Buy 15 Games Like Elden Ring

If Elden Ring is a sprawling myth sung by forgotten tongues, then Dark Souls III is the chapel where those whispers echo loudest. FromSoftware’s masterwork remains a haunting symphony of dread, decay, and despair. This is the third act in a series that codified the Soulslike genre, pushing players through smouldering castles and plague-ridden catacombs that pulse with hidden stories and dread-filled encounters.

What binds Dark Souls III to Elden Ring is its signature FromSoftware DNA: combat that demands precision, a lore-soaked world that refuses to spoon-feed its secrets, and an atmosphere thick with melancholy. Though the structure is more linear, its interconnected world design still rewards curiosity, revealing shortcuts, optional bosses, and vistas that’ll burn themselves into your retinas.

Where Elden Ring gallops through open fields on spectral hooves, Dark Souls III marches forward with unrelenting pace. There's no horse to save you here, no map to orient you; just a dim bonfire and your will to survive. It's a more condensed experience, yes, but that claustrophobic intensity makes each victory feel all the sweeter.

Nioh 2 slices into the Soulslike formula with a katana sharp enough to carve its own niche. Developed by Team Ninja, this Sengoku-era action RPG throws you into a war-torn Japan where demons and samurai clash in bursts of brutal, beautifully choreographed violence. With its emphasis on combat fluidity, weapon stances, and spirit-based special moves, Nioh 2 is a whirlwind of steel and flame.

The parallels with Elden Ring are clear. Both games are drenched in myth, encourage player experimentation, and offer a punishing yet rewarding learning curve. Like FromSoftware’s giant, Nioh 2 thrives on timing, patience, and adaptability, pushing players to forge builds and face towering bosses that feel like miniature skill exams.

Where it differs is in its structure: rather than a single open world, Nioh 2 opts for a mission-based design more akin to an action arcade RPG. It’s faster, lootier, and mechanically dense, catering to those who favor a more system-driven approach to combat. And if you enjoy Elden Ring’s difficulty but want it with an extra splash of combo flair? This is the ticket.

Few games revel in agony quite like Blasphemous 2. This sequel builds upon the pixel-art grotesquerie of the original, plunging players into a Catholic horror landscape of penance, guilt, and celestial torment. With its lavishly animated sprites and baroque, bloodied architecture, it feels like wandering through a cursed painting that’s learned how to scream.

Like Elden Ring, Blasphemous 2 trades in mystery and masochism. Every statue, whisper, and grotesque NPC adds to the eerie mosaic of its universe, while combat retains the weight and consequence fans of the Soulslike genre crave. There's verticality, branching paths, and an arsenal of customisable abilities that let you tailor your playstyle.

The obvious divergence is perspective. This is a 2D Metroidvania, and while its camera flattens the scope, it doesn't dull the edge. Blasphemous 2 might not have sweeping plains, but its detail-rich halls and nitty-gritty design make it just as capable of inspiring awe and dread.

Rebuilt from the ashes of its predecessor, Lords of the Fallen (2023) is a resurrection in more ways than one. Taking place in a dual-realm world where light and darkness constantly bleed into one another, this game reimagines the Soulslike genre with ambitious scope and a glowing Umbral Lantern that lets you straddle life and death.

The comparisons to Elden Ring are not just cosmetic. It shares the same appetite for difficult enemies, deep weapon variety, and enigmatic lore. Its world design echoes the sprawling ruin of the Lands Between, rewarding those who explore every decaying alcove and spectral pathway with secrets and shortcut revelations.

Still, Lords of the Fallen marches to its own rhythm. Its dual-realm mechanic is more than a gimmick, as it underpins exploration and progression in a way that’s refreshingly original. Where Elden Ring goes broad, Lords goes layered, offering a dark fantasy experience that’s as visually rich as it is mechanically compelling.

Mortal Shell is the quiet, solemn echo that follows a scream. Set in a world as dead as it is dying, this compact Soulslike strips the genre down to its eerie essentials. You inhabit discarded shells of fallen warriors, each with their own distinct stats and playstyles, and must navigate mystifying ruins while mastering a limited yet elegant combat system.

It’s clearly carved from the same grim stone as Elden Ring. Its reliance on stamina-based duelling, moody environmental storytelling, and slow-drip lore delivery is textbook FromSoftware inspiration. The world is forlorn, the sense of isolation palpable, and enemies ripped straight from the medieval fantasy playbook.

