Articles Dark Souls 2

All Dark Souls games in order, plus every FromSoftware soulslike — Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring. How the games connect and where a newcomer should start in 2026.

The soulslike genre owes its existence to Demon's Souls, released by FromSoftware in 2009. A PlayStation exclusive, it first earned a cult following among hardcore players in its homeland of Japan. From its core mechanics, FromSoftware's lead designer Hidetaka Miyazaki built a new game — Dark Souls — which launched a series that became iconic the world over. Soon the "soulslikes" started arriving: games that copy the Dark Souls formula of success. An entire genre was born, built on the hallmarks of Dark Souls — punishing difficulty, "bonfires" (checkpoints for saving and leveling up), enemies that respawn on a location once you die, collecting experience ("souls"), stamina management in combat, fragmentary storytelling, and — most importantly — gruelling boss fights that force you to learn every move set.

At gamescom Opening Night Live 2025, Polish studio CI Games presented the first trailer for Lords of the Fallen 2, a soulslike set in a dark, god-forsaken fantasy universe. According to the developers, the project is being created taking into account the criticism of players.