Every Soulslike Game, Ranked By Difficulty

The launch of Demon's Souls in 2009 was, at the time, unknowingly the start of a new chapter in the story of the video game industry. Its gameplay systems became the foundation of what's now known to many video game fans as the gaming sub-genre referred to as Souls-likes, which has been steadily amassing popularity ever since. Word of mouth surrounding the first Dark Souls kicked off the first swell in renown for the Souls-like genre, but FromSoftware's Elden Ring is undoubtedly the studio's most popular game yet, attracting many new players to their first Souls-like game.

Though there have been times when the difficulty of various FromSoftware's Souls-like titles has been a touch overblown, there is still certainly a reason the games initially earned their reputation for their difficulty before players realized just how well-built other elements of the games are as well. Some long-time players joke that the hardest Souls-like game is whichever one a player has chosen to attempt playing first. Still, over time, it has become clearer which titles have retained as much bite as their bark after first playthroughs.

Updated on May 12, 2025, by Arthur Goyaz: Every Souls-like game developed by FromSoftware shares distinctive elements regarding strategic combat and boss patterns. This list is updated to discuss what defines a Souls-like game and reflect CBR's current publication standards.

9 What Makes a Game Souls-Like & Why Are They So Difficult?

Players Must Learn How to Read Boss Patterns to Get Through A Souls-Like Game

The Japanese video game developer FromSoftware has become a synonym for Souls-like games since the launch of Demon's Souls (though Dark Souls cemented the remaining core Souls-like elements), but what exactly defines such a distinctive, yet broad subgenre? As the name implies, a Souls-like movie draws inspiration from Dark Souls' challenging combat style and grim, cryptic tone. While the medieval fantasy setting isn't necessarily a must, it has inspired a consistent design over the years.

The most important aspect of a Souls-like game is the tactical combat mechanics present in every Souls-like title. These games define themselves by stamina-based systems, melee confrontations and demanding boss fights that rely heavily on the player's understanding of each boss's attack pattern. Souls-like games emphasize dodging and strategic movement, contributing to an immersive gameplay style: every boss fight is an ordeal to get through, but that's what makes it fun. Souls-like games capture what would feel like confronting a colossal beast face-to-face, as an ordinary warrior. Another key aspect of Souls-like games is the bonfire checkpoint system, which brings the player back to their last rest, losing considerable progress with every death.

8 The Demon's Souls Remake Provides a Fresh Look at a Classic

New In-game Smooths Out the Roughest of the Edges From the Original While Preserving the Experience

With the original Demon's Souls winding up on the lower end of many fans' lists in terms of difficulty, the Remake follows suit by introducing performance upgrades, a new visual style, and various quality-of-life updates. Off the bat, for most setups, the Demon's Souls remake is going to run much smoother than its predecessor, which can make a substantial difference in being able to process the various hazards, traps, and attacks coming the player's way, letting them more readily avoid damage. The Demon's Souls Remake also improves the player's roll to be an "omnidirectional" roll compared to the original's four-way roll, making it a much more viable option for defense. Though, that's not all that the remake has done to make the challenge of Demon's Souls more feasible.

When a player's Item Burden is full, items they want to pick up are now automatically sent to storage instead of being left where they are, cutting down on backtracking for the sake of cleaning up their inventory. Players can also warp between worlds through Archstones outside the Nexus and even fully pause the game when offline using the new photo mode. Drop rates for various upgrade materials have been improved across the board as well, making upward progress smoother. Though a new layer of challenge is introduced in the form of "Fractured Mode" which flips everything in the game, even the player's stance, horizontally, the new changes overall make the Demon's Souls remake the easiest of FromSoftware's Souls-like games.

7 The Challenge of Elden Ring Is Malleable Under the Player's Influence

The Flexibility in Progression and Character Builds Can Overcome All Obstacles

This entry's bullet point includes Spoilers For Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in the form of Boss Names being mentioned.

Elden Ring brought FromSoftware and the Souls-like genre further into the mainstream, from buildup to release, along with another small peak in popularity over the release of Shadow of the Erdtree. In this newest title, FromSoftware introduces several new features that create another ideal starting point for players interested in the "Soulsborne" games. Elden Ring's open world is meticulously designed, greatly rewarding players for taking their time to explore it and prevailing in the combat that usually follows. This more open-world approach to the map's design was key in allowing players to progress how they wish, gliding along the paths of least resistance until they take on problem areas again with more experience and gear at hand.

