What Is a Soulslike? The FromSoftware-Inspired Genre

A soulslike is an action RPG built around the design patterns FromSoftware established with Demon’s Souls (2009) and Dark Souls (2011): stamina-based melee combat, punishing difficulty, interconnected level design, opaque storytelling, and a death-penalty loop that drops your accumulated currency on the ground where you died. The genre has its own term now, has produced dozens of entries from non-FromSoftware studios, and has reached the cultural mainstream with Elden Ring’s 25-million-copy sales.

The genre’s mechanical pillars

A soulslike combines several interlocking systems that together produce the genre’s distinctive play feel:

• Stamina-based combat. Most actions — attacking, blocking, dodging, running — consume a regenerating stamina bar. Mismanaging stamina leaves the player vulnerable. This forces deliberate, paced combat instead of button-mashing.
• Death-drops-currency. When the player dies, their accumulated experience currency (souls, runes, ergo, etc.) drops on the ground where they died. To recover it, the player must reach the death spot without dying again. Die a second time before recovery and the dropped currency is permanently lost.
• Bonfire-style checkpoints. Players rest at safe points to recover health, refill healing items, and level up. Resting also typically respawns all defeated standard enemies, making the world dynamic rather than statically cleared.
• Telegraphed boss design. Boss enemies use elaborate, telegraphed attack patterns that reward observation and pattern recognition. Boss fights are usually the genre’s most memorable encounters.
• Interconnected level design. The world loops back on itself with shortcuts, hidden paths, and discovered connections. Players gradually map the world by exploring rather than following a linear path.
• Opaque storytelling. Narrative is delivered through item descriptions, environmental details, and oblique NPC dialogue rather than cutscenes. The plot is meant to be assembled rather than received.

A game with most of these features is generally classed as a soulslike. A game with only one or two — say, a game with high difficulty but conventional storytelling and no stamina system — usually isn’t.

The FromSoftware origin

Demon’s Souls (2009)

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s directorial debut at FromSoftware, released as a PS3 exclusive in Japan in February 2009. The game’s mechanics — stamina combat, soul-drop-on-death, world tendency, asynchronous multiplayer messages — established the template that Dark Souls would refine. Demon’s Souls had a difficult international release and underperformed commercially at launch, but its critical reputation grew steadily through word of mouth.

Dark Souls (2011)

The genre’s true breakout. Dark Souls launched in 2011 for PS3 and Xbox 360, with a PC port the following year. The game expanded Demon’s Souls’s mechanics into a single interconnected world — Lordran — that looped back on itself in ways that reward exploration. The PC release in particular spread the game’s reputation through enthusiast communities and built the foundation of the genre’s modern audience.

Dark Souls II (2014) and Dark Souls III (2016) continued the series. Bloodborne (2015) and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) iterated on the formula in different settings and with mechanical variations. Elden Ring (2022) took the format open-world. The Wikipedia entry on the Souls series covers the full timeline.

Elden Ring (2022)

FromSoftware’s collaboration with George R.R. Martin produced the genre’s mainstream breakthrough. Elden Ring applied soulslike mechanics to a vast open world, sold over 25 million copies, and won Game of the Year at multiple award ceremonies. The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion (2024) extended the experience further. Elden Ring brought millions of players into the soulslike genre who would never have engaged with the original Dark Souls.

For comparable titles in the open-world soulslike subgenre, see our games like Elden Ring roundup.

Non-FromSoftware soulslikes

The genre has produced numerous high-quality non-FromSoftware entries:

Lies of P (2023)

Round8 Studio and Neowiz’s Lies of P set the soulslike formula in a Belle Époque Pinocchio adaptation. The game has been widely praised for its Sekiro-influenced combat (with parry timing replacing some of the stamina-shield interplay) and its distinctive setting. Lies of P sold over a million copies in its first month and is generally cited as one of the best non-FromSoftware soulslikes.

Nioh and Nioh 2 (2017, 2020)

Team Ninja’s Nioh series applies soulslike design to a feudal Japanese setting with deeper combat customization. The stance system (high, mid, low) and mission-based level structure differentiate the games from FromSoftware’s open-zone approach. Nioh 2 in particular has been praised for combat depth beyond what Dark Souls provides.

Salt and Sanctuary (2016)

Ska Studios’ 2D soulslike. The game compresses the genre’s mechanics into a Metroidvania-style 2D side-scroller. Notable for proving the soulslike formula transfers to other formats — the depth comes from the systems, not the perspective.

Lords of the Fallen (2014, 2023)

The original 2014 Lords of the Fallen was an early non-FromSoftware soulslike attempt with mixed reception. The 2023 reboot from Hexworks improved the formula significantly with a dual-world overlay mechanic and modern production values.

The Surge and The Surge 2 (2017, 2019)

Deck13’s sci-fi soulslike. Combat involves targeting specific body parts on enemies and looting weapons or armor based on which limb you sever. The mechanical twist is meaningful — combat strategy changes based on which body parts your weapon best targets.

