5 Best Video Games Like Bloodborne

Across all the soulslike titles, hack-and-slash games that boast a higher difficulty and emphasis on timing and strategy rather than mindless action, "Bloodborne" holds a special place. The game takes place in a gothic city with 19th century aesthetics whose inhabitants were transformed into monsters after being infected by cursed blood.

Players control a Hunter, a warrior ordained by the Healing Church to slay rampaging monsters and those linked to Lovecraftian entities known as the Great Ones. The game retains the hack-and-slash action in FromSoftware's previous soulslike titles, with more horror-themed art design and the memorable Metroidvania-style environment of Yharnam.

While there is no Bloodborne sequel anywhere in sight, there are loads of other games similar to the 2015 classic. This can range from other soulslike games, including titles developed by FromSoftware, to punishing hack-and-slash games from a third-person perspective. These games also feature foreboding environments and monstrous enemies that will test even veteran genre players. Here are the five best video games like "Bloodborne," offering more dark fantasy action.

The 2019 game "Remnant: From the Ashes" also takes place in a world overrun by an otherworldly Lovecraftian horror, but with a more pronounced post-apocalyptic scope. The game features extra-dimensional monsters, known as the Root, who invade and devastate the Earth, with humanity sequestered in underground bunkers. The player character sets out to stop the invasion of the Root by traveling to a remote island that appears to be the incursion's main point of access. Players use a combination of melee weapons and firearms, which can be upgraded to give them unique abilities.

Though "Remnant: From the Ashes" can certainly be played alone, the game really excels when players take advantage of its co-op multiplayer mode. With up to three players capable of getting in on the fun at once, the gameplay noticeably benefits from the escalated combat and rewarding coordination. "Remnant" received free DLC, adding a new game mode and dungeon, eight months after its launch, expanding its already-impressive scope and depth further. An overlooked action RPG that brings a similar art design and intensity as "Bloodborne," "Remnant: From the Ashes" delivers its own nightmarish monster-hunting fun.

After working on the samurai soulslike title "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice," "Bloodborne" director Hidetaka Miyazaki returned to European-themed fantasy with the 2022 game "Elden Ring." The game takes place in the ethereal Lands Between, a realm whose demigods have been corrupted by pieces of the titular, and mythical, Elden Ring. The player character is known as the Tarnished, who must defeat the demigods to recover their shards of the Elden Ring to restore it. In contrast to prior FromSoftware titles, "Elden Ring" provides players with an open-world environment to explore for themselves.

The 2022 title is arguably a soulslike experience at its most accessible, retaining the difficulty but with "Elden Ring" boasting gameplay that provides smoother combat and navigation. The game is marginally easier than "Sekiro" or the "Dark Souls" trilogy, but still boasts a healthy sense of challenge, particularly in its boss fights. The game also isn't as claustrophobic as the "Dark Souls" titles, offering an experience that's even more expansive than Yharnam in "Bloodborne." A true dark fantasy epic that lives up to the hype, "Elden Ring" is one of the greatest games that FromSoftware has ever created.

"Thymesia" is another game set in a shadowy world where civilization has fallen prey to a mysterious contagion that transforms the infected into monsters. Released in 2022, the game features the plague mask-wearing protagonist Corvus, who sets out to save his kingdom from the mutated terrors. Armed with a dagger and sword, Corvus also can unleash avian claws to tear through enemies as he struggles to overcome his amnesia. As the masked hero ventures deeper into the Kingdom of Hermes, he relives memories helping him recall who he is and what brought him to Hermes in the first place.

Though the amnesiac premise may feel like it's been done to death, "Thymesia" offers an engaging twist on this well-worn trope couched within its precise combat system. These narrative elements are really just side dressing to fast-paced hack-and-slash action, complete with its own parry mechanics and smooth fighting. Like "Bloodborne," the game boasts strong replayability to unlock every ending in "Thymesia" and experience the story in full. An underrated soulslike with more than a passing resemblance to FromSoftware's titles, "Thymesia" is well worth checking out.

As far as overall visual aesthetics and gameplay, it doesn't get much more similar to "Bloodborne" than "Lies of P." The 2023 game has players control Pinocchio as he explores the European steampunk city of Krat, which has other automatons as its working class. After the other puppets turn murderous and attack the human residents of Krat, P, as he's nicknamed by his creator Geppetto, tries to save humans from the rampaging synthetic beings. As P progresses through the city, he learns the dark truths behind Geppetto and his own nature, leaving him to make a fateful decision.

"Lies of P" provides players with plenty of surprises, and offers a story with a haunting translation of the Pinocchio fairy tale into a soulslike game, of all genres. Gameplay remains as precisely staged as its genre counterparts and Krat certainly evokes a similar design sensibility as Yharnam. With multiple endings, it takes a long time to beat "Lies of P" and experience the full possibilities of its steampunk horror story, including its 2025 prequel expansion. Solid evidence that more developers than just FromSoftware can deliver a quality dark fantasy soulslike adventure, "Lies of P" is a must-play for "Bloodborne" fans.

Bandai Namco Entertainment has produced its own soulslike series with the "Code Vein" games. The franchise's latest installment, 2026's "Code Vein II," takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where living things were monstrously mutated by a cataclysmic event known as the Resurgence. This forced humans to work together with the vampiric Revenants to prevent their mutual extinction and seal away the harmful effects of the Resurgence. The player character forms a bond with a Revenant named Lou MagMell as they go on a time-traveling adventure to preserve the magical seal containing the Resurgence.

"Code Vein II" boasts a more fluid combat system than its predecessor while Lou assists the Revenant Hunter through her own varied abilities. The game is also more expansive than the first title, now allowing players to traverse swathes of the environment on a motorcycle. This is a sequel that's completely accessible to those who missed the 2019 inaugural title as it introduces players to its unique world. A challenging action RPG with slightly more experimental soulslike combat, "Code Vein II" provides a fun take on the genre.