As the subgenre dominating the action RPG sphere, Soulslike games are not only here to stay, but they individually tend to stick around forever. Even "short" releases like Thymesia and Mortal Shell demand about 20 hours to finish everything, and they don't remotely compare to the longest Soulslike games on the market. You must suffer for an eternity if you want to complete everything in a Soulsborne or Nioh title.
Just to be clear, I'm not remotely complaining, and I have spent months of my life repeating the endless cycle of death and rebirth like I'm stuck in a weirdly enjoyable gaming purgatory. Most of these games are also designed to be replayed with different builds, so you could return to them repeatedly and get a relatively new experience by making a few alternate decisions. Let's look at the longest-to-complete games in this punishing genre.
Here it is: The Ultimate Soulslike test. Along with just being one of the hardest-ever games, Nioh 2 feels near-impossible to fully complete, if we take into account the insane Underworld that serves as its proper endgame. To unlock this mode, you need to complete New Game+3 (Dream of the Wise) and then start another playthrough, which will finally let you select "The Underworld" from missions.
That's already an extensive investment that requires beating the base game four times, and Underworld puts any other challenge in Nioh 2 to shame. In this mode, you need to complete 108 floors, each of which comes stuffed with enemies that can one-hit kill you in some situations. If you manage to survive this onslaught, you then unlock The Depths of the Underworld, a 30-floor meat grinder that locks progress into blocks of 5, meaning death can really send you back.
Even without the Underworld, Nioh 2 still demands about 100+ hours to complete.
Counting the base content only, Elden Ring is the longest Soulslike game of all time, and by quite a margin. Heck, the "Shadow of the Erdtree" expansion outlasts most RPGs on its own, an absurd feat when you consider its price and quality. The completionist time might also be on the conservative side, as FromSoftware's masterpiece offers such absurd build variety that you can simply restart playthroughs with new archetypes.
While exploration forms part of most Soulslike games, Elden Ring takes it to the next level through its sandbox structure, which also means it comes with quite a bit of optional content that can be avoided if you mostly just want to stick to the core stuff. However, aside from some repetition in dungeon design, much of the missable content maintains a high standard that more than justifies seeking it out. You want to complete the game to experience everything because it is worth the effort.
Ah, the exception. While Scholar of the First Sin is the definitive edition nowadays, this version changes so many things from the original Dark Souls 2 that they aren't really the same game anymore; consequently, I opted for the PS3 classic rather than its younger sibling.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/soulslikes-long-games-take-forever-complete/