This is further backed up by the Sites of Grace, which take the place of, and are much more frequently provided than, the Bonfires and other checkpoint stand-ins of previous FromSoftware "Soulsborne" titles, making many treks back to obtain their lost Runes. Elden Ring also has the new Spirit Ashes items, which allow players to summon allied versions of various creatures and enemies to fight by their side in particular areas and during boss fights. In particular, The Mimic Tear Ashes, which creates a clone of the player's character, was so effective as a partner that it's received balance adjustments in patches since the game's release. Regardless, Elden Ring still has plenty of challenges to offer players, with bosses like Malenia, Blade of Miquella, and Margit the Fell Omen reaching memetic levels of popularity due to their difficulty.

6 Demon’s Souls Is the Raw Foundation of FromSoftware's Souls-Like Games

It Introduced a New Difficulty Curve to Action-Adventure RPG Games

Demon's Souls is the game that established the Souls-like genre and established many of its core mechanics, which is part of why its difficulty was considered so staggering at first, though, fans have since realized that the game is fairly straightforward compared to its successors. One notable trait of Demon's Souls' relative ease is that many of its bosses had less impressively performing AI or relied on gimmicks that required less investment in the leveling process to defeat successfully. However, this is also tempered against one of the sticking points in Demon's Souls' difficulty, which is ingrained into the levels leading up to the bosses themselves, with The Swamp of Sorrows (5-2) and The Ritual Path (4-2) often cited by fans as some of the hardest levels that Demon's Souls has to offer.

This is compounded by the much less ample placement of Archstones, with only one given per numbered level (1-1,1-2, etc.) resulting in each death sending players back to the beginning of a given level. In this sense, Demon's Souls is more unforgiving of mistakes than it is outright difficult, which is why the puzzle of navigating its more torturous sections can feel quite tough at times, despite the game itself not being all that complex in difficulty compared to later titles. While there are other less generous elements, like lower drop rates for upgrade items, Demon's Souls learning curve is more gradual than the rest of FromSoftware's Souls-like games, looking more imposing than it is in practice, especially if the player already has another "Soulsborne" game under their belt.

5 Dark Souls Set Standards of Difficulty Other Souls-Like Games are Measured Against

It Brought on the First Major Wave of Attention to What Would Become the Souls-like Genre

Dark Souls roughly establishes the middle ground of difficulty among FromSoftware's "Soulsborne" games, and though there are particular stretches of Demon's Souls that may be tougher to deal with, Dark Souls as a whole is more of a consistent challenge to navigate. Its bosses present much more of a challenge across the board too, outside the Asylum Demon at least, with Manus, Father of the Abyss, Knight Artorias the Abysswalker, and Ornstein and Smough standing out to fans as some of Dark Souls' toughest bosses; with honorable mention going to cutting off Kalameet's tail as well. Beyond this, Dark Souls is no doubt tough, but outside the notoriously poorly-designed Bed of Chaos encounter, it doesn't have anything too atrocious to deal with.

Perhaps the only other element that might make Dark Souls more challenging for some is how fast travel functions; the feature exists in the game, but it's in a much more limited capacity than the games that would come after it, as fast travel isn't unlocked until well into the game's overall progression. Specifically, players unlock it after getting the Lord Vessel in Anor Londo, and even then, it only lets players travel to select Bonfires. This makes traversal harder in certain ways, but since the game's map is interconnected in a way reminiscent of Metroidvania games, the exploration this encourages is part of the charm. The Artorias of the Abyss DLC certainly ups the difficulty of the game by a peg or two overall though, with many of Dark Souls' toughest bosses and areas found within it.

4 Dark Souls 3 Is an Arduous-But-Surmmountable Entry With Streamlined Design

Dark Souls 3 Is Notably Faster and More Aggressive Than its Predecessors

Dark Souls 3 stands out as a point where FromSoftware took lessons from their previous Soulsborne titles and rolled them into a singular experience, providing a blend of the more methodical aspects of the previous Dark Souls titles and the sometimes relentless action of Bloodborne. While in some ways, the player has more freedom to build their character, the overall progression of the game is notably more linear and has much stiffer challenges in store with both level design and bosses than its predecessors to account for such freedom. As expected from a FromSoftware Soulsborne game, Dark Souls 3's gloves truly come off within its DLC, Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City, both of which boast some of the hardest bosses in the game and the Dark Souls trilogy overall.

Though the difficulty falls off notably after successful attempts, Darkeater Midir's fight is still cited as one of the game's more grueling fights between Midir's huge pool of hit points, the damage Midir deals after a single mistake, and Midir's consistent tendency to be harder to face with summons rather than without them. That said, the base game doesn't pull punches either, with the Nameless King's staggering damage and ability to catch players amid their rolling with his combos, while his initial phase with his dragon mount at his side can be disheartening to push through multiple times. Areas like Lothric Castle, Grand Archives, and the Ringed City all make for some truly exhausting sections to get through as well, but the remaining three Souls-like games from FromSoftware still have more kick to them.

