Like so many other contemporary genres before it, Soulslike draws its attributes from the game that kicked off its popularity: Dark Souls. Although one could argue that Demon’s Souls was first, it was its multiplatform sequel that really introduced players to the genre’s pillars that have persisted in the near two decades since. While this is sometimes reduced to just difficulty in some cases, what makes a Soulslike is far more than that, pulling in aspects of exploration, narrative structure, character progressions, and more to create a wholly distinct experience that can cater to a variety of different players depending on what parts are more heavily emphasized.
To create a list of the best Soulslike, there needs to be an agreement of what a Soulslike is. Without a firm or official specification, this can be different depending on who you talk to. For the purpose of this list, we’re defining Soulslike games as ones that adhere to some of the genre’s core principles. Firstly, there should be an element of loss when dying. In Dark Souls you lose souls, which are used to level up and improve your stats to take on stronger enemies. This exists still in From Software’s Elden Ring in a near identical format, showcasing how core it is to this experience. It’s similarly used in games like Hollow Knight: Silksong to create tension during fights, as a few wrong moves can force you to leave precious rosary beads behind and wait for you to retrieve them during your next life.
This goes hand in hand with enemies respawning every time you rest, making you consider how much more you can push on without healing and balancing that with allowing enemies to return once you do. Igniting a lantern in Bloodborne or resting at a meditation point in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are examples of how Soulslikes games have incorporated the campfire resting spots introduced in Dark Souls, with the mechanics around them near identical. You are healed, your healing items are replenished (with some exceptions) and most regular enemies are revived. Finding new spots to rest of a Soulslike’s approach to checkpoints which encourage exploration but also support the gruelling challenge that this genre is known for, as progress between them is usually lost on death.
And third, climatic boss fights. This sometimes goes hand in hand with the idea that Soulslikes need to be brutally hard, but the truth is that many games within this genre feature boss fights that challenge one (or many) aspects of the game’s combat loop as well as a player’s ability to recognize patterns and exercise patience. There’s a reason why Soulslike players of Soulslikes often talk about the game’s tempo or rhythm to them, which, if ignored, will make it difficult for you to progress through.
Nine Sols
- Developer: Red Candle Games
- Release Date: May 29, 2024
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
It’s clear that developer Red Candle Games saw what Team Cherry achieved with Hollow Knight and wanted to chase the same dream. But it won’t take too long after starting Nine Sols to realize that there’s another game this action metroidvania also deeply admires: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Nine Sols’ combat lives and dies by the parry, with your limited dodges and smaller health pool giving you no opportunity to hide behind your inability to adjust to its pace. But when you do, you’ll find its rhythmic combat flow as engrossing as From Software’s classic, with Red Candle Games doing a phenomenal job adapting this to 2D. Couple that with an eye-catching sci-fi setting, a strange story revolving around a samurai-like cat, and a large map that’s a joy to explore, and you’ve got the makings of a classic that will likely come to define some of the best Soulslike experiences out there.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Developer: Team Cherry
- Release Date: September 4, 2025
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
While typically thought of as a metroidvania given its structure, Hollow Knight and its recent sequel, Silksong, also contains a lot of Soulslike DNA. Its combat is straightforward but punishing, challenging you to be patient and pick your moments. Its exploration is consistently tense, with the threat of losing valuable resources upon death influencing the ways in which you move around its world, with benches offering the only refuge from the dangers lurking around each corner. Playing as Hornet, Silksong builds upon the strong foundations of its predecessor by adapting its grueling platforming and memorable bosses around her faster, more agile moveset, making it a distinctly different albeit familiar experience that will likely linger as longer as the first game did.
Lies of P
- Developer: Neowiz
- Release Date: September 18, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
Bloodborne can be considered one of From Software’s best games, and it’s a shame that a sequel doesn’t yet exist. Lies of P, in many ways, fills that void. From its dark and dreary setting to its slow and measured combat, Lies of P leans hard into its Bloodborne inspirations before adding some of its own flair. An adaptation of Pinocchio, and playing as the puppet-turned-boy, Lie of P uses its license to fill the world with anything from twisted clowns to horrifying marionettes, allowing the tale to delve deeper into its darker themes than the Disney-fied children’s story you might be familiar with. It also affords the action to get a little weird; being part puppet lets you equip various different arms as tools, expanding your abilities and giving you more ways to deal with each new horror around the corner. It’s similar to the sidearms in Bloodborne, albeit with far more variety that gives you more agency to tune combat to your liking. It’s just as challenging, equally vague with its storytelling, but just as engrossing as From’s classic.
Nioh 2
- Developer: Team Ninja
- Release Date: March 13, 2020
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC
Nioh could be considered one of the first non-From Software attempts at a Soulslike to really stick the landing, and its sequel only improves on what made the first so great. Big enhancements to the games combat come courtesy of new soul cores; an item that enemies drop which you can use to turn into several yokai abilities to add to your repertoire. It adds a lot more depth to the combat by way of experimentation, letting you blend together precise swings of your sword with hammer slams imbued with elemental damage for example, while not losing the punishing edge the series has become known for. Although it still has some ground to make up in the narrative department, Nioh 2 justifies the many moments of frustration you’ll endure with the elation of eventual victory.
