8 games like FOUNTAINS: Top-down Soulslikes, sci-fi worlds, and interconnected labyrinths

Dead Ink is the closest overall game to FOUNTAINS on this list. It keeps the top-down perspective, deliberate melee combat, Soulslike pressure, secrets, shortcuts, and the idea of learning one dense interconnected place, then moves the whole formula into a strange sci-fi brutalist tower.

If combat matters more than setting, Void Sols is the cleaner Soulslike match. If you want science fiction plus ability-gated exploration, UNSIGHTED is probably the better choice. And yes, Minishoot’ Adventures absolutely belongs here, but mainly because its interconnected world and traversal progression resemble FOUNTAINS, not because a tiny spaceship firing hundreds of bullets feels anything like sword fighting.

What makes a game like FOUNTAINS?

Calling FOUNTAINS a top-down Soulslike is technically correct, but it misses the interesting part. Its identity comes from combining several ideas that normally live in slightly different corners of action RPG design.

Combat is deliberate and dangerous, but the world matters just as much. FOUNTAINS describes its map as one seamless giant dungeon: a compact labyrinth that folds back into itself, hides shortcuts and secrets, and gradually opens as you find new tools, powers, and traversal abilities. Environmental storytelling and exploration do a lot of the narrative work.

That means genre labels alone are not enough here. A third-person Soulslike can match the fighting while missing the perspective and exploration structure. A Metroidvania can nail the map design while having completely different combat. The strongest alternatives are the games that reproduce several pieces of that DNA at once.

How we scored the matches

Each game receives 0 to 5 points across six traits. Because FOUNTAINS makes its seamless labyrinth such a central part of the experience, world structure counts twice. The maximum weighted score is therefore 35 points. The percentage is an editorial similarity score, not a scientific measurement.

Pick based on what you liked most

8 games like FOUNTAINS

Each recommendation below includes a direct G2A.COM route where there is a useful marketplace option. When a game has a meaningfully different edition, platform, or Account option, you can compare those routes directly instead of hunting for them separately.

1. Dead Ink

If somebody described FOUNTAINS as a top-down Soulslike about slowly understanding one enormous dungeon, then asked for a science-fiction version, Dead Ink would be the first game to investigate.

You awaken at the top of a hostile brutalist tower and work your way down through locked routes, shortcuts, hidden drops, dangerous ledges, and interconnected spaces. The tower is not just scenery. Learning its shape is part of progression, which is exactly why it maps so neatly onto one of FOUNTAINS’ strongest ideas.

Combat also stays close: blocking, parrying, rolling, plunge attacks, bosses, and deliberate melee encounters. Its weirdest idea is ink. Enemies provide the resource used to print bodies, weapons, and equipment, so dying and rebuilding yourself has a literal material cost.

Why it matches: Top-down Soulslike melee inside one dense, nonlinear, secret-heavy world.

Biggest difference: Its ink economy can make failure more materially punishing, while exploration relies less on Metroidvania-style traversal powers.

Best for: FOUNTAINS players who want the same spatial puzzle in a much more overtly sci-fi setting.

Skip if: You mainly loved acquiring new traversal abilities and using them to unlock the map.

Match score: 89%

2. Void Sols

Void Sols is what you pick when the most important word in “games like FOUNTAINS” is Soulslike.

It strips the genre down into minimalist shapes but keeps plenty of familiar pressure underneath: difficult top-down combat, weapons and stat builds, bonfires, reclaiming resources after death, formidable bosses, hidden paths, rare items, and a sprawling handcrafted labyrinth.

Its world is abstract rather than gritty pixel fantasy, yet both games are interested in making you read space carefully. Corners matter. Enemy patterns matter. Exploring somewhere dangerous because you spotted a suspicious route matters.

Why it matches: Probably the purest overlap in camera, combat rhythm, boss design, exploration, checkpoints, and death/recovery systems.

Biggest difference: It is much less Metroidvania-like and trades FOUNTAINS’ war-torn fantasy for a stark abstract world.

Best for: Players who came to FOUNTAINS primarily for combat, bosses, danger, and repeated mastery.

Skip if: Ability-gated traversal was the main reason FOUNTAINS clicked for you.

Match score: 86%

3. UNSIGHTED

For a sci-fi alternative that leans harder into the Metroidvania side of FOUNTAINS, UNSIGHTED is one of the easiest recommendations here.