Bloodborne and Sekiro as variants

Two FromSoftware titles sit at the edge of the soulslike definition:

Bloodborne (2015) removed shields and emphasized aggressive offense, with a “rally” mechanic that lets the player recover lost health by attacking after taking damage. The game is faster than Dark Souls but retains the genre’s structure.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) went further from the template — no RPG stats, no equipment customization, no co-op, no death-drops-currency. The core combat replaced stamina management with posture management (a parry-and-deflect system). Many critics class Sekiro as adjacent to the soulslike genre rather than a pure entry, given how much of the original template it modified.

The boundaries of the genre are debated. Some players define soulslike strictly (must have stamina, must have death-drops); others define it loosely (FromSoftware-influenced action game). Both definitions have utility.

The difficulty question

Soulslikes have a reputation for difficulty, which is partly earned and partly mythologized. The games are demanding — they require pattern recognition, deliberate combat pacing, and patience. But the difficulty isn’t capricious. Boss patterns are learnable, combat mechanics are consistent, and the punishment for death (lost currency, returning to bonfire) is meaningful but not destructive.

Most experienced players describe soulslikes as fair-hard rather than punishing-hard. The games reward careful play and pattern study. The reputation for brutality comes partly from the genre’s lack of difficulty options (most soulslikes don’t have an easy mode) and partly from the death-drop mechanic, which creates anxiety that mainstream RPGs don’t have.

The world design philosophy

Soulslikes have unusually deep environmental design. The interconnected world of Dark Souls — where shortcuts connect distant areas, where high cliffs in early zones turn out to be late-game vistas — is a defining example. The world rewards observation and memorization.

Item placement, NPC location, and enemy positioning are all designed to support narrative inference. A pile of corpses in a courtyard tells a story. A locked door near a bonfire hints at a shortcut. A dying NPC’s last words reveal an unmarked quest. The genre rewards close attention.

Multiplayer in the genre

FromSoftware’s soulslikes include asynchronous and synchronous multiplayer. Asynchronous: messages left by other players appear on the ground in your world; bloodstains show where other players died; phantom apparitions show how recent players have moved. Synchronous: cooperative summoning lets you summon other players into your world for boss fights; PvP invasions let players invade hostile worlds for player-vs-player combat.

The multiplayer integration is unusual in design — it’s optional, asymmetric, and tied to the death-and-respawn loop. Many soulslike fans engage with multiplayer occasionally; others ignore it entirely.

The genre’s audience

The soulslike player base has grown from a niche cult of Demon’s Souls evangelists to a mainstream gaming audience post-Elden Ring. The genre’s depth and learning curve sustain long player engagement — many players have hundreds of hours across multiple soulslikes.

The genre also has unusually strong streaming and content-creator presence. Watching a streamer learn a boss fight in real time — the death cycle, the gradual pattern recognition, the eventual victory — produces compelling viewing. Soulslike content has been a Twitch and YouTube staple for over a decade.

Browser play and the genre’s limits

Pure soulslikes don’t translate well to browser-playable formats. The combat depth, world scale, and graphical demands of the genre require commitment that browser play typically doesn’t offer. Browser-adjacent “indie soulslikes” exist but tend to be much smaller in scope.

If you want a game with consequences and a learning curve but at a fraction of the time commitment, the Chrome Dino game at the top of this site rewards reflex and timing without asking for ten hours of investment per session.

Frequently asked questions

What was the first soulslike?

FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls (2009) is generally considered the genre’s first entry, establishing most of the core mechanics. Dark Souls (2011) refined the template into the foundational genre touchstone. Earlier games (King’s Field series) prefigured some elements but didn’t establish the modern soulslike pattern.

What makes a game a soulslike?

Stamina-based melee combat, death-drops-currency, bonfire-style checkpoints, telegraphed boss design, interconnected level layout, and opaque storytelling. A game with most of these features is generally classed as a soulslike; a game with only one or two usually isn’t.

Is Elden Ring a soulslike?

Yes. Elden Ring (2022) is FromSoftware’s open-world entry in the soulslike genre. It retains the core mechanics — stamina combat, runes-drop-on-death, sites of grace as checkpoints — and adds open-world exploration on top.

What’s the best non-FromSoftware soulslike?

Lies of P (2023) is widely cited as the strongest non-FromSoftware entry. Nioh 2 (2020), Salt and Sanctuary (2016), and the 2023 Lords of the Fallen reboot are other commonly-praised examples. The genre has produced dozens of titles; quality varies significantly.

Are soulslikes too hard?

They’re demanding but learnable. The difficulty is consistent and pattern-based — every encounter can be solved with practice and observation. Most experienced players describe the games as fair-hard rather than punishing-hard. The lack of an easy mode in most soulslikes is the most divisive design choice.

The bottom line

A soulslike is an action RPG with stamina combat, death-as-currency-loss, and design philosophy borrowed directly from FromSoftware. The genre started as a niche cult in 2009, grew through Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and reached mainstream culture via Elden Ring. The mechanics are demanding but rewarding, and the field has dozens of strong entries to recommend now.

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