The Soulslikegenre has never relied on photorealism or grand open worlds to make its mark. Instead, it thrives on atmosphere, challenge and an intricate web of mechanics that ask players to earn every victory. While FromSoftware’s influence runs deepest in 3D, it didn’t take long for indie studios to adopt that same punishing-yet-rewarding structure into 2D sidescrollers.
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What emerged was a collection of haunting, brutal and surprisingly beautiful titles that reinterpret the Souls formula through hand-drawn art, minimalist storytelling and combat systems that are far deeper than their appearance suggests. These are the 2D Soulslikes that reimagined the genre in unforgettable ways.
From the Makers of Momodora, with More Blood and Fire This Time
Following the cult success of Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, Bombservice stepped away from pixel art and leaned into a sharper, cel-shaded style with Minoria. What didn’t change was the brutal pacing. Every slash, parry and dodge has a distinct rhythm, and getting caught out of sync means death.
Set during a religious war against so-called heretical witches, players take control of Sister Semilla, who wields both sword and spell in a world painted with melancholy. Despite its deceptively short runtime, Minoria remains dense with secrets and optional bosses that demand mechanical precision, making it a challenging but approachable entry in the genre.
7Vigil: The Longest Night
Every Night is the Longest When the Moon Never Sets
Vigil: The Longest Night mixes Lovecraftian dread with Taiwanese folklore, wrapping it in a bleak, gothic aesthetic that makes its enemies feel more unsettling than outright terrifying. Its combat leans closer to Castlevania than Souls, but the game’s punishing stamina system andcheckpoint-basedprogression firmly place it in the same family.
The story follows Leila, a warrior who returns to her hometown only to find the world unraveling into nightmarish chaos. Its most Soulslike feature isn’t even the combat, but the cryptic item descriptions andworld-buildingthat leave more questions than answers, encouraging players to dig into its rotten core.
6Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
Don’t Let the Beautiful Music Fool You
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
Beneath the somber piano melodies and watercolored backdrops lies a combat system that’s every bit as precise and punishing as its inspiration. Ender Lilies may look serene, but it’s filled with relentless boss encounters, status effects and a punishing map design that keeps players on edge.
The protagonist Lily doesn’t fight herself, but instead summons spirits of fallen knights to protect her. Each spirit is essentially a weapon with unique properties and upgrade paths, adding a layer of customization that brings a sense of experimentation to every encounter. Its story of sacrifice and purification fits squarely within the Soulslike tradition of loss and decay.
5Moonscars
Death is a Teacher, and You Will Learn Often
Moonscars doesn’t bother to ease players in. It drops them into a crumbling world of clay and shadow where death is expectedand rebirthcomes at a cost. The game’s visual style is drenched in gritty monochrome, interrupted only by violent flashes of crimson during combat.
Parrying is mandatory, not optional, and the game often pits players against multiple foes in tight quarters where timing is everything. But what makes Moonscars stand out is its death mechanic: each time the player revives, the world grows more hostile, enemies more aggressive. Like Souls games, the struggle is part of the narrative, and the lore of this world is only truly understood after surviving it.
Absorb Your Enemies. Literally.
Grime takes the Soulslike foundation and fuses it with a world that looks like it came from a nightmare constructed in geology class. Everything in its world is made of rock, bone and abstract flesh, and the player character is a humanoid black hole with the ability to absorb enemies upon perfectly timed counters.
The game’s structure is closer to Metroidvania, but its aggressive difficulty spikes, minimal direction and brutal boss designs will be familiar to any Souls veteran. It doesn’t offer a class system, but allows for full build experimentation through traits, weapons and unique enemy abilities that can be absorbed and used in combat.
3Nine Sols
Hollow Knight Meets Sekiro, but in a Taoist Cyberpunk Wasteland
Nine Sols takes a sharp left turn from typical dark fantasy settings. Set in a sci-fi world inspired by Taoist mythology, it combines fast-paced parry-focused combat with a world built on broken gods and forgotten rituals.
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While the game leans heavier into storytelling than most of its peers, the Soulslike DNA is obvious in its brutal boss fights, limited healing mechanics, and tightly interconnected world design. Players fight not just with weapons, but through a posture system almost identical to Sekiro’s, where breaking an enemy’s stance is key to finishing them off. It’s one of the most visually original entries in the 2D Soulslike genre to date.
2Blasphemous
Penitence Never Ends in Cvstodia
Blasphemous
The land of Cvstodia is a cursed one, where the divine has turned grotesque and salvation is buried under blood and chains. Blasphemous doesn’t just borrow the mechanics of Souls games, it matches them in tone and world-building. Every NPC speaks in riddles, every item description hints at a forgotten tragedy, and the bosses are as disturbing as they are difficult.
The player controls The Penitent One, a silent knight in a crown of thorns, tasked with uncovering the source of the curse while enduring constant punishment. Combat is methodical, heavy and punishing, but the real reward is unearthing the mythos behind its tortured land, which reads like religious horror poetry etched in stone.
1Salt and Sanctuary
The Closest 2D Ever Got to Dark Souls
Salt and Sanctuary
Before many of its peers even existed, Salt and Sanctuary set the standard for what a 2D Soulslike could be. Released in 2016 by Ska Studios, the game translated almost every hallmark of the Souls series into 2D: stamina-based combat, punishing bosses, stat-heavy builds and a corpse-run mechanic tied to experience loss.
Its world is a grim archipelago filled with grotesque creatures and labyrinthine paths that wind back into themselves. With over 600 weapons, armor sets and spells to experiment with, players are encouraged to play, die, tweak and repeat. The fact that it all ran smoothly on the Vita and even allowed local co-op made it even more impressive. Salt and Sanctuary wasn’t just the first. It’s still the one many others chase.
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