Summary
- Soulslike games offer diverse playstyles for players to customize characters with unique abilities and builds.
- Big-budget competitors like Lies of P and Code Vein are emerging in the Soulslike genre with innovative gameplay and storytelling.
- Elden Ring stands out as a top Soulslike game with its vast array of content, including items, bosses, and abilities for endless player choices.
Since the Soulslike genre started as a niche subgenre and ascended to meteoric success throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, the games have wildly diversified, with many placing a massive emphasis on giving the player as much freedom of choice as possible.
16 Soulslike Games Easier Than Dark Souls
Dark Souls is a classic, but notoriously difficult game. For gamers who want something more forgiving, these similar titles are great choices.
Whether it's indie darlings that celebrate diverse choice or the biggest Soulslike ever made, there's a massive roster of great Soulslikes that let players play their own way. This list is ranked not just by the quality of the games, but how much freedom a player has to choose how they play.
8 Hollow Knight
There's Life Underground
Hollow Knight
- Released
- February 24, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, macOS, Linux
- Genre(s)
- Metroidvania
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The 2010s saw an unprecedented boom in the indie gaming world, producing legendary games considered to be the greatest of all time. Against all odds, Team Cherry, a plucky indie studio, produced Hollow Knight, an incredible fusion of the Metroidvania and Soulslike genres. The game has gone down as one of the best Metroidvanias ever made with a roster of iconic bosses, incorporating a number of core Soulslike elements to earn its place on this list.
The sheer quality of Hollow Knight is a big reason why the fanbase is so rabid for Silksong when it arrives. In the game, players can customize their version of the bug protagonist with a variety of charms and abilities to compliment their particular playstyle, which will become all important due to the game's infamously brutal difficulty.
7 Lies Of P
The Fibber's Gambit
Lies of P
- Released
- September 19, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Round8 Studio, Neowiz
- Publisher(s)
- Neowiz
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Soulslike
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Though FromSoftware is undoubtedly the patriarch the Soulslike genre, increasingly, big-budget competitors are emerging all over the world to try and take the crown, and no studio has come closer than Round8 and its hit 2023 game, Lies of P.
Taking inspiration from classic children's stories and Pinocchio in particular, this strange premise set in a dark Gothic world that looks like something straight out of Bloodborne proved to have a unique voice all on its own. With a diverse set of weapons, charms, gear, and builds, Lies of P compliments every kind of player. It's well worth playing for the diverse bosses alone, but also because the new DLC drops any day now.
6 Code Vein
Anime Meets Souls
Code Vein
- Released
- September 27, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Bandai Namco Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
The pitch for Code Vein was seemingly very simple. What if the Soulslike genre pioneered by FromSoftware was transfigured into the world of anime? The result? A cult-classic game that still hasn't quite gotten the love it deserves.
By mixing the Soulslike formula with anime aesthetics and storytelling, Code Vein builds a foundation for complex character builds focused on deliberate and flashy combat that rewards quick thinking and well-considered builds. Code Vein never quite got the love it deserved, which is shame, because it's a clear innovator in the Soulslike genre.
5 Mortal Shell
Custom Pilot License
Mortal Shell
- Released
- August 18, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Cold Symmetry
- Publisher(s)
- Playstack
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS4, PS5
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
As 2020 rolled around, more and more competitors and inheritors to the Soulslike formula were emerging from their long development cycles, and Mortal Shell was a concerted effort to try and break FromSoftware's stranglehold by focusing on diverse playstyles and intense combat.
16 Soulslike Games Easier Than Dark Souls
Dark Souls is a classic, but notoriously difficult game. For gamers who want something more forgiving, these similar titles are great choices.
While the indie game never quite got to the level it might have wanted, the novel idea of a player embodying 'shells' that personify different playstyles was a novel one. Mortal Shell clearly prioritizes player choice over many other considerations, making it a great pick for any players looking for a game that centralizes choice above all else.
4 Dark Souls 2
Study The First Sin
Dark Souls 2
- Released
- March 11, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Dark Souls 2 has a mixed reputation in the Souls community. Some think it a maligned black sheep that attempts some truly inventive innovations, while others think it's a pretty poor effort by FromSoftware's B-team. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, but it still has a lot of the magic that makes great Soulslike games work.
While most builds in Dark Souls 2 will need to work on basics like ADP and Vigor, there's still loads of different weapons, powerful armor sets, and cool spells to choose from to make unique builds, made even better by the game's truly superb set of DLC levels.
3 Nioh 2
Team Ninja's Back At It
Nioh 2
- Released
- March 13, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Team Ninja
- Publisher(s)
- Koei Tecmo, Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The original Nioh game was one of the very first big-budget competitors to directly try and take on the FromSoftware games and beat them at it. While the game has a somewhat mixed reputation, it certainly delivered on brutal difficulty and a truly novel setting.
Nioh 2: 9 Overpowered Builds That Are A Lot Of Fun
Looking to become an absolute menace in Nioh 2? Here are the game's most overpowered builds players can run for fun and efficiency.
Nioh 2 improves on the original Nioh in almost every way, giving players countless ways to engage in the game's deep but brutally difficult combat with poses, weapons, armor sets, and abilities, all coalescing into unique builds that let the player do as they prefer.
2 Dark Souls 3
The End Of The World
Dark Souls 3
- Released
- March 24, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
While Dark Souls 2 may be the black sheep of the original Souls trilogy, Dark Souls 3 may be the most underappreciated and overlooked, never quite garnering the rabid fanbase that other FromSoftware games have, which is a shame, because it's truly a great entry.
Building on everything that came before, Dark Souls 3 has a sincerely eye-wateringly large number of items, fearsome weapons, armor sets, and new unique abilities (depending on the weapon and build). For the most flexibility in the Souls series specifically, Dark Souls 3 is the way to go.
1 Elden Ring
Foolish Ambitions Laid Bare
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
There is no other option for the top of this list. A lot of ink has been spilled singing Elden Ring's praises, and rightfully so. The game is a massive achievement by any metric, presenting so much high-quality gaming content that it beggars belief that it was made at all.
Best of all, the truly staggering number of items, bosses, builds, abilities, spells, sorceries, miracles, ashes of war, and many many more mean that few builds play exactly alike in Elden Ring through sheer force of numbers alone. This is the perfect Soulslike game for a player who wants to play their way — especially adding in the game's open-world nature, allowing countless ways to approach the world.
8 Best Adventure Soulslike Games, Ranked
These great soulslike (and soulslike-adjacent games) emphasize the spirit of adventure through their thrilling combat and enticing narratives.