10 Soulslike Games With Rigid Combat

Soulslike games like Elden Ring offer players countless options for how they want to build their character. But that’s not the norm. Several Soulslike games instead focus on curating a specific combat experience and tuning the weapons and player options around that approach.

A wide array of weapons and playstyles is definitely not necessary to make a good Soulslike. Some of the best games in the genre keep things tight so fans can focus more on the narrative and level design. Here are Soulslike games with rigid combat systems.

10 Strayed Lights

Keeping It Colorful

Strayed Lights is a small indie game with a very distinctive art style and an extremely simple approach to combat. Every attack an enemy throws at the player will either be red, blue, or purple. The player must change the color of their own character to parry the correct color and dodge away from purple attacks, which cannot be parried.

This simple approach to combat is used to tell an immersive, dialogue-free story about emotion and corruption. The protagonist must cleanse their mystical relatives of overwhelming negative emotions in order to bring peace to their world and restore equilibrium.

9 En Garde!

A Stylish Fencing Quest

With a heavy emphasis on timing and reflexes in combat, En Garde! does share a lot of DNA with other entries in the soulslike genre. However, unlike other games, this one presents players with just one weapon. As the name suggests, players will be going into En Garde! with nothing but a rapier in their hands.

The game uses the limited attack options at players’ disposal to encourage engagement with the main selling point of En Garde! The arenas players must fight in are full of environmental tricks and traps that can seriously damage and incapacitate foes. Combat in En Garde! is designed around using the environment to one’s advantage, and players ignore these resources at their peril.

8 Lies of P

Hitting Fast And Hard

Lies of P does boast a decently-sized library of weapons, and it even has a unique customization system, letting players mix and match weapon elements. But the game’s overall combat system is certainly geared toward a specific approach to fighting.

While the setting of Lies of P is exceptionally unique, presenting a bizarre steampunk take on the tale of Pinocchio, the combat takes heavy cues from Bloodborne. To that end, no matter what weapon the titular puppet wields, fights are designed to be fast, brutal, and aggressive. The game features a prominent stagger system, where players can knock down foes once they become groggy in order to finish them off fast.

7 Titan Souls

Only One Shot

It’s hard to find a combat system more restricted than Titan Souls. The protagonist of this small indie game has a bow with one arrow, and that’s it. Once the bow has been fired, the arrow can be called back, traveling a straight path to the player and damaging anything in its path.

This extremely simple combat system services the overall theme of the game. Every enemy in Titan Souls is a major boss battle, and each one of these bosses will die in one hit when the player exposes and strikes its weak point. This makes the combat in Titan Souls more of a puzzle, as players figure out how to use the boss’s movements against it and line up the perfect circumstances to finish it off.

6 Another Crab’s Treasure

Trashy Crabs

Soulslikes don’t need to be dark fantasy and horrifying monsters, and few games exemplify that better than Another Crab’s Treasure. This strange, lighthearted Soulslike casts players as a hermit crab trying to reclaim his beloved shell while unraveling the mystery of increasing ocean pollution in the process.

Unlike games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring, Another Crab’s Treasure gives players just one main weapon. The rusty fork fans start with is the only weapon they’ll get for the entirety of the game. Players can upgrade it over the course of their adventure, and by the end of their quest, they should be intimately familiar with the tool.

5 Blasphemous

Penitent Be The Heart

This 2D Metroidvania has a grim dark fantasy setting that would easily mark it as a Soulslike even if its intense combat and monstrous bosses didn’t. As thrilling as the game’s combat can get, however, there’s not a lot of room for experimentation. The Penitent One has one main weapon, a sword called Mea Culpa, and that’s the only weapon players will be wielding throughout the game.

Blasphemous does offer players a decent array of magic prayers to discover throughout the game, and Mea Culpa can be upgraded with new moves and powers as well. But at the core of the game, Blasphemous is a hack-and-slash experience, and the sword will always be the only reliable way to take part in combat.

4 Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Keeping Spirits High

While Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty does have a decent variety of weapon styles for players to use, there are plenty of gameplay systems that players will need to engage with if they want a chance at success in combat. The game takes heavy inspiration from games like Sekiro, putting a strong emphasis on stealth and parrying in combat.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty also has a unique system known as Spirit. This special gauge goes up in combat with successful hits and parries and goes down when players take damage or rely too much on dodging. If the spirit gauge hits zero, players will stagger, but if they keep it high, they can spend it on special moves. This encourages aggression and parrying in combat, especially since bosses have a similar gauge and can be knocked off their feet if the player fights aggressively enough.

3 Hollow Knight

Bug Battling

The legendary Hollow Knight takes heavy influence from Dark Souls in spite of its 2D format. Unlike Dark Souls, however, Hollow Knight gives the protagonist just one weapon to use throughout the entire game. The Nail functions as a relatively simple sword that will accompany the Knight through their entire adventure.

Players can upgrade the Nail over the course of the game, increasing its damage and combat effectiveness. There are also spells and abilities to unlock throughout the game to supplement the Nail, but if players want to succeed in combat, they’ll have to learn how to wield this one main weapon effectively.

2 Bloodborne

Getting Visceral

Bloodborne does have a decent library of weapon types, offering different combat styles for different players. However, the systems intrinsic to the game are all designed and tuned around a very specific approach to combat. Bloodborne differs wildly from its predecessors, the Dark Souls games, by focusing heavily on aggression, speed, and movement.

Unlike the Dark Souls games that preceded it, Bloodborne features almost zero shields. The only way to defend against enemy attacks is to parry them with a well-timed gunshot, and then punish them with a strong visceral attack. This is reinforced by the Rally system, which allows players to regain some of their lost health by attacking quickly after taking damage. Players can choose from a number of weapons for their Bloodborne playthrough, but if they’re not playing fast and aggressive, they’re not going to get very far.

1 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Only One Weapon

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is unique in From Software’s library of Soulslikes in that it gives players only one weapon to rely on. The title character does have a prosthetic arm with special gadgets, but they won’t carry a fight like the katana will. The game forces players to learn its complex systems of parrying and dodging if they want to succeed in battle.

By eschewing the traditional RPG mechanics intrinsic to the Dark Souls trilogy, Sekiro delivers a very streamlined challenge. Mechanical mastery and character building come second to personal mastery. The player needs to personally master the game’s combat systems, and if they do, Sekiro‘s single weapon won’t be much of a limitation at all.