E'er since its release in 2011, Night Souls has been viewed as a benchmark in gaming difficulty spawning a trilogy held by many to be one of gaming'southward finest. Like many successful franchises, the game also inspired a bunch of other games from different developers, originating the Souls-Like genre.

Nowadays, Souls-similar is the term used for games that take a slower arroyo to exploration and a stamina bar to go along the players often managing their resources. The difficulty is also i of the big staples of the genre. Some games are significantly more difficult than others, though.

Updated on September 7, 2021, past Thomas Heath: The Souls-similar genre continues to exist one of the well-nigh popular in modern gaming, spanning across a diversity of franchises and gameplay styles. This updated list adds 5 more bright games to the fold, all of which bring the brutal difficulty and souls-similar gameplay dearest by fans of the Dark Souls serial.

14 Code Vein

Code Vain - characters stare at the camera

Code Vein is not as difficult every bit your boilerplate Souls-like game. Although it might exist harder than your typical activity-chance blockbuster, it will not be as painful and deadening to get into as other games might be. Well, at least until you reach a boss battle. This game has some very unforgiving and punishing bosses.

Code Vein tin can be played cooperatively, and this mechanic might be the best mode to get through some bosses. Unfortunately, playing cooperatively out of dominate battles might completely trivialize some challenges. Information technology is a fun game nonetheless, and a great entry-point to the genre.

xiii Nioh

Nioh - Noah William

A Souls-similar with several twists, Nioh is considered by many the spiritual successor of Onimusha. The game has your typical slower arroyo and a Ki bar that works like the Stamina in your standard souls-similar game. Withal, it does accept unique mechanics that accompany it.

There are dissimilar postures that the main character tin use to change the way he attacks. Also, timing your strikes, posture defenses, and other commands might make you instantly recover office of the ki spent. This makes the combat engaging and fun but can also brand it easier when the mechanic is mastered. If you lot're looking for a challenge, they tin await for the hardest twilight missions.

12 Lords of the Fallen

Lords of the fallen - Cleric Harkyn

The first Souls-Like in the PS4 era, Lords of the Fallen was adult by Deck13 Interactive and CI Games. Different Dark Souls and Demon's Souls, it had a protagonist with a name and backstory.

Many gamers did not bask this game, though, and in that location is some reason for that. The game had some questioning design, considered by many to be too edgy. The gameplay was likewise not considered as fun, engaging, or as well thought out as that of Dark Souls.

eleven Mortal Shell

Mortal Shell Virtuous Cycle - via Steam

Mortal Shell is a really skilful-looking game and takes a lot of inspiration from Dark Souls - although it isn't afraid to refresh the formula. Information technology fifty-fifty has a roguelike style. The biggest addition though is the hardening mechanic, which acts every bit a way to forestall whatever damage from being taken and can be used in some really unique ways.

Shells are likewise a unique characteristic and act as the game'southward classes. In-game they're the remains of defeated warriors and let you lot to learn new skills and combat techniques. Mortal Trounce doesn't offer the brutal difficulty of the harder Night Souls games, only it's a great alternative and 1 of the newer entries on this list.

10 The Surge 2

Surge 2 running

The futuristic setting and the dismemberment mechanics of The Surge indeed made the game unique and fun. The dodge was actually potent, making the principal character jump far to the side. Some weapons were unique, and the game had a strong identity.

The game had its issues, but The Surge ii improved on well-nigh every single attribute of the game. Those changes did make the game easier than the predecessor, but considering that the starting time game had some foreign difficulty spikes, it was all for the all-time.

9 Remnant: From The Ashes

Remnant from the Ashes promo poster

The elevator pitch for Remnant: From the Ashes is pretty unproblematic, it's Nighttime Souls with guns. Mechanically, Remnant borrows the bonfires, dodging mechanic, stamina, and classes, equally well as offering some pretty tricky boss fights for you to dice to again and again.

Information technology is less of a souls game than virtually games on this list, but it is a lot of fun, offering bang-up co-op action, and takes enough inspiration from the series that fans of the Dark Souls games will probably take a lot of fun here.

viii Table salt and Sanctuary

Salt and Sanctuary Knight fighting

Salt and Sanctuary is a tough 2D platformer that combines fluid gainsay with some great exploration to produce an unforgettable feel. One of the highlights of the game is its weapon organization, with over 600 weapons and spells to find, craft, and upgrade, pregnant yous can take down enemies and bosses nonetheless yous choose.

