If the Soulslike genre is known for one thing, it’s difficulty. Gamers have been raging over Souls games big and small for the past decade, some gradually learning their secrets and others dropping off in frustration. It’s a rather controversial genre, given that difficulty is a core part of its identity. Some have accused these games of using that identity as an excuse to return to the more abrasive difficulty levels of 8-bit, 16-bit, and arcade games that wanted players to invest as much time as possible. Others have started to seriously debate if hiding content behind skill gates is a valid design choice or an accessibility issue. Whatever the case, the intent to challenge the player is here to stay.
FromSoftware is the trendsetter here with its famous Dark Souls franchise, though its own relationship with difficulty has changed over time. A lot of allowances started being made for players as FromSoftware continued to refine its formula, culminating in Elden Ring, which director Hidetaka Miyazaki has stated may be the easiest game it has made in a while due to the sheer amount of player choice. It will be interesting to see how that turns out, but until then, there's a lot of choice in what difficulty of Soulslike a player wants to engage with.
Souls Game S Tier Difficulty - The Hardest Games
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - As mentioned, Dark Souls has come a long way since Demon's Souls. The average player character has gotten a lot stronger and more versatile in the ensuing years. The best way to make a hard Soulslike at this point, then, is to take those options away. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice blindsided many players with its simple and blunt approach to combat: if the player cannot figure out how to time their parries and offense, they will die. Insidiously, this timing changes between bosses and even boss phases. This game embodied the "get good" meme so thoroughly that many could hardly make it through. Even with perfect knowledge of which items, special skills, and shinobi tools to use when, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice still stands as one of the hardest games FromSoftware has ever released and a true test of skill.
Dark Souls 2 - Dark Souls 2 is a different story. It has quite a few quality of life improvements over its predecessor, including 8-way rolling, the choice between instant but slow healing and mobile regeneration, and the combination of DLC keys, alternate routes, and SotFS's Fragrant Branches to chart new paths forward. Despite all that, it may be the hardest Souls entry due to both the player's reduced speed and general resistances to damage and status ailments, and how certain areas are designed. The Shrine of Amana is infamously one of the hardest areas in all of Dark Souls and is packed with mage enemies. Dark Souls combat is built for one-on-one, and DS2, especially with SotFS and New Game+ layered on, does not respect that strength at all. With all the gank squads and jank one could ask for, it's impressive that Dark Souls 2 still has a lot of fans.
Souls Games - A Tier Difficulty
Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3 - With the real hair-pullers out of the way, the more comfortably challenging Soulslikes take the stage. Dark Souls 1 is surprisingly slow and simple compared to many of FromSoftware's later works, and Dark Souls 3 has by far the highest amount of player buffs and options. Still, don't let that distract from their true difficulty. Dark Souls 1 holds some truly infamous areas like Blighttown and Sen's Fortress, and if Ornstein and Smough don't elicit a thrown controller, the Bed of Chaos will. Dark Souls 3, meanwhile, has some of FromSoftware's most complex and capable bosses, though it still sits low on A tier due to the player's relative strength.
Nioh - The first Nioh is an interesting case, as its reputation would claim that it and its sequel could be a low S tier. Sure, they both suffer from uneven difficulty, but they also let the player become incredibly strong compared to most Soulslikes, and have an extremely high skill ceiling to make use of that strength. Nioh's options are weaker, and its early game is especially uneven with its difficulty, so it has landed in A tier.
Hollow Knight - In contrast, Hollow Knight ramps up its difficulty evenly over the course of its adventure. Even if a player springs for the especially difficult challenges involved in getting the true ending, it doesn't feel unfair until the optional DLC content is reached. Hopefully, Hollow Knight: Silksong continues this player-friendly design.
Souls Games - B Tier Difficulty
Bloodborne, Nioh 2, Mortal Shell, and The Surge - This tier is defined mostly by challenging games that have mechanics that shift the balance of power in the player's favor. Bloodborne has its high speed, ranged parries, and the ability to steal some health back through attacks after getting hit. Nioh 2 has its Yokai Shift, Burst Counters, Yokai Skills, and its own high speed and versatility. Mortal Shell has a very strong party mechanic and isn't that long. The Surge is the black sheep here and probably stands near the top of the B tier due to how difficult some of its enemies can get. Even so, the complicated mechanics can benefit the player as well as their foes, and plenty of time spent item crafting can help even the odds.
Souls Games - C Tier Difficulty
Demon's Souls, Lords of the Fallen, Darksiders 3, Code Vein, and The Surge 2 - The big names in Soulslikes don't fall far below C tier difficulty, as befitting of the genre's reputation. Demon's Souls can be fairly challenging, but most enemies are simple and most bosses fall to exploitable gimmicks. Lords of the Fallen and Darksiders 3 only raise in difficulty so much before they end.
Code Vein and The Surge 2 definitely have their tougher moments compared to the other two, but the player is given too many powerful options for most things to be threatening. Indeed, The Surge 2 even starts to feel like Nioh at higher levels of play. These games are all easier to master than their ilk, though that isn't a bad thing. They have plenty of selling points apart from their raw difficulty anyways, like Code Vein's character creator. Harder doesn't mean better, and players should pick games from the tiers they think are right for them.