Rating Soulslikes

[Kamako]

Rate all the Soulslike games you've played from best to worst/most to least fun, and easiest to hardest.

If you're not sure if it qualifies as a Soulslike, include it anyway.

BEST TO WORST (Fun)​	EASIEST TO HARDEST​
1. Dark Souls III 2. Dark Souls II SotFS 3. Bloodbourne 4. Hollow Knight 5. NieR: Automata 6. TUNIC 7. Nioh 8. Titan Souls 9. Elden Ring 10. Demon's Souls 11. Dark Souls 12. Blasphemous 13. Salt & Sanctuary 14. Sekiro 15. Nioh 2	1. TUNIC​ 2. Salt & Sanctuary 3. Titan Souls 4. Blasphemous 5. Demon's Souls 6. Dark Souls 7. Nioh 2 8. Hollow Knight 9. Dark Souls III 10. Bloodbourne 11. Sekiro 12. Elden Ring 13. NieR: Automata 14. Nioh 15. Dark Souls II SotFS

 

[bjork]

I was going to say "I've only played Dark Souls 1" but then I see Tunic on here and I've played that, so I'm going to ask: what defines a soulslike? I'm not arguing that it shouldn't be here, but I guess I'm just not familiar enough with the genre to know for sure.

 

[HITMAKER_99]

 

[Kamako]

I was going to say "I've only played Dark Souls 1" but then I see Tunic on here and I've played that, so I'm going to ask: what defines a soulslike? I'm not arguing that it shouldn't be here, but I guess I'm just not familiar enough with the genre to know for sure.

I'm using a really loose formula of anything where you have health, stamina/endurance, a world with multiple paths to explore, challenging boss fights and a mechanic where you either lose resources upon death and/or can retrieve resources upon death by returning to the place you last fell.

 

[Eju27]

Rate all the Soulslike games you've played from best to worst/most to least fun, and easiest to hardest.

If you're not sure if it qualifies as a Soulslike, include it anyway.

BEST TO WORST (Fun)​	EASIEST TO HARDEST​
1. Dark Souls III 2. Dark Souls II SotFS 3. NieR: Automata 4. TUNIC 5. Nioh 6. Titan Souls 7. Elden Ring 8. Demon's Souls 9. Dark Souls 10. Blasphemous 11. Salt & Sanctuary 12. Sekiro 13. Nioh 2	1. TUNIC​ 2. Salt & Sanctuary 3. Titans Souls 4. Blasphemous 5. Demon's Souls 6. Dark Souls 7. Nioh 2 8. Dark Souls III 9. Sekiro 10. Elden Ring 11. NieR: Automata 12. Nioh 13. Dark Souls II SotFS

Why is Nier on this list?

 

[bjork]

I'm using a really loose formula of anything where you have health, stamina/endurance, an world with multiple paths to explore, challenging boss fights and a mechanic where you either lose resources on death or can retrieve resources on death by returning to the place you last fell.

Hm, ok. By this metric, would Hollow Knight count? Then I'd have three so I could make a very short list.

 

[Kamako]

Why is Nier on this list?

Because it fulfills my criteria for a Soulslike. You don't have to include it though.

 

[Kamako]

Hm, ok. By this metric, would Hollow Knight count? Then I'd have three so I could make a very short list.

Absolutely! I'm gonna add that to my list now.

 

[bjork]

Okay then! My list
1. Tunic
2. Dark Souls 1
3. Hollow Knight

Tunic was probably the best game of that year. Dark Souls 1 I never finished, and Hollow Knight I find incredibly frustrating despite loving the presentation.

 

[Eju27]

Because it fulfills my criteria for a Soulslike. You don't have to include it though.

This makes me curious as to what that criteria is.

 

[Kamako]

This makes me curious as to what that criteria is.

I've outlined them in one of my comments above.

 

[diapered]

I've always wanted to try these soulslike games, but no hardware or console to play them Oh well, I barely survived playing through even a game like Vagrant Story (first difficult action/rpg that comes to mind, is that what these games are?), so I would probably rage quit anyway due to skill issues >_<

 

[Seraste]

Rate all the Soulslike games you've played from best to worst/most to least fun, and easiest to hardest.

If you're not sure if it qualifies as a Soulslike, include it anyway.

