Why Soulslikes Can Be Considered a Survival Game

The frantic dash you need to do to retrieve the experience points lingering on your dead body.

What makes a game survival game?

The first thing that comes to mind is, well, surviving.

You have a meter monitoring how hungry your character is that you need to top up at regular intervals to keep them strong.

In Palworld

In DayZ

You might get cholera, which you would then need to treat with medicine you scavenge.

Souls games

You can become afflicted with a condition that will negatively impact your playthrough until you find an item to heal it.

It's an environment where staying out for even a minute longer than you should can mean death.

It's that feeling that Souls and survival games are trying to capture.