It wears its Dark Souls influence on its sleeve, taking all of the best elements from the series, and projecting them into 2 dimensions. The atmosphere is dour, the enemy designs are grotesque, and the difficulty is loftier. You'll die a lot, only isn't that why y'all play souls-likes?

vii Demon's Souls

Demon's Souls - In front of a foggy wall

The original Souls game. Demon'south Souls was the original punishing game with methodical exploration that was made by FromSoftware. It remains i of the most critically acclaimed games out there and is however considered ane of the best Action RPGs ever fabricated. Thanks to the remake, players tin can enjoy this archetype with new generation graphics, just in that location are another things that are dissimilar from the original.

Demon's Souls is hard, and it was one of its selling points. It was the get-go game of its era that unified your coin and experience in a single currency and would take everything away from the actor after whatsoever expiry. This eternalized the "yous died", originating a series of memes.

half-dozen Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3

Thankfully, FromSoftware did not stop afterwards Demon'southward Souls. In fact, we got several great games after. The spiritual successor of their prior success was called Dark Souls, and it was likewise one of the most critically acclaimed Action RPGs always fabricated.

Nighttime Souls was so famous due to its game blueprint philosophy and genius map construction that it caused the existence of two more games within the same franchise. Night Souls 3 might not exist the hardest of the Dark Souls, but it is difficult, rewarding, and amazingly well designed.

5 The Surge

The Surge - Warren is ready

The start futuristic souls-like, The Surge was a welcomed new have on this genre that was once idea to be exclusively well-nigh medieval settings. This is the game that implemented dismemberment and localized damage as an important part of its combat system.

Knowing what part of an enemy to hit was almost every bit important as dodging or parrying. Although the gameplay was fun and the setting very unique, the game suffered from sudden difficulty spikes that were not entirely fun to deal with.

4 Hollow Knight

The Vessel riding the last stag

Hollow Knight is arguably the all-time Metroidvania to have come up out in the last decade and includes many souls-like staples such equally a high difficulty level, lots of dominate fights, and a mechanic very similar to the blaze system in Dark Souls for saving.

It has amazing combat and a move set development that evolves from beingness rudimentary to eventually allowing you to slash, dash, and bounce your way to victory. The story is heavily influenced past the Dark Souls games besides, with your journeying taking you through a once-keen kingdom that has fallen into disrepair.

iii Nighttime Souls

Dark Souls - The chosen undead stares at the path ahead

Ever fun and ever fair. Or at least that'south what fans of Nighttime Souls have to say nigh the game. This game is considered by many to be almost flawless. Information technology has extremely well-constructed combat, map, enemies, and atmosphere. Nighttime Souls makes you rage when you dice, simply provides an amazing sensation of achievement when they overcome each claiming.

The dark fantasy setting compliments the difficulty of the game, and the death and respawn points are non only a game mechanic merely also explained by the lore. Although it is difficult, virtually every single challenge is fair and tin can be beaten if you lot're determined enough.

2 Bloodborne

Bloodborne - The Hunter looks at Yharnam

At some signal, someone had an amazing idea of mixing Dark Souls, Gothic architecture, the Victorian era, and Lovecraftian horror. The baby of this weird salad is one of the best games ever made. Bloodborne is the horror Action RPG nobody knew that they wanted. The game even has an optional dungeon crawl with very challenging sections.

Post-obit the same design suggestion that Dark Souls had, but with faster gameplay, Bloodborne is i of the almost memorable games on the PS4. Information technology has a great twist, though. The only shield in the game is quite useless. The game forces players to play aggressively and contrivance like no other souls game ever has, and perhaps always will.

1 Dark Souls 2: Scholar Of The First Sin

Dark Souls 2 - Bearer of the curse tries to find his path

The least favorite Night Souls of most fans, many players would say that Nighttime Souls 2 was the easiest in the series. That is until FromSoftware decided to modify the game with patches and Downloadable Content. By the fourth dimension they launched the Scholar of the First Sin version, this was a new game already.

Dark Souls 2's latest version was harder, unforgiving, and had a plethora of enemies. Whether or not the game is fun at present is very debatable - It is certainly the least favorite game for near fans, but it is indeed a quite hard one. Especially considering the number of bosses that have creatures to assist them in boxing and the astonishing DLC bosses.

NEXT: How Long Does Information technology Take To Beat Dark Souls ii?

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