8. Demon's Souls. The best souls-likes, rated easiest to hardest

For many years I considered Demon's Souls to be the most difficult game in the genre. But I eventually reconsidered. Though the game indeed used to be hellishly hard when it launched as PS3 exclusive (recently remade on PS5), there's overall too many exploits to consider the title a real killer.

The difficulty level is also lowered by the severely OP magic power, though I only found this out after completing platinum in the game with a regular knight. If anyone wonders how the remake compares to the original, I'd say it's easier – and that's notwithstanding the elimination of a few exploits (we have to fight Maneaters the regular way).

1. Demon's Souls in our encyclopedia

7. Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

In the world of soulslikes, eras are divided into games released before the Elden Ring and those released after it. The highly anticipated premiere from From Software had to deal not only with huge expectations from fans but also from casual players who were interested in the genre for the first time. After the release of this game, nothing was the same. The vast world has been filled in a sensible way, without losing the core of the Dark Souls series.

It's hard to name one thing that could give a bad impression of Elden Ring. This is a title that captivates players for 50, 100, or even 200 hours and somehow manages to prevent boredom. From Software has actually managed to increase the gameplay pace, added a mount to travel across the land, and expanded the option of summoning other players. When I prepared this list for the first time, I was wondering what Elden Ring would bring. Well, the game forever changed the perception of the genre.

An even better expansion was released on June 20th this year, as if the phenomenal base game wasn't already enough. Shadow of the Erdtree quickly became the best-rated expansion in history, dethroning Blood and Wine for The Witcher 3. The extensive DLC for Elden Ring leads players to the remarkably expansive Lands of the Shadow, where an exceptionally powerful scoundrel, Messmer the Impaler, sits on the throne, and he isn't even the main boss of the expansion. In total, there are forty new opponents of this class (some of them are an optional challenge). Furthermore, new weapon elements and a mechanism for scaling attack power and defensive abilities have been introduced, among other things, as a way to increase the already significant level of difficulty.

1. More about Elden Ring
2. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree in our encyclopedia