PPG Game Of The Year 2024 - 13 - May God Rest His Soul(slike)

There's no shortage of games riffing on the now infamous soulslike formula. This collection of games all have their own distinct spin on those ideas, be it setting or the way combat is dialed. One thing that draws me to the best of these is that they can be made accessible to those of us unable to keep up - that the joy of the subgenre doesn't necessarily have to come from difficulty, but from the joy of the deliberate combat or the unraveling of a mysterious world lore.

No Rest For The Wicked (EA)
Souls-Adjacent Isometric RPG
A winning experience from the makers of Ori, this grim-dark fantasy adventure still has some work to go in figuring out exactly what it wants to be. Combat still needs tuning which hopefully early access will resolve, but the art style and story are already compelling as is.

Another Crab's Treasure
Cartoony Soulslike For All
A more lighthearted riff on the soulslike genre, where you are a crab searching for treasure. The inclusion of an instakill gun you can toggle on is a brilliant move, opening up the game for anyone to at least try.

Morbid: The Lords of Ire
Fleshy Hack & Slash
Gross, brutal combat against disgusting fleshy monsters. Soulsike magic fights across a stomach churning world. Topped off with an overlaid sanity system.

Deathbound
Party Based Soulslike
A stab at a different kind of soulslike where you don't just play as one character, but switch between a party of 4 with unique styles and abilities.

Enotria: The Last Song
Italian Soulslike
Indie Soulslike with a mask wearing twist and neat Italian based lore. Had some troubles on release leading to a Mixed rating, where most of those problems are now solved. It's not as tuned as a Fromsoft release, but that is not a bad thing!

Codex Lost
Magic Based Combat
A soulslike developed by a solo dev that is all about the spells. An open world for you to explore, learn it's magic, defeat tough enemies while keeping mana management under control.

And The Best Soulslike Game Of 2024 Is…

Nine Sols
Sidescrolling Customizable Sekiro
A sidescrolling action game with a hard focus on parrying. Excellent art style topped off with incredible animation, and even better, excellent accessibility options to allow players pushed away by the difficulty to still experience this wonderful game.