Here’s the quick answer: if you want the Elden Ring feeling without the Elden Ring calendar commitment, the best picks in 2026 are Another Crab’s Treasure and Tunic for short-and-adjustable, Lies of P for the full soulslike meal in a third of the time (with actual difficulty options now), and Hades if what you really want is “die, learn, improve” in 30-minute portions. Everything below clocks in between 10 and 30 hours, and most of it hands you difficulty levers FromSoftware never will.
I love Elden Ring. I wrote a whole worth-it verdict saying so. But I also know the feeling of finishing it and thinking: that was incredible, and I cannot do that again this year. Or the other feeling: wanting what it offers but knowing your schedule laughs at 100-hour games.
The good news is the last few years quietly produced a whole shelf of games that bottle the same magic in smaller, friendlier containers. Here’s the shelf.
The Quick Comparison
| Game | Hours | Difficulty flexibility | The pitch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Another Crab’s Treasure | 10-15 | Huge (assist mode, literally a gun) | Soulslike as a charming underwater comedy |
| Tunic | 10-15 | Huge (no-fail mode) | Zelda-meets-Souls puzzle box |
| Death’s Door | 8-12 | Moderate | Tight, gorgeous, reaper crow |
| Hades | 20-30 (in runs) | Huge (God Mode) | Boss fights in 30-minute sessions |
| Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | 15-20 | Full difficulty slider | Souls-lite with a lightsaber |
| Nine Sols | 20-25 | Story mode sliders | Sekiro energy, hand-drawn |
| Mortal Shell | 12-15 | Low | A moody snack-sized Souls |
| Lies of P | 30-40 | Real options since 2025 | The best non-From soulslike, now adjustable |
| Stellar Blade | 25-30 | Story mode available | Action spectacle with Souls bones |
| Remnant 2 | 20-25 | Co-op carries you | Souls structure, guns, friends |
Quick note on how this list got made, so you know what you’re getting. Every pick had to do three things: deliver the core loop (deliberate combat, real consequences for greed, bosses that teach you), finish inside 40 hours for a normal player, and offer either a friendly baseline or actual levers to adjust the challenge. That last rule cut some beloved names. Blasphemous is great and wants to hurt you for 25 hours with no options. Hollow Knight is a masterpiece that quietly grows to 30+ hours and spikes hard (its sequel spikes harder, we wrote a whole verdict on that). They’re real recommendations for a different article. This one is for people protecting a five-hour week.
Now the details, arranged from shortest-and-friendliest to closest-to-the-real-thing.
The Friendly End
1. Another Crab’s Treasure (10-15 hours)
A soulslike about a hermit crab fighting through a polluted ocean wearing trash as armor. It sounds like a joke, and it is, and it’s also a genuinely well-built soulslike with real bosses and real builds.
The reason it tops this list: the assist options are the most honest in the genre. You can tweak damage, reduce fall risk, or, in the most famous accessibility setting ever shipped, just equip a gun and delete a boss that’s disrespecting your evening. The game trusts you to decide what you came for. More of this everywhere, please.
2. Tunic (10-15 hours)
You’re a tiny fox with a sword in a world that explains itself through pages of an in-game instruction manual written in a language you can’t read. Combat is Souls-flavored (stamina, dodges, shields, scary bosses), but the real boss is the puzzle of understanding anything.
A no-fail mode sits right in the accessibility menu, which converts the whole game into a pure exploration-and-mystery experience if the fights start blocking the joy. Clever, warm, and endlessly screenshot-able.
3. Death’s Door (8-12 hours)
You play a crow who works as a soul reaper, in an office, with paperwork. The combat is crisp, the bosses are memorable, and the whole thing wraps in a long weekend of evenings. No difficulty options, but the baseline is fair, checkpoints are kind, and the momentum never stalls. This is the one I hand people who say they have exactly one free week this quarter.
4. Hades (20-30 hours, in 30-minute slices)
Not structurally a soulslike, and it earns its spot anyway, since what most people actually miss from Elden Ring is the loop: die to something hard, learn it, come back sharper. Hades delivers that exact loop in complete 30-minute runs, wrapped in the best-written mythology cast in games.
God Mode is the masterstroke: every death makes you slightly more resistant, so the game bends toward you at whatever rate you need. It’s the single best difficulty system for busy adults ever designed. (Hades II left early access as well, when you finish and want seconds.)
The Middle Path
5. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (15-20 hours)
Souls bones (rest points that respawn enemies, lost XP you reclaim from your killer, deliberate parry-heavy combat) wearing a blockbuster Star Wars coat. A proper difficulty slider means the parry windows widen on demand, and the story mode difficulty makes it a cinematic action romp.
