REVIEW : Eldest Souls (PC)
Reading the… “sly” title of Eldest Souls, one can easily understand which audience the three-member Fallen Flag Studio is trying to address. However, the Italian development team did not try to offer a complete soul-like experience, as it approached this route only from the point of view of boss fights. As far as the enemy side is concerned, Eldest Souls contains bosses battles exclusively, with the minions shining through their absence.
This does not lead to a negative attitude towards the title, given that the sub-genre of boss rush games has offered some (not many are true) worthwhile suggestions in different genres and levels of producers, such as Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, Furi and of course the top and unbeatable Shadow of the Colossus.
In this case, an attempt is made to give a relatively open world, albeit characteristically small, to allow a faint suspicion of exploration while embellishing our adventure with the necessary lore. In the script, we meet the usual suspects, that is, a group of Old Gods who have ruined the kingdom. We will take on the role of the lone hero in our attempt to eradicate this threat, in an adventure that certainly does not try to bring surprises to the usual recipe.
On the way between the bosses, we will find various NPCs and scattered objects on the map, with the interaction between them leading us to new information about the lore and some valuable buffs. The exploration does not offer anything special due to the small size of the map and the most obvious points of interaction, but at least it comes as a welcome respite after the end of each of the demanding battles.
There are nine bosses, the difficulty of which -in general terms- increases organically. The degree of challenge is already high from the second boss, which means that he will test your nerves in many places, but on the other hand, you will not see sharp fluctuations. On the contrary, we would say the opposite, since with the strengthening of the character, after about the fourth or fifth boss, you will begin to detect a small but real drop in difficulty.
The particularly interesting upgrade system helps significantly in the subsequent normalization of the difficulty. In total, there are three different skill trees for our character development, focused on speed, power, and defence. Although we can have only one skill tree activated at a time, on the other hand, we can reset all skill points at any time and without any restrictions.
As if the extensive three skill trees were not enough, each offers two separate branches for the placement of skill points, which in turn yield very different active and passive buffs. The richest development system comes to properly frame a system with runes that we gain from each boss, which offer a plethora of completely different abilities, depending on their placement in the ability of dash, strong attack, special attack, etc.
Experimenting with all these possibilities of character development and strengthening is the cornerstone of the battle system. The right configuration can turn a desperately difficult battle even as fully passable.
Fallen Flag Studio’s work in the field of customization is undoubtedly worthy of praise. It’s a very deep development system that one would expect to encounter in a more extensive game and certainly not in a boss rush with finger-counting battles. The ability to experiment and the immediacy of the action increases replayability significantly, something especially important for a title that lasts about six hours.
Of course, with boss fights at the heart of Eldest Souls, the whole experience is ultimately judged by whether they manage to deliver high-quality duels. In most cases, we would say that the game is at a good level. It may not offer something fresh in terms of bosses’ design. However, this does not deprive it of points from the intensity they offer and the attention given to their movements.
The bosses attack quickly, presenting a good repertoire of movements, always testing our reflexes. All bosses come with surprises in the middle of their energy, where they can change shape or enrich their moves with even more deadly versions. Without exception, all bosses are fair in their aggressive moves, in the sense that it is always obvious that they are preparing for a move, so that any fatal blow to our character comes in most cases by our own mistake.
The discrepancy we saw comes in the hostile energy bar, which in most bosses decreases at a desperately slow pace (although later, this is “corrected” when our character gets stronger). These battles end up pushing our limits, creating a sense of fatigue and irritability after repeated retries. The battles have such a fast pace that the longer they last, the easier it is to make 1-2 mistakes that will lead us to the beginning of the duel.
As an aid, we have an interesting tactic for replenishing our energy. The powerful attacks, holding down the attack button, fill the bar of the so-called Bloodthirst, which then allows each of our attacks to replenish a small part of our energy. The management of this bar is of particular importance for our survival, the use of which deepens depending on the skills we have chosen. This mechanism, along with the correct use of stamina for avoidance, composes a familiar but careful battle system.
In terms of visuals, Fallen Flag Studio makes good use of the pixel art technique, conveying clean environments, arenas, and bosses, although we would not say that it can stand out from the plethora of games that use this style.
PREVIEW : A Way To Be Dead (PC)
