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Nine of the seventeen games below came out after Elden Ring, and every one of them borrows something from it. That is the useful part: "Souls-like" stopped being a genre and turned into a shopping list of features, and two games wearing the label can want completely different things from you.
So this page is not ranked by score. It is grouped by what each game actually demands — a perfect parry, a build, two friends, or nothing at all — because that is what decides whether you finish it or refund it.
One note before the ratings: Steam only collects reviews for the PC version of these games, so when we quote a Steam verdict it belongs to the PC edition of the same title. It is a quality signal, not a review of the PS5 version.
What separates a Souls-like from a merely hard game
Three things, and difficulty is not one of them: you lose your currency where you died and get one attempt to pick it up, the stamina bar decides what you can do rather than the button you press, and the map folds back on itself instead of running in a line. A game can be brutally hard and have none of that — and then it is not a Souls-like, whatever the store page says.
Should you start with FromSoftware or with someone else?
FromSoftware invented the vocabulary, so its five games on PS5 are the reference point everything else is measured against. They are also, awkwardly, not the friendliest place to start.
Elden Ring — the one everything else answers to
Elden Ring, by FromSoftware. Very Positive · 820,000+ reviews on Steam and a 94 on Metacritic. The open world is the whole trick: when a boss stops you, you leave and come back three levels stronger instead of banging your head against it, which is why this is the FromSoftware game people actually finish.
Shadow of the Erdtree — read this before you add it to the basket
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is an expansion, not a game: it needs the base game installed and a specific boss beaten before the door even opens. Its Steam verdict is Mostly Positive · 81,000+ reviews, and almost all the complaints are about the difficulty spike rather than the content — a 92 on Metacritic from the press against a lukewarm player score is a very unusual gap, and it is worth knowing which side you are likely to land on.
Elden Ring Nightreign — the same world, in forty-minute bites
Elden Ring Nightreign, Very Positive · 120,000+ reviews. FromSoftware combat inside a run-based structure for three players: you drop in, you have three in-game days, you die and you start over with nothing. If the hundred-hour commitment is what has kept you out of the genre, this is the version that does not ask for it.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — the one with no way around it
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Overwhelmingly Positive · 250,000+ reviews on Steam and an 88 on Metacritic — the best-reviewed FromSoftware game on this page. There is no build, no summon and no grinding: you either learn the parry timing or you stop playing. It is the hardest recommendation here and the most rewarding one if it clicks.
Armored Core VI — the one that is not really a Souls-like
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Very Positive · 66,000+ reviews and an 86 on Metacritic. Same studio, same boss-shaped walls, completely different bargain: there is no stamina bar and no rolling, and when a fight is impossible the answer is to go back to the garage and change the loadout. Everyone recommends it for the wrong reason — buy it because you like tuning machines, not because you liked Elden Ring.
The four playing in the same league
Four studios that stopped imitating and started competing. Between them they cover almost every shape the genre can take.
Black Myth: Wukong — the biggest audience of the lot
Black Myth: Wukong, by Game Science, sits at Overwhelmingly Positive · 870,000+ reviews — more Steam reviews than any other game on this page, Elden Ring included. It leans on spectacle and dodging rather than stamina management, has almost no build depth, and is the closest thing here to a blockbuster action game wearing the genre's clothes.
Lies of P — the best-executed imitation
Lies of P, by NEOWIZ, Very Positive · 57,000+ reviews. It copies Bloodborne almost line for line and then adds one idea of its own: your weapon degrades every time you parry, so the safest defence is also the one that disarms you. Pinocchio in a plague-ridden Belle Époque city is a stranger pitch than it sounds and it works.
The First Berserker: Khazan — the one that is all boss fights
The First Berserker: Khazan, by Neople, Very Positive · 20,000+ reviews. Hand-drawn animation over the most technical combat of this group: reflect, brink guard, and a stamina economy that punishes greed harder than anything else here. If what you liked about Sekiro was the duels and not the world, start here.
Nioh 3 — the deepest systems on the page
Nioh 3, by Team NINJA under KOEI TECMO, Mostly Positive · 11,000+ reviews and an 85 on Metacritic. Three stances per weapon, a loot economy closer to an action RPG than to Dark Souls, and a skill ceiling nothing else here reaches. It is also the least welcoming: the tutorial alone assumes you have played the previous two.
The board below already has each seller's own coupon applied, which is why the order does not always match what the store shows on its own page.
Why do these three have split reviews?
Three games whose Steam verdict sits below "positive", and in all three cases the number hides something more useful than a thumbs down. Read the reason before you write them off.
Lords of the Fallen — fixed after launch, judged before
Lords of the Fallen, by CI Games, Mixed · 37,000+ reviews with a 75 on Metacritic. The bad reviews cluster in its first three months, when the performance was genuinely broken and the enemy density was absurd; both were patched. The idea underneath — two overlapping worlds you swap between with a lantern, one of which is where you land when you die — is the most original on this page.
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers — the complaint is not about the combat
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, by Leenzee, Mixed · 44,000+ reviews on Steam against a 77 on Metacritic. Read a handful of the negative reviews and the pattern is immediate: they are about PC performance and a punishing death penalty, not about how it plays. On PS5 the first half of that objection does not apply to you.
