What’s a lesser-known "Soulslike" you’d recommend to the community?

Most people active here probably know of the FS catalogue. Given Lemmy's population, the term soulslike may be applied to games quite liberally, so games like Hollow Knight, Nine Sols, Blasphemous and similar games, which incorporate soulslike elements, would all fall under the same umbrella term.

What are your must-plays? What surprised you? What is a sleeper hit you feel like people don't talk about enough?

Let us know!

Edit: I do know that the games in the thumbnail aren't soulslikes in the traditional sense; however, they show some elements that are often associated with soulslikes, so they serve more as a conversation starter to think outside the box and the rigid ideas of what a soulslike truly is and can be

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Those 3 games aren't even remotely souls like, they are Metroidvanias
- Yes, I agree. They do incorporate some aspects and show inspiration from classic soulslikes, but they aren't "real" soulslikes, for sure. However, given that Lemmy is small and communities are few and far between, I envisioned this community to be the home for games that are also not, traditionally speaking, soulslikes just so people have a place to talk about them.
  Not trying to meme myself into "this is the Dark Souls of ___" but those are my thoughts on the matter
  
  Do you want Metroidvanias or Soulslikes? If you want Metroidvanias I heard Guaccamelee is good

Absolver was interesting to me. It was the game the Sifu devs made before Sifu, and is a marital arts souls-like. It had an interesting mechanic where you could change the attack pattern of your weapon so your light light heavy could be entirely different than someone else's. The attack pattern mechanic was too daunting for me, so I bounced off of it, but I don't hear it talked about as often with other souls-likes enough.
- Aah, I didn't know that Absolver was the predecessor to Sifu - interesting! The game did look intriguing when I looked at footage a couple years ago.

Ori and the blind forest/the will of the wisp are both great games but far from a soulslike.
It plays more like a slow paced story game with some neat mechanics and cutesy animation and sad story that somehow has a happy ending? Both are great though !
People will probably disagree here, but some aspects of Horizon Zero Dawn are a bit souls like. Specially on PC when you're trying to do a perfect hit with keyboard/mouse. I really liked that aspect when you try to take down A big machine only hitting its weak points with NORMAL bows. I got a good 300h in HZD just roaming the world and perfecting my kills during encounters !
- Agree on Ori for sure. Was just meant as a conversation starter to think outside the box of classic soulslikes.
  Hm, I see your point about Horizon. Some of the boss fights do definitely feel a little souls-y. I'd argue, though, that the arsenal of Aloy is a lot larger than any of the heroes in classic souls games, straying a little from its original meaning. The focus on "boss fights" does resemble them tho. Monster Hunter might go in a similar direction then?
  
  Yeah I read your edited portion 😄 but was to lazy to edit mine XD.
  Yeah I actually don't like how broken some of the arsenal is (looking at you ice element) but it's very cool for those who like a more action/destroy everything gameplay.
  However the new game + ,with no elemental bows, is really a good challenge ! Not as difficut as any souls like but If you don't carefully prepare traps and know how to use them efficiently and target weak points you can easily get overwhelmed and die !
  Haven't tried forbidden west so can't argue on that one but heard some negative aspects for those who like me, liked to sneak arround and do more stealthy things with preparation...

Tunic, which is also incidentally one of the best games ever made for reasons I can't say or I'd ruin it.
- Tunic is on my wishlist to buy. I should get it because I just finished Samurai Zero and Silksong ain't coming out soon. Thanks for reminding me.
- How does it stack up to oldschool Zelda titles in your opinion?
  
  I never played the oldschool Zelda games so its not really a comparison I can make sadly.

Bloodborne is my favorite of all From's games in this run. With Elden Ring taking a good 2nd thanks to some great coop moments.
With that in mind, I recommend Mortal Shell
It's a smaller, indie Dev made game but has some fun systems and doesn't over stay it's welcome.
I've played through it a few times on Xbox and PC. Runs well on both and doesn't waste time getting to the combat.
As an added bonus, there's an alternate soundtrack DLC (was free originally, might not be anymore) composed by Rotting Christ that adds a pretty cool layer to the bosses battles.

A bit on the "easier" side of souls likes, but grime is worth a check. It's quite regularly on sale / in bundles, and is similar in "vibe" to hollow knight.
Also, not for everyone, but salt and sanctuary can also qualify.
In the "3d" realm, most of you will probably already know it, but lies of P is really good !

