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A Soulslike is no longer a fixed recipe of stamina bars, bonfires, and dodge rolls. It is a design vocabulary: demanding combat, meaningful exploration, risky deaths and recovery, and progression that makes every shortcut matter. The most interesting games keep that tension while changing one of the genre’s assumptions—how defense works, how weapons are built, whether combat uses guns, or even how serious the world feels.
Here are the games that make those changes deliberately, and the player each one suits best.
What makes a Soulslike—and what can change?
Game Informer uses “Soulslike” for games, whether made by FromSoftware or not, that draw on the core ideas established by Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne. PC Gamer’s useful shorthand is a rigid checkpoint system, weighty combat, punishing deaths and deep RPG customization. Those are reference points, not mandatory features.
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| Game | What it changes | Defensive language | Progression identity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | Build variety becomes combat mastery | Timed blocks and posture | Fixed hero, curated tools and skills |
| Bloodborne | Defense becomes aggression | Rally recovery and pressure | Weapons and stats support a faster rhythm |
| Nioh 2 | Souls structure becomes a loot-action laboratory | Ki management, stance switching and evasions | Loot, skill trees and build optimization |
| Lies of P | Homage is combined with authored systems | Timed guard and committed positioning | Assembled weapons and consequential choices |
| The Surge / The Surge 2 | Equipment acquisition becomes limb targeting | Spacing plus deliberate part selection | Blueprints earned by specific takedowns |
| Remnant II | Souls decision-making moves behind a gun | Dodging, distance and ammunition | Classes, gear and randomized worlds |
First-party revisions: Bloodborne and Sekiro
Bloodborne: make aggression the defense
Bloodborne keeps the labyrinthine routes, shortcuts, opaque discoveries and punishing bosses associated with Dark Souls, then removes the expectation that a shield is your safest answer. Its rally system lets a player recover recently lost health by striking back quickly, turning damage taken into a prompt to apply pressure rather than retreat.
That change affects every encounter. Dodging is still important, but the most reliable defense is often staying close, interrupting an enemy’s rhythm and converting a successful hit into recovered health. The result is a gothic action game that feels unmistakably related to Dark Souls while adopting a more urgent combat tempo. GamesRadar describes it as being defined by resemblance to Dark Souls and by the ways it is “definitely not the same.”
Sekiro: replace build breadth with combat mastery
Sekiro makes the larger break from the traditional formula. You play a fixed protagonist rather than designing a character, and there is no broad catalog of weapons, armor weights or stat builds to hide behind. Your main growth is understanding timing, posture, enemy tells and the limited tools available to you.
Blocking at the right instant damages an opponent’s posture; repeated pressure can open a deathblow even when the enemy’s health is not low. A poorly timed defense, by contrast, can leave you vulnerable. Stealth, resurrection and prosthetic tools expand the options around a fight, but they do not replace learning its rhythm.
“I would say Sekiro was a big innovation, more differentiating game in how we interpret that is the sort of tempo between offense and defense, how players interpret, ‘Okay, now is my turn to attack. Now is my turn to dodge or roll,’” Hidetaka Miyazaki told Game Informer in 2026.
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That explains why Sekiro is the clearest answer for players asking which Soulslike has the best parry-style system. Its defense is not a passive safety net; it is the central combat verb. Choose it if you want a demanding, readable duel system and are willing to trade build experimentation for execution.
External reinventions that expand the formula
Nioh 2: speed, stances and a loot laboratory
Team Ninja’s Fumihiko Yasuda said the commercial and critical success of Dark Souls and Bloodborne was a major reason Nioh was developed and released. Nioh 2 then pushes well beyond imitation.
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This is the best fit for someone who asks whether a Soulslike can be faster and more like an action RPG. It can—but the cost is complexity. You are learning enemy patterns, stance matchups, ki pulses, skills and equipment management at the same time. Players who enjoy farming and optimization will find enormous depth; players seeking a clean, minimalist system may find the inventory and build layers overwhelming.
Lies of P: authored choices and modular weapons
Lies of P borrows Belle Époque imagery and a gothic mood associated with Bloodborne, but its strongest ideas are mechanical. Blade and handle components can be assembled into different weapons, separating attack properties from moveset and letting experimentation continue after a weapon is found.
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Its combat expects more than endless dodge rolling. Timed guards reward standing your ground, and the feel is closer to a guard-and-counter duel than to a purely evasive Souls game. The Lies system also makes narrative decisions matter to both story and gameplay, giving the authored campaign a more direct relationship between role-playing choices and combat progression.
