And I don’t just mean Demon’s Souls and King’s Field. I don’t think the genre itself is super unique, as much as it was (originally) a kind of return to form that simply hit at just the right moment. Plenty of games long before DS were similar in gameplay and sometimes even tone.
Like Soul Reaver, which is extremely similar with the combat, non-linear yet linear through metroidvania type tools level design, and even a respawn system where instead of loading a save, you come back with everything you did still done but now you’re somewhere else and forced to backtrack.
I’ve kinda exhausted all the new options and I still crave more so now I’m looking back to the past to see if there’s anything I missed out on when it was new. The only thing I could think of off the top of my head was the Soul Reaver series, tho.
Try Lords of the Fallen if you haven’t done so yet. The game puts a cool spin on the formula by allowing you to explore an alternate ghost world, and the dodge is really powerful. Magic casting feels really satisfying to use, unlike the early Souls games, and it’s quite a polished game. I love the voice of the angelic lady that serves as the first boss of the game.