a specific atmosphere; it's incredibly realised boss battles; it's a punishing gauntlet of combat encounters that require patience and knowledge to overcome; it has a uniquely dark and melancholic 'fallen grandeur' aesthetic.
The character stats add a welcome layer of economy and customisation to the game, but I don't think they are fundamental to Dark Souls' identity.
It's a moot point, but if Demon Souls didn't have character stats and instead had weapons/armour/spells do all that heavy lifting in the background, I don't think anyone would have noticed.
Dark Souls RPG mechanics are fairly integral to the game, they not only serve as an important part of the actual "game" part of the game (being an exercise in resource management) they also arguably (and this is stretching a bit) underscore the "everything has a cost" theme thats common to the franchise. They also determine how you interact with the world because they determine what weapons you can use, what spells you can cast, what armour and gear you can wear. There are numerous avenues of play that are reliant upon engaging with those mechanics. That's not even getting into how the raw stats can affect your playstyle by unlocking more iframes or quicker rolls etc. They fundamentally affect your experience with the game. I honestly can't see a convincing argument for how they aren't integral to the game. But of course opinion varies. I mean you could argue that Planscape, given the binary nature of it's skill checks, could have all its statistics removed and replaced with simple dialogue options and it wouldnt hugely affect the actual experience of the game.
I covered a lot of that (albeit very, very briefly) when I said "traditional gameplay mechanics". There's a difference between those and an overarching rule system.
If you took the gaming system out of Dungeons and Dragons (by which I mean the over rules that govern the world, your interactions with it, its interaction with you, and how you express yourself within it), you're not left with a game, you're left with a CYOA book.
The way I see it, everything in a role playing game - and I mean
everything - is governed and expressed by an additional, top level rule set; a system that abstracts everything from sword swings, to your next encounter, to how the world sees you.
The player is very much aware of these rules and expected to understand and - on some level - partake in them. They suffuse
everything. Removing them would be like surgically removing someone's skeleton.
Take the "binary choices" of Planescape: There are usually more than two and what's available is based on a combination of stats. If you have high Might, for example, you will open up different, more threatening dialogue options than if you had high Wisdom.
Which choice you pick feeds into the rule's alignment system, which in turn affects how other characters interact with you (in combination with your stat spread, faction choice, etc.), which can open up additional side quests or alter (possibly?) the ending in fundamental ways (don't spoil it, I'm nearly there!).
Your stat choice allows you to express yourself within the ruleset and for the ruleset to reflect those back at the player in a myriad of ways. Given that dialogue is a large part of what makes Planescape so unique and is central to it's design philosophy, appeal and, indeed, the praise it receives, I think reducing all that would fundamentally alter it.
Dark Souls, on the other hand, is expressed primarily by traditional game mechanics, all of which are hidden calculations made by the computer on the fly. It is considered an Action RPG, after all. Character stats only affect certain values; primarily damage, iframes, what weapons you can use, and how many spells you can have/fling.
If you press R1, your sword swing hits or misses based on your abilities as a player, not on how high your DEX or STR are. Certain weapons are gatewayed by stats, sure, but again, that's a threshold for a gameplay mechanic; whether you can use something or not, as opposed to an expression of your actual ability with that weapon (which, again, is entirely governed by your abilities as player). You can do that in Call of Duty's MP! 😂
If you spring a trap, it is your reactions as a player that will allow you to move out of the way, not a numerical abstraction of your finesse (though you'll have an easier time with more iframes, another unlockable gameplay mechanic).
If you talk to a character, you are given a couple of options; there is no stat governing the number or flavour of these based on an abstraction of your character's social abilities.
Take those stats out of Dark Souls and I think you'd still be left with all the fundamental aspects that make Dark Souls what it is. Take the dialogue options out of Planescape and it wouldn't be the same game at all.
Honestly, I think Dark Souls is probably closer to something like Zelda or even a very slow and simple character action game than a traditional RPG. Then again, I'm a guy who doesn't think Nirvana was a grunge band, so there may be something wrong with me.