Arcadia is a ruined city packed with shortcuts and routes above and below ground, while weapons and tools can gain new uses as you explore. Combat supports swords, ranged weapons, dual-wielding, parries, builds, crafting, and upgrades, so you still get an action RPG with real mechanical teeth instead of a pure exploration game.

The major curveball is time. Alma and the other Automatons are running out of Anima, and the passage of time can alter who survives. That creates a completely different kind of pressure from FOUNTAINS, one tied to decisions and routes as much as individual fights.

Why it matches: Top-down action, nonlinear exploration, shortcuts, tools that reshape traversal, ruined-world atmosphere, and meaningful build choices.

Biggest difference: The real-time Anima system becomes a defining concern, while Soulslike death mechanics are much less central.

Best for: Anyone specifically asking for “FOUNTAINS, but more sci-fi and more Metroidvania.”

Skip if: You want the harsher death-and-retry rhythm to dominate the experience.

Match score: 86%

4. Hyper Light Drifter

Hyper Light Drifter feels like a natural cousin to FOUNTAINS even when the mechanical comparison is not perfect.

Both use an overhead perspective, responsive close-range action, hostile exploration, branching paths, secrets, sparse storytelling, and worlds where the ruins themselves are often more informative than a dialogue box. Hyper Light Drifter pushes much harder into science fantasy, lost technology, surreal imagery, and near-wordless storytelling.

It is quicker and less formally Soulslike, but the basic feeling of moving carefully through a beautiful place that clearly suffered some terrible catastrophe is remarkably compatible.

Why it matches: Top-down action, difficult encounters, branching exploration, secrets, ruins, minimal exposition, and strong environmental storytelling.

Biggest difference: It does not revolve around the classic Souls death/recovery structure and is less explicitly ability-gated.

Best for: Players who remember FOUNTAINS as much for mood, ruins, and discovery as for its fights.

Skip if: You need bonfire-style progression and corpse recovery to feel at home.

Match score: 80%

5. Immortal Planet

Before top-down Soulslikes became a more recognizable little niche, Immortal Planet was already doing the obvious experiment: take methodical Souls combat and move the camera into an isometric perspective.

Patience matters more than frantic button mashing. You manage stamina, block and dodge, recover experience after death, customize with items and spells, unlock shortcuts, and eventually face multi-stage bosses. The frozen ruins and mysterious immortal civilization also give it the clearest old-school sci-fi Souls atmosphere on this list.

Where it falls behind FOUNTAINS is world structure. Its levels are designed around individual checkpoints rather than pretending the entire adventure is one enormous knot waiting to be untangled.

Why it matches: Isometric Souls combat, stamina management, recoverable experience, shortcuts, demanding bosses, and mysterious sci-fi ruins.

Biggest difference: Its levels feel more compartmentalized and less Metroidvania-like.

Best for: Players who want a compact, straightforward sci-fi interpretation of Souls combat from above.

Skip if: A huge seamless map is non-negotiable.

Match score: 74%

6. Minishoot’ Adventures

This is the weird one, but Minishoot’ Adventures belongs here.

Its developers describe an entirely handcrafted world full of interconnections, caves, temples, sunken cities, treasures, challenges, and secrets. More importantly, finding new powers improves both combat and exploration while opening new paths and shortcuts. That is awfully close to the way FOUNTAINS uses progression to change how you read its map.

Then combat starts and the comparison falls off a cliff. You are a tiny spaceship. Fighting means twin-stick shooting and large bullet-hell boss encounters, not shields, swords, dodges, and Soulslike melee. Its clean colorful presentation is also practically the tonal opposite of FOUNTAINS.

Why it matches: Handcrafted interconnected exploration, secrets, bosses, shortcuts, and abilities that gradually open the world.

Biggest difference: Melee Souls combat is replaced almost completely by twin-stick shooting and bullet hell.

Best for: People who loved exploring FOUNTAINS more than they loved fighting in it.

Skip if: “Soulslike” is the only part of FOUNTAINS you want reproduced.

Match score: 69%

7. The Surge 2

The Surge 2 is here for the player whose request is less “give me another top-down indie” and more “give me another Soulslike, except this time make the setting aggressively sci-fi.”

Jericho City is broad, hostile, and interconnected. Combat is deliberate and unforgiving, enemies are sources of new equipment, and progression slowly turns you into something capable of surviving threats that initially looked ridiculous. Its targeted limb system also makes equipment hunting an active part of combat rather than a random shower of loot.

