Darksiders III puts you in control of Fury, the whip-wielding sister of War and Death, hunting down the Seven Deadly Sins across a broken Earth. The combat is slower and more deliberate than the earlier entries, borrowing the dodge-and-punish rhythm straight from Dark Souls without its notorious brutality. Fury can swap between elemental forms mid-fight, which ensures combat stays dynamic without turning every encounter into an impassable wall. The difficulty is forgiving enough that most players will actually finish it. | © THQ Nordic
The Surge 2 takes the brutal sci-fi formula of its predecessor and files down the sharpest edges without losing what made it interesting. You are still dismembering robot limbs and grafting their parts onto your own exosuit, which remains one of the most satisfying loot loops in the genre. The city of Jericho feels genuinely alive compared to the first game's industrial corridors, and the combat gives you enough tools to feel clever rather than just punished. | © Focus Entertainment
Chronos: Before the Ashes started as a VR game, and that origin quietly shapes everything about how it plays. Your character ages one year every time they die, which means death has real weight without punishing your build or your gear. A 20-year-old warrior and a 75-year-old sage play very differently, and that aging system does more creative work than most soulslike gimmicks ever manage. It is slower and smaller than its inspirations, but that restraint is exactly what makes it approachable. | © THQ Nordic
Steelrising puts you in the boots of Aegis, a clockwork automaton fighting through a version of revolutionary Paris where Louis XVI has unleashed killer robots on the population. The setting carries the experience because almost no other soulslike has thought to make the French Revolution its backdrop. Combat is slower and more deliberate than most in the genre, which keeps newer players from feeling like they are constantly losing a race against the game. Aegis herself is one of the more interesting protagonists the genre has produced, and the story actually bothers to use its weird premise rather than bury it in item descriptions. | © Focus Entertainment
Enotria: The Last Song drops you into a world built entirely from Italian folklore, which already makes it stand out from the usual grim castles and ash-covered wastelands. The difficulty sits at a comfortable middle ground, punishing enough to feel earned but rarely sending you back to square one in frustration. You swap between different character builds called Masks mid-run, which prevents encounters from turning repetitive. The sun-drenched landscapes and carnival-bright enemies give it a look that no other soulslike has come close to matching. | © Jyamma Games
Nioh 2 puts you in control of a demon hunter in feudal Japan, with enough weapon types and stances to shape combat around whatever feels comfortable. The Yokai Shift ability grants temporary invincibility and a damage burst, smoothing out some of the genre's usual punishment. It is still demanding, but the build variety means there is almost always an easier path through. | © Koei Tecmo
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order strikes a perfect balance where the soulslike bones never feel punishing enough to frustrate a casual player. Cal Kestis is a young Jedi on the run, and the game lets you feel genuinely powerful with a lightsaber without demanding pixel-perfect timing on every encounter. The difficulty options are generous, the checkpoints are forgiving, and the world feels built for exploration more than suffering. Respawn took the framework and sanded down every sharp edge that usually makes people quit. | © Electronic Arts
Salt and Sanctuary trades three-dimensional exploration for a tight, moody 2D world, and that shift alone makes everything more readable. Platforming replaces some of the trickier boss patterns with straightforward jumps and ledges, while stamina management and spacing stay close to the Souls formula. Between the shorter learning curve and generous checkpoints, it plays like Dark Souls with a lot of its teeth filed down. | © Ska Studios
Blasphemous 2 keeps the grotesque Catholic imagery and brutal pixel art of the original but pulls back just enough on the punishment to let more players actually finish it. The Penitent One now starts with three different weapons that open up completely different movement options, which gives the whole map a puzzle-box quality earlier entries never had. The world is still full of mangled saints, weeping statues, and religious horror that feels genuinely unsettling rather than edgy for its own sake. Team17 and The Game Kitchen built something that rewards curiosity more than memorization. | © Team17
Death's Door puts you in the role of a small crow working as a reaper, collecting souls in a world where nothing is allowed to die. The combat borrows from Dark Souls but keeps the punishment fair, so dying feels like a mistake you can fix rather than a wall you cannot climb. Every area has its own weird logic and visual identity, from flooded temples to rotting gardens, and the whole thing moves fast enough that it never drags. | © Devolver Digital
Lies of P takes the story of Pinocchio and drops it into a rotting Belle Époque city overrun by murderous puppets. The combat gives you real room to breathe, with a weapon assembly system that lets you mix handles and blades until you find something that clicks. Most players who bounced off FromSoftware games found this one actually rewarding to push through. The difficulty curve feels designed by someone who wanted you to win, not suffer. | © Neowiz Games
Remnant II keeps the soulslike bones but swaps melee frustration for third-person shooting across randomly generated worlds. Each run can look completely different, with hidden bosses, alternate storylines, and secret areas that even dedicated players miss entirely. The guns actually feel good to use, which immediately separates it from most games trying to wear the Dark Souls label. | © Gearbox Publishing
Black Myth: Wukong pulls from Chinese mythology in a way most Western games never attempt, putting you in control of a shapeshifting monkey warrior tearing through demons and gods. The combat feels generous compared to most soulslikes. You have transformation abilities and spell options that let you approach tough fights with real creativity instead of just punishment. The world looks extraordinary, and the bosses are weird and specific in the best way. | © Game Science
Lords of the Fallen gives you two full worlds stacked on top of each other, and that alone separates it from most of its competition. The living realm and the Umbral realm exist simultaneously, and you can dip into the dead side at any moment to find different paths, hidden items, and enemies that do not exist in the world above. The difficulty sits closer to forgiving than punishing, partly because the dual-world system gives you so many ways to reposition and recover. Die in Umbral and you get a second chance before a real death even registers. | © CI Games
Code Vein wraps a soulslike skeleton in full anime style, complete with vampire aesthetics, dramatic backstories, and character customization that goes embarrassingly deep. The companion system is what actually separates it from the pack. You always fight alongside an AI partner who can revive you, which softens the difficulty without making the game feel hollow. Players who bounced off Dark Souls for being too brutal found a real foothold here. | © Bandai Namco Entertainment
The Soulslike genre has a reputation for breaking controllers and testing patience, but not everyone demands blood, sweat, and tears. Some deliver that satisfying combat, moody atmosphere, and sense of triumph while going a little easier on you. Here are 15 of the best Soulslike games that won't punish you into quitting.
