7 Games That Are The Dark Souls Of Their Genres

Dark Souls is a famously punishing and difficult game, one so compelling that it codified the ‘Souls-like’ game into its own genre. It also resulted in the joking comparison of games in different genres to it, that old nerd joke of ‘X is the Dark Souls of Y genre.’

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But what does that really mean? Dark Souls and its successors are characterized by not only crushing difficulty but also a refusal to hold the player’s hand. It’s also a genre known for borderline unfair punishments if you can’t puzzle out how to play or haven’t developed the skills to keep up. With that in mind, games are the Dark Souls of their respective genres.

7

Cuphead

2D Platformer

Let’s get this out of the way: Cuphead is the reason you think of this meme. While it did not originate with the cartoony platformer, it certainly popped off after this somewhat reductive comparison was made. It’s not entirely without merit because, despite these disparate games, they do have some things in common.

Of course, both are punishingly difficult, of course. The travel in between boss fights can be quite harrowing as well, since death means starting over either from the beginning of the Run N’ Gun stage or from the last bonfire. However it’s the boss battles both games are well known for, being grand multi-stage affairs where you’re allowed few mistakes.

6

Witch’s House

RPG Maker

RPG Maker games, aside from being made in the titular engine, are hard to pin down as its own genre. Generally, they’re a top-down 2D walking sim and adventure game, and usually, they’re horror. The most famous of these is The Witch’s House, and it’s also the most punishingly difficult and obtuse example of the genre.

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As Viola, a girl with no memory and no way to defend herself, you must explore a haunted house to unravel the mystery of her past. It’s a grim, dark, and gory adventure where sudden death lurks around every corner, not unlike traversing some of the more hostile locales in Dark Souls. It’s also like the Souls games in that even when you beat it, the ending may just leave a bad taste in your mouth.

5

Solium Infernum

Grand Strategy

Grand Strategy

Turn-Based Strategy

Systems

Released

2024-00-00

Developer(s)

League of Geeks

ESRB

m

A complex game in an already complex genre, the difficulty of Solium Infernum is almost inverse to what makes Dark Souls difficult. Whereas in the latter, you’re not given much beyond how to move or swing a weapon, in the former, you’re given all the information you need, but good luck parsing it all.

As an Archfiend, your ambition is to take the throne of Hell, to rise above all the other contenders. But the bureaucracy of Hell is labyrinthine, and every action you take comes under the scrutiny of a powerful neutral party: The Conclave. Of course, every rule has many ways to subvert them or use them for your ends, leading to a balancing act that is, well, hellish. And this isn’t even with human opponents, who will be much more cunning than the AI. After all, hell is other people.

4

GTFO

Co-Op Shooter

Systems

Released

December 10, 2021

Developer(s)

10 Chambers

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op

Engine

Unity

ESRB

m

Number of Players

4

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Though this co-op multiplayer shooter with zombie-like enemies can be reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, playing it as such will leave you and your buddies in short order. More like Aliens than 28 Days Later, you and three friends will have to use all your equipment and skills to get in, complete your goal, and then get out without becoming monster chow.

You get little in the way of instruction and the roads to a wipe are many and at times feel unfair. However, learning the game’s mix of stealth, tactics, and balls-to-the-wall shooting is immensely satisfying and will continue to challenge even the most hardened delvers. Much like Dark Souls.

3

7 Days To Die: Afterlife

Survival

As it is, 7 Days To Die is an engaging zombie apocalypse survival simulator that has you gathering resources, holding down territory, and advancing your tech and equipment. Some might find it arcadey, especially compared to more hardcore sims like The Long Dark.

The Afterlife mod by Redbeard, however, is something else. In Afterlife, hunger and thirst are as present a threat as the zombies, even more so if you fail to keep up a new stat: Vitality, which quantifies your character’s will to live.

Resources are generally hard to find and even harder to make, especially since the tech trees have been expanded and made much more difficult to advance. You don’t even have a map or know the time of day when you first start. You’re not given much information to work with, and beyond the bare basics, you’ll need trial and error to find out everything else.

2

Sifu

Beat ‘Em Ups

Beat ‘em ups seem like a fairly simple genre where you can get by with button mashing, but Sifu is anything but. If you don’t get a handle on its system of parries, dodging, and combos, you won’t last long, even with the ability to resurrect.

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Enemies are scarily competent in Sifu, and like the skeletons that kill you at the start of a Souls-like, even the lowliest of grunts can tear you up if you don’t learn the game. Like those Souls-likes, this game also rewards exploration, and you can unlock shortcuts to the boss of each level with careful searching. Those bosses are, of course, quite compelling, and until you learn how they fight and how to counter it, quite difficult.

1

Darkest Dungeon

RPG

If your only experience with turn-based RPGs are JRPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, then you’re in for a rude awakening once you start up Darkest Dungeon. This is not some jaunt through the story of some teenagers who use the power of friendship to kill god, but a grueling fight against the darkness where mistakes are punished terribly. And often, you won’t even know you made a mistake until it’s far too late.

Your characters are mercenaries, and as you balance their health, sanity, and hunger against fights with wicked Lovecraftian abominations. You’ll get attached to them since, as they rise to power, the dungeons get easier. So when you lose them (when, not if), you’ll miss their presence as a valuable ally is lost to the void. Persevere and you’ll find a game that rewards tactical gameplay and foresight. And perhaps, an opportunity for you to fight back the darkness.

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