Top rated brutal soulslike games
Punishing timing and open wounds run through these top rated brutal soulslike games. In Lies of P, Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition and Blasphemous you study each boss, time deflects, blocks and dodges, and manage stamina while blood covers the arena. Death sends you back and costs your currency, so you adjust weapons and build and try the pattern again.
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Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a 2D action-platformer with souls-lite combat and no checkpoints: kill, die, learn, repeat. You possess a new corpse each run and fight through an ever-changing castle with tough but fair foes, a panic roll for close calls, and progress that carries over into the next attempt.
97% of 157,576 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 3,879$24.99Cuphead
Cuphead is a run-and-gun built around boss fights, drawn like a 1930s cartoon with hand-drawn animation, watercolor backgrounds and original jazz. You learn each boss the hard way, then beat your debt to the devil one pattern at a time. For soulslike fans, it gives that same loop of study, die, adjust and win.
96% of 201,180 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2,428$19.99Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is FromSoftware's fast, punishing take on soulslikes, set in brutal Sengoku Japan. As the one-armed wolf, you guard a young lord, lose him, and cut your way back through the Ashina clan with a katana, stealth, and deadly prosthetic tools. Deflect, break posture, and land the killing blow.
95% of 262,181 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 5,797$59.99God of War
Kratos trades Olympus for Norse forests, mountains and caves, with his son Atreus in tow. Fights are close, heavy and physical, built around timing, blocking and reading tough enemies. Soulslike fans get deliberate combat, hard optional bosses and gear-based growth, wrapped in a stern father-son story.
95% of 131,161 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2,806$49.99DARK SOULS™ III
DARK SOULS III is the genre-defining soulslike finale: a ruined dark fantasy world of colossal enemies, faster and harder combat, and bosses that take many tries. Learn patterns, manage stamina, dodge at the last moment, die, and go again. Bleak, tense, and deeply rewarding when it clicks.
94% of 280,255 Steam reviews are positive$59.99Nightmare Kart
A beast hunter conscripted into a strange tournament races steam-and-copper vehicles through blood-soaked gothic streets. You blast rivals with weapons, hunt beasts to raise top speed, drift for boost, and face bosses to unlock multiple endings. Short, strange, and played at full throttle.
96% of 7,178 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 5FreePhantom Blade Zero
Soul has sixty-six days to live and a murdered master on his record. Phantom Blade Zero gives you fast wuxia swordplay through a rain-soaked Wulin, with dodges, deflections and counters that decide fights in an instant. Flashy, cinematic and story-heavy, it suits soulslike fans more for bosses and atmosphere than for punishment.
94% of 110,424 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 113,096$59.99ELDEN RING
Rise as the Tarnished in the Lands Between, learn brutal bosses pattern by pattern, and earn the Elden Ring. Open fields, huge dungeons, flexible builds and co-op help soulslike fans shape their own punishing road to becoming Elden Lord.
93% of 835,865 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 25,402$59.99Nine Sols
Nine Sols is a hand-drawn 2D action-platformer with Sekiro-style deflection combat, made for soulslike fans who want hard bosses and a strange world to unravel. As the vengeful Yi, you slash, deflect, and stick Taoist talismans to enemies to blow them up, while hunting the 9 Sols across New Kunlun.
94% of 41,303 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 521$29.99Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT
Expect stance-switching duels, tense one-hit mistakes, and a beautiful open island built for samurai cinema fans.
93% of 66,069 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 3,387$59.99ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights
A dark 2D action RPG where Lily, a young woman waking in a ruined church, crosses the rain-blighted kingdom of Land's End with purified knights fighting for her. Expect pattern-heavy bosses, careful dodging, and new powers that open sealed paths. Worth playing for its sorrowful story, hand-drawn ruins, and Mili soundtrack.
93% of 43,602 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 95$9.99DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED
The soulslike that started it all, remastered in sharp high definition at 60fps. Wander the dark, looping kingdom of Lordran, learn brutal bosses one death at a time, and shape your own build from swords, spells, and armor. Includes the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.
92% of 102,595 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 2,068$39.99
