Soulstice is a new take on the action made in Italy by Reply Game Studios

Soulstice’s first short demo failed to show how much the game could actually offer, but despite its limitations, it gave us substantial hope for the ultimate quality of Soulstice’s work. Reply Game Studios. On the other hand, the Italian development environment definitely needs talent shows, and Reply’s action gave the impression that it might be just that, because it’s not a slave to excessive ambition, it’s clearly inspired by the great classics and generally well developed. .

The positive impact on the press must have greatly boosted the Reply guys because, one step away from its release, they returned to the office with a few hours of demo that allowed us to extensively test a large part of their doll. . We’re happy to say that the demo confirms all the positive impressions we’ve already had, while also reinforcing those overlooks and flaws we already noticed during the original testing. in this New tryout of Soulsticeso while we await the final review, we’ll dig a little deeper than we did at the beginning.

blood, death and fantasy

Considering that the new test allows us to start playing from the first games, now also storytelling it looks pretty clean in a much clearer and interesting way (since you rarely see who knows in the action genre). As previously mentioned in the past, Soulstice has been crystal-clearly inspired by dark fantasy works like the one below, to say the least. Claymore and the Crazy and this is noticeable not only in terms of style, but also in history.

In fact, everything revolves around the fall of the holy city of Ilden after a huge rift that mysteriously appeared in the sky. Briar and his “ghost” sister, Lute, as “Chimeras” (superhuman warriors born from the fusion of two souls) and as members of the Ashy Blade Sect, are sent to investigate along with other agents. But something goes terribly wrong and the sisters become the only hope of closing the rift.

described in this way complo It doesn’t seem like anything special, but Reply’s developers have put enough emphasis on the narrative background, creating an incredibly dark and dangerous world where the threat of “corruption” is around every corner. The heroes themselves constantly have to deal with their monstrous natures, and it is especially Lute who always seems to be the voice of reason during the events of the main campaign. For God’s sake, we don’t believe it’s fair to expect surprising surprises from Soulstice’s story, but what we saw caught our attention and the pace of the whole seems well-directed. The theme, then, of the protagonist gradually falling into obscurity, always has a hidden appeal. Consider that there are even stages entirely centered around the plot where only Lute is used and cutscenes are far from uncommon (although, fortunately, you never overdo the exposure). Good job overall.

However, Briar’s adopted younger sister is not just one of the narrative’s mainstays: lute, in fact, appears to be the beating heart of the Soulstice system, although it was largely automated during combat. After all, this action has crystallized inspirations, but it’s clear how the developers wanted to find a keystone that could give it distinctive distinguishing features.

scary combinations

This key is precisely Lute, which acts independently of Briar during combat and can be activated in direct defense. We explain it better: As we’ve shown in the past, Briar fights using the classic maneuvers seen in many other Japanese-style technical actions, and especially change weapon making spectacular aerial combinations or variable combinations during combat and on the ground depending on the timing of attacks and maneuvers learned.

It’s all very valid, and while you may never reach the peak of complexity in a recent Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, a lot of work has generally been done on the effects and speed of collisions. There are some glitches in reading and aiming certain shots – we use a system similar to that of spirits here, not exactly specified at Soulstice speed, and at times we noticed some difficulties in recording effects, especially when there are a lot of enemies on the screen – but overall, directing your hands is a pleasure and we assure you Thankfully, hitting those bases isn’t all that obvious. That said, things get really complicated if Briar is limited to learning new attacks and gradually unlocking additional weapons (only certain weaknesses and strengths based on the opponent’s type), but once you get into the game fully. development branches Lute, which dramatically changed your little ghost sister’s approach to her battles.

Lute is usually a pretty weak attack support, and its primary benefit is the ability to use counter moves on enemy attacks with a quick press of the special button. That alone should be enough to make her meaningful, but as she progresses, the girl gets a long list of effects and specialties related to her powers, which increases her usefulness and style in combat exponentially. To give an example, you might want to concentrate all the points gained in the attack to activate special effects with each counter move that leaves explosive areas on the ground or fires extra bullets, or perhaps allow Lute to stun and hit enemies with his attacks. More often. Or bet everything on energy fields that are completed with special effects after the entropy they need for activation has been depleted. The possibilities are many and the points needed to improve them are not properly given, so these are improvements that could drastically change the approach to battles (and efficiency against certain types of enemies).

In summary, there is a secret basic tactic associated with this “continuous aid” and counter-moves, reinforced by another system: energy fields, must be activated to hit certain types of opponents. There are actually two types of these colored domes, blue and red, and using them correctly in the game is crucial to avoid being destroyed against groups of ghosts or captured (absolutely immune to basic attacks) enemies in it. Some boss battles are literally built around the diversity of areas: Lute can’t actually hold them forever (with the pain of his temporary disappearance), and we can assure you, the diversity of enemies will force you to manage them much smarter than they already are. believe. Of course, this isn’t a perfect mechanic: some fights with large groups of monsters can get really chaotic between the mix of counters, areas to activate, and issues with not-so-bright aiming and camera (we’ll focus on those). That’s later), but it remains very odd, offers really interesting possibilities in combat, and we found it quite unique.

Cracks in armor

The only system in the mix that doesn’t work perfectly for us, tuning, due to some obvious imbalances. On paper, this is a pretty brilliant set of mechanics: the better you fight, the more a bar that increases Lute’s effectiveness and attack frequency, and also allows you to perform very powerful combined attacks. However, once far enough away, Attunement also allows you to transform, entering a sort of frenzied state that guarantees Briar the possibility to deal damage to all types of enemies and can result in a devastating area attack. Now, the final attack cannot be used freely as it causes a sharp loss of life points; However, the transformation takes place very easily, takes a few seconds, and when used, it constantly disrupts the rhythm of the battle. You don’t have to use this case all the time, of course, but it’s very advantageous for obvious reasons and we would have preferred a slower charge paired with a longer duration. In its current form, it only adds to the chaos of conflicts.

In any case, the primary defect remains there camera (which we have already partially discussed). There are not a few situations where it is difficult to follow the action due to imperfect shots, not always the perfect management of distance or the team’s inexperience in such productions. Open space is normally no problem, but as we progressed, we encountered smaller maps with fights in areas rich in three-dimensional elements, where everything inevitably went crazy.

For God’s sake, things stay manageable most of the time, but it’s definitely not cool for Briar to disappear completely or have no idea how enemies move during battles against a dozen opponents. indicators direction buttons and meter warnings are helpful in such cases, although not enough). This is a common problem in the action genre, and we were still expecting some hurdles.

Little to complain about the rest. Except for unblemished transitions and a conspicuous transition repeatability Of the settings (on the other hand, everything takes place in a single medieval city) the game is technically valid and a joy to see in action.

Even long life looks very respectable: it took us about five hours to complete the demo presented and should only be a quarter of the full title. This is a time not to be underestimated for a technical action. In addition, the presence of ratings for battles and episodes often offers considerable replayability for perfectionists. Not bad.