Remnant II
- Developer: Gunfire Games
- Release Date: July 25, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC
A reductive, yet popular, way to describe the first Remnant was “Dark Souls with guns”, and while its sequel doesn’t attempt to move away from that, it does a lot more to align with the quality that comparison invites. Remnant 2 is a challenging third-person shooter that takes place across a variety of procedurally-generated biomes filled with enemies that will wipe you and up to two other players out without hesitation if you aren’t careful. This, along with limited healing items and respawning enemies after rests, are where Remnant 2 still feels like a Soulslike. But its expansion into buildcrafting akin to Borderlands is where it sets itself apart, with a captivating loot loop that lets you alter your combat approach with a variety of weapons and abilities. Toss in improved boss fights that are more skill-based over the skirmishes of attrition featured in the first outing, and you’ve got a compelling, distinct Soulslike that you can lose hours to with a few friends in tow.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Developer: Respawn Entertainment
- Release Date: April 28, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
Star Wars is probably one of the last franchises that you’d expect to see intersect with a genre known for its off-putting difficulty or abrasive gameplay. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel, Survivor, are fantastic examples of how this genre can have mass appeal without losing its underlying appeal. The first outing of the Jedi series put any doubts to rest, blending aspects of metroidvania’s with the combat principles of soulslike, creating a captivating adventure set between the events of the original and prequel trilogies. Its sequel does what the best ones do and builds upon those foundations, but gives you more to do and greater spaces to explore as protagonist Cal Kestis. The combat is refined, giving you more offensive options and weapons to balance and increasingly challenging enemies that put them to the test. This sequel also features some stellar boss fights, with some intense lightsaber duels that you won’t find with any other game in the franchise.
Lords of the Fallen
- Developer: Hexworks
- Release Date: October 13, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC
Lords of the Fallen could be considered one of the first games that tried, and didn’t quite succeed, following From Software’s success with Dark Souls. But that was the series’ first attempt, with its latest, the identically named Lords of the Fallen, using the decade-long gap to learn the right lessons. Lords of the Fallen is still a third-person action game filled with patient attacks and keenly-timed dodges, but it’s far more of its own thing this second time around with its own distinct gameplay additions. The headliner here is the game’s dual-reality mechanic, letting you peek into, and traverse, an entirely different world layered on the one you’re currently exploring. It changes the way you move around a world of this ilk, forcing you not only to think about how to get from A to B but what might be hiding in (somewhat) plain sight as you do. It adds a layer to combat as well, giving you a place to escape to if you die in order to give you a second shot at life before having to reload a save. It’s novel enough to elevate the rest of Lords of the Fallen’s good, but not exceptional, combat, but it’s certainly an adventure you shouldn’t lightly overlook.
Mortal Shell
- Developer: Cold Symmetry
- Release Date: August 18, 2020
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC
For better or worse, Mortal Shell wears its inspiration on its sleeve from the get go. It’s immediately reminiscent of Dark Souls in its aesthetic and overall vibe, while sticking very closely to the core pillars established by From Software more than a decade prior. Its biggest differentiation, however, is in its approach to builds. Instead of a role-playing system where you get to steer your character down a specific gameplay path, Mortal Shell allows you to hop between one of four shells as you explore. Playing as a simple wraith that is quick to die, you need these shells to survive, making use of their specific strengths and weaknesses to progress. Each of the shells fills one of four recognizable archetypes (there’s a stamina-starved tank next to a dexterous but squishy rogue, for example) but having the chance to freely move between them does offer Mortal Shell a sense of flexibility that is sometimes absent from other contemporaries in the genre.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
- Developer: Team Ninja
- Release Date: March 3, 2023
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
While Nioh is Team Ninja’s interpretation of a brutally challenging Soulslike, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty could be considered its attempt to make the formula more approachable. This action role-playing game still features many of the genre’s staples–checkpoints that respawn enemies, losing resources upon death, and challenging bosses–but it alters each one of these slightly to make things easier. The first time you find a Battle Flag, Wo Long’s version of bonfires, you’ll be healed up without enemies respawning, while dying will only set you back half of your gathered experience points instead of all of them. These go hand-in-hand with a combat system that takes inspiration from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice but makes parrying a little more forgiving, while also turning skirmishes into a delicate balance of managing your Spirit level to empower your attacks and effectively handle incoming damage in equal measure. Its dark take on the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history is captivating to watch play out too, which you’re likely to see to the end if you’ve struggled with more traditional Soulslike adventures in the past.
The Surge 2
- Developer: Deck12 Interactive
- Release Date: September 24, 2019
- Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC
As a sci-fi spin on the Dark Souls formula, The Surge and its sequel manage to differentiate themselves in a few ways. While you’ll still be exploring an interconnected world, gathering resources that you use to upgrade your stats as you go, The Surge puts a lot of emphasis on upgrading the rig that encapsulates your body and empowers much of your combat prowess. Finding the right resources for these upgrades requires you to salvage them from specific parts of enemies, which is where The Surge 2’s most notable combat mechanics stem from. Being able to target individual body parts lets you focus on an enemy’s weak points easily, but also hack away at the parts that will get you the materials you need for your next sought after upgrade. Do you take the easy way out or risk potential death hacking away for the body part you really need? The Surge 2 presents that question during each skirmish you engage in, amplifying its captivating melee combat to elevate its take on the souslike genre above many of its peers.
Salt and Sanctuary
- Developer: Ska Studios
- Release Date: March 15, 2016
- Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC
Despite being one of the oldest games on this list, no other 2D action role-playing game has come as close to embodying “Dark Souls, but 2D” like Salt and Sanctuary. There’s a variety of weapons and attributes to derive and finely tune your build from, a wealth of bosses that require careful study and are quick to punish mistakes, and lore that is told through vague item descriptions. These are all immediately recognizable tenpoles of From Software’s defining series, but Salt and Sanctuary really shines when emulating one facet that most other contemporaries struggle to: interconnectedness. Salt and Sanctuary’s world cleverly folds in on itself in ways that seem impossible at times, with each shortcut you encounter or new area that loops back on itself coming as a welcome surprise each time. Couple that with a distinct, hand-drawn artstyle that gives a lot of your exploration dreary texture, and you’ve got a familiar but wholly distinct take on this genre that shouldn’t be missed.
