The Soulslike genre is just not a beginner-friendly one. While there are some games that you can definitely find that are on the easier side of things, for the most part, you will be utterly destroyed more often than not when playing this genre of game.
It’s been the hit genre of the past decade plus, but it isn’t exactly an entry-level genre to say the least. From the brutal boss runbacks, to the unforgiving nature of just the basic enemies in the game, you are generally going to be gripping that controller white-knuckle tight most of the time you’re playing the game.
We’re going to check out some games in the Soulslike genre that have no interest in holding the hand of newbies around the world and are reserved for only the most hardcore of players.
10 Lords of the Fallen (2023)
The Darkest Soul
Lords of the Fallen is a hardcore Soulslike that pulls absolutely no punches. From the first second in the game, you’re getting absolutely wrecked by an opening boss. From there, it doesn’t get too much more friendly. The ability to traverse the world in two realms, Axiom and Umbral, gives you the chance to encounter all sorts of terrifying creatures, and it’s in the Umbral realm where things are really rough.
The enemies in that realm are brutal and can easily one shot you if you’re not careful. As far as the basic enemies in Lords of the Fallen go, you will get pushed off ledges, fall into traps, get ambushed in dark corners, get frozen, poisoned, and every other abuse imaginable throughout this blood-soaked world.
As a vet of the genre, Lords of the Fallen sits comfortably in the painfully hard category, with some boss fights ranking up there for the toughest the genre has ever seen.
9 Bleak Faith: Forsaken
A Confusing Journey
Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a weird journey for sure, but it’s also one that pulls no punches as it delivers its twisted, sci-fi-based Soulslike. The first thing that will scare beginners off is the level design itself. It’s a truly terrifying scale, but it’s amazingly implemented as you travel from high mountain tops into valleys below with all kinds of intricate mazes in between.
If you manage to navigate the world properly, you’ll still be contending with some of the more difficult to read enemies I’ve seen in a Soulslike. It might partially be because of the AA jank, but it’s a tough time trying to get a hold of what your enemies are going to do next. That goes doubly for the bosses, who have a myriad of attacks and come in all different shapes and sizes that all pose a significant challenge.
The boss runbacks are pretty rough here as well, requiring you to often backtrack through a gauntlet of enemies before you can even try to beat them again. It’s an awesome time if you can come to grips with its various quirks, like the unique magic system, but you will certainly find yourself at some roadblocks here, especially if you’re a beginner to the genre.
8 Black Myth: Wukong
Becoming the Legend
Black Myth: Wukong was one of the biggest hits of 2024, and a huge reason was because of how it reimagined the Soulslike genre. Never had the genre seen a character that could move this fast, jump this high, and perform the acrobatic maneuvers you can in this game.
It starts out relatively easily, with the first handful of bosses being pretty simple to overcome. The game is just toying with you. As soon as you get to the first big open area of the game, the game changes. The training gloves are off, and from there, you will face off against some amazing and brutally difficult battles that require you to use your transformations, buffs, and specials wisely while also keeping a close eye on your healing.
It’s a lot to consider for what seemed like a bit of a breeze early. As the game progresses, it only gets more and more difficult, even though it gets more and more fun to play, too. There are also countless secrets to find that unlock additional abilities, but without a guide, you will be incredibly lost as there is little in the game world itself to tell you where to find these alternate routes.
While it may seem like an easy time at the start, I promise you, that feeling will be gone a couple of hours into the game. It’s as challenging as it gets, and you have a ton of things to manage, making it nothing remotely close to beginner-friendly.
7 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Parry the World
Sekiro is one of the most challenging games ever made. From the first boss to the last, you will be sweating it out, and there’s no way of winning here beyond just your pure skill alone.
There is no maxing out your health bar here, or even upgrading your weapon. You’re stuck with pretty much one main weapon from start to finish. The only way to win is by parrying and dodging like a pro, and the timing of it is so precise that even if you’re off by a modicum of a second, it’s curtains for you.
There are countless bosses here with multiple phases, as well as optional fights that will take everything you’ve got to get through. The final boss in Sekiro is among the most challenging bosses in the history of gaming, hands down.
6 The Surge 2
The Augmented Future Collapse
The Surge 2 is an open-world take on a sci-fi Soulslike, and it’s a fantastic effort. It’s got great graphics, an innovative combat system, and an interesting story. Along with all that though, it’s brutally difficult. The Surge 2 has so many systems at play that newbies to the genre might get overwhelmed from the moment they start playing. If that doesn’t do it, the absolutely ferocious enemies you’ll encounter certainly will.
The unique combat here revolves around you ducking, jumping, and dodging in the proper directions and aiming for weak points to defeat your enemies. This is easier said than done, as this requires incredibly fast reflexes to do properly, and the anxiety over which direction your enemy is going to swing can be daunting. There are no indicators telling you when to jump or where to dodge, so it’s on the player to figure out how to best navigate battles.
