Games Inbox: What new Soulslike games are out in 2026?

The Tuesday letters page debates the quality of Nintendo’s plan for the Switch launch, as another reader thinks the PlayStation 6 will be delayed.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]

Punish me
I know the year’s only just started but I’m feeling the itch…. I’m feeling the need… to die again and again and both simultaneously love and hate a game I pour hundreds of hours of my life into. I am, of course, talking about a Soulslike, ideally a Soulsborne from FromSoftware, and it seems like I haven’t played a proper single-player one in years now. Which I haven’t.

I don’t think there were any prominent ones last year, except that Chinese one I’ve forgotten the name of [Wuchang: Fallen Feathers – GC], and while I know The Duskbloods is due this year I worry it’s going to be delayed. I’m also not sure it’s what I’m looking for, as apparently it’s mostly a multiplayer game.

I want a big, full fat, single-player adventure on par with Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. I realise they take a time to make, and I’m just being greedy but it’s a genre I love to hate and I miss it.
Benson

GC: 2025 wasn’t much of year for the genre, it’s true, although The First Berserker: Khazan was pretty good. 2026 is already more promising, with Code Vein 2, Nioh 3, Phantom Blade 0, Mortal Shell 2, Lords Of The Fallen 2, and The Duskbloods. We agree the latter is vulnerable to delays but there’s no word on it, one way or the other, so far.

Lesson learnt
Just found out that Anthem has been shut down after almost exactly seven years. I’m sure that’s left literally dozens of people upset but it does show how long this obsession with live service games has been going on for. We think of it as a recent thing, but it was already something publishers were hell bent on in the PlayStation 4 era.

Poor old BioWare being forced to make an online shooter is humiliating, and I’m sure will kill them in the end, but what’s interesting to me is that EA, unlike Sony and Ubisoft, learnt from the experience and didn’t really try again.

The fact that Apex Legends, which came out just before it, was a hit probably told them not to push their luck, but that’s definitely not a lesson Sony ever learnt.
Meister

Slow motion generation
We’ve got enough things to worry about in the world today but this RAM problem, where it’s all being bought up to run AI, is such a pain. I don’t see how it’s not going to delay the next generation and considering how slow-winded this gen has been that can’t be a good thing. Something needs to light a fire under Sony (I’ve given up on Xbox) and having to stretch their already paper thin line-up over an extra couple of years is the worst thing you could want.

I agree they’re probably lining up Horizon Zero Dawn 3 for the PlayStation 6 launch, but will they keep that back or just launch it only on PlayStation 5 instead? I guess we’ll see what happens after Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet comes out, as I don’t think we know of anything that’s being planned after that.
Cranston

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Tainted love
Many of the best games of 2025 where unknown to most before release, like Blue Prince, The Séance Of Blake Manor, Skate Story, Sektori, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

While not looking in the same league, I’ve learnt about another promising title that got a full release in 2025 called Tainted Grail: The Fall Of Avalon. An Arthurian open world role-player in the style of Skyrim. I’ve stuck it on the wishlist.

As we start 2026 it’s probably the first time contemplating what unknowns are lurking out there that intrigues me most.

There’s one doing the rounds on Twitch now that I’d never heard of, but this one is an early contender for worst game of the year. It’s a gooner old school Dino Crises inspired game called Code Violet, that’s exclusive to PlayStation 5.

Going by this report on its performance it seems that combo has worked and the numerous bugs and other issues hasn’t harmed it as much as it should have.
Simundo

Hellblade Cinematic Universe
As a fan of Hellblade 1 but not 2 I am glad to hear that Ninja Theory are apparently getting to continue on and are not being shut down, even though it seems there were a lot of job cuts last year. Which I assume is why their other game was cancelled.

I think it would be a bit weird to turn Hellblade 3 into a ‘proper game’ all of a sudden but setting it in the same world but with different characters seems a good compromise to me. I imagine they’ll make the existence of the supernatural more obviously true, which will simplify things a bit but it’s a shame to waste those amazing graphics and good combat, not to mention a talented developer.
Hyperloaf

Behind the scenes
I’d be tempted to say that not fast-tracking an Animal Crossing sequel for the Switch 2, and instead opting for *checks notes* Fire Emblem, is the strangest thing Nintendo had done in a long time, and that is going up against some pretty tough competition.

