8mo ago

Best Soulslike game for beginners?

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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Of the ones I've played, Elden Ring. The biggest aid for new players being that if something's too tough, you just go somewhere easier and come back later. The opening area has a boss roaming a field designed to teach you exactly that lesson.
- I’ve also heard the magic in Elden ring makes it easier than the others. Any thoughts on that?
  
  The magic is similar to Dark Souls 3. I don't know that it's any more overtuned or anything, but there's a lot of fun in finding broken builds, and there are tons of them.
  
  I hate other souls like games but managed my way through Elden Ring because of this and what /u/ampersandrew said about going away and coming back after exploring and leveling a bit more.
  
  It is the most wizarding friendly game FromSoftware has made.
  Through their other games the pattern was for wizards: the level getting to the boss was tough managing your spell uses, but then the boss was easy if you reserved enough.
  In Elden Ring there are less 'levels' and almost none of the classic 'runback' to a boss if you die. So you almost always can full power a boss.
  Which feels easier in comparison. Though the Elden Ring bosses were designed around that more.
  Imminent DLC will shake things up too.
  
  I liked the magic in Elden Ring. First Souls game I played magic in and I feel it was very strong. If you're going with sorceries, just be aware that the first magic teacher is easily missed. Look up where they are if you get too far into the game without finding more magic.

You could try "Another Crab's treasure". It even has accessibility options to make it easier if it's too intimidating.
- Ah yes.
  The game that just straight up gives you a giant handgun if you simply ask.
  
  lol that’s hilarious

Elden Ring is the best one for beginners, because if you get stuck at a boss you can just leave that area and go somewhere else. You are very rarely ever "stuck". That is not the case with any of the other Soulsborne games.
In addition, it has spirit summons which make the game significantly easier.
And since it's the newest one AND has a DLC coming out soon, it's also the most played one right now. So finding other players for co-op is easy.
I also consider the bosses, on the whole, to be the easiest of all of the FROM Software games.
- I second this, one of my good friends only started gaming over covid. We were all hardcore souls players and helped her get through bloodborne and ds3 but she was basically just letting us handle most of the fighting. But when ER came out she got really into it and has played through solo several times. From Software took a lot of the pain points out of the format while keeping it challenging and fresh. Elden ring also has great online, I wasn't a huge fan of the game (I prefer Bloodborne, Sekiro and AC 6) just I spent hundreds of hours just running around the Lands Between with my friends during covid.
  
  Yeah you're right. I forgot to mention that with Elden Ring, FROM smoothed away a lot of the rough edges of the older games. And because of that it is much easier to get into for newer players. I'm glad your friend enjoyed it.
- Also the biggest positive is the capability of fast traveling from your map from anywhere as long as you aren't in combat.
  It removes the hesitation to explore areas from which you can't return easily.
  That's the biggest thing that made Elden Ring significantly less stressful for me.
  Plus you don't have to worry about weapon durability.

Fallen order. You can adjust the difficulty!
- Oggdo Boggdo flashbacks.
  
  He's just a harmless little froggo. It'll be fiiiine
  
  “Oggdo Boggdo, I’ve come to bargain!”
- 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

Darksouls 1 makes the most sense, it’s where most fans started.
- No way lol, dark souls 1 is likely the most difficult in the series because it doesn't hold your hand at all, and it's very easy to get lost. There's a reason it people kept comparing any super hard game to dark souls despite the fact that DS2 and DS3 were fairly accessible.
  
  The combat is very slow im ds1 compared to other games which makes it far easier. People say dark souls meaning the whole series not specifically ds1.
  
  I haven't played ds2 or 3 yet, but found ds1 to be easier than fallen order / sekiro with how you can level up your way through tough enemies even if you dont take the intended route
  
  I really disliked the ability to get lost combined with the challenge in Dark Souls. In most games, if I come upon an area that's extremely hard, it's clear that I'm not supposed to go there yet. But with Dark Souls, I know it's supposed to be hard and had a harder time gauging if there was somewhere else I should be going.
- I was about to recommend the same. Dark Souls is hard to get into, but it will train you to play a Souls like game like a Souls like game. However Elden Ring might be a good intro into the genre too, and is a bit more modern and accessible too.

I'de just jump on elden ring. Get some experience before shadow of the eartree comes out.

I'd avoid non-DS1/3/ER souls-likes to start with, because they tend not to have multiplayer.
There's nothing wrong with summoning a friend or stranger to help you get through a difficult bit.

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.

Honestly, I disliked Souls-like games until I played Hollow Knight (at that point, I tried Dark Souls but didn't get very far). It isn't a Souls-like game (2D Metroidvania), but as it shares some of their themes and elements, after finishing it I was motivated to try Dark Souls again (and ended up doing a full playthrough).

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

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).
  
  They did nerf the most difficult bosses and minibosses after release which made it a lot more approachable I think.

