The Souls series of games are widely known and beloved for their combination of immense difficulty and mythological storytelling. Although varied and evolving in gameplay, they have in common that when you fail you lose progress that was costly to acquire.
They are set in a dark, medieval setting in a ruined kingdom. Enemies are knights, dragons, phantoms, and demons, and you fight them with swords, ancient weapons, and magical powers. Central to each game is that you have to die to learn how to react in hostile environments. You need the will and belligerence to repeatedly face the same foes and learn from mistakes. The games also challenge you to endure in battle. Long fights require many attacks, blocks, and dodges that each consume stamina. You must carefully manage this while also working to defeat your current foe.
The immense popularity and success of the games has led to a proliferation of "Soulslike" games, that maintain the need for precise blocks, parries, and dodges against difficult enemies while offering different locations and styles of play. Many of these Soulslike games have found their own success, such as Sekiro, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor, Elden Ring, and Nioh.
There have been 7 games in the Soulsborne franchise.
The first game was released in 2009 on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 5 and the most recent release was Elden Ring in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
The most popular game in the franchise is Elden Ring with 48 likes. The franchise as a whole has 96 likes on the database. Unfortunately, Elden Ring is not available on Android, Mac, Switch or iOS. However, there are other games similar to Elden Ring on these platforms that offer an equivalent experience.