The Scariest Soulslike Games, Ranked

Important takeaways

• Soulslike games have a unique blend of horror and brutality, providing a scare and a challenge.
• Boss encounters in Soulslikes reward players with potent weapons, enhancing the gameplay experience.
• Scariest Soulslike games like Bloodborne offer a variety of horror elements, making them memorable and unique.

As if losing hours worth of collected resources isn't scary enough, Soulslike games have a healthy and complementary relationship with horror games rarely seen anywhere else. The brutal difficulty of a Soulslike finds a natural home in trying to scare the player away.

Whether it's crazy zombie dolls that consume human flesh or fierce creatures from outer space, Soulslikes are a treat for a fear and should not be overlooked.

5 Lies by P

Puppet To The Fates

While Lies by P is based on the old Pinnochio stories, don't let that give you the wrong impression. Instead, Lies by P leans squarely towards the horror aesthetic throughout, providing a genuinely nerve-wracking experience in certain key areas of the game that isn't offset by the amount of powerful weapons P has at his disposal.

This is no better seen than the area of ​​St. Frangelico Cathedral in the game. As P makes his way into the mountains, he is confronted by a mysterious disease that has zombified many of the long-dead humans, turning them into terrifying creatures that haunt the gothic halls of the cathedral. It's a very atmospheric part of the game and a memorable moment when Soulslikes showed how scary they can be.

4 Dark souls

The source of the fear

While Dark souls may be old-fashioned by now, it's important to remember how revolutionary it was when it was released. Nothing like its world had ever been seen before, which meant that venturing into its unknown depths could make for a truly terrifying experience as the player encountered its gallery of fearsome bosses.

There is no better example of this than the sewer system deep below the Undead Burg. Here the player leaves the realm of knights and gargoyles and is confronted with strange basilisk monsters that instantly half the player's max HP and have a truly offensive creature design, lurking behind dark corners and jumping out when you least suspect it. There are more creepy surprises throughout the game, and it's a worthwhile entry as a basic creepy Soulslike.

3 Hellpoint

To Hell And Back

While some Soulslikes have scary areas, Soulslikes like Hellpoint try to make the whole game scary by creating an omnipresent atmosphere of fear and gloom as the player makes his way through the post-merger Irid Novo space station (be sure not to make some of the main mistakes many newbies make).

The result is a game clearly inspired by the likes of Dead Space and Alien: Isolationbut reinterpreted through Soulslike's lens. It means players are slinking through metallic corridors covered in fleshy pustules, desperately clinging to their resources as the next horrifying monstrosity intrudes, making it easily one of the scariest Soulslikes to drop.

2 Blasphemous

Believe in horror

While sci-fi horror is all the rage, The Game Kitchen took a different approach when considering their own Soulslike game and decided to lean heavily on religion-based horror, particularly imagery associated with the Catholic faith. Although the religion in the game is markedly different, the associations with real religious symbolism make for a completely unique and genuinely unnerving game.

Inevitably, players enter Blasphemous will encounter their fair share of thorn-crowned monsters, but they'll similarly encounter giant babies, terrifying angels, and perhaps even the gods themselves. It's a fantastically creepy Soulslike, full to the brim with secrets, well worth picking up.

1 Blood borne

Horror from Above

As if it could be anything else. Not only were FromSoftware trendsetters in defining the Soulslike genre, but they were also the first to openly attempt to bring the subgenre into the realm of horror in their magnum opus Blood borne. The game doesn't settle for just one kind of horror, from gothic horror to supernatural horror, all the way to cosmic horror at the center of the game's story.

It means Blood borne is full to bursting with areas dripping with atmosphere and fear with horrific monstrosities and a litany of boss monsters ready and waiting to tear the player's guts out. But if they stick around, they will have experienced one of the best, and one of the scariest, Soulslikes on the market.