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The Surge: target the limb you need
The Surge and The Surge 2 relocate the formula to science fiction and make every attack a resource decision. You can target individual limbs, then dismember them to obtain equipment blueprints. Bosses may offer better rewards when a particular part is severed during the fight.
That system links combat technique directly to equipment acquisition. A fight is no longer only about surviving; it is also about deciding which arm, leg or weapon-bearing part to expose and cut. The result is a preparation loop unlike standard loot drops: identify the gear you want, learn the target’s attack patterns and take the risk of pursuing the required limb.
Remnant II: put Souls decisions behind a gun
Remnant and Remnant II demonstrate that Soulslike pacing does not require swords. They retain stamina management, checkpoints, demanding bosses and the risk of losing progress, then build encounters around third-person shooting.
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Distance becomes the key defensive resource. You manage sight lines, ammunition, reload windows and dodge timing while deciding when to close in or reposition. Randomized biomes and encounter variations add replayability that a fully authored route cannot provide. For players asking whether there is a Soulslike with guns, Remnant II is the clearest recommendation—especially for cooperative runs or repeated campaigns where procedural variation matters.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Changing tone, defense and accessibility
Mortal Shell: turn invulnerability into a resource
Mortal Shell gives its central defensive mechanic a physical form. Harden lets the character freeze in place and absorb an incoming hit, turning an otherwise fragile opening into a deliberate timing tool. Swappable shells act like compact classes, providing distinct stat profiles without the sprawling character-building space of a traditional Souls game.
Thymesia: offense is mandatory
Thymesia makes aggression part of enemy management. Foes can recover unless you keep attacking, and the game’s wound system and plague weapons reward maintaining pressure. It is a strong option for players who want a compact, fast combat loop in which disengaging for too long actively gives the enemy ground.
Another Crab’s Treasure: a bright world with real stakes
Another Crab’s Treasure proves that a Soulslike does not need grim medieval fantasy or gothic horror. Its comic underwater premise and bright presentation sit on top of checkpoints, demanding bosses and readable punishments. Accessibility options provide a gentler entry without removing the underlying challenge structure, making it a useful first Soulslike for players who want the genre’s decisions without its usual presentation.
Blades of Fire: forge the answer to each enemy
Blades of Fire builds its identity around weapon forging and hot-swapping. GamesRadar highlights enemies whose weaknesses are distributed across limbs and attack states, so the correct response depends on observation rather than a single universal build.
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Its loop is preparation followed by adaptation: inspect what an enemy is doing, forge or select a suitable weapon, then change tools when the fight’s pattern changes. That makes equipment feel like an answer to a specific problem instead of a permanent upgrade path.
Why the formula keeps spreading
The commercial scale of the genre helps explain why developers keep testing its boundaries. Bandai Namco reported that the Dark Souls series had sold more than 37 million units as of March 2024. Separate VGI/Sensor Tower figures are estimates for Steam units, not publisher-confirmed totals: 6.8 million in 2015, 39.0 million in 2024 and 20.4 million year-to-date in 2025. Those figures use different time windows and should not be read as a single cumulative sales ledger.
VGI also estimated that AAA titles represented nearly three-quarters of Souls-like sales in 2024 and more than 70% in early 2025. The pattern suggests a mature audience large enough to support experiments, from guns and procedural worlds to comedy and accessibility features, rather than requiring every game to imitate one medieval template.
Which changed-formula Soulslike should you play?
| If you want… | Start with… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Parry and posture mastery | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | Defense is the core timing system, with a fixed hero and tightly authored encounters. |
| Fast combat plus deep loot and builds | Nioh 2 | Stances, ki pulses, skill trees, yokai abilities and equipment farming work together. |
| Modular weapons and narrative choices | Lies of P | Blade-and-handle assembly and the Lies system connect combat expression to the story. |
| Guns and replayable worlds | Remnant II | Third-person shooting, distance management and randomized biomes reshape the risk loop. |
| A more approachable, comic entry | Another Crab’s Treasure | Accessibility options and a bright setting soften the presentation without discarding demanding fights. |
| Equipment earned through precision targeting | The Surge 2 | Limb selection and dismemberment make the way you attack part of progression. |
The common thread is not difficulty for its own sake. Each game preserves the tension of committing to a choice, then asks you to make a different kind of choice than Dark Souls established: stand and deflect, attack to recover, switch stances, cut the limb you need, manage a sight line, or change the weapon in response to an observed weakness.
Quick Recap
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