Soulslike

A subgenre of action RPGs known for punishing difficulty and cryptic storytelling.

A Soulslike is a subgenre of action role-playing games characterized by high difficulty, large worlds filled with enemies, and an emphasis on environmental storytelling, often set in a dark fantasy setting. The subgenre was created and established by Japanese developer and publisher FromSoftware and director Hidetaka Miyazaki, beginning with Demon's Souls (2009) and further popularized by the Dark Souls trilogy (2011–2016), from which the genre's name is derived. These games and subsequent FromSoftware releases are sometimes called Soulsborne games, a portmanteau of their Souls-titled games and Bloodborne (2015).

Quick Facts

Field

Video game subgenre

Known for

High difficulty
repeated character death
sparse save points
indirect environmental storytelling

Facts from the source article.

Background

The Soulslike genre emerged from FromSoftware's Demon's Souls (2009) and Dark Souls (2011), which established design conventions including difficult combat, hostile environments, limited checkpoints, recoverable resources lost on death, and indirect storytelling through world design and atmosphere. Later FromSoftware games such as Bloodborne and Elden Ring have also been discussed in relation to the Soulslike genre or the related Soulsborne label. While typically applied to action role-playing games, core concepts of high difficulty, repeated character death driving player knowledge and mastery, sparsity of save points, and indirect environmental storytelling have appeared in games of very different genres, whose mechanics are sometimes described as Soulslike.

Did You Know?

Soulslike games often allow players to write messages visible to other players, which can be rated.
Blood stains in Soulslike games let players view recordings of other players' deaths.
The checkpoint system in many Soulslikes is associated with the bonfires of Dark Souls.