Over the years many games have been hard, Very hard. But one game in particular was so difficult that it became its own genre. Originally released on september 22nd 2011 Dark Souls became a classic due to its unforgiving combat and difficult movement system. The basic principle of dark souls is to memorize everything. Similar to arcade games of the past, everything in dark souls has a specific pattern or “tell” that warns you of what the enemy is going to do next. These tells be as noticeable as someone swinging their arm or as indistinguishable as footsteps. Besides the combat system the game also features a very vast story detailing the legends of the undead and those who fight for their honor. Their are 3 titles in the series currently that are all very similar in gameplay, but further progress the tale.

For a game to be considered a “Souls like” it must share some of the same difficulty mechanics as its predecessor. Some of the things included in this list are Savepoints, limited health, and the loss of progress upon multiple failures in a row. However, the main thing that makes a game a souls like is its immense difficulty. Some of the games included in this genre are Nioh, Bloodborne, and even the 2D platformer hollow knight (my personal favorite) I highly recommend these games to anyone looking for a challenge.