Personally, I'd say Sekiro. You need to be good with timing but the experience is much more streamlined. There's no equipment system so you don't have to worry about finding what's good for you, let alone slogging it through the first however many hours to get whatever items get recommended in Top X lists. Also, I find the movement system is much more to my liking. It feels immediate instead of trying to sprint through a field of porridge. However, if porridge is what you're looking for, Sekiro is a poor pick for you.
Lies of P is also a good pick for having tighter movement and QoL upgrades over Souls games though I dare say a lot of fans will want to drag me across the coals for saying that.
- I very much enjoyed Sekiro and it led me to Elden Ring that I then, in turn, did not enjoy at all. haha Sekiro feels much more approachable but it doesn't have the replayability of other Souls games.
  
  Hm, what didn't you enjoy about Elden Ring? I started with Sekiro, finished it, and have moved on to Elden Ring (in co-op tho). I have very much enjoyed both.
  
  I'd have to agree with that. Sekiro has a lot of the trimmings of other From games while having a movement system much closer to the standard hack-n-slash adventure game like Assassin's Creed or Ghost of Tsushima most recently.
  
  Sekiro feels much more approachable but it doesn't have the replayability of other Souls games.
  Interesting perspective; I actually have double the hours in Sekiro (164) compared to Elden Ring (86) and DS1 (88). And I also didn't really like Elden Ring (though I really wanted to).
- Elden Ring fans are salty at this comment lol. That does like it’d be better for my play style though.
  
  Came to make the same recommendation. It depends on what aspect of the games you find intimidating. Most people recommending Elden Ring will likely be assuming that you mean mechanical difficulty, but in my case, the openness, variety, stat numbers etc of ER are all intimidating.
  Sekiro is more approachable in this regard, the way forward is mostly clear, and the mechanics are clearly communicated, so you're just left with practicing them until you're good enough to progress.
  I'd say that most people who say Sekiro is one of the hardest fromsoft games probably came from playing souls or Elden Ring and have the extra challenge of unlearning some of the foundations. I hadn't played any, and though Sekiro is hard as hell sometimes, it clicked with me pretty quickly. Completed 3 endings and most of the optional, hardest content so far
  
  Sekiro, like Bloodborne, is different from the Dark Souls series. The mechanics, story, and atmosphere of each are distinct, with Elden Ring falling most closely with the Dark Soul series in mechanics and 'feel'.
  Dark Souls 1 has the best atmosphere and environmental storytelling, in my opinion. It really is clear how innovative and influential a game it was.
  Sekiro is hard to play from a Dark Souls foundational playstyle. Sekiro players, I find, seem to have an easier time adapting to Dark Souls. So it may very well be a good start for a FromSoft game.
  
  I'm pretty used to it at this point. My best friend is a big Souls fan and is one of the many who refers to Elden Ring as the most approachable From game yet as well as Sekiro as possibly the hardest. The comments I'm used to seeing are ones calling X boss the hardest they've ever gone against and those are consistently the easiest for me. Personally, I'm terrible with the bosses that have a wind up for their attacks and make you wait for the timing as opposed to the ones where it's almost pure reflex. If that sounds more your bag then I'd say Sekiro is your thing and you likely won't enjoy DS or ER. Bloodborne is somewhere in the middle, debatably closer to Sekiro though I've seen arguments for both ways.

I think Elden Ring would be a good place to start since it's the one that lets you customize your difficulty the most. You can use spirit summons (both other players and NPCs) and vary up the order in which you do things, so if you get stuck on something, you can go do something else and then come back with more experience and better equipment
- Seconding Elden Ring. It's also going to be more active since people are hyped for the new content - which means you're more likely to get help if you need it.
  It has a handful of QoL features too that'll make the learning curve more manageable
- Agree. Elden Ring is the only one I've liked personally. And a big reason is being able to fuck off and go do something else if you find a boss battle or section of the game too difficult. There's so much to do and explore and check out that it didn't feel like I was "grinding" ever.

Dark Souls 1. It's not impossible and it has some of the best level design in the genre.

I recommend Code Vein. Then just jump into either Elden Ring or DS3.

If you have a PS4/5, Bloodborne has the most simplified mechanics of the From Software Souls style games.

Tunic! Bonus points for being one of the best games of all time.
- I didn’t know that’s a soulslike! Been wanting to play that.
  
  Dooooooo iiiiiiiiiiiit

Blasphemous is not too hard and has a great story. Just don’t go to the mountains first.

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.

