REVIEW : Souldiers (PC)
Souldiers, which has been available on PC and consoles since June 2, invites you to plunge into the depths of Terragaya in a gorgeous Metroidvania that is both too traditional and potentially too tough for its good. Check out our entire review based on the game’s Steam version.
Souldiers, a game developed by Retro Forge and published by Dear Villagers, allows you to join an army of elite troops who have been sent to a parallel universe by the force of circumstance. Metroidvania is luxurious but shaky in many ways; let’s explore what this fresh entry in this genre inhabited by many independent developers has to offer.
You and your squad are trapped in a fissure in a war-torn kingdom, with no way out. But the appearance of a valkyrie will change everything: it can save you, but you must help it solve the issues of its world in exchange. A treacherous trip awaits you, from the Spider Cave to the green meadows of Terragaya, in search of a route home.
A very epic setting for a scenario that unfolds in a fairly traditional manner, with a few minor directing efforts: meeting your companions in misfortune in town or the various areas crossed adds an extra bit of life to an exploration that ultimately remains very linear and, unfortunately, has a very monotonous rhythm. Souldiers has its moments: the game makes an effort to immerse us in its environment, but it doesn’t always work, and it’s ultimately its magnificent graphics that will push you forward even further.
If you’ve recently played an heir to Symphony of the Night, you already know what to expect: Souldiers invites you to explore various huge sectors in search of additional powers that will allow you to reach new sections and defeat the corner boss, whose defeat will let you visit other parts of the map. Each monster slain earns experience points and levelling up increases your hero’s overall stats. A classicism from which Souldiers is striving, despite some novel mechanisms but not always in the finest taste.
To begin, your approach to fighting will be determined by your initial class selection: swordsman, who will have to play hand-to-hand combat and anticipate blocking and dodging in each confrontation, ranged archer, and spell caster.
And we’re curious why Retro Forge’s developers divided up their gameplay in this way: having all of the movesets at once would have changed the player’s options. So, while it undoubtedly extends the life of the game by providing three unique routes, given the anguish of the final hours of the quest, you may not want to jump back in right away.
The game’s difficulty management is the blemish that weights down practically the entire experience: there are balancing flaws, the foes hurt too much and are planned out in such a way that you constantly feel the brunt of it, even if you play correctly. It’s a “poor challenge” that, rather than pushing you to push yourself to conquer the difficulties, will only frustrate you without ever truly rewarding you. The game still takes a few breathers, with puzzles that have been seen elsewhere but are well-executed and frequently tied to the elemental skills that your soldier will acquire during his adventure.
However, utilising this plethora of abilities does not disguise the faults of the level design or the problems raised about the difficulty noted earlier.
If there’s one thing Souldiers is unbeatable at, it’s its graphics and, more broadly, its aesthetics; there’s nothing to argue it’s not great stuff. Each blueprint is meticulously created, with pixel graphics of an uncommon level of detail. Furthermore, he does not hesitate to multiply the tables with numerous parallax scrolling backgrounds, adding a lot of depth to Terragaya’s environment.
On the music side, it’s a little more conflicting, with fairly respectable tunes but chiptune elements that end up busting your head, especially in the exploring parts where you’ll spend some time. It’s not enough to whip a cat, but the joy of the eyes more than compensates troops.
REVIEW : REMOTE LIFE (XBOX Series X)
