Get Ready To Die In The Biggest Upcoming Soulslikes Of 2026

Ever since the massive hit Elden Ring, the popularity of challenging action-RPG games – often called “Soulslikes” – has stayed incredibly strong. More and more people are enjoying these games where you’re expected to die often, making each win feel truly rewarding. 2025 was a great year for fans of the genre, with popular releases like Elden Ring Nightreign, The First Berserker: Khazan, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, AI Limit, Lies of P: Overture, and many others. The future of Soulslike games looks bright, with plenty more exciting titles on the horizon.

Okay, 2026 is shaping up to be amazing for us Souls fans! I’m already hyped for games like Nioh 3 and Code Vein 2 dropping soon – I’m expecting to lose tons of hours to those, dying repeatedly but hopefully getting good at them! And it doesn’t stop there. There are a bunch of other promising Soulslike games confirmed to come out later in the year, though a lot of them don’t have firm release dates yet. Things can always change and games get delayed, but here’s a look at the biggest upcoming Soulslikes we can expect to see in 2026.

Honorable mentions to keep an eye on:

Code Vein 2 – January 30, 2026
Nioh 3 – February 6, 2026
The Relic: First Guardian – May 26, 2026, a small indie Soulslike from Project Cloud Games.
Phantom Blade Zero – September 9, 2026, described more as an action-RPG than Soulslike; still might interest fans of the genre.
Ballad of Antara – was expected to be released in 2025, but the team went radio silent with no new updates for quite some time.

The Duskbloods

A New Milestone For The Genre That Many Won’t Play

Everyone is eagerly awaiting The Duskbloods, the next game from Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of popular Souls-like games. However, it’s only coming out on the new Nintendo Switch 2, which might discourage some fans from playing it. It’s currently unclear how special The Duskbloods will be, or if it will be enough to convince people to buy a new console just to experience it. But given the success of FromSoftware’s recent games, it’s definitely a possibility.

The Duskbloods is a brand new steampunk game from FromSoftware, offering a unique world with a dark, vampire-inspired style. It’s an experimental title building on the ideas of Elden Ring’s Nightreign, but aiming to go even further. The developers have said that The Duskbloods will focus more on multiplayer than their usual games, though it won’t be the quick, challenging sessions seen in Nightreign. While details are still scarce, early gameplay shows that players can expect tough bosses and plenty of surprises, meaning you’ll likely face a lot of deaths!

Lords Of The Fallen 2

Almost Trying Too Hard To Look Cool

While technically the third installment, the new Lords of the Fallen aims to improve upon the first game, which recovered from a rocky start thanks to post-launch updates and ultimately became a respectable Soulslike title. The original Lords of the Fallen excelled with its immersive dark fantasy world, interconnected environments, and innovative dual-world system that allowed players to switch between realms. Now, Lords of the Fallen 2 hopes to recapture what made the first game special while also refining areas that needed work, like the combat.

Early trailers for Lords of the Fallen 2 suggest a darker, more mature fantasy style, with plenty of intense action and a hard rock soundtrack. The developers have listened to feedback from the first game and are incorporating it into this sequel. Players can expect fast-paced combat, challenging boss battles, diverse character builds, and impressive graphics thanks to the Unreal Engine 5. However, PC players should know that the game will initially be available exclusively on the Epic Games Store.

Mortal Shell 2

Let’s Hope That Bigger Means Better

Both Mortal Shell 2 and Lords of the Fallen 2 appear to be aiming for a similar dark and intense experience, filled with striking metal-inspired visuals and brutal combat. Expect plenty of gore and satisfying finishing moves in a harsh world where enemies are relentless. While the first Mortal Shell was relatively contained, the sequel looks to be much more expansive, offering a larger world to explore, more playable characters (‘shells’) each with unique skills and weapons, and a wider range of challenges.

A key feature of Mortal Shell was the ability to temporarily become completely invulnerable, called “hardening.” Many players found it easy to use and so powerful that it made boss fights too easy. So far, this ability hasn’t been shown in Mortal Shell 2, and it’s unclear if it will return. If it doesn’t, the developers will need to introduce other innovative mechanics to make Mortal Shell 2 unique, as removing such a popular feature from the first game seems risky.

Valor Mortis

Sets Itself Apart In More Ways Than One

The team behind Ghostrunner is trying something new with Valor Mortis, potentially shaking up the Soulslike genre by switching from a typical third-person view to first-person. If it works well, we might see more Soulslike games experiment with this perspective. However, it’s uncertain if fans of the genre will embrace such a big change, or how the combat will feel. While the game’s overall size is still unknown, it likely won’t be massive, considering the scope of both Ghostrunner games.

What really makes Valor Mortis stand out from other upcoming Soulslike games isn’t just how you look at the action. The game has a unique and compelling setting: an alternate 19th-century Napoleonic era. Expect to use both gunpowder weapons and supernatural abilities while battling terrifying, plague-infected creatures and the rising undead. The developers promise a challenging world where players must fight for every inch of progress, learning a combat system focused on parrying, dodging, and powerful finishing moves, and growing stronger with each defeat. Of course, the game’s unusual viewpoint creates its own set of challenges, like making sure players can clearly see combat and enemy movements, and avoiding being caught off guard. Hopefully, the developers, One More Level, can address these issues early on – if their previous Ghostrunner games are any indication, they’re up to the task. It would be disappointing if players died mostly due to these visibility concerns.

Beast Of Reincarnation

As Intriguing As It Is Concerning

Game Freak, the studio behind the popular Pokémon games, is trying something completely new with Beast of Reincarnation. While exciting, this ambitious project – a departure in genre and targeting PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S – also raises concerns. Fans worry whether the game will avoid the technical issues that have plagued recent Pokémon releases. Unlike those well-known titles, Beast of Reincarnation is a new property, and any technical problems could make it harder to succeed in a crowded gaming market.

Despite not explicitly labeling itself as a “Soulslike” game, Beast of Reincarnation is gaining attention for its ambitious open-world adventure. Set in a post-apocalyptic Japan, the game features terrifying creatures—a mix of plants, animals, and metal robots left behind by a lost futuristic civilization. The developers describe it as a challenging action game, similar in some ways to Stellar Blade. A key feature is Koo, a dog companion who joins players on their journey, and with whom they’ll build a bond to unlock new skills and powers. Combat also includes a unique tactical element when utilizing Koo’s abilities, and the main character has special ways of getting around the world. Beast of Reincarnation is currently slated for release in summer 2026.

2026-01-25 01:10