[Discussion] 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
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!
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.
I won't deny that Nioh 2 is far superior, but Code Vein is great in its own right. It's one of the only anime-styled souls-likes, and it's got one of the most robust character build systems of any I've played in the genre. Classes actually matter in the game and can be swapped freely at any save point. And it's part of the God Eater universe, which is nice if you're into those games.