Souls games

The Souls games are a family of action role-playing games developed by the Japanese studio FromSoftware?, distinguished by their punishing difficulty, deliberate combat, cryptic environmental storytelling, and interconnected fantasy worlds.³⁴ The core series began with Demon’s Souls in 2009 and encompasses the three-game Dark Souls trilogy, with related titles such as Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring frequently grouped under the same “Soulsborne” or “Souls” banner.³⁴ Their commercial and critical success established the conventions of an entire subgenre known as the “Soulslike”.¹⁶

Origins

FromSoftware was formally founded in 1986 but did not release its first game until King’s Field in 1994 on the PlayStation.³ The studio made four principal King’s Field games, clunky real-time low-poly 3D action RPGs whose influence on the gameplay and atmosphere of the later Souls games has been described as obvious.⁹ Alongside King’s Field, FromSoftware also earned a reputation for its Armored Core series before Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls redirected the arc of the studio.³

Demon’s Souls was released on February 5, 2009, for the PlayStation 3, casting the player into the crumbling kingdom of Boletaria with the mission of pacifying an ancient being known as “The Old One”.⁴ Hidetaka Miyazaki?’s takeover of the troubled project was key in shaping it into the beloved franchise it became.⁴ Miyazaki and his team feared the game would be a commercial bomb and produced a limited run, but strong critical reception and word of mouth caused early stock to sell out, and the game became a runaway hit that gave birth to a new genre.⁶ It established the trademarks of future entries: character customization, weapon selection, a grimdark fantasy setting, minimalist storytelling, and unforgiving, brutal combat.⁴

The Dark Souls trilogy

Dark Souls, released on September 22, 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and later PC, was conceived as a spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls.⁴⁷ Players assume the role of the Chosen Undead, a hollowed warrior awakening in the Undead Asylum and tasked with linking the First Flame to continue the Age of Fire across the realm of Lordran.⁷ Widely cited as one of the greatest games of all time, it is regarded as the perfected blueprint that solidified the genre, benefiting from a more organized development process than its predecessor.⁴⁶ Its seminal moments — the descent into the poisoned depths of Blighttown, the double battle against Ornstein and Smough, and the encounter with Sif, the Great Grey Wolf — became touchstones of the series.⁵⁷ Shortly after launch, FromSoftware released its sole major expansion, Artorias of the Abyss, sending the Chosen Undead back in time to the land of Oolacile.⁷

Dark Souls II, released on March 13, 2014, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, is the only game in the trilogy not directed by Miyazaki, being helmed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura while he worked on the Dark Souls expansion and Bloodborne.³⁴ Set thousands of years later in the kingdom of Drangleic, it follows the Bearer of the Curse and made changes such as enemies that stop respawning after repeated kills and fast travel available from the outset.⁷ It is frequently ranked as the weakest entry, criticized for janky hit boxes, tying invincibility frames during dodges to a specific stat, and forgettable bosses, though its Scholar of the First Sin edition and The Lost Crowns DLC trilogy have their defenders.³⁶⁷⁸

Dark Souls III, released on March 24, 2016, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, concluded the trilogy.⁴⁵ Players control an Unkindled undead charged with relinking the First Flame.⁴ It noticeably sped up combat — with quicker, longer-ranged rolls and more actions available while moving — reflecting the influence of Bloodborne.⁴⁵ It was the fastest-selling Bandai Namco game at the time of its release, shipping over three million copies within the first two months and over ten million by 2020, and received the Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City expansions.⁴ A remastered version of the original Dark Souls followed on May 24, 2018, raising the native frame rate from 30 to 60 and delivering graphical updates; it is now the only legal way to purchase the original game.⁴

Related titles

Bloodborne, released on March 26, 2015, as a PlayStation 4 exclusive owing to Sony’s ownership of the IP, took a more action-oriented approach, encouraging aggressive play through its Rally system, which let players recover lost health by striking back quickly.³⁴⁵ Set in the plague-ridden gothic city of Yharnam and steeped in Lovecraftian horror, it is celebrated for its art direction and its expansion The Old Hunters, and remained exclusive to the PlayStation 4 eleven years after launch.³⁴⁵ Its randomly generated Chalice Dungeons drew comparison to roguelike design.⁵

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, released on March 22, 2019, for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows, marked FromSoftware’s largest departure from the formula, dropping RPG progression and character customization in favor of a parry-heavy combat system built around swordplay and stance-breaking.⁴⁶ Set in a mystical late-16th-century Sengoku Japan, the player controls a shinobi known as Wolf, whose prosthetic arm doubles as a grappling hook, adding emphasis on stealth and platforming.³⁴⁵ Some observers consider it too distinct from the RPG-anchored games to count as a true Souls title.⁶

Elden Ring, released in 2022, brought the Souls formula to a vast open world, the Lands Between, allowing players to roam freely on their mount Torrent rather than being stuck on a single boss.⁴⁵ Crafted in collaboration with author George R. R. Martin?, it won Game of the Year from numerous outlets and is one of the most awarded games of all time, surpassing every prior series entry in sales.³⁵⁶ Its Shadow of the Erdtree expansion followed in 2024.³

Influences and legacy

Beyond King’s Field, the Souls games draw pervasively on outside media; the manga Berserk has been identified as a recurring influence across all of Miyazaki’s games from Demon’s Souls through Elden Ring.¹¹ The series’ impact on the wider industry has been profound, with commentators noting traces of its design in games as varied as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Death Stranding, Dead Cells, and the 2018 God of War.¹

The most direct legacy is the “Soulslike” subgenre, defined by punishing consequences for death, a currency gained from defeating enemies that is integral to progression and lost upon death, deliberate stamina-tied combat, and checkpoints that reset the world.¹⁵ Notable non-FromSoftware examples include Lies of P, Nioh 2, Remnant 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the rebooted The Lords of the Fallen, The Surge, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Black Myth: Wukong, and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.¹ The signature mechanic of dropping one’s accumulated currency at the site of death — and having to recover it or lose it permanently — has become one of the most widely borrowed conventions the series introduced.¹