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

How I did it may not be the best. But damn, did I feel accomplished afterwards.
I went into DS1 without any background. I only looked up things when I was 100 % stuck (I played with the broken short sword for far too long). I definitely used some summons (mainly the NPC ones), but you could also choose not to.
Beating O&S the first time after a week or so of trying was one of the best feelings ever (don't want to spoil anything hence the vagueness).
Elden Ring is definitely more beginner-friendly, but the sheer mechanics you can learn in DS1 will help in all soulsbourne games (maybe not Sekiro).
I have not played Demon souls, so maybe that's a better jumping off point?
- I had the same experience: I played DS1 almost completely blind (I'd seen my old roommates playing it years ago so I knew some of the tricks, in a half-remembered sort of way). It was hard, and I got stuck in a few places for a really long time but wow it was extremely rewarding. Anyways I'm not that good at videogames, if you're persistent pretty much anyone can beat dark souls 1 I think
  
  Agreed.

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

As the point of soulslikes is to overcome challenge, looking for something beginner friendly or easy is, in my opinion, not the right approach.
Play the fromsoft games in chronological order and skip the numbers entries if you are not interested in the stories.
So: Deamon's souls -> dark souls -> bloodborne -> sekiro -> elden ring
Dark souls 2 wasn't that great and has a lot of issues but it tried new stuff which I respect. Still wouldn't recommend it.
Dark souls 3 was darks souls best of which made it a disappointment for me. You kinda know what will happen next and there wasn't that much mystery because of that.
- What’s hard for some is easy for others, and vice versa. There’s definitely an appropriate level of intended challenge to any Soulslike game that makes it satisfying as you gradually overcome difficulties and adversity. Fall below that, for instance by spending 10 hours on the tutorial boss, OR breach that difficulty by never falling below 50% HP, and the experience loses luster.
  No matter how much equipment is in it, Dark Souls is still on a pretty set level of difficulty, and it’s too high for a lot of people. Heck, there are other casual games out there that were “ultra hard” for some infrequent gamers I know.
- I'll die on the hill that DS2 was misunderstood, and rather than being a poor game it just caters to a specific taste in Souls games, which turned out to be the minority.
  It's rather unforgiving with Stamina and requires more in terms of positioning and timing to handle multiple enemies, such as lining them up to hit multiple in one swing or singling out a target to stunlock thanks to weaker poise. Healing also requires more consideration to pick the right window. I like that. It feels more like a harsh and dangerous world where you have to watch out for your own survival.
  The Small White Soapstone often works for a quick trip to another world, earning souls, lifegems and regaining humanity with less commitment than a full summon, which encourages jolly cooperation by lowering the stakes and raising the reward. I like that.
  I also like the changes to the weapon upgrades and the magic system. Pyromancy becomes an actual magic discipline, that can still be worked in alongside miracles, sorceries and particularly hexes, like having more attunement gives you more casts, consumables can restore spell uses and you can use materials to lower spell requirements, all of which affects character builds. Being able to respec means you can change or fix your build later on.
  I'll concede that the learning curve is bad. There's more mechanical complexity to learn and less explanation than in DS1, and particularly the differences between the games aren't obvious if you go at it with the expectations set by the original.
  In a way, that makes it a bad "Dark Souls" 2, since you're obviously expecting more of the same because it has the same name. Trying new stuff may be good, but changing existing systems is always a gamble whether the people trying and liking it outweigh those that didn't like it or never even tried.
  That many people ended up not liking them was unfortunate. Particularly with DS3 going so hard in the other direction, the approval of DS2 has diminished even further. Its playstyle just isn't to everyone's taste, and many people conflate "I didn't like it" with "It's shit", which is a shame.
  In summary, I think it's a good game, even a good Dark Souls that innovates on the original, but it's probably a bad entry point for the genre due to the steep learning curve, and a rough transition from more faster paced titles. I acknowledge it's not for everyone, but I liked it.

No one here has mentioned Hellpoint. If you like sci-fi and/or horror elements, this may be one you want to check out. It has a big map, plenty of secrets and shortcuts, creepy lore, cool weapons and armor sets
Or even either of The Surge games. You can target individual limbs and depending on how you kill the enemy you'll gain more experience or more resources to upgrade your gear.

Elden Ring for sure. Lots of tools to help with difficulty, and you can leave and go somewhere else.

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.

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!

Another Crabs treasure

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 do not enjoy Soulslikes, but I really liked Tunic. Some things it has going for it:
It is extremely nonverbal, but what it does give you is invested in helping you figure out a path to success. By intention, that’s not always obvious. You may need to work out for yourself when to dodge or to block.
The atmosphere is bright and cheery, though it has its spooky and atmospheric bits.
The camera is top down, so you don’t need to manage the camera while playing.
Dying is not very punishing. You lose a bit of currency, which you can retain at the same spot; and that currency isn’t often critical to progress

You could try Animus: Stand Alone, the android version isn't available anymore but the PC, Xbox, Switch and iOS versions seem to still be available. It had a sequel called Animus: Harbinger but it seems like only the Switch and iOS versions are the only ones still available. There was also a third Animus game but Revenant is quite different from the first two.
Another game I can recommend is Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. It was only ever available for the PS2 and Xbox but it's gameplay, especially during bosses, is similar to dark souls.

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.

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