BEST TO WORST (Fun)​	EASIEST TO HARDEST​
1. Dark Souls III 2. Dark Souls II SotFS 3. Hollow Knight 4. NieR: Automata 5. TUNIC 6. Nioh 7. Titan Souls 8. Elden Ring 9. Demon's Souls 10. Dark Souls 11. Blasphemous 12. Salt & Sanctuary 13. Sekiro 14. Nioh 2	1. TUNIC​ 2. Salt & Sanctuary 3. Titan Souls 4. Blasphemous 5. Demon's Souls 6. Dark Souls 7. Nioh 2 8. Hollow Knight 9. Dark Souls III 10. Sekiro 11. Elden Ring 12. NieR: Automata 13. Nioh 14. Dark Souls II SotFS

peak souls 2 mentioned

 

[Kamako]

 

[FarJyyUir]

NieR: Automata	NieR: Automata
The Surge	Blasphemous
Blasphemous	The Surge

 

[HITMAKER_99]

View attachment 110235

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

No real rank, i like all these equally
1. Demon Souls
2. BloodBorne
3. Dark Souls
4. Dark Souls 3
---------------------------------------------------
Absolute shit, wouldn't even call it a game tier, they should grab the devs and pull them to the streets to be beaten
Demon Souls Demake


that's about it.

 

[FarJyyUir]

No real rank, i like all these equally
1. Demon Souls
2. BloodBorne
3. Dark Souls
4. Dark Souls 3
---------------------------------------------------
Absolute shit, wouldn't even call it a game tier, they should grab the devs and pull them to the streets to be beaten
Demon Souls Demake


that's about it.

Still in my backlog, have you played the PSX BloodBorne?

 

[DrunkGecko]

 

[Glimbo]

Love
Sekiro
Dark Souls 1
Bloodborne
Demon's Souls
Dark Souls 2

Like
Dark Souls 2 SOTFS
Lies of P
Nioh
Withering Rooms

Okay
Dark Souls 3
Blasphemous
The Surge

Dislike
Hollow Knight
Lords of the Fallen (2014)
Hellpoint
Dark Light
Outward

 

[Clippy]

I've tried a few of these games, namely Dark Souls, Sekiro and Nioh and I have to say I agree with Nebby. I hated every single minute of each of these experiences. Dying a hundred times on a boss just so that you can get to the second phase and die 300 more times isn't fun and it's not good game design. If I were 8 and one of these games was the only one I had then I'd probably slog through it but as it stands I don't have the time, patience or Stockholm Syndrome to bother.

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I guess since there’s some debate over what could qualify as a soulslike, I’ll just rank the actual souls games themselves (Tbh as well; I haven’t played many soulslikes outside of the actual souls games themselves anyway lol). I’ll go from best to worst:

Bloodborne: Just simply put; one of the best games of all time, up there with DS1, but this one slightly takes the top spot over it for me with its greater focus on movement and attacking options as opposed to the rest of the souls series more strategic/defensive play they encourage.

Dark Souls 1: Again; one of the best games of all time. Took most of the good from its predecessor and refined it into a timeless experience you can always go back to again and again. Speaking of…

Demon Souls (Original): Where it all began. This game still manages to stand the test of time as a purely unique and amazing game. While it definitely laid the blue print for all the games that came after it, it still manages to hold its own identity and provide a genuinely unique experience.

Elden Ring: FromSofts biggest game by far, in terms of scope and popularity. Very ambitious game with a huge, expansive world and a refreshing shakeup to the souls formula that has become a bit standard now.

Dark Souls 3: This is where DS fatigue started to set in for me. It’s not a bad game by any means; it’s perfectly fine at what it sets out to do, it just retreads ground already covered in my eyes and doesn’t really have its own identity to me. Not bad, but not amazing, just very middle of the road and the least memorable one to me, I’d still much rather play this than…

Dark Souls 2: One of the most miserable gaming experiences of my life is going through this piece of shit. You can really tell Miyazaki had no involvement in this one and the team that made it had no actual idea why people loved Dark Souls 1 and Demon Souls so much. So you have a team that didn’t actually understand the last games, took all the wrong lessons from them and ending up shitting out this garbage. Fuck this game.




(Oh btw; Sekiro isn’t included because I don’t consider it a souls game. I do actually really like that game though)

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Still in my backlog, have you played the PSX BloodBorne?

No but i heard good things from it

I've tried a few of these games, namely Dark Souls, Sekiro and Nioh and I have to say I agree with Nebby. I hated every single minute of each of these experiences. Dying a hundred times on a boss just so that you can get to the second phase and die 300 more times isn't fun and it's not good game design. If I were 8 and one of these games was the only one I had then I'd probably slog through it but as it stands I don't have the time, patience or Stockholm Syndrome to bother.

once you played one the rest start to fall apart like dominoes. The real tough enemies are from third-party devs that don't know what made these games tough and decides to map the enemies with impossible attacks and shit.

 

[Segadude113]

 

[Clippy]

once you played one the rest start to fall apart like dominoes. The real tough enemies are from third-party devs that don't know what made these games tough and decides to map the enemies with impossible attacks and shit.

I have little reason to doubt what you're saying and, frankly, beating at least one of the games in the genre would be a cool thing to have under my belt but at the same time I have such a massive backlog of games that aren't frustration central, games that I actually want to play that I simply don't see myself giving any soulslike a go in the foreseeable future.

With that said, people who enjoy these games and try to perfect their craft have my admiration if nothing else. Beating them takes skill and that's something I'll always respect.