I’ve never played a soulslike games because they are a bit intimidating to me. Amy recommendations for soulslikes games to start on or for beginners to the genre?
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Fallen order. You can adjust the difficulty!
Fallen order has this magnetic attraction between you and the enemy when swinging that really urked me. Felt likes souls on rails. Beautiful game though and nice levels
Man that was such bullshit. You saw an unblockable attack coming so you’d dodge out of the way, and they’d make a zero point turn mid attack and hit you anyway. Or you’d try to roll out of the way but you could only roll to the edge of their attack zone and they’d hit you anyway.
Everything else about that game was incredible but good god the combat was frustrating.
Oggdo Boggdo flashbacks.
“Oggdo Boggdo, I’ve come to bargain!”
“For the love of all things holy, it’s just a pink poncho, please leave me alone.”
He’s just a harmless little froggo. It’ll be fiiiine
Lies of P is fairly easy in comparison to the FromSoftware souls games but it’s still a lot of fun. Great worldbuilding and some interesting mechanics too
I found Lies of P much more challenging than any of the FromSoft games I’ve played. I loved it, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for an easier introduction to the gameplay.
It’s got a huge focus on parrying, but it’s very forgiving on timing so it can be easy if you get that down. (But I’d still probably suggest starting with Elden Ring or Dark Souls 1).
I think it’s actually less forgiving on timing, just in terms of parry window number of frames. If I remember correctly, your timing just has to come towards the end of the attack animation (as opposed to FromSoft parrying which is generally closer to the beginning) I think, or I may have those reversed. On top of that though, something like dark souls 1 is much slower paced and the combat feels more give-and-take where Lies of P to me felt like parry, dodge roll for an opening and punish.
They did nerf the most difficult bosses and minibosses after release which made it a lot more approachable I think.
Ah gotcha, maybe that was it. I still find the dark souls style combat much smoother and approachable for a beginner to not worry too much about parrying or other mechanics. I made my first playthrough of dark souls without ever learning most of them, just blocking, dodging, and attacking like duels. It felt less dependent on twitchy reflexes and more just repetition and reading the enemies movements. All great games, maybe it just comes down to preference!
There’s a game called Heart & Slash which is very charming and has a soulslike streak to it. It’s quite hard to beat in totality but it’s enough fun that you don’t mind clawing your way to the end.
I didn’t see it recommended here yet, but my suggestion is Dead Cells. It’s a 2D game not made by FromSoft but it has a very similar feel.
I mean dead cells is a great game and so on… But a soulslike?
Dark Souls 1, but play it almost like you’re studying for a test. Research and plan your build in advance. Go to the wiki early, often, and with wanton disregard for spoilers. Use every cheese and glitch to your advantage. If all that makes it too easy, then you can still go blind into anything else in the genre.
Blasphemous is not too hard and has a great story. Just don’t go to the mountains first.
Although all soulslikes are a bit difficult Grime would be my suggestion, a 2D platformer. It felt easy enough to me but I mainly enjoyed the aesthetics of it.
Oh I already own this one somehow haha. Prob humble bundle. I’ll have to check it out
Another Crabs treasure
I recommend Code Vein. Then just jump into either Elden Ring or DS3.
Not sure if it fits the bill, but it is categorized as a soulslike: Death Door. It’s an indie game, chill and cute atmosphere, still challenging but not too punishing. I haven’t played much soulslike before but I started this one on Steam Deck and I’m really digging it!
Oooh, that looks awesome! I’m not op but was browsing for ideas. Thanks for the recommendation.
Elden Ring! I think they really refined the formula, made it a bit more user friendly (I started with Dark Souls and it wasn’t easy to know what to do), and is generally fun to play. Also the open world format means you can just go somewhere else if you’re stuck, not just have to bang your head against the same boss over and over. Then you just come back when you’re stronger.
Sekiro is not a bad option too, it’s a bit more like a regular game than the others. You can pause! Imagine.
I haven’t played DS2 or Demon Souls though
Probably Elden Ring. The nost important thing to remember when you are struggling is that the game gives you a ton of options to tackle many problems: do it in a way that makes sense to you. If that’s magic, go for it. If it’s carrying a bow and arrow to lure enemies, thats also good. Summoning friends? Even more fun!
I say just dive into the real souls games. Like everyone else, I recommend Elden Ring or DS3 (don’t worry about skipping the first 2 games, you won’t get the story anyway, most people don’t lol).
If you insist on trying something to ease you in, I actually recommend Tales of Iron. It’s a 2D game but the combat is very souls like in the sense that it’s challenging and you have to learn enemy timing and attack patterns.
Start with the one you want to play most. That’s the one that will get you hooked. There’s so many now if you figure you don’t like it you can play another one. The feeling everyone is telling you to chase with starting at demon souls or dark souls 1 isn’t as it was back then. I play through them every other year and its fun but the grand reveal on reality has been had and is done. My favorite souls like I have played recently is Hellpoint, it can be janky and doesn’t hold your hand at all but I love it.
elden ring probably. like you i found souls-style games scary. i think i installed dark souls 3 and quit before getting anywhere but i managed to beat elden ring even though I did initially refund it :D