Rise of the Ronin — an open world that got in the way
Rise of the Ronin, also Team NINJA, Mixed · 6,000+ reviews and a 73 on Metacritic — the lowest score on this page. The combat is the studio's usual excellent counter-driven work; what the reviews object to is everything around it, a generic open map full of repeated outposts. Worth it at a discount for the duels, not for the world.
The genre in two dimensions, and no softer for it
Take away the third dimension and the rules survive intact: you still lose everything where you fell, you still learn one boss for two hours. Cheaper, shorter, and every bit as unforgiving.
Hollow Knight: Silksong — the one everybody waited for
Hollow Knight: Silksong, by Team Cherry, Very Positive · 380,000+ reviews — more Steam reviews than anything on this page except Elden Ring and Black Myth. Faster and considerably harder than the first Hollow Knight, and the reason its verdict is not higher is precisely that: a lot of people arrived expecting the gentler game they remembered.
Nine Sols — Sekiro, flattened into two dimensions
Nine Sols, by Red Candle Games, Very Positive · 39,000+ reviews. The parry is not optional here either: deflect and you send the damage back, miss and you eat all of it. Hand-painted Taopunk art and a story that actually finishes, in roughly a quarter of the time the 3D games ask for.
Blasphemous 2 — the one you explore more than you fight
Blasphemous 2, by The Game Kitchen, Very Positive · 16,000+ reviews and an 83 on Metacritic. Three starting weapons that open different routes, Andalusian religious imagery drawn in pixel art, and a difficulty curve that is the friendliest of the three 2D entries here. A good first step before Silksong.
The widest board on the page, again with every seller coupon already discounted.
Two cheap ways to find out if this is for you
Neither is going to end up on anyone's best-of-the-decade list, and that is not the job. They are the honest, low-cost test of whether you enjoy the loop at all.
Another Crab's Treasure — the one with an off switch
Another Crab's Treasure, by Aggro Crab, Very Positive · 16,000+ reviews. A hermit crab wearing rubbish as armour, and the only game on this page with an explicit assist mode — you can hand yourself a gun and skip a wall entirely. Purists grumble; it is the single best way to find out whether the underlying loop is for you without spending fifty euros to learn it is not.
Thymesia — twelve hours, and it knows it
Thymesia, by OverBorder Studio, Very Positive · 8,000+ reviews. Small budget, small scope, and a combat system built on stealing enemy weapons that is sharper than the production values suggest. The shortest game here by a distance, which is exactly why it works as a first attempt.
The whole page in one table
Everything above condensed: what each one demands, how the same game is rated on PC, and a price that moves with the board.
| Game | What it asks of you | Steam rating (PC version) | Price on PS5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elden Ring | Patience, and an open world | Very Positive · 820,000+ reviews | € |
| Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree | The base game, half-finished | Mostly Positive · 81,000+ reviews | € |
| Elden Ring Nightreign | Two friends and 40-minute runs | Very Positive · 120,000+ reviews | € |
| Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | A perfect parry, and nothing else | Overwhelmingly Positive · 250,000+ reviews | € |
| Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon | Building the right mech | Very Positive · 66,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Black Myth: Wukong | Dodging, over blocking | Overwhelmingly Positive · 870,000+ reviews | € |
| Lies of P | Parrying with a weapon that wears out | Very Positive · 57,000+ reviews | € (with coupon GCKG2AK5N2G) |
| The First Berserker: Khazan | Reading one boss for an hour | Very Positive · 20,000+ reviews | € |
| Nioh 3 | Learning three stances | Mostly Positive · 11,000+ reviews | € |
| Lords of the Fallen | Two worlds at once | Mixed · 37,000+ reviews | € |
| WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers | Managing a madness meter | Mixed · 44,000+ reviews | € |
| Rise of the Ronin | An open world, and counters | Mixed · 6,000+ reviews | € |
| Hollow Knight: Silksong | Precision platforming, in 2D | Very Positive · 380,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Nine Sols | Sekiro parrying, in 2D | Very Positive · 39,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Blasphemous 2 | Exploring, more than fighting | Very Positive · 16,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Another Crab's Treasure | Nothing: it has an assist mode | Very Positive · 16,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
| Thymesia | Twelve hours, and no more | Very Positive · 8,000+ reviews | € (with coupon Gocdkeys) |
Where these keys actually come from
Every price on this page comes from a verified seller, and the ranking already has each seller's own coupon applied — which is why the order does not always match what the store shows on its own page. These are the ones with the strongest public reputation among the sellers currently stocking the games above.
- Difmark — 4.1 / 5 over 14,000+ reviews.
- G2A — 4.0 / 5 over 346,000+ reviews.
- CJS-CDKeys — 4.0 / 5 over 120,000+ reviews.
- PCcomponentes — 3.9 / 5 over 8,000+ reviews.
- Media Markt ES — 3.8 / 5 over 20,000+ reviews.
- Consogame — 3.4 / 5 over 2,000+ reviews.
Short version: Another Crab's Treasure if you have never finished one, Lies of P if you want the genre done well without FromSoftware's name on the box, Elden Ring if you want the one everything else is copying, and Sekiro if you already know you like the parry and want it taken to its conclusion.
When you have made your mind up, you can buy Elden Ring key or buy Lies of P key straight from the full listing, with each store's coupon already applied.
I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember, and for the last 14 years I have been making life easier for other gamers. CEO and co-founder of Gocdkeys.
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