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.
- One entry per franchise.
- HowLongToBeat has been used as a reference, with the focus being on the “Completionist” times.
- If a game has a Complete/GOTY edition, that will be used. If not, we will combine the completion times of the base game and DLC. I know some people document their DLC completion time with the base game, but that’s only a fraction of players. That said, I’m including one exception, which I’ll explain when we get to it.
1
Nioh 2: Complete Edition
Hours Of Play On Average: 300 Hours
Includes:
- Nioh 2 – 105 Hours
- “The Tengu’s Disciple” – 10 Hours
- “Darkness in the Capital” – 10 Hours
- “The First Samurai” – 20 Hours
- The Underworld + The Depths of the Underworld – 150 Hours (This is a rough estimate; can take less or way, way more)
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.
2
Elden Ring + Shadow Of The Erdtree
Hours Of Play On Average: 180 Hours
Includes:
- Elden Ring – 135 Hours
- “Shadow of the Erdtree” – 50 Hours
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.
3
Dark Souls 2 + The Lost Crowns DLC
Hours Of Play On Average: 145 Hours
Includes:
- Dark Souls 2 – 120 Hours
- “Crown of the Sunken King” – 6 Hours
- “Crown of the Old Iron King” – 8 Hours
- “Crown of the Ivory King” – 9 Hours
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.
With “The Lost Crowns” DLC, Dark Souls 2 ranks by far as the largest volume of content in FromSoftware’s trilogy. With the expansions, DS2 features more than 40 bosses, far exceeding any other Soulsborne title except for Elden Ring. The game actually switches things up for New Game+, providing another incentive to play through the campaign; more importantly, you cannot complete all the offline achievements before NG+2.
4
Dead Cells + 5 DLC
Hours Of Play On Average: 135 Hours
Includes:
- Dead Cells – 90 Hours
- “Rise of the Giant” – 15 Hours
- “The Bad Seed” – 5 Hours
- “Fatal Falls” – 5 Hours
- “The Queen and the Seas” – 5 Hours
- “Return to Castlevania” – 15 Hours
Roguelikes are a special case, since investment times vary widely from person to person, but Dead Cells‘ brutal progression and grind ensure nobody completes anything quickly. Sure, you can “beat” the game in about 15 hours, but that’s only on the default difficulty (0BC); to get the actual true ending of the base game, you need to complete a run on 5BC… twice. Basically, at a minimum, players need 7 complete playthroughs, each one becoming harder and harder (and Dead Cells is never easy).
All the above doesn’t take into account the meta-grind of hunting down all the blueprints, quite a few of which have very low drop rates. Then you have the expansions that add new routes, biomes, final bosses, and even separate modes. Once you become incredibly good, you begin to reliably complete runs in about an hour, but you need to become a true master to repeat that on the highest difficulty levels.
5
Remnant 2 + 3 DLC
Hours Of Play On Average: 110 Hours
Includes:
- Remnant 2 – 80 Hours
- “The Awakened King” – 8 Hours
- “The Forgotten Kingdom” – 10 Hours
- “The Dark Horizon” – 12 Hours
When it comes to Soulslike games, one playthrough will never be enough, but Remnant 2 takes that to the next level by literally making it impossible to experience everything in one go. Due to the use of procedural generation, a single run only generates a fraction of all the world storylines, side dungeons, and injectables, forcing players to re-roll in Adventure Mode to fish for different events and dungeon layouts.
While reducing the need to re-run full campaigns, Adventure Mode only re-rolls one world at a time, meaning you need to do a full campaign reset to complete quests that cross worlds (like The Nightweaver’s Web). Certain gear is also tied to higher difficulty modes like Apocalypse and Hardcore, demanding multiple playthroughs that can be downright brutal if you are playing solo. Also, the DLC adds quite a few hours.
6
Lords of the Fallen (2023)
Hours Of Play On Average: 90 Hours
Includes:
- Lords of the Fallen – 90 Hours
As the only Soulslike game to not feature DLC in this article, Lords of the Fallen deserves a special mention, and its completionist time surprised me quite a bit. Obviously, I knew the game was relatively long since a single “normal” playthrough can take about 35 hours, but completion requires at least 3 playthroughs so you can get all the endings. However, in most situations, players will likely need to go for another run or two, just to mop up all the fragile side quests that break easily.
The existence of NG+0, which lets you replay LOTF at baseline difficulty while keeping your gear and level, makes cleanup runs go quite a bit faster than usual. However, you still need to be extra careful to make sure you don’t make one wrong decision that ruins a run.
7
Lies Of P + Overture
Hours Of Play On Average: 80 Hours
Includes:
- Lies of P – 60 Hours
- “Overture” – 20 Hours
Finishing things off with one of the best Soulslike games of the decade, Lies of P nails the formula so well that completion runs tend to be pretty fun. A standard playthrough of the base content and “Overture” takes a fairly long time, but seeing everything requires multiple playthroughs.
Technically, you need three runs to see all the endings, but save-scumming drops that down to 2 if you prefer to simplify the process. Unlike most Soulslikes, Lies of P‘s New Game+ actually includes some new content, as players unlock new skill tiers within the P-Organ. Although not quite “Shadow of the Erdtree” level, “Overture” is among the most substantial Soulslike expansions.
