15 Best Soulslike Games 2026: Ranked by Difficulty, Story Payoff and Combat Depth

The 2026 Case for Soulslikes

The soulslike genre has had its best three years ever. Between 2023 and 2025, the formula FromSoftware built with Demon’s Souls was stretched into Chinese mythology, Taiwanese cyberpunk, underwater comedy, and co-op roguelikes. The result is a genre with more entry points, more design ambition, and more raw challenge than at any point in its history — which also makes it harder to know where to start.

This list ranks 15 soulslikes worth playing in 2026, ordered from most beginner-friendly to most uncompromising. Each game is assessed on three axes: Difficulty Curve (how punishing is the experience start to finish?), Story Payoff (does the narrative deliver something worth investing in?), and Combat Depth (how much mechanical mastery does the system reward?). Ratings run 1—10 per axis. This framing lets you pick based on what you actually value rather than just chasing whatever topped a generic list.

This guide covers the top picks and system overviews — see the linked spoke guides per game for full boss strategies, build paths, and detailed walkthroughs.

Which Soulslike Should You Play? Player-Type Verdict

All 15 Soulslikes at a Glance

Tier 1: Easiest Entry (Ranks 1—5)

1. Another Crab’s Treasure (2024) — Difficulty 2 | Story 6 | Combat 6

Another Crab’s Treasure is the genre’s most intentional welcome mat. You play Kril, a hermit crab evicted from his shell and forced to scavenge undersea trash to survive a corrupted ocean ruled by debt. The cartoonish aesthetic masks genuine soulslike structure — stamina management, bonfire-style respawn points, punishing precision in boss rooms — but developer Aggro Crab built in explicit difficulty assists including a literal gun that kills any enemy in one shot. No shame in using it; the game treats it seriously as an accessibility option rather than an insult.

The eco-parable narrative lands harder than the presentation suggests. Combat rewards shield-timing over raw aggression, and the world design carries enough creative personality to earn its place as the genre’s clearest entry point in 2026. When not to play this: if raw challenge or tonal darkness is your primary pull, it delivers neither as forcefully as anything ranked below it.

2. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023) — Difficulty 4 | Story 8 | Combat 6

Respawn Entertainment refined Fallen Order’s soulslike DNA into something that respects both its license and its genre. Five difficulty modes — Story Mode with extended parry windows, Slow Mode that turns combat into time-stopped choreography, up through Grand Master that matches mid-tier FromSoftware difficulty — mean Survivor adapts to nearly any player without compromising the experience at higher settings. Parry timing on Jedi Master tightens to genre-standard, and Grand Master makes boss encounters into genuine memory tests.

The story is the strongest of any game in this difficulty tier. Cal Kestis’s second arc carries real weight, and the world traversal rewards curiosity in ways most soulslikes don’t bother with. When not to play this: players who don’t engage with the Star Wars setting will find the fan-service-heavy second half alienating.

3. Blasphemous 2 (2023) — Difficulty 5 | Story 6 | Combat 7

Spanish Catholic horror rendered in meticulous pixel art — Blasphemous 2 gives you three weapons from the start (sword, bells, rapier) that can be swapped freely, each shifting how combat flows at a fundamental level. The original game was punishing to the point of frustration; the sequel recalibrates toward satisfying challenge without losing its distinctive atmosphere. Boss variance is the weak point — some fall embarrassingly quickly while others function as stat checks — but the art direction is arguably the most distinctive on this list, full stop.

The 2D Metroidvania structure makes Blasphemous 2 a natural entry point for players who want soulslike challenge without the 3D camera and directional demands. When not to play this: players expecting the narrative depth of Lies of P or Nine Sols will find the story confounding rather than resonant.

4. Remnant II (2023) — Difficulty 5 | Story 4 | Combat 7

Remnant II solves the soulslike’s traditionally solitary problem. Up to three players can co-op the entire campaign, and the procedurally generated worlds mean no two runs share an identical layout. Each Archetype class — Hunter, Medic, Engineer, and others — plays with distinct role identity, making party composition a genuine decision. Difficulty scales with group size, so Survivor difficulty feels brutal solo while remaining approachable in co-op. Our Remnant 2 best PC settings guide will help you get the game running smoothly before you start.

The narrative beyond its premise — The Root apocalypse threatening all of reality — is largely forgettable, though the lore seeded through world exploration rewards players who look for it. When not to play this: if mechanical depth is your primary interest, the shooter-hybrid approach never achieves the ceiling of the genre’s best pure-melee games.