What makes Mortal Shell stand out is its scale. It’s a shorter, tighter experience, almost like a Soulslike shot of espresso compared to Elden Ring’s open-world feast. But that brevity works in its favor, delivering an intimate and focused journey that won’t consume 100 hours, but might haunt you for just as long.

What if Elden Ring had guns? That’s the pitch behind Remnant: From the Ashes, a third-person shooter with Soulslike undertones. Set in a bleak post-apocalyptic Earth, it blends co-op gunplay, oppressive atmosphere, and towering bosses into a surprisingly cohesive package that favors reaction and precision over pure power.

While the setting diverges from the medieval, the spirit is familiar. You’ve got punishing boss fights, limited healing items, and checkpoints that reset the world. There’s even a puzzling plot buried under layers of environmental storytelling and fragmented dialogue where Elden Ring fans will feel the pull of the unknown.

What separates it is how you engage. This is a game that wants you to shoot first and ask questions never. Firearms dominate the action, the pace is a bit quicker with swift abilities, and co-op play is encouraged throughout. It’s more forgiving in tone, but no less thrilling in tension. All in all, a great alternative when you’re craving Soulslike difficulty but want to swap sword for shotgun.

Who knew Pinocchio would end up a Soulslike protagonist? Lies of P takes the classic tale, paints it in oil and ash, and reimagines it as a Belle Époque nightmare. As a puppet in a world gone mad, you’ll parry, dodge, and slice your way through clockwork monstrosities and unravel a web of lies.

Calculated combat, haunting worldbuilding, and a breadcrumb trail of story clues that invites obsessive speculation will all be inherently familiar to Elden Ring fans. Each weapon feels weighty, each enemy encounter demands attention, and the game's oppressive atmosphere is as rich as anything FromSoftware has offered.

Where it steps out on its own is its style. Lies of P is dripping with aesthetic confidence, blending gothic horror with mechanical grotesquerie. It’s not quite as sprawling with a journey that’s roughly half the length of Elden Ring, but one that feels no less operatic in its highs and lows. You’ll stay for the combat, but it’s the artistry that’ll stick with you.

If Elden Ring took a detour through a dystopian cyber-scrapyard, it’d look something like The Surge 2. Deck13’s sci-fi Soulslike drops players into the broken city of Jericho, armed with exosuits, buzzsaws, and a visceral limb-targeting combat system that turns every fight into a gory game of Operation.

For all its industrial grime, The Surge 2 mirrors Elden Ring’s fundamental rhythms by implementing tough-as-nails combat, a lack of handholding, and a world built around fragmented storytelling. Exploration is rewarded, and the game does a stellar job of intertwining level design with gameplay progression.

Of course, it trades swords and sorcery for steel and sparks. Magic becomes tech, dragons become drones, and your steed is a haptic exoskeleton rather than spectral hooves. But make no mistake: the challenge, immersion, and satisfaction are all present, just wrapped in circuit boards instead of spell scrolls.

Ashen is the dreamlike Soulslike you didn’t know you needed. It wraps familiar mechanics in a sunless, pastel-shaded world and centres much of its journey around forging relationships. At its heart, it’s a story about companionship, set against the bleak backdrop of a crumbling civilization.

Fans of Elden Ring will feel right at home with its stamina-based combat, deliberate pacing, and subtle environmental storytelling. The boss encounters are memorable, the world invitingly vast, and the game quietly offers a drop-in co-op system that enhances without overwhelming.

The softer art style might disarm you, but don’t let that fool you. Ashen is still capable of delivering crushing defeats and contemplative highs. It’s more forgiving, more hopeful, and a touch more humane, but all the better for it. This is the Soulslike you recommend to a friend, and maybe even play with one.

Dubbed "anime Dark Souls" by many, Code Vein leans into its aesthetic with confidence, delivering a vampiric apocalypse packed with oversized weapons and melancholic flair. You play as a Revenant (which is part warrior, part bloodsucker), navigating a ruined world to uncover your past and battle monstrous threats.

Beneath the anime trappings lies familiar territory: stamina-based combat, weighty dodges, punishing bosses, and lore told through fragmented dialogue and sprinkled notes. There’s even a custom character creator and an AI companion that adds an interesting twist to solo play.

What sets Code Vein apart is its heart-on-sleeve storytelling and stylised presentation. It’s unapologetically melodramatic, occasionally cheesy, but always earnest. If Elden Ring is Shakespearean tragedy, Code Vein is operatic anime that's equally powerful, just in a different register.

