Lies of P

The legacy of FromSoftware’s Souls series isn’t just defined by the amazing games that it’s made up of, but also the subgenre that’s been given life thanks to its very existence: The Soulslike. It’s a complicated thing, though; every fan of these games knows that defining the term "Soulslike" is about as easy as beating Melania without summons or cheese strats. Developer FromSoftware’s influence on the industry has been so profound that slithers of its DNA can be found everywhere from Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Death Stranding to Dead Cells and 2018’s God of War. At this point, what game featuring towering bosses or encouraged exploration doesn’t seem at least a little Soulslike?<br><br> To keep our ranking somewhat coherent, we’re boiling the essence of Soulslikes down to a number of key building blocks. To be eligible for this list, a game must have:<br><br> Punishing consequences for death.<br><br> A currency gained by defeating enemies that is integral to character progression and can be lost upon death.<br><br> Deliberate combat, typically tied to a stamina meter or similar resource. <br><br> Checkpoints that reset the world.<br><br> While those are the essentials, we’re also looking for a complex narrative, impressive boss battles, an immersive world made up of interconnected levels, and as little handholding, spoonfeeding, or signposting as possible. Oh, and games that are NOT developed by FromSoftware. This is a list of the best soulslikes, not the best Souls games – and yes, we’re including Sekiro, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring under that banner, too. Now that we got all of that out of the way, we can move on to the full list!

<b>10. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor</b><br><br> While this is predominantly a list of brutally difficult, beautifully grotesque games that feel connected to Dark Souls mechanically, tonally, and aesthetically, not every soulslike has to tread that path. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor borrows many of FromSoft’s signature mechanics but sends them on a journey to a galaxy far, far away, where the challenge curve is a little gentler, the punishment for failure a touch less devastating, and the stats far more decipherable. A huge improvement on the "Star Souls" blueprint that was Jedi: Fallen Order, Survivor’s fantastic lightsaber combat makes full use of dodge and parry mechanics in a system that takes the best of Sekiro and makes it (literally) hum. Meanwhile, multiple lightsaber stances provide distinct battle styles and help deliver the weapon variety we get in more traditional Souls games. And while combat is vital to the Souls experience, so is exploration, which is deeply enjoyable here thanks to mounts, shortcuts, and fast-travel points that make traipsing the numerous planets for loot and lore more convenient and less punishing after death.

<b>9. Lords of the Fallen (2023)</b><br><br> The original Lords of the Fallen, released in 2014, has gone down in history as a textbook example of what not to do when developing a Soulslike. Among the first developers to try and piggyback off FromSoft’s rising star, CI Games and Deck13 delivered a body without a soul, doubling down on slow movement speed at a time when FromSoft was about to speed things up. The 2023 sequel-slash-reboot rises from the dead to try again, this time to far greater success – in no small part thanks to a dual-realm mechanic that takes corpse-running to the next level. Lords of the Fallen is an example of a series getting a second chance at life and making the absolute most of it, and this resurrection was just the beginning: since launch it has benefitted from a number of massive upgrades, including a full co-operative mode, and a new sequel is on the way.

<b>8. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers</b><br><br> A number of ambitious Chinese developers have experimented with the Souls style in recent years, and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers follows FromSoft’s example more closely than its rivals. Set in China’s ancient Shu kingdom, your character, the titular Wuchang, is afflicted by a mysterious illness that – if left untreated – will cause her to lose her sanity and turn into a feathered monstrosity. Madness is a core mechanic, but unlike Hollowing in the original Dark Souls, it’s more than cosmetic: you deal and take more damage as the meter fills, and an "Inner Demon" arrives in the world to hunt you down. The only salve is to find and kill specific feathered enemies, which will reset your sanity.

<b>7. The Surge</b><br><br> There’s some debate about which of Deck13 Interactive’s The Surge games is the better one – the 2017 original or its 2019 sequel. These sci-fi spins on the Souls formula both benefit from a Monster-Hunter-esque crafting system, using his dismembered pieces of zombified cyborgs to craft new weapons and armor. But while the sequel scores points for expanding enemy and weapon variety and deepening its combat system, the original is widely considered to have a more gripping, tightly-told story and effective atmosphere. As our review explained, The Surge 2’s updates and improvements don’t quite make up for the loss of charm and character.

<b>6. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty</b><br><br> Team Ninja is a major name in the Soulslike space, and its excellent Nioh series is represented in this list’s higher ranks. But in 2023 the studio swapped Sengoku-period Japan for Han dynasty China. A change of location is just the start of Wo Long’s different flavor, though. This time, inspiration is drawn from Sekiro as opposed to Dark Souls, featuring a combat system complete with a parries, a depletable spirit meter, and clearly telegraphed unblockable attacks. Praised for simplifying the at-times dizzying mechanical complexity of the Nioh games – as well as a new morale system that links enemy resistance to player exploration and battle prowess – Wo Long proves a worthy addition to Team Ninja’s catalog.