5. Black Myth: Wukong (2024) — Difficulty 6 | Story 8 | Combat 7

Black Myth: Wukong is the genre’s biggest crossover success — a loose Journey to the West adaptation that sold over 20 million copies in its opening two weeks. Difficulty distribution is unusual: open-world traversal and standard enemies are relatively forgiving, but the 80+ boss encounters escalate sharply from the middle of Chapter 2 onward, reaching challenge comparable to Elden Ring’s late-dungeon bosses. This spike surprises players expecting a consistent experience.

The transformation system — defeating enemies to claim their forms and movesets — adds tactical variety that pure parry games can’t match. There’s no blocking or traditional parry outside a single cooldown spell, making dodge precision your entire defensive vocabulary. The story delivers genuine mythological grandeur even if it prioritizes atmosphere over narrative substance. When not to play this: if exploration and enemy variety matter to you, the easy overworld combat will feel unsatisfying — the game is almost entirely built around boss encounters.

Tier 2: Mid-Challenge (Ranks 6—10)

6. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers (2025) — Difficulty 6 | Story 5 | Combat 8

Wuchang arrived in 2025 as the year’s most ambitious debut from a new soulslike developer. Set during the supernatural-plague-stricken late Ming Dynasty, combat runs on Skyborn Might — charges earned by perfectly timing dodges or landing clean attack chains, which then power spells and weapon skills. The system rewards proactive combat over defensive play, and mixing discipline and weapon skills creates a wide optimization ceiling that gives Wuchang its highest score in this list for combat depth at this difficulty tier.

The narrative stumbles in execution — NPC arcs can go unresolved for ten hours of real time, leaving conversations without context when you finally return. Chapter 2 spikes difficulty sharply with several bosses leaning on speed overtuning rather than clever mechanical design. When not to play this: players who prioritize narrative investment above combat will find the story frustratingly fragmented.

7. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (2023) — Difficulty 6 | Story 5 | Combat 7

Team Ninja’s Three Kingdoms soulslike trades the bonfire-attrition model for a mission-based structure that lets you replay and farm specific encounters. The deflection system prioritizes offensive momentum — successful parries charge your Spirit gauge for counterattacks, making Wo Long feel faster and more acrobatic than traditional soulslike pacing. The Morale system shifts the difficulty conversation: killing enemies raises your effective power per zone, meaning preparation through zone farming is an explicit part of the design rather than a workaround.

The Three Kingdoms dramatization is serviceable. Nioh veterans will find Wo Long a gentler entry to Team Ninja’s design philosophy. When not to play this: if you dislike mission-based level segmentation and prefer interconnected worlds, the structure will feel like a step back from Elden Ring’s open-world design.

8. Lies of P (2023) — Difficulty 7 | Story 9 | Combat 8

Lies of P is the best non-FromSoftware soulslike of the past several years, and the argument isn’t particularly close. Neowiz’s Pinocchio reimagining sets the story in Belle Epoque-inspired Krat — an automated city where mechanical puppets have turned on their human creators. The narrative pivots on a clever mechanic: every lie you tell nudges Pinocchio toward humanity, and the ending you unlock reflects your choices. Three distinct, meaningfully different endings make replays worthwhile rather than arbitrary.

The weapon assembly system — combining blades and handles from different weapons into custom tools — adds personalization without sacrificing the deliberate, counter-forward pacing that defines the genre’s best. Boss design is exceptional, with multi-phase encounters that feel earned rather than just extended. At Metacritic 82, Lies of P remains underrated relative to its quality. When not to play this: players who struggle with limited resource management and no grinding escape will hit a wall before the midpoint.

9. Hollow Knight (2017) — Difficulty 7 | Story 8 | Combat 7

Team Cherry’s insect-kingdom epic is nine years old and still the benchmark for 2D soulslike design. Hallownest’s interconnected world resists your progress with minimal map assistance — the game asks you to internalize geography before rewarding you with it. The narrative of a kingdom’s collapse, delivered almost entirely through environmental design and a silent protagonist, hits harder than most games with explicit cutscenes. This is the standard against which every 2D soulslike entry on this list is measured.

Base game difficulty sits in the upper-mid range. The free Godmaster DLC escalates to some of the most demanding content in any soulslike — Pantheon boss gauntlets with no checkpoints, requiring multi-hour perfect runs on fully mastered timing. When not to play this: the minimal guidance can paralyze players who need direction; if exploration without clear signposting triggers frustration rather than curiosity, the time investment is significant.

10. Elden Ring (2022) — Difficulty 8 | Story 9 | Combat 9

Elden Ring remains the genre’s masterwork because it solves the most exclusive failure mode of soulslike design: the impassable gate. An open world means no single boss blocks progress — if Margit the Fell Omen walls you, Torrent takes you anywhere else in the Lands Between. Build variety (strength, dexterity, intelligence, faith, arcane, and dozens of hybrid paths) means 200+ hours of meaningful optimization for players who want systems, and a clear path to the credits for players who don’t. At Metacritic 96, no other open-world game has matched its combination of scale and systemic depth.