If you bounce off the fantasy-misery aesthetic of most soulslikes, a lightsaber and a droid buddy might be the on-ramp you needed. The sequel, Jedi: Survivor, adds 10 more hours and better everything, once the first one hooks you.
6. Nine Sols (20-25 hours)
Hand-drawn “taopunk” world, Sekiro-style parry combat, and a story that sneaks up on you emotionally. It’s demanding at default settings, and it offers a story mode with adjustable sliders (enemy damage, parry timing) that lets you tune the challenge to your actual reflexes.
This game taught me the careful art of dropping a game and then pulled me back to finish it, which tells you something about how it lingers. One of the best games TAG has ever covered.
7. Mortal Shell (12-15 hours)
The most direct “Dark Souls, but small” experience on the list. Foggy, grim, deliberate, with a neat twist: instead of builds, you inhabit different “shells” (bodies) with distinct playstyles, and you can harden into stone mid-combo to tank a hit. No difficulty options and a few rough edges, but it’s short, cheap in every sale, and drips with atmosphere.
The Full-Fat Options (Still Half the Hours)
8. Lies of P (30-40 hours)
The consensus best soulslike not made by FromSoftware: Pinocchio reimagined as a belle époque nightmare, with combat that started as a Sekiro-Bloodborne hybrid and got tuned into its own thing.
The 2026 reason it makes this list: the free Overture update added real difficulty options, easier and harder modes both, plus a boss rush. The community argued about it, obviously. You have a job. Take the option. At 30-40 hours it’s half an Elden Ring with none of the open-world sprawl to get lost in.
9. Stellar Blade (25-30 hours)
More character-action than pure Souls, with checkpoints, a story difficulty, and a linear-ish structure that keeps you moving. The combat (parries, perfect dodges, big cinematic bosses) scratches the timing-mastery itch, and the pacing respects a weekly schedule. If your favorite part of Elden Ring was the boss spectacle rather than the exploration dread, this is your lane.
10. Remnant 2 (20-25 hours, better with friends)
Souls structure with guns, and the sleeper co-op pick of this list. Two friends who could never finish a soulslike solo will absolutely finish this together, and the procedurally remixed worlds mean your run and your buddy’s run tell different stories. Difficulty comes down dramatically with a partner, which makes it the rare soulslike that doubles as a standing game night.
The Budget Math
One more argument for the small ones: money. Most of this list is indie-priced, $20 to $40 at full price, and everything here except the newest entries has been through years of steep sales. Patient shoppers routinely grab Death’s Door, Mortal Shell, or Tunic for under $10, and Fallen Order has become a couch-cushion-money game. Subscriptions sweeten it further: Fallen Order sits in Game Pass Ultimate through EA Play, and soulslikes rotate through both Game Pass and PS Plus often enough that it’s worth checking your library before buying anything.
Compare that to one $70 blockbuster you might not finish, and the strategy writes itself: this genre’s best value lives in its smallest packages.
How to Pick Your One
Don’t overthink it. Ten free hours and a wish that Elden Ring was funnier: Another Crab’s Treasure. A love of secrets over combat: Tunic. Thirty minutes a night, max: Hades. Want to prove to yourself you can beat a “real” soulslike this year: Lies of P with the settings honest-to-your-schedule. Want company: Remnant 2 and a friend.
Whatever you grab, grab one. The genre’s magic was never the 100 hours or the suffering. It was the moment a fight that owned you finally falls over, and that moment fits in a 12-hour game just fine.
Beat your first soulslike off this list? That’s a TAG Discord story if I’ve ever heard one: https://discord.gg/bp2qn6mwC3
FAQ
What’s the shortest game like Elden Ring?
Death’s Door (8-12 hours) for the soulslike loop, or Another Crab’s Treasure (10-15) if you want assist options along the way.
Is there a soulslike with an easy mode?
Several now. Lies of P added difficulty options in its 2025 Overture update, Another Crab’s Treasure and Tunic have deep assist settings, and Hades has God Mode.
Is Lies of P easier than Elden Ring?
Since the Overture update, it can be. On its easier modes, most players will find it more manageable than Elden Ring, and it’s 30-40 hours instead of 100.
What if I want games like Elden Ring for co-op?
Remnant 2 is the pick: Souls structure, guns, and built for two. Elden Ring Nightreign is the official co-op spinoff if you want the FromSoftware flavor in run-based sessions.