Hellpoint takes the familiar Soulslike formula and launches it into a derelict space station orbiting a black hole. Drenched in cosmic horror and philosophical ambiguity, it places you in the husk of Irid Novo, a twisted cathedral of cyber-gothic decay where time itself can bend and enemies shift with lunar cycles. It’s strange, unnerving, and drenched in atmospheric dread.

If Elden Ring is a fantasy nightmare, Hellpoint is its sci-fi sibling. The combat is weighty and deliberate, the world obscure and interconnected, and the storytelling quietly embedded in the background for players to unearth. There's a similar satisfaction in taming chaos here, whether you're unlocking hidden passages or piecing together an ancient catastrophe one corpse at a time.

Where it strays is in tone and scope. Hellpoint is tighter, a little more claustrophobic, and undeniably rougher around the edges. But its ambition is undeniable. For those itching for a Soulslike with a garnish of cosmic dread and a twist of temporal weirdness, this space-horror experiment absolutely earns its place in the void.

Originally a cult classic from the early 2000s, Enclave returns in HD, offering a sharpened take on its medieval action-RPG roots. You step into a world split between light and darkness, hacking and slashing your way through stone corridors and battlements thick with early-aughts charm. It’s raw, straightforward, and deliciously grim.

Despite its age, Enclave HD shares some tonal DNA with Elden Ring. The environments are stylised yet oppressive, and the choice-driven narrative siding with light or dark gives you a sense of direction while still immersing you in a world teetering on the brink. The game’s gothic flair is undeniable, especially in its darker paths.

It’s admittedly simpler and more arcade-like than Elden Ring. There’s no open-world ambition or intricate lore spiralling off in ten directions, but what Enclave offers is a distilled, action-focused journey steeped in atmosphere and grit. Think of it as a retro palate cleanser between larger feasts.

Chronos: Before the Ashes delivers a more introspective take on the Soulslike formula. A prequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, this action RPG trades ranged weaponry for a more intimate, melee-focused experience. What sets it apart is its unique age mechanic: each time you die, your character ages, altering your attributes.

There’s something undeniably Elden Ring-esque in its melancholic tone and careful pacing. The labyrinth you explore is full of mystery, with interwoven paths and puzzles designed to test more than just your combat reflexes. Like FromSoftware’s best, it layers its story in fragments, encouraging you to dig deeper.

It’s a more modest affair in both scope and difficulty, but that doesn’t diminish its charm. Chronos doesn’t want to break you; it wants you to grow with it, both in age and understanding. A quieter, more personal Soulslike, it serves as a meditative counterpoint to Elden Ring’s sprawling ambition.

Don't let the hand-drawn rodent fool you, Tails of Iron is as brutal as any bleak fantasy epic. You play as King Redgi, heir to the rat throne, locked in a grim war against the merciless Frog Clan. The game’s fairytale aesthetic masks punishing 2D combat, where timing, precision, and patience are paramount.

Beneath its stylised visuals lies a Soulslike heart. Much like Elden Ring, Tails of Iron demands discipline from the player. Parrying, dodging, and learning enemy patterns is key, and each battle (whether against bandits or towering bosses) carries weight and consequence. It's challenging, methodical, and endlessly rewarding.

What makes it stand out is the presentation. The world is drawn like an illustrated manuscript, complete with narration from Doug Cockle (Geralt of Rivia himself). It's more compact and linear, but emotionally charged and surprisingly mature. It might be smaller in stature, but Tails of Iron fights far above its weight class.

Thymesia takes you to a kingdom undone by alchemical plague, where you wield the claws of Corvus, a masked warrior whose memory is as fragmented as the world he fights to save. With rapid, dodge-heavy combat and plague-based abilities, it’s a stylish, kinetic entry into the Soulslike space.

Fans of Elden Ring will instantly recognise the emphasis on deliberate aggression. You’re expected to stay close to danger, weaving through strikes and countering with a flurry of your own. The lore is scattered in notes and cryptic allusions, and the art direction evokes rot, ruin, and an ever-present sense of decay.

Its biggest distinction lies in pace. Thymesia is faster, punchier, and far more focused on boss encounters and build experimentation than sprawling exploration. But that intensity works to its advantage, making it a sharp, satisfying hit for anyone who craves Elden Ring’s challenge but wants it with a plague doctor twist.