Like you said, they’ve had plenty of time to work on it, and you would’ve assumed they were, but there’s no sign of it at all and now, thanks to the update of New Horizons, it seems like it’s nowhere close.

It’s not the first time the idea of Nintendo having ‘plenty of time’ to do something, and then missing an obvious opportunity, has come up recently, which makes me wonder how often they change their plans and restart projects.

We know of a few examples, most obviously Metroid Prime 4, but as I understand it games getting cancelled or rebooted is quite common at all companies. I get the impression Nintendo are more willing to do it than most, so maybe they were planning to have it out this year, but it got delayed and the Switch 2 Edition is to make up for?

We’ll never find out for sure, but I think some people are a bit too quick to assume Nintendo are being weird or contrarian on purpose, when actually their ‘magic’ is just a matter of keeping at it until it’s perfect.

I realise Metroid Prime 4 seems to disapprove that, but I think that’s just a case of Japanese producers never having understood the series and why the good ones are good or the bad ones are bad.
Morseome

Previous owner
Those are some ugly bulky Lego sets, particularly the blocky starters pack… I find the (knock-off) Mega sets much more aesthetically pleasing and much, much more pleasing on the bank account.

However, the Game Boy, Mighty Bowser, and the Great Deku Tree are another level!
big boy bent

GC: The Mega blocks look fine on the box cover, but they have all the engineering precision of a Tesla Cybertruck.

All that matters
Not sure I agree that the main issues the Switch 2 has faced to date have been down to sloppy planning and slapdash decision making. The bizarre scheduling of Kirby Air Riders aside, to me it’s more about the execution of the games.

Planning-wise, if anything the issue with the Switch 2’s so far isn’t that it was too different from the Switch 1’s launch, it’s that it tried to replicate it so much. Launch with upgraded versions of games that were made for the previous console, put Mario Kart front and centre, closely followed by the next big game from the Mario team, throw in a bunch of smaller titles as proof of concept and a couple of cross-gen games.

When you look at how that worked out in 2017 there’s not much to indicate what they had from June to December 2025 wouldn’t be good enough. It has only come under scrutiny because of how some of us actually received the more important games. In a scenario where Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza were universally undisputed 10/10 games and Metroid Prime 4 lived up to its massively drawn out lead-in, I see no scenario where anyone would say the Switch 2’s launch window was rushed or poorly considered.

So maybe there’s an assumed rushed element to the development of the games but that’s a different thing from what’s being criticised (and also isn’t borne out by what we’ve been told about them).

Compare to before the Switch launched, I was almost angry at how badly thought out it all looked on paper, especially for Wii U owners who would already have access to Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Mario Kart 8, and how much Nintendo had to prove following the disaster of that machine. Releasing something even more expensive with maybe one proper big new first party exclusive scheduled over six months after launch seemed way more arrogant and complacent in the context of the business at that time.

Things have of course turned out a bit differently for both Switch gens so far, but other than pricing I think the Switch 2 launch looked sensibly managed until there was mild backlash against its best games.

I appreciate that, regardless of how you spin it, the Switch 2 is missing an equivalent to Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. You can give Nintendo all the credit you like for how that game led the Switch to smash its launch window in 2017 but clearly it was really only there because, in the context of the Wii U debacle, Nintendo was sensibly opportunistic about how to handle the launch with games that were being made anyway.

The Switch 2 in comparison has had very few lemons with which to make any lemonade, and two big exclusive first party games in the first few months is at least as good as we’ve had from any console launch over the past two decades.

The one thing I agree with, though, is we shouldn’t necessarily expect much in the way of big announcements in an early 2026 Direct. I imagine such a thing will be reserved for a summer Direct. Unfortunately I think there’s a good chance the big hitters at that time will be the next Smash Bros. and a new Pokemon, and I don’t really care about either.
Panda

GC: You make some good points, which all come down to the fact that nothing ever matters except the quality of the games. The Switch 1’s first year line-up is an all-timer, with nothing but winners, while the Switch 2’s is merely good. That’s hardly harsh criticism but it is a notable difference.

Inbox also-rans
Lego is such a weird thing. On the one hand I wouldn’t dream of spending that much money on it but on the other I really want that massive £600 statue and would totally buy it if I had the space.
Steely

I am pleasantly surprised to see so many companies and gamers turning against AI. You’d think gaming would be for it the most, but I guess we’ve fought too many rogue AIs and lived through too sci-fi dystopias to not realise it’s a bad thing.
Focus

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The small print
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