Soulslike Games With the Best Combat

Combat is the star of the show when it comes to Soulslike games. Ironically, it also pulls some into the genre while pushing others away. But regardless of which camp you happen to fall into, there’s no denying that the stamina-dependent, methodical encounter design of FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls — and then the Dark Souls trilogy — has left an indelible mark on the gaming industry. Nowadays, it seems like just about every other 3D action RPG is labeled as a Soulslike if it has even remotely difficult combat, but very few earn the moniker through an actual understanding and sharing of game design principles of the FromSoftware titles for which the subgenre gets its name. The following titles are the best of the best, games that don’t just use Dark Souls as a foundation but build something meaningful upon it to create experiences standing on their own merits.

• Release Date — March 3, 2023
• Developer — Team Ninja
• Publisher — Koei Tecmo
• Review Aggregate Score — 81% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

For Koei Tecmo’s fourth go at the Soulslike genre after both Nioh games and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (more on those later), the team switched gears from the over-the-top buildcraft and gear management of their previous attempts for something a bit more focused with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. To be fair, there’s still plenty of flexibility in how players build out their character (especially as it relates to the different elemental affinities and weapon types you can specialize in), but the game’s deflection-heavy, Sekiro-like combat was a nice change of pace from the studio’s other games. Wo Long features some of the best combat and nail-biting boss encounters of any Team Ninja Soulslike, which is high praise when you look at the rest of the studio’s games, and its use of Chinese mythology results in going up against some very cool-looking and unique enemies.

• Release Date — July 25, 2023
• Developer — Gunfire Games
• Publisher — Gearbox Publishing
• Review Aggregate Score — 81% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Truthfully, Remnant II is only tangentially a Soulslike, roped into the genre more by association with its more Soulslike-adjacent predecessor than by any of its mechanics, but its combat is so incredibly good that it deserves a spot on a list like this. Much like the first Remnant, Remnant II deftly mixes hard-hitting, slower melee combat with incredibly responsive and satisfying ranged combat with a variety of firearms, fun classes to choose from, and enough discoverable loot and gear to keep you continually refreshing your build right up until the very end of the campaign. And if you thought Remnant II was fun in single-player, it only gets exponentially better when playing co-op with a group of friends — a rare quantity among Soulslikes.

• Release Date — May 29, 2024
• Developer — Red Candle Games
• Publisher — Red Candle Games
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

If you’re looking for a Soulslike/Metroidvania hybrid with combat that rivals the best that FromSoftware has ever produced, the go-to answer might be Hollow Knight, but I’d argue that Nine Sols is a better option. Essentially a 2D Sekiro, Nine Sols doesn’t just replicate that game’s sword swinging, deflection-heavy combat in a different dimension. It perfects it. Even encounters with cannon fodder enemies are thrilling as you make your way across Nine Sols’ diverse and impeccably-designed biomes, but it’s the game’s boss fights where the picture really comes into focus. Anyone who has faced off against the true final form of Eigong and lived to tell the tale will happily tell you that Nine Sols‘ final boss rivals anything that Sekiro ever throws at you.

• Release Date — March 13, 2020
• Developer — Team Ninja
• Publisher — Koei Tecmo
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5

Were it not for another game from the studio further down our list, Nioh 2 would easily be Team Ninja’s crowning achievement in the Soulslike genre. As it stands, it’s still many players’ gold standard for challenging boss encounters that push your understanding of a complex and multi-faceted combat system to its absolute limit, which is only further enhanced by Nioh 2‘s almost overwhelming amount of gear drops. Team Ninja games are practically tailor-made for players who love to maximize the effectiveness of their characters in combat through min-maxing, and Nioh 2 gives you more gear than you’ll ever know what to do with to help meet that demand. And, much like Wo Long, the enemy designs and unique mechanics in play in boss encounters are top-notch among Soulslikes, rivaling even the best of FromSoftware.

