168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dark Souls is a famously punishing and di🍎fficult game, one so compelling that it codified the ‘Souls-like’ game into its own genre. It also resulted in the joking comparison of games in different genres to it, that old nerd joke of ‘X is the Dark Souls of 𓄧Y genre.’

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But what does that really mean? Dark Souls 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:and its successors are characterized by not only crushing difficulty but also a refusal to hold the player’s hand. It’s also a genre known for borderline unfair punishments if 📖you can’t puzzle out how to play or haven’t developed the skills to keep up. With that in mind, games are the Dark Souls of their respective genres.

This article is the Dark Souls of gaming compa🗹risons.

7 Cuphead

2D Platformer

Cuphead runs on the ceiling while Mugman runs on the ground, both dodging toy ducks and cars.

Released
🎶 September 29, 20ဣ17
ESRB
E10+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco 💖
Developer(s)
Studio MDHR Entertainment Inc. 🉐
Platform(s)
PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Let’s get this out of the way: Cuphead is the rඣeason you think of this meme. While it did not originate with the cartoony platformer, it certainly popped off after this somewhat reductive comparison was made. It’s not entirely without merit because, despite these disparate games, they do have some things in common.

Of course, both are punishingly difficult, of course. The travel in between boss fights can be quite harrowing as well, since death means starting over either from the beginning of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Run N’ Gun stage or from the last bonfire. However it’s the bos꧑s battles both games are well known for, being grand multi-stage affairs where you’re allowed few mistakes.

6 Witch’s Hoꦡ𝔍use

RPG Maker

A small black cat inviting you to enter the eponymous witch's house.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:RPG Maker games, aside from being made in the titular engine, are hard to pin dow🥂n as its own genre. Generally, they’re a top-down 2D walking sim and adventure game, and usually, they’re horror. The most famous of these is The Witch’s House, and it’s also the most p🉐unishingly difficult and obtuse example of the genre.

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As Viola, a girl with no memory and no way to defend herself, you must explore a haunted house to unravel the mystery of her past. It’s a grim, dark, and gory adventure where sudd⭕en death lurks around every corner, not unlike traversing some of the more hostile locales in Dark Souls. It’s also like the Souls games in that even when⛦ you beat it, the ending may just leave a bad taste in your mouth.

5 Solium Infernum 🐽

Grand Strategy

A demonic chessboard with a broken angel piece at the center in solium infernum.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Solium Infernum
Grand Strategy
Turn-Based Strategy

Released
2024
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
League of Geeks 🐷 ♌
Platform(s)
PC

A complex game in an already complex genre, the difficulty of Solium Infernum is almost inverse to what makes Dark Souls difficult. Whereas in the latter, you’re not given much beyond how to move or swing a weapon, in the former, you’re given all the information you need, 🎐but good luck parsing it all.

Use caution when playing this with your friends, since the lies, politicking, and backbiting can get quite personal. Don’t let this be the Dark So🐟uls of keeping your friends togeth♏er.

As an Archfiend, your ambition is༒ to take the throne of Hell, to rise above all the other contenders. But the bureaucracy of Hell is labyrinthine, and every action you take comes under the scrutiny of a powerful neutral party: The Conclave. Of course, every rule has many ways to subvert them or use them for your ends, leading to a b🌸alancing act that is, well, hellish. And this isn’t even with human opponents, who will be much more cunning than the AI. After all, hell is other people.

4 GTFO

Co-Op Shooter

GTFO's bio tracker pinging alerted enemies.

Released
December 10, 2021 ꧒
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
1🤪0 C❀hambers
Engine
Unity
Multiplayer
🍨 Online Co-Op 🧸
Number of Players
4
Platform(s)
PC

Though this co-op multiplayer shooter with zombie-like enemies can be reminiscent of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Left 4 Dead, playing it as such will leave you and your buddies in short order. More like Aliens than 28 Days Later, you and three friends will ⛎have to use all your equipment and skills to get in, complete your goal, and then get out without becoming monster chow.

You get little in the way of instruction and the roads to a wipe are many and at times feel unfair. However, learning the game’s mix of stealth, tactics, and balls-to-the-wall shooting is immensely satisfying anဣd will continue to challenge even the most hardened delvers. Much like Dark Souls.

3 ༺ 7 💙Days To Die: Afterlife

Survival

A man in full commando gear opens fire on two glowing zombies running towards him in 7 Days To Die.

Released
Deꦿcember 13, 2013
ESRB
M for Mat🀅ure: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence 🤡
Developer(s)
🐽 The Fun Pimps
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, 🐎Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op

As it is, 7 Days To Die is an engaging zombie apocalypse survival simulator that has you gathering resources, holding down territory, and advancing your tech and equipment. Some might find it arcadey, especially compared to more hardcore sims like The🌞 Long Dark.

The Afterlife mod by Redbear🀅d, however, is something else. In Afterlife, hunger and thirst are as present a threat as the zombies, even 🥀more so if you fail to keep up a new stat: Vitality, which quantifies your character’s will to live.

Resources are generally hard to find and even harder to make, especially since the tech ﷺtrees have been expanded and made much more difficult to advance. You don't even have a map or know the time of day when you first start. You’re not given much information to work with, and ๊beyond the bare basics, you’ll need trial and error to find out everything else.

2 Sifu

Beat ‘Em Ups

The player about to begin an all-out brawl in Sifu in blue-lit room.
4.0/5

Released
F𒅌ebruary 8, 2022 🍬
ESRB
💙 M for Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Violence 🅰
Developer(s)
Sloclap
Franchise
Sifu

Beat ‘em ups seem like a fairly simple genre where you can get by with button mashing, but Sifu is anything ꦺbut. If you don’t get a handle on its system of parries, dodging, and combos, you won’t last long, even with the ability to resurrect.

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Enemies are scarily competent in Sifu, ♔and like the skeletons that kill you at the start of a Souls-like, even the lowliest of grunts can tear you up if you don’t learn the game. Like those Souls-likes, this game also rewards exploration, and you can unlock shortcuts to the boss𓃲 of each level with careful searching. Those bosses are, of course, quite compelling, and until you learn how they fight and how to counter it, quite difficult.

1 🎐 Darkest Dungeon

RPG

Jester stabbing an enemy in front of him in Darkest Dungeon.

Released
January 19, 201♛6
ESRB
T For Teen d🌞ue to Alcohol Reference, Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Developer(s)
𝄹 Red Hook Studios
Franchise
🌳 Darkest Dungeon
Platform(s)
PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS

If your only experience with turn-based RPGs are JRPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, then you’re in for a rude awakening once you start up Darkest Dungeon. This is not some jaunt through the story of some tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚeenage🦩rs who use the power of friendship to kill god, but a grueling fight against the darkness where mistakes are punished terribly. And often, you won’t even know you made a mistake until it’s far too late.

Your characters are mercenaries, and as you balance their health, sanity, and hunger against fights with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:wicked Lovecraftian abominations. You’ll get attached to them since, as they rise to power, the dungeons get easier. So when you lose them (when, not if)꧙, you’ll miss their presence as a valuable ally is lost to the void. Persevere and you’ll find a game that rewards tactical gameplay and foresight. And perhaps, an opportunity for you to figh🅠t back the darkness.

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