In 2009 the dev team known as “FromSoftware” made a game called “Demon’s Souls”. The game was about a medieval knight known as the “slayer of demons” embarking on a mission to defeat a king. This game was a very difficult game that took trial and error seriously and led to the genre known as the “soulslike” and “soulsborn”. 

What is a “soulsborn” to start off a soulsborn game is a game made by FromSoft that includes: Demon’s souls, Dark Souls 1-3, BloodBorne, Sekiro, Elden Ring/nightreign  and the upcoming game “Duskbloods”. Which are known for their difficulty being really hard games that can cause frustration but are all beatable with enough time put into them. 

Now a Soulslike is a really challenging game that will require a lot of failure and learning from that failure often requires patience and timing to succeed. Soulslikes require a lot of skill to play with challenging levels and boss fights popular Soulslikes are: Lies of P, Nine Sols, Black Myth Wukong and Lords of The Fallen 

Why are they popular? Soulslikes are popular because the gameplay is mostly fun and offers interesting challenges like boss fights, these games have a heavy emphasis on the boss fights. These factors can make games notable and memorable. 

The combat is fun, most soulslikes include knights and sword based combat which in gameplay is a lot of fun. These games have their own take on combat whether it’s parry heavy like Nine Sols or rolling past enemy attacks like traditional Dark Souls every different game keeps it fresh and brings new features to the game. 

The difficulty could drive people away but it is fun to learn how to play and is rewarding when you win. Soulslikes are very popular games commonly winning awards.

There are different types of Soulslikes including traditional and metroidvania being the most popular types. Traditional being more grounded and having a 3rd person camera, metroidvania being a center camera platformer type of game most getting its name from the game “super metroid”. 

Soulslikes are one of the most popular game genres as well being loved by everyone and without a soulslike game some people even go under “souls fatigue” just wanting another game which sounds crazy but is very much real.

Souls games are a lot of fun and get a lot of fans. If you want a game recommendation I gotta say Dark Souls 3 is one of the best games I’ve ever played and is a ton of fun so give these games a try and see if you love them.