Games Like Elden Ring on PS5 & PS4 (2026)

Why it's here: The one pick built from Elden Ring's actual world and combat, rebuilt into a roguelike: a trio drops onto a shifting map with roughly forty minutes to scavenge, level, and fell a Nightlord before a ring of night swallows the ground. Whether compressing FromSoftware's slow exploration into timed co-op sprints sharpens the combat or betrays it is the whole question.

Why it's here: The FromSoftware game Elden Ring grew out of: same director, same bonfire-to-bonfire rhythm of cautious reads and hard-won boss kills, only routed through a tight linear path instead of an open field. It's the formula distilled to its combat and its cathedrals, for anyone curious whether that focus is the purer version or the smaller one after the Lands Between.

Why it's here: FromSoftware's answer to shields and cautious spacing is to strip them out: Yharnam's beast-hunt makes defence offensive through a rally system that reclaims lost health by counterattacking, its trick weapons reshaping mid-combo. For Elden Ring players wanting FromSoft's most aggression-forward combat, whether that relentless push and Gothic dread outweigh a game locked at 30fps with no remaster is the question.

Why it's here: The game that laid the Souls blueprint Elden Ring later perfected, rebuilt by Bluepoint as a PS5 launch showpiece: a rerecorded orchestral score and five self-contained realms spun off a central hub rather than one open world. For players tracing the formula to its source, the question is whether spotless visuals modernise 2009 design bones or just polish them.

Why it's here: FromSoftware's strictest experiment strips away everything Elden Ring provides: no builds, no leveling past a wall, no co-op summons, just one shinobi and a single skill, deflecting a katana at the exact frame to break an enemy's posture. For anyone who leaned on stats, whether that makes it the purest test or an impassable wall is the standing argument.

Why it's here: A Belle Epoque retelling of Pinocchio in which the player is the puppet, built on Bloodborne-grade deflection and weapons assembled from mismatched blades and handles. For soulslike fans stranded between FromSoftware releases, it passes for the real thing more convincingly than any rival. Whether that fidelity is the highest praise or its own ceiling is the open question.

Why it's here: Three stances per weapon, a ki-pulse timing window, yokai Burst counters, and a Diablo-style torrent of loot Elden Ring never bothers with: a dark Sengoku-Japan soulslike that out-mechanics FromSoftware, then swaps the open world for tight, mission-based structure. For the player set on systems mastery, the open question is whether that density is a richer challenge or an overload.

Why it's here: The biggest-budget spectacle on this list: a Chinese epic starring the Monkey King, his staff shifting stance mid-swing between jaw-dropping bosses drawn from Journey to the West. It's built for players who prize fights over freedom, its chapters marching down corridors rather than opening a seamless world. Whether that spectacle offsets a world that never invites wandering is the question.

Why it's here: The newest and most punishing soulslike here, set 800 years into the Dungeon & Fighter universe: a cel-shaded revenge quest built entirely on deflection timing and stamina discipline, with no open world to wander, only mission-stage boss gauntlets. For the Elden Ring player who wants pure combat, whether that relentless focus reads as fix or grind is the open question.

Why it's here: A soulslike whose lantern peels back a second, deathly realm laid over the living one, turning a single map into two: Axiom and Umbral, doubled and interlocked. For Elden Ring players chasing that sense of one vast, connected world beyond FromSoftware. Whether its dual-world traversal is the genre's freshest idea or the patched-up launch still shows is the question.

Why it's here: The soulslike that trades the sword for a rifle: checkpoint-and-punish bosses fought at range, a class-build system, full three-player co-op, and worlds procedurally rebuilt so no two campaigns share a map. For anyone who found Elden Ring's summons a thin substitute for real co-op, the question is whether guns and a squad sharpen the formula or soften its deliberate tension.

Why it's here: A soulslike where solitude is optional: an AI partner fights alongside the player and can revive them, while a Blood Code system swaps an entire class build between bosses. Anime-styled and story-forward, it courts the Elden Ring player wanting tension without the isolation, though whether that constant companion is a bridge or a crutch is the open question.

Why it's here: For anyone who loved Elden Ring's unguided wandering more than its bosses: a fantasy open world that refuses to smooth the way, hoarding fast travel and treating giant monsters as terrain to climb and cling to mid-fight. Its Pawns, AI companions recruited from other players' games, share the journey. Whether that friction reads as freedom or frustration is the question.

Why it's here: A soulslike starring a hermit crab who scavenges trash for shells, each a different weapon, across an ocean whose pollution and repossessed-shell economy hide a pointed satire. Its assist menu reaches an optional one-shot gun, the pick for anyone Elden Ring bounced off. Whether that generosity is the ideal gateway or softens the genre's core tension is the question.