The lore told through item descriptions, NPC dialogue, and environmental architecture is the deepest world-building exercise in gaming alongside the Dark Souls trilogy. See our Elden Ring best PC settings guide before your first session. When not to play this: if you want a linear, narrative-driven soulslike, the deliberate inscrutability of the story delivery can feel like avoidance rather than art.

Tier 3: Hardest Challenge (Ranks 11—15)

11. Elden Ring: Nightreign (2025) — Difficulty 8 | Story 5 | Combat 8

Nightreign is FromSoftware’s most experimental release since Sekiro — a roguelike co-op reframe of Elden Ring that runs in 30-to-45-minute sessions, asks three players to explore a shrinking world map, and delivers boss encounters at the close of each day/night cycle. The core tension: there is no level persistence between runs. Every session starts fresh, so you cannot grind your way past difficulty — you have to outplay it. Teammates can revive each other during a run via melee strikes, but death resets your gained levels entirely.

In a full three-player party Nightreign is exceptional — a tightly paced challenge loop with genuine teamwork stakes. Solo play borders on masochistic; the game was designed around three players and scales poorly to one. Our full Elden Ring Nightreign beginner’s guide covers starting strategies and Nightlord breakdowns in detail, and our Nightreign co-op guide handles party coordination. When not to play this: solo players expecting a standard Elden Ring progression experience will find the absence of a leveling grind loop alienating.

12. Nioh 2 (2020) — Difficulty 8 | Story 6 | Combat 10

No game on this list has a higher ceiling for mechanical depth. Nioh 2’s combat operates on three simultaneous systems: a Ki pulse timing window that restores stamina mid-combo if you hit the prompt precisely; a three-stance framework where High, Mid, and Low stances each dramatically change your weapon’s moveset, footwork, and guard-break behavior; and a Yokai Shift form that absorbs incoming damage and retaliates with supernatural force. Mastering all three in real-time against aggressive enemies elevates Nioh 2 beyond soulslike into something closer to a fighting game with progression.

The loot system adds another dimension entirely — Divine-grade gear optimization for specific encounter builds goes genuinely deep if you engage with it. The story follows a half-Yokai protagonist through the Sengoku period, solid as genre context but firmly secondary to the combat showcase. When not to play this: players who don’t find system depth inherently rewarding will find Nioh 2 exhausting rather than satisfying — the systems are load-bearing, not optional.

13. Nine Sols (2024) — Difficulty 9 | Story 9 | Combat 8

Taiwan-based Red Candle Games built Nine Sols on a talisman system that redefines what Sekiro’s parry concept can become in 2D. When Yi deflects an attack, no damage occurs — instead, the enemy is tagged with a talisman charge. Actual damage happens when you detonate those charges simultaneously with a palm strike, creating combo chains where every deflection is setup for an explosive finisher. Miss the timing and you absorb full combo damage; land it and enemies shatter in moments. The gap between failure and mastery is wider here than anywhere else on this list except Sekiro itself.

The story — revenge against the eponymous Nine Sols across a Taopunk world blending Eastern philosophy with Blade Runner aesthetics — is the genre’s best narrative since Lies of P. Character arcs built on Chinese mythology and Taoist philosophy carry genuine emotional weight and literary ambition. Our Nine Sols complete guide covers the parry-talisman system and all boss strategies, and our Nine Sols vs Sekiro comparison explains exactly how the talisman tag system changes the combat equation. When not to play this: players who bounced off Sekiro’s parry mandate will find Nine Sols even less forgiving — the entire system depends on talisman setups landing correctly.

14. The First Berserker: Khazan (2025) — Difficulty 9 | Story 7 | Combat 9

The First Berserker: Khazan arrived in March 2025 as the strongest argument for non-FromSoftware developers reaching the top tier of the genre. You play General Khazan — falsely accused of crimes against the Pell Los Empire and sentenced to death, resurrected with underworld power for revenge. The premise leans harder into explicit story than most soulslikes attempt, and it pays off: Khazan as a protagonist carries genuine motivation rather than silent cipher energy, which gives the boss encounters emotional stakes beyond pure mechanical achievement.

The bosses are the headline attraction. Stamina drains fast enough that four or five attack chains require retreating — most bosses maintain enough aggression to punish any gap you leave. Players who cleared Lies of P and Elden Ring without difficulty reported Khazan’s bosses as the hardest they’d encountered outside Sekiro. At Game8’s 88/100, it’s the most decorated non-FromSoftware soulslike of 2025. When not to play this: new players should develop genre fluency through at least Lies of P before approaching Khazan — the stamina system and boss speeds demand soulslike vocabulary that only comes with repetition.

15. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) — Difficulty 10 | Story 7 | Combat 10

Sekiro is the genre’s hardest widely available game, and it earns that position through design intent rather than artificial inflation. Wolf dies in two to three hits. The entire game is built around Posture: every attack you deflect raises your opponent’s Posture meter; fill it and you execute them instantly. Dodge? Their Posture resets. Run? Resets. The design leaves exactly one path: deflect everything, attack between opening windows, fill the meter, execute. Players who resist this framework lose, regardless of how much they grind. Players who embrace it discover the combat system the whole genre has been chasing ever since.

The Genichiro fight — roughly three hours into the game and functionally the real tutorial — filters out players who want to avoid the parry mandate. What remains after that filter is a tightly scoped narrative set in fictional Sengoku Japan, a protagonist with real relationships and history, and a series of duels that come closest to the experience of learning a martial art that games have yet achieved. When not to play this: players who want build variety, open-world exploration, or any defensive option beyond parry-or-die will find Sekiro incompatible with their playstyle regardless of skill level.

The 2026 Starter Pack: Best Three to Play in Order

If you’ve never played a soulslike and want the fastest route to understanding why the genre matters, play these three in this order:

1. Another Crab’s Treasure — Learn the core verbs: stamina management, death as information, attack commitment
2. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor — Graduate to melee positioning and parry windows with a story worth caring about
3. Lies of P — Apply everything in the genre’s most demanding, most rewarding designed soulslike outside FromSoftware

Veterans looking for 2025’s best new challenges: play The First Berserker: Khazan and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers back to back. They represent different philosophies on combat depth and difficulty tuning — Khazan on boss brutality and stamina management, Wuchang on build flexibility and momentum systems — and the contrast sharpens your read of what the genre’s ceiling looks like heading into 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best soulslike for beginners in 2026?

Another Crab’s Treasure is the genre’s most accessible entry — it explicitly includes a one-shot gun for enemies, letting you modulate challenge to your comfort. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the better choice if you want a full soulslike experience with a meaningful story and a difficulty dial that scales naturally. Avoid Sekiro, Nine Sols, and Khazan as starting points; all three assume genre fluency from the first major boss, and the learning curve is vertical.

Is Black Myth: Wukong actually a soulslike?

Technically borderline, practically yes for difficulty purposes. It lacks traditional blocking and parry — dodge is your only defensive tool outside a cooldown spell — and the boss encounter design carries the genre’s DNA directly. Standard enemies and exploration lean action-adventure rather than soulslike, but the difficulty spike in Chapter 2 boss fights and the transformation-based combat depth put it in the same conversation. Players looking for soulslike challenge will find it in the bosses; the story and visuals are strong enough to justify the journey either way.

Is Elden Ring Nightreign a standalone game?

Yes, though prior Elden Ring experience helps with boss vocabulary. Nightreign is a standalone roguelike co-op game — you don’t need the base game to play it. Sessions run 30 to 45 minutes per run. Our Nightreign beginner’s guide covers everything you need before your first session. Note: there is no crossplay between PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms at launch.

Which soulslike has the best story in 2026?

Lies of P and Nine Sols split this depending on your preference. Lies of P’s three-ending Pinocchio narrative delivers the most tightly structured story with clear payoff for player choices — you understand exactly what changed and why. Nine Sols has deeper thematic ambition: its exploration of Chinese mythology, Taoist philosophy, and the violence of historical cycles carries genuine literary weight, but the Eastern philosophy framework requires active engagement to get full value from. If you want story delivered efficiently, Lies of P. If you want story that earns its depth through interpretation, Nine Sols.

Which soulslike has the deepest combat system?

Nioh 2 and Sekiro tie at the top for different reasons. Nioh 2 has the widest mechanical surface area — three stances, Ki pulse timing, Yokai Shift, and a deep loot system all operate simultaneously in every fight. Sekiro has the highest skill ceiling within the narrowest framework — Posture management via deflection is the entire game, and the depth comes from how precisely each boss demands you read its attack chains. If you want many systems to master simultaneously, Nioh 2. If you want one system pushed to its absolute limit, Sekiro.

Sources

• The 10 Toughest Soulslike Games in 2025 — ComicBook.com
• The Best Soulslike Games 2026 — PCGamesN
• Elden Ring Nightreign Review (8.5/10) — Destructoid
• Nine Sols Reviews (86 avg, 96% recommend) — OpenCritic
• The First Berserker: Khazan Review (88/100) — Game8

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.