Soulslike games: list + scores

[cruel]

I was bored and was trying to see which of the Souls-like games I've missed that may be worth playing - compiled this based on user reviews on hltb.com:

Title	Hltb rating
Ashen	74%
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars	69%
Bleak Faith: Forsaken	70%
Bloodborne	92%
Code Vein	73%
Dark Souls	92%
Dark Souls 2: SotFS	79%
Dark Souls 3	90%
Darksiders 3	71%
Demon's Souls	85%
Demon's Souls (2020)	85%
Elden Ring	93%
Enotria	67%
Hellpoint	66%
Lies of P	85%
Lords of the Fallen (2014)	64%
Lords of the Fallen (2023)	71%
Mortal Shell	68%
Nioh	79%
Nioh 2	87%
Remnant: From the Ashes	73%
Remnant 2	79%
Sekiro	90%
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order	81%
Star Wars: Jedi Surivor	83%
Steelrising	70%
Stranger or Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin	74%
Surge	72%
Surge 2	76%
Thymesia	70%
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty	76%

Few interesting observations:
- the 'masterpiece' rating (90%+) is received only by From games: Bloodborne, DS, DS3, Elden Ring, Sekiro
- the best rated non-From game is Nioh 2 (87%), followed by Lies of P (85%)
- the worst rated Souls-like is the original Lords of the Fallen (64%), followed by Hellpoint (66%) and Mortal Shell (68%)
- most games fall into 70%-something territory

Not sure if this is useful for anyone, but may be a decent reference on what's worth playing.

 

[gabel]

Elden Ring 93%
ok

 

[The Decline]

I really don't think the Remnant games belong on the list. They are third-person shooters at their core. The list is also missing the 2d ones like Salt and Sanctuary.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Hellpoint is great fuck you

 

[Ezekiel]

Elden Ring 93%
ok

Make anything open world and more users will play and talk about it and love it. Makes sense Elden Ring is the best selling game FromSoftware ever made. People who wouldn't touch the old games with a ten foot pole, whom I wouldn't speak with about video games because they mainly play multiplayer and movie games, appreciate Elden Ring. The game is a bad sign for the whole industry. It tells developers that they are right for abandoning the linear single player adventure.

 

[Talby]

Dark Souls 2 should be 0%.

 

[Baron Dupek]

DS2 Scholar - maybe
DS2 preScholar deserves bigger score

DS1 PtDE should be on the list with lower score - it's baffling that it works worse than DS2 and DS3 on the same machine.

Is NIOH 1/2 really a soulslike and not Diablo clone in TPP? Maybe we should add Hellgate London on the list?

 

[abija]

Tell me you didn't play nioh and call it a diablo clone?
Sure can argue is not a soulslike... but diablo clone? Comparing with hellgate lodon? Fuck you

 

[Multidirectional]

Diablo clones all have boring braindead combat and Nioh combat is great, with lots of depth to it. Therefore Nioh is more than diablo clone. It's also different enough from Souls to be its own thing. Middle ground between Souls and DMC would be a good way to describe its combat, I think.

 

[toro]

Few interesting observations:
- the 'masterpiece' rating (90%+) is received only by From games: Bloodborne, DS, DS3, Elden Ring, Sekiro
- most games fail into 70%-something territory

Sadly, this was completely expected because most game developers don't understand what makes Dark Souls a great game.

In essence, DaS is a sandbox game and the game is considered difficult because it requires from the player a minimal effort to learn some of the world's internal rules. The rules are simple and kept consistent throughout the entire game. Then there is a certain elegance to the combat encounters, and the artificial difficulty is mostly kept to a minimum because the game is not really about twitch reflexes. DaS is fair and easy once you are willing to learn some rules.

But most game developers don't understand the point above and most of them don't really understand the design principles behind DaS (they pretend but they don't have FromSW's history). Some of them don't even have the technical competency to implement a proper clone. But more importantly most of them see "more difficult = better DaS clone" and they design copycats under the assumption that a more difficult clone will critically and financially do better than DaS.

