author: Paul Musiolik
Souls-like Games Rated Easiest to Hardest
The Dark Souls series is famous for its hellishly high difficulty, which requires, above all, patience. Games inspired by Dark Souls are trying to emulate that, with various results. Here's our list rating souls-like games from easiest to hardest.
6. Nioh
- Release date: February 7, 2017
- Platforms: PS4, PC
- Developer: Team Ninja
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Nioh took me by surprise. This title was in production for over a decade and eventually, from the original idea for a musou game, it evolved into a hybrid of soulslike, action RPG, slasher, and hack'n'slash. A genre blend that came out great, offering a very high level of difficulty, especially for the first few hours.
Compared to the Dark Souls series, the bosses in this production not only hit hard, but also moved quickly and were often colossal. Just imagine that the end product was still easier than the open alpha version of the game.
5. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
- Release date: March 3, 2023
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: Team Ninja
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
When Koei Tecmo announced that the Nioh series was being cancelled after two installments, I wondered what would happen next. After all, no one kills the goose that lays the golden eggs, and that's what the soulslike games from Team Ninja have become. We didn't have to wait too long for their next game. Although it resembled the third installment of Nioh in every way, it wasn't the next part of the game.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty takes a lot from the previous two Team Ninja games, but adds solid inspiration from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, mainly in terms of focusing on parrying attacks in order to quickly eliminate the enemy. The release of the game brought significant uncertainty, but it quickly became apparent that the team, even with a changed composition, still knows how to deliver a solid gaming experience.
