Great 'Soulslike' Games Made Before Demon's Souls

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With the recent release of Elden Ring, the gaming community's love for Soulslike games began anew. Despite it being a tough game to play, the brutality faced by players is part of its charm, and it has been since the first Soulslike game – 2009's action RPG Demon's Souls. Although the dark, broody medieval death simulator is considered a pinnacle of the genre, there have been plenty of games that preceded the popular FromSoftware game with the same idea.

While the mood of the Souls series helps make it a Souls game, that's not the key to a Soulslike game. The general definition of 'Soulslike' that seems to be agreed upon by the majority of gamers online is that the game should hold extensive lore with bare minimum plot, allow players to explore the game the way they choose rather than be handheld by the game's story, and feature punishing combat that encourages skillful execution. With that in mind, Demon's Souls may have been the origin of the name of the genre, but a lot of gamers can agree that wasn't the first 'Soulslike' game.

FromSoftware Soulsborne Game Tier List

One of two video game series that inspired FromSoftware games director Hidetaka Miyazaki to make video games, the 'Soulslike' genre has roots in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda franchise. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link and Ocarina of Time were particularly influential, with the former providing a brutal combat experience and the latter deemed by Miyazaki as the 'father' of 3D adventure games.

Although the aforementioned Zelda games didn't exactly give players lands to explore that were as vast as Demon's Souls, which is understandable considering the difference in technology, it did check two other 'Soulslike' criterion. The Zelda series does hold lore that's