The problem is that the only way to make a fair game more difficult is to add artificial difficulty: twitch based combat, delayed or homing attacks, no telltale for attacks, combat stances, relentless ganking, unthinkable amounts of bland content and so on. This problem is aggravated by retarded fandoms which are praising this new "difficulty" because they want to feel superior. Example: Vaxxed TDS imbeciles which are praising Nioh or LotF as better than the original DaS games.

That's why most non FromSW clones are mediocre at best and most of them are unable to capture the quality of DaS for more than a few moments.

Honestly, this topic makes me sad because there is a small chance we will ever get a game as good as DaS.

 

[Falksi]

Played around half of those and for a mainstream list it's not a bad list tbh.

Lords of The Fallen 2014 was way better than 64% though, definitely Soulslike-lite, but the amour sets were mint and the general action fun. Way better than Fallen Orders soulless journey.

Nioh 2 should get a rating over 90% too.

 

[AdamReith]

Are Kings field games not considered souls likes?

 

[cyan]

Are Kings field games not considered souls likes?

kings field and souls dont really have anything in common aside from being dark fantasy games made by FROM.

 

[AdamReith]

Oh interesting, I thought they were very similar in atmosphere and level design.

It's true though, no bonfires in KF.

 

[cyan]

Oh interesting, I thought they were very similar in atmosphere and level design.

level design/atmosphere is not really enough to call something soulslike, imo (I hate that term anyway).

think of how many dozens if not hundreds of games feature either a dark fantasy atmosphere, clever looping level design, or both. You can't start calling them all soulslikes. Particularly ones that came out long before souls has a thing.

 

[Ryzer]

Bloodborne , Nioh 1 and 2 are the true original games out of the list.

The rest is pretty much banal, boring souls-clones.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Are Kings field games not considered souls likes?

kings field and souls dont really have anything in common aside from being dark fantasy games made by FROM.

IIRC, the King's Field games are Underworld-likes, i.e. the 3D dungeon-crawlers that began with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss in 1992, having developed from the real-time blobbers that began with Dungeon Master in 1987. Demon's/Dark Souls might be considered a descendant of the King's Field games, but they switched genres to Action RPG, with a far greater emphasis on action-based combat and the player's physical skill than existed in the King's Field games. The Souls-like description specifically indicates certain features that were introduced in these games, such as the expectation of dying and being resurrected with any equipment/items found and certain other progress preserved, losing only souls and location.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS MORTAL SHELL IS MANY GOOD

I LOVED THE WORLD DESIGN

INTERCONNECTED IN MANY WAYS AND A GOOD SENSE OF DANGER

 

[Elttharion]

85% for the Demon Souls remake.

 

[Ezekiel]

85% for the Demon Souls remake.

Have you criticized it on other forums? I posted that big collage JPEG of all the characters made black or more obscene/less dignified and was not treated kindly by anyone. Seems like most people accept The Message. The generic music is criticized, but the vast majority of people don't seem to care.

 

[Elttharion]

85% for the Demon Souls remake.

Have you criticized it on other forums? I posted that big collage JPEG of all the characters made black or more obscene/less dignified and was not treated kindly by anyone. Seems like most people accept The Message. The generic music is criticized, but the vast majority of people don't seem to care.

Bear in mind that its one of the few PS5 exclusives and playstation fans are especially rabid. But it depends, on twitter its mixed, on reddit the vast majority will defend the remake. Unfortunately the people who cheer for race swaping and decline are the loudest minority and the general audience goes along for fear of being called racist, etc.

 

[JarlFrank]

Elden Ring is not a soulslike

 

[Ryzer]

Elden Ring is not a soulslike

It factually has the same gameplay as Dark Souls 3 (shitty).

 

[Multidirectional]

Elden Ring is not a soulslike

It's a Souls game with a jump button and open world. If ER is not a soulslike than soulslikes that aren't called "Dark Souls" don't exist at all.

 

[JarlFrank]

The open world structure makes it fundamentally different from Dark Souls and its clones.
Whereas DS is all about getting good and overcoming the challenge ahead of you, while navigating a tightly interconnected world, Elden Ring allows you to explore an open world, go elsewhere, level up, and return later if you meet a roadblock. This changes the entire structure and approach to challenges.