• Release Date — September 4, 2025
• Developer — Team Cherry
• Publisher — Team Cherry
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Prior to the release of Silksong, it would’ve been completely reasonable to include the original Hollow Knight on a list like this, along with Nine Sols. But Silksong immediately supplants its predecessor as the de facto 2D Soulslike experience, upping the ante in every conceivable way with regards to the moveset of its protagonist and the creative ways the game’s design (both environmental and encounter) forces you to recontextualize what you think you know about Hollow Knight (or even 2D Soulslikes, in general). Boss and enemy encounters start simply enough, but the more tools Hornet acquires, the more nimble and agile she becomes, which the enemies respond to in kind. By the time you reach Act III, you’ll have likely mastered most of Silksong‘s mechanics, but the game makes sure to meet that improved skill with encounter designs that will come close to breaking you.

• Release Date — September 18, 2023
• Developer — Neowiz, Round 8 Studio
• Publisher — Neowiz
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

As far as “best Soulslikes” go, you could easily place Lies of P at or near the top. A large part of what makes the game so special is its combat, which is a curious blend of elements cribbed from two FromSoftware classics: Bloodborne and Sekiro. Parrying and deflection can be pretty important in Lies of P, depending on your build, but aggression and pressing the enemy are also just as important. And if we’re being honest, there are a handful of boss encounters in Lies of P that rank as some of the all-time greatest fights in challenging action RPGs, including the FromSoftware library (Nameless Puppet, anyone?). It’s not necessarily any one of these elements that elevate Lies of P to masterpiece status, but instead the way that they all work in concert to present an experience that exudes polish when stacked up against its contemporaries.

• Release Date — March 18, 2022
• Developer — Team Ninja
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Review Aggregate Score — 72% (Mixed or Average)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

If you’re looking for a Soulslike in which combat is just a main focus, but the focus, look no further than Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. This Team Ninja game takes many of the studio’s signature elements to their apex, including an incredibly robust gear and loot collection meta-game, min-maxing of character stats to fit specific builds, a large number of classes to choose from that require switching up your playstyle, and an impressive collection of challenging boss encounters and fun regular enemies to try it all out on. Each of the different Jobs (which connect back to the classic assortment of classes in the Final Fantasy universe) equates to its own unique way to play through the game, and that each one is as fun as the last (and as viable) is a testament to how well-balanced and thought-out Stranger of Paradise‘s combat systems are.

• Release Date — March 27, 2025
• Developer — Neople
• Publisher — Nexon
• Review Aggregate Score — 80%
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Since it was released earlier this year, Khazan has made a name for itself for having some of (if not the) most challenging boss fights in the Soulslike genre. It’s well-earned praise (or is it a warning?), because Khazan actively punishes players who don’t take the time to learn and master the game’s limited weapon types and choose one that best fits their playstyle. There’s a good bit of gear to collect in Khazan, but nothing quite like the deluge of new loot drops you’ll get in a Team Ninja title, and its combat strikes a careful balance between a more classic character action game and the block/parry/counter flow of a Soulslike. But just when you think you have Khazan mastered, it’ll throw an incredibly difficult boss at you to humble you and force you to reconsider how to meet its challenge with the tools available to you.

• Release Date — March 22, 2019
• Developer — FromSoftware
• Publisher — Activision
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Out of all the combat systems that FromSoftware has designed throughout the years (and there are many), it’s understandable why many consider Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to be the studio’s magnum opus in that arena. What separates Sekiro from the Souls and Soulslike games that precede it (or follow it) is its insistence on starting all players on the same level playing field. There are no builds in Sekiro, and there’s no grinding to improve your stats and survivability against a tough foe. Instead, you simply need to “git gud” with the tools provided to you, and as you wrap your head around the impeccable parry-based sword deflection combat, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve entered some zen-like flow state that only the most mechanically satisfying games can elicit.

• Release Date — February 25, 2022
• Developer — FromSoftware
• Publisher — Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

But if there’s one game that beats out Sekiro as the Soulslike with the absolute best combat, that honor ultimately has to go to Elden Ring, if for no other reason than the sheer amount of variety it offers players. You can choose to tackle your adventure through The Lands Between based on how it best suits you and your playstyle. Want to go it alone and rely solely on weapons, dodge-rolling, and parrying? You can do that. Want to utilize all the different tools the game gives you to get an advantage against some incredibly challenging regular enemies and bosses? Go ahead and use those Summons, Weapon Arts, and other new mechanics that add new, meaningful layers to a foundation established way back in 2009 with Demon’s Souls.

Elden Ring is the culmination of over a decade of high-level action RPG game design, and that’s most evident in the game’s near-perfect combat and encounter design.