While the normal enemies are no walk in the park, the bosses here take things to another level. These showdowns in massive arenas take just about everything you’ve got to overcome them. It will take careful tuning of stats and gear setup to win these battles, and you’ll be seeing the game over screen on a regular basis. You also have very little direction in the game, so you’ll have to pay attention to where you are in the story at all times. There is no hand-holding here.
5 Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Breaking You In Early
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the definition of not being beginner-friendly. The reason? The very first boss, Zhang Liang is a two-phase nightmare that demands you learn the rules of the game immediately. If you fail? That’s on you. There is nothing to help you in this fight. No powerful weapon to find, no ally to summon, nothing but you, Zhang Liang, and two frighteningly large health bars.
This is known as a boss that has forced players to quit before they even really begin. Now, he’s definitely one of the hardest fights in the game, so there is that to consider as well. Why they decided to frontload a challenge of this magnitude as the introductory boss is far beyond me, but it does make you learn the unique parrying system pretty quickly.
Newbies left and right bowed out of the Zhang Liang encounter and sadly never got to experience what a solid Soulslike the game actually ended up being.
4 Nioh 2
Samurai Souls
The first Nioh is one hell of a difficult game, but it’s nothing compared to what Nioh 2 has in store. While it starts off relatively harmless, you quickly have to learn so many different systems that it could easily turn anyone new to the genre in the other direction. There are multiple kinds of parries, transformations, feints, combos, special attacks, ki pulses and enough to literally make you need to take notes to remember just what your character can even do.
That’s all before the bosses too, as these are easily some of the most challenging I’ve seen in a game. You’ll face monstrous demons, human-type characters, giant snakes, and much more. The variety is amazing, but within each one, you will have to be smart with your healing, attack strategy, and which parries you’re using and when.
It’s a game for the most hardcore fans out there, and the ones that fall for its addictive loop get plenty out of it. But be warned, if this is your first rodeo, look elsewhere, or you’re going to find yourself throwing the controller out the window.
3 Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
Inspired By Pain
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn’t exactly do anything new in the Soulslike genre, but what it does, it does incredibly well. The combat here is a meld between Sekiro, Bloodborne, and Black Myth: Wukong, and you’ll be fighting at high speed, unleashing a variety of attacks with an impressive arsenal of weapons.
The basic enemies in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers are painfully tough, ambushing you from dark corners, mixing melee and ranged opponents, and doing things like blowing up explosives that happen to be right where you’re walking. It’s incredibly difficult getting from area to area because of this, as the enemy variety is enormous here, so what worked on one enemy will likely not work as well on the next.
Then, there is the madness meter. The more you die, the more it increases. You’ll do more damage but also take more damage. If this level gets to 100% the next time you die, you’ll have to fight a literal boss in order to get back your lost items and experience. It’s a brutal system that’s creative but tough, and the risk-reward system here is something you’ll need to keep an eye on all game long. It’s a lot to take in. Considering this is a tribute to all other Soulslike games, you may want to forgo it for your first trek.
2 The First Berserker: Khazan
Blood on the Snow
The First Berserker Khazan came out of nowhere in 2025 to give us one of the fiercest Soulslikes we’ve ever seen. It’s a daunting task to get through this game, and the reason is the boss fights. They may be the hardest the Soulslike genre has to offer, period. They require such insane timing with your parries that a single slip-up will just end you in seconds.
Even the tutorial boss, which seems like your basic intro fight, is incredibly tough. The bosses have such a wide variety of attacks here that learning the patterns and adapting to them is pretty much impossible. Instead, you need to learn to react, use the abilities and tools at your disposal in the blink of an eye, and realize that you’re in a fight that adapts to you
Because of that, I’d say beginners shouldn’t even dream about this game. It was made to test only the most hardened Soulslike veterans. Even then, it’s a hard as hell game that demands focus beyond the means that a normal game would ask.
There is an easy mode here. However, that mode is still incredibly tough as well and barely resembles an easy mode in any other game.
1 Hollow Knight: Silksong
Burrowing Deeper
Hollow Knight: Silksong redefines difficulty when it comes to a Metroidvania/Soulslike. Usually in this genre, basic enemies are generally tolerable and usually not too much of a nuisance. That’s not the case here, because the Metroidvania elements of the game include all kinds of troublesome enemies that will attack you during tricky platforming segments and make your life a living hell.
Then there are the bosses, which, if you aren’t using the right ability or haven’t unlocked the correct tools for, you literally will have no chance to survive. Hornet can attack very quickly, but if you merely touch an enemy, you’re taking damage, so you can’t even think of this game like you would normal Soulslikes.
It makes every movement crucial. Timing your jumps and dodges is as critical as how you’re attacking. The healing system is also unforgiving, because if you get hit while doing it, it cancels out the healing completely and leaves you with one less heal until you recharge it. It’s already needed several patches to address the difficulty, and while these have eased things up a bit, beginners shouldn’t even dream of this game until they’ve had a steady diet of Soulslikes that treat them a little bit nicer.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
