There are many fantastic choices available for Nintendo Switch owners who enjoy the challenge of Soulslike games.
Every once in a while, a game comes along with gameplay features that are so unique and fun that they give rise to a whole subgenre of games that try to copy that experience in different ways. The Soulslike subgenre was started by Dark Souls in 2011. It is known for its punishing challenge, combat based on stamina, and Metroidvania-style, nonlinear exploration.
Even though Nintendo Switch players can’t play the whole Dark Souls trilogy or its open-world sequel, Elden Ring, on their devices, they can play a huge number of immersive, hard games that are highly based on the Souls formula. It’s hard to think that such hard-core games can be played on a Nintendo console, especially since these systems are known for putting creativity and ease of use above all else.
Remnant: From The Ashes
Fans were pleased to see that Remnant: From the Ashes does a fantastic job of putting this risky idea into action with style. The Soulslike genre is combined with third-person shooting elements. Even better, this game could be played with friends and was fully playable in co-op. This meant that friends could play this hard but fun game together.
Remnant: From the Ashes also has more ways to play through it because places and bosses are set up differently each time. This is another great choice that makes new playthroughs more interesting by making players use different methods to beat bosses based on how strong they are and how they are set up.
Blasphemous
Blasphemous is a great game for people who want to play a game with a lot of atmosphere and platforming. The game’s art style is amazing and striking, and it will stay with players long after they’ve finished playing. Even though the bosses are scary and the platforming is hard, the game is interesting from start to finish.
It’s easy to see why this game will have a sequel sooner rather than later. The game can be hard, but if you learn how to fight and how the monsters work, you’ll love the experience. The spike traps are always annoying, but that’s a small price to pay for a great game overall.
Dead Cells
Even though IGN and a lot of copying were the main ways Dead Cells was promoted, fans are still glad that more people know about it. At the end of the day, Dead Cells is a great example of how Soulslike gameplay and roguelike development can work together to create something truly special.
Each run in Dead Cells is an opportunity to learn more about how the game works and how to best deal with the many enemies that will come your way. With enough practice, most people will figure out how the game works and be able to beat its tough bosses, but it will take a lot of work.
Decay Of Logos
Decay of Logos got a lot of bad press and reviews after it came out on Switch and most other platforms, which was fair. In short, the game was a mess when it first came out. Since it came out more than three years ago, the game has been fixed up quite a bit, and you can now play it.
Even though it still has some problems, like a lack of enemy variety and rare framerate drops, Decay of Logos is, at its best, a satisfying, simplified take on the Soulslike genre. The fighting is smooth and hard, and the open world has a lot of well-designed places that stand out.
Salt And Sanctuary
This beautiful indie game, which looks like platformers like Limbo and Inside, puts the Dark Souls model into a 2D game and does it very well. The setting is dark and post-apocalyptic, like the kingdom of Drangleic, and the fluid, stamina-based fighting in Salt and Sanctuary is both difficult and unforgiving.
Salt and Sanctuary is a pretty hard game, even though it has simple graphics and easy-to-understand controls. There are quite detailed RPG rules, about 600 items that can be used, and a number of different weapon types, each with its own set of special moves. All of these things let players customize their play styles to their liking.
Chronos: Before The Ashes
Chronos: Before the Ashes was first launched as a VR-only game, and it does not try to hide the fact that it was based on FromSoftware’s award-winning formula. This is a Soulslike game from start to finish, from the dark setting and complicated dungeons to the fighting system that requires a lot of dodge.
Chronos is not the most visually advanced game, and you can see that even on the Nintendo Switch, which has limited hardware. It is different from other games like Sous because of its creative way of age. Every time the main character loses, they get older by one year, which changes their stats in different ways. For example, a character’s magic skills get better with time, but their physical skills might get worse when they reach a certain age.
Eldest Souls
The fact that the name of this game includes the word “souls” makes it pretty clear what other games it was based on. Eldest Souls doesn’t try to hide how much it likes the Dark Souls trilogy, but it does more than enough to set itself apart from other Soulslikes and even gives itself its own personality.
Eldest Souls is played from an isometric point of view. It has the same painfully hard, ebb-and-flow fighting as Dark Souls, but the art style and pace are very different. In this game, there are no enemies. Instead, players move from one boss fight to the next as they move through beautiful pixel art environments.
Hellpoint
In terms of how to play and explore, Hellpoint is almost the same as Drift Boss. It has everything a Soulslike should have. But it would not be right to call it a carbon copy. Hellpoint stands on its own because it is set in the future and has a story that is easier to follow than what fans of FromSoftware are used to.
Hellpoint is one of the games with the best graphics on this list. Because of this, the graphics in the Switch version of the game have been scaled down quite a bit. Even though there are some small bugs, it is still worth playing for players who can’t get enough of the Dark Souls formula.
Death’s Door
Death’s Door is played from a horizontal view, just like Eldest Souls. In it, players take control of a crow who works as one of many reapers in a world where moving souls to “the other side” has become a highly regulated business.
The game has quick, stamina-based fighting with simple but satisfying attacks. It’s not as hard as Dark Souls, but it’s still pretty hard, and it has a lot of puzzles and exploring like in Zelda. Death’s Door is, all in all, a short and fun game that works great on the Switch.
Mortal Shell
Mortal Shell from Cold Symmetry does a great job of taking as much inspiration from Dark Souls as possible while still being different enough to keep players interested in what it has to offer. Granted, a lot of the similarities to FromSoftware’s famous series are a bit too obvious, especially when it comes to the user interface and item titles that give away important backstory details.
But Mortal Shell has a mechanic that turns the system on its head. At the start of the game, players are in charge of a humanoid figure that is very easy to hurt in any way. The story takes them all over the game’s world to find four dead heroes whose bodies can be “worn” by the main character. Each one makes him more resistant and gives him a different set of skills and powers, so players can quickly switch between very different builds.
Ashen
Ashen is one of the best Soulslike games for Nintendo Switch. It has simple but stylish images and good voice acting. Its fighting system and progression system are very similar to those of Dark Souls, but the game has a lot going for it that sets it apart.
One of the most unique things about Ashen is its co-op system, which lets players find each other in the game and work together to finish tasks. Ashen also has a hub area that players can turn from a run-down town into a thriving village over time.
Hollow Knight
With its four add-ons, Hollow Knight has more than 100 hours of gameplay. This is amazing, given that the game looks like a cartoon and plays like a 2D platformer. This game has an amazing amount of backstory, but what’s more important is that it’s both hard and fun to play.
Hollow Knight is both a Soulslike and a Metroidvania. The game has a lot of different ways to play, a lot of different enemies to fight, and a pretty deep charm system that lets players unlock special skills and give them different ways to fight enemies.
Dark Souls
No list of the best Soulslike games would be complete without Dark Souls, the game that started the whole trend. The remastered version of FromSoftware’s famous game, which continues to influence studios all over the world, came out on the Switch in 2018, and it’s just as fun to play in handheld mode as it is on a big screen.
Since it’s a port of a game from 2011, Dark Souls Remastered runs very well on Nintendo Switch. There aren’t any major speed problems with the game at all. It got some much-needed visual updates, but to be honest, you can only really see them when it’s parked. Other than that, it’s a classic Souls game, which makes it even more upsetting that the last two Dark Souls games aren’t available on the Switch.