Not a souls-like but satisfying, technical and hard to master combat: Sifu
I don't know how niché it is, but Lords of the Fallen came out 2023, it has lots of failures but I like it anyway, hard and sometimes annoying areas but easy bosses except 1-2.
The rest of what I've played is not hidden / unknown, but I'll list it anyway:
Lies of P: Might be the best souls-like to exist
Nioh 1 + 2: The classics, 2 is way better but you need to be fast and chain combos and not play reactive like in souls
Mortal Shell: Meh. Short and forgettable. The last (I think?) area was very annoying, you need to get through lots of teleporters, was not needed imo. Okayish combat
Code Vein: Fucking sucks, just play Nioh
If you want really niché recommendations, watch IronPineapple on YouTube, he tries out the weirdest games until the term "souls-likes" has no meaning anymore 😂, but I really enjoy his content.
- I enjoyed my time with Sifu quite a bit. I think I didn't get past the third or fourth level because of the difficulty but man, it's fun.
  Only heard that both the original as well as the remade Lords of the Fallen is pretty bad. 2023 seems to have fixed some of the original's faults but still doesn't really hold a candle to its contemporaries. How does it stack up to others for you?
  Agree on Lies of P. Bloodborne was my first love, then came Sekiro. Lies of P is sitting firmly between the two and it's well-deserved. It's the just a combination of both games' good shit. Really enjoyed my time a lot with the game. Even got a tattoo partly inspired by Lies of P recently. :)
  Can't comment on the other games you mention - just heard that Mortal Shell seems to be a little divisive among the fans. Looks cool enough tho!
  Oh yea, Iron Pineapple is awesome :D
  
  Lord of the Fallen feels like Dark Souls 2. A lot of gank fights, bosses reappear later as normal enemies and the areas are harder than the bosses. Still, transferring between normal and umbral is fun, they toned down getting overwhelmed by enemies a lot (night and day, comparing 2023 release vs now) and you can do tons of different builds even if holy damage is OP. I'd say get it on a sale and try it for yourself, it's not perfect but I've played so much worse.

Curse of the Dead Gods. It's more akin to Dead Cells as it's a roguelike. Multiple weapon choices, stamina system, it's not one I hear about often.
- I feel like the Switch's performance hindered my enjoyment of the game. It looked cool and was enjoyable overall, but the Switch port was just a tad laggy, making the game feel a little sluggish to play. Maybe I'll give it another shot on PS5 if I ever resubscribe to PS+

I wouldn't include Ori under that umbrella, and Dead Cells is a bit of a reach, imo. For me, a souls-like has to focus on skill and strategy in combat, ideally with evasion and blocking being critical to success. It also needs a rhythm to the combat - recognizable patterns that the player can learn and improve with (and even be manipulated with). The bosses are also absolutely critical - they should be visually and mechanically formidable, and they need to be plentiful.
With that definition in mind, Hollow Knight would be my top suggestion. Easily one of my favorite games ever. I haven't played too many other souls-likes, but the next two that come to mind are Lies of P and Another Crab's Treasure. I haven't finished either, myself, but they both fit the mold quite well and will likely "scratch the itch" for anyone looking for something similar (LoP is most similar to a FS game, while ACT is...pretty wacky). For anyone that's played everything and is desperate for anything, the Jedi: Survivor series clearly tries to be a psuedo-souls-like, but it just isn't in the same league, imo. I found the combat very janky and unsatisfying, but maybe worth trying as a last resort.
- Oh yea, true, I agree. Hollow Knight does the fit the bill rather nicely in comparison, for sure!
  Haven't played ACT treasure yet but should, I feel like. How's it stack up to your favourites?
  
  The FS games and HK are the pinnacle, imo, and in that respect I haven't found any other game that gets particularly close, but from what I played of it, ACT definitely puts up a good showing. Like I mentioned, it's much wackier/goofier than most souls-likes, which I personally enjoyed, but it might my be for everyone. Probably worth checking out, at least, for anyone looking for a fresh souls-like.

The devil within, satgat was pretty fun.
Steelrising
Death's door
Hyper light drifter (but I'd be surprised if you didn't already know this one!)

This type of thing is funny for me because I have only played elden ring and right off the bat the way it played I thought I would get no where and then set it down. I do not like super hard games and I don't like to play melee fighting things or things where you have to have good timing or things with jumping (elden ring literally triggers my agrophobia at times). Somehow though elden ring ended up keeping me to the point were I finished the game but because I don't actually like the gameplay in a way I have no desire to play anything soulslike. I dunno it could be the difficulty. There was an mmo I learned to like called shadowbane and it was a griefers paradise. I think in both occasions I learned to ignore death and look at it as more an exploratory game.
- What was it about Elden Ring that kept you wanting to play? The story, the world, the atmosphere? And did you manage its difficult alright?
  
  I think it was the breathtaking nature of the story and world. I mean the way the heights triggered agrophobia is a nod to how incredible it is. What kept me playing is also why I could handle the difficulty which was there is a lot of resources to play the game. There is only one difficulty but I sorta think they don't fix some things to enable an easy mode. My method of play was sorcery to start, with combined sorcery and incantation just abut where I maxed sorcery. So respected it down which was a loss for sorcery but you were able to do incantations at that point at top level and the sorcery drop was not huge. Then with bosses it was searching youtube for cheese X boss combined with overleveling.

Oooh, I don't know many so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread ☺️
- Please do :)

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