The obvious problem is perspective. The Surge 2 is a full third-person 3D action RPG, so moment-to-moment spatial reading feels very different from FOUNTAINS even when plenty of the underlying Souls logic survives the transition.

Why it matches: Soulslike melee, dangerous exploration, shortcuts, hostile interconnected spaces, bosses, and sci-fi worldbuilding.

Biggest difference: Third-person 3D combat, more equipment focus, and no top-down perspective.

Best for: FOUNTAINS fans who want the Souls side preserved while moving decisively into science fiction.

Skip if: The top-down perspective and compact indie design were essential to the appeal.

Match score: 69%

8. CrossCode

CrossCode is the loosest Souls comparison here and one of the strongest picks if your real wish is simply “another top-down sci-fi action RPG with exploration, secrets, difficult fights, and lots to discover.”

Its distant-future setting, fast combat, large explorable areas, hidden secrets, equipment, skills, boss encounters, and elaborate dungeons all give it some useful overlap. It also has much more traditional RPG machinery surrounding those systems, including quests, characters, dialogue, puzzle-heavy dungeons, and a significantly larger narrative footprint.

That makes CrossCode a good recommendation at the edge of the list. It is not pretending to be Dark Souls from above. It is here because several things FOUNTAINS players might value survive inside a completely different RPG structure.

Why it matches: Top-down sci-fi action RPG combat, exploration, secrets, bosses, upgrades, and substantial dungeon design.

Biggest difference: Far more story, quests, puzzles, and JRPG structure, with very little traditional Souls pressure.

Best for: Players willing to trade Souls systems for a larger, more narrative sci-fi action RPG.

Skip if: You specifically want oppressive difficulty, death recovery, or a compact seamless labyrinth.

Match score: 63%

Which game comes closest overall?

Dead Ink is the closest overall match to FOUNTAINS in this group. The reason is not simply that both are Soulslikes viewed from above. The stronger connection is structural: each asks you to understand a dense interconnected place rather than simply move through a chain of disposable levels.

Void Sols comes next if fighting is what you want replicated. UNSIGHTED is the better alternative if you care more about Metroidvania progression and explicitly want science fiction. Hyper Light Drifter captures the lonely ruined-world atmosphere particularly well.

Minishoot’ Adventures is the interesting outlier. It proves why “Games Like” lists work better when similarity is broken into pieces. Its combat is nowhere near FOUNTAINS, but its world design, exploration loop, secrets, shortcuts, bosses, and progression are relevant enough that leaving it out would make the list less useful, not more accurate.

FAQ: Games like FOUNTAINS

Is Minishoot’ Adventures really similar to FOUNTAINS?

Yes, but specifically in exploration and progression. Both use handcrafted interconnected worlds where discoveries and new abilities gradually reveal more routes. Minishoot’ Adventures replaces Soulslike melee with twin-stick shooting and bullet-hell bosses, so it is a poor combat match but a strong structural one.

What is the best sci-fi game like FOUNTAINS?

Dead Ink is the closest overall sci-fi alternative because it combines top-down Soulslike melee with one dense interconnected location. UNSIGHTED is stronger if you specifically want ability-driven Metroidvania exploration, while Immortal Planet is the more traditional sci-fi Souls pick.

Which game has combat closest to FOUNTAINS?

Void Sols is the safest choice. Its top-down perspective, difficult melee encounters, bosses, bonfire-style progression, build customization, resource recovery, and emphasis on learning enemy patterns make it the closest combat-focused alternative in this group.

More games and guides on G2A News

If the overlap between Soulslikes and Metroidvanias is what brought you here, these G2A News guides take the search in a few useful directions:

• 10 best Metroidvania games you should play next
• 10 best Soulslike games for beginners
• Games like Blasphemous

Start with the part of FOUNTAINS you actually miss

There is no perfect replacement for FOUNTAINS because its appeal comes from the way several familiar systems overlap. The important question is which overlap you want to preserve.

Pick Dead Ink if you want to disappear into another dense world and slowly learn how its pieces connect. Pick Void Sols if you want another top-down combat gauntlet. Pick UNSIGHTED if you want sci-fi exploration where tools keep changing the map. Pick Hyper Light Drifter if the lonely ruins and half-buried history mattered most.

And if the best thing FOUNTAINS did was make you stare at an unreachable path and think, “I am definitely coming back here later,” do not dismiss Minishoot’ Adventures just because somebody replaced the sword with a spaceship.