Souldiers, a solid but not-so-charismatic metroidvania review

Type metroidvania It rose a long time ago, and as it often is, thanks to the indie world. Over the past few years, more and more high-end games have been released, and the public has responded by putting their money into the pot.

This forced more and more independent teams to focus on this genre. The direct consequence of this is that right now the market is full of offers, and it may not be enough to suggest a valid game to come up with a fairly high average quality so far: the goal can simply be perfection.

That’s exactly the problem with Souldiers, the new metroidvania. Retro Forge. In its first test on the field, the team put out a solid but unimpressive game from almost every angle.

It’s a bit anticlimactic to put this right away, but that’s in ours. Review by Souldiers We will explain to you why we came to this conclusion.

terragaya

Souldiers is set in Terragaya, a kind of uncertainty between life and death. Valkyrie, taken directly from Norse mythology. Our character is an ordinary soldier who is trapped under a landslide with his fellow soldiers in the real world.

With the start of the adventure, we will be able to choose ours. classwill remain constant throughout the game. We’ve got a classic soldier with a sword and shield, a bow ranger, and a mage with a stirrup. The difference isn’t just about the weapon, it’s also, and above all, about the skills. Each class has its own skill tree, and you can unlock them as you level up to gain new abilities and attacks.

Each class forces you to fight and approach levels differently. Classroom management is one of the best components of Souldiers, so it’s a pity that two-thirds of it is blocked. We believe the idea is to encourage replayability, but it would be nice to be able to change them up at certain points, enjoy all the game ideas and adapt to various conflicts with the most comfortable class from situation to situation. situation.

This would also help reduce some spikes. difficulty. Souldiers is not a rose water game, even on minimal difficulty. Bosses, in particular, can destroy the player in a few hits, and it will take some time to study their moves before achieving victory. The differences between the various fights are nice, even if the average number of moves is limited.

when it comes common enemies, there are a lot of them, but most of them are stylistically generic and uninspired. This criticism can be extended to the entire artistic sector of Souldiers.

Don’t get us wrong, great care is taken with what is made by Retro Forge. this environments full of detail both foreground and background, full of moving and destructible elements that bring any space to life. The problem is that pretty much everything tastes like it’s been seen before, with pixel art that doesn’t mind but never fails to impress.

Design

At least environments are considered from a design standpoint. As mentioned, Souldiers is a metroidvania. Don’t expect a single large map that connects at dozens of points, but rather a series of areas with various interior passages, turnarounds and secrets. You have to go back and forth on the small big ones. world He searches for everything lurking around the Souldiers, re-exploring each area several times to see what’s missing and to complete side quests.

It is clear that there is no shortage of various kinds of enhancements necessary to interact with the game world and create new passages. elementary spheres which will allow us to attack the weaknesses of the enemies. But all this is not particularly original, and each episode will be a little aware of what has been seen before, and we would not be too surprised at the secrets hidden by the discovery.

Souldiers makes no real mistakes and always turns out to be a solid game, but it always lacks that extra spark. Of course, there are some objective limits. The control system is not always very comfortable, but first of all we recommend players to pay attention to the following. recovery system. Each dungeon has save points that allow you to heal yourself, respawn enemies, and secure your progress. It is better to use them in abundance, because with each death you lose everything you did: experience points, exploration of the map, items collected, key moments overcome. Nothing remains and you have to go back to the last save; If you turn the wrong corner and advance unprepared into an area with a strong enemy or trap, that’s the end of it. There are some autosaves, but these are just patches.

More “experienced” players may not worry, but younger players accustomed to freer save systems may run the risk of being a little disappointed when they have to make certain passes over and over, only to feel a waste of time.

Without giving any spoilers, we point out that even the plot is certainly not the most surprising, and that’s not the main reason you should approach Souldiers. Finally, the game not translated into italian: there’s no shortage of dialogue, so keep that in mind.