3 Bloodborne Heightened the Pace of Combat and the Aggression of Enemies

Bloodborne's Approach to Combat Is Incredibly Apparent, and the Game Doesn't Hold Back From There

Many Souls-like fans still consider Bloodborne to be FromSoftware's greatest game, despite still being isolated to the PlayStation 4 alone, and for good reason. The unique gothic-Victorian setting is a fitting but interesting direction for the usual dark fantasy setting of FromSoftware's other "Souls" games, and it helped make Bloodborne arguably the most atmospheric entry in the series. As far as difficulty goes, Bloodborne's combat encourages offensive pressure so strongly, that the player has a window to restore lost health by dealing damage before they need to use a Blood Vial to regain it instead, but this contends with many imposingly fast and hard-hitting enemies that can and will attack just as ruthlessly in turn.

Even with the impressive variety of inventive weapons that Bloodborne makes available to the player, fending off the horrors of the Yharnam is a tall order, with any hesitation or passivity punished with even more pressure to deal with. Players are instead encouraged to parry with their choice of firearm and keep attacking rather than constantly dodging and running around to evade damage, making for a much more imposing experience overall through every area and boss fight. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, and Martyr Logarius stand out as some of the more vicious opposition faced in Bloodborne, but The Old Hunter DLC's Ludwig, the Holy Blade, and the Orphan of Kos have truly stuck with players long after defeat due to their sheer difficulty. That said, the latter Chalice Dungeons in the base game also deserve mention for their difficulty, particularly those of Depth 4 or 5.

2 Dark Souls 2 Is a Particularly Onerous Title From FromSoftware

Not Even a Relatively Easier Roster of Bosses Overall Takes the Edge Off

Dark Souls 2 is the only FromSoftware Souls-like game not directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and is the most divisive among fans in its reception, especially with its Scholar of the First Sin edition in the mix. From the start, all characters' maximum health is lower with every class choice and the player's roll maneuver has fewer invincibility frames by default, requiring them to invest in their Adaptability stat to gain more.

This isn't helped by the fact that Adaptability is unique to Dark Souls 2, and beyond invincibility frames for the player's roll, it also dictates how fast they use healing items. Overall, it is a vital stat to improve before the player can boost stats that dictate their build and improve their damage, which many players felt was an interruption to the leveling process. This is worsened by the notable difficulty of the areas that precede each boss, with the recommended starting zone, Forest of Fallen Giants, already being a wake-up call for players with the number, aggro range, and placement of even the weakest enemies in the game.

Beyond this, the levels rarely, if ever, diminish in difficulty for the rest of Dark Souls 2, with areas like the Shrine of Amana so difficult to survive that it was later patched to be more feasible to navigate in one piece. This is even before factoring in that each death progressively shaves down the player's maximum health or Dark Souls 2's infamously crushing enemy ambushes. The only reprieve is that, besides bosses like the Fume Knight or Darklurker, many bosses in Dark Souls 2 and its DLC are marginally easier to defeat than their contemporaries, though not by too much.

1 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Demands High Precision and Unwavering Confidence

Sekiro Requires Quick Thinking, Accurate Strikes, and Knowledge of One's Enemies to Succeed

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the FromSoftware title that most strongly diverges from the typical Souls-like formula, despite still being considered part of FromSoftware's "Soulsborne" games; featuring no traditional leveling-up mechanic or character creator. Instead, players control a singular character, Wolf (later named Sekiro), and grow stronger by unlocking and upgrading various Combat Arts and Techniques as they progress through the game.

The main source of Sekiro's difficulty is its approach to combat, which, like Bloodborne's, calls for the player to think differently than they have with other Souls-like games by FromSoftware. Most notable is the new Posture gauge and the abilities that rely on it, replacing the stamina meter and various defensive options of past "Soulsborne" games.

Ultimately, at its core, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an action-adventure title, as opposed to the former "Soulsborne" games' action-RPG trappings, meaning that players can't farm their way out of a tough spot. To overcome Sekiro's steep difficulty, players must understand how their actions affect their own and enemies' Posture gauges while properly utilizing the Deflection mechanic and skills like Mikiri Counter.

This is much easier said than done though, as learning how to time Deflections and specific counters for all the attacks coming the player's way is an exhaustive process filled with much learning on the fly as new enemies and even harder bosses come along. Sekiro's later encounters with foes like Owl and Isshin the Sword Saint will test the player's mastery of these mechanics without mercy, and help make Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice stand apart as the hardest Souls-like game by FromSoftware.