Humanity has been in danger since ghosts, fearsome and ferocious creatures, have crossed the veil to destroy the world of the living. They spread terror across the region, confiscate human souls and you’ll need more than a leather jacket and motorcycle boots to defeat these evil entities from beyond the grave. Wild action, hellish combat and amazing reviews, Soulstice is heart-stopping!
While the balance of the sacred kingdoms of the Kidas hangs by a thread, only the Chimeras, warriors born from the union of two souls, can save what is left of humanity. In this apocalyptic atmosphere, Briar and Lotte, two brooding sisters in the form of a delusion, intervene. If the first had supernatural power, then the second was sacrificed in order to appear as an entity capable of all miracles. Even if they were one, together they would survey the territory of the kingdom to eliminate the threat and realize… that the Order, the organization that governs the various Chimeras, does not have everything for them. He said. Developed by Milanese-based Reply Game Studios, Soulstice takes the form of a beat them (Action game in which you advance by resisting waves of enemies) is tense and has great assets to impress fans of Bayonetta, Nier, or even Devil May Cry.
Very real
Soulstice, if not “courtly” like Dark Souls, is still a demanding game. Very quickly, we have to juggle the different buttons and side switches. If the main character, Briar, is controlled with a wand, then the title of the Italian developers constantly calls out the mystical skills of his sister. In the middle of the battle, like any Nier or Bayonetta, you have to control the central avatar, but also stimulate the actions of the spirit that accompanies it. To support his sister, Lute can counter enemy attacks, cast spells (with greater or less force) and above all activate his force fields, conjure and banish. The latter, which is two-tone (blue and red), allows you to interact with crystals – to recover coins that act as currency – or to undermine the defense of some normally invincible entities. Several levels of difficulty are available, and this allows Soulstice to expand its audience, but the adventure requires a certain skill to be able to carry it out from start to finish. As in any flexible Of this type, the enemies are more sinister and fierce, and therefore it is necessary to advance by recovering as many artifacts as possible.
Fight for the result
The blue and red crystals are used to enhance the weapons and skills of the Briar and its host. Only by exploring each area from top to bottom and participating in challenges (dimensional errors that respond to specific rules) are we guaranteed a less painful journey. If necessary, it is possible to re-visit the cycles to increase your inventory of crystals. The tempo is clear, the games are numerous and we gradually managed to incorporate the principle of force fields, but some clips are too punitive and the choice of colors sometimes does not help to get a clear and clear action. Undeniably inspired by the classics of the genre, Soulstice is a compelling homage to the somewhat hardcore approach. At the end of each fight, the game displays the score (from “Iron” to “Masie”) and console professionals will be happy to improve their performance. When the result is not very good, we naturally want to start over to do better. With a compelling lifespan and great generosity, both in gameplay and in the gargantuan impression of environments, Soulstice, unfortunately, does not escape flaws that would be prohibitive for some people.
Clear technical concessions
By mixing action and exploration, the game does not have the content of a 2022 game on a technical level. Despite the really successful reviews, there are a number of visual pitfalls. Some textures seem to come from another time, and we constantly have to deal with invisible walls and a very visible hallway syndrome. In addition, inappropriate slowdowns taint progress and we have the unpleasant impression of developing in a game that is perhaps too ambitious at times. But what causes the most problems is the camera. Rarely free, often constant, it is not always optimal and we face hordes of enemies, sometimes we hit the void! We don’t even talk about the camera in exploration where certain angles are so poorly thought out that we discover, as if by a miracle, hidden passages. At this point, the game lacks flexibility and progression struggles to be instinctive. We come to persevere everywhere, fault of the invisible walls, to find the artifacts that would have escaped us.
Because yes, Soulstice is one of those games where a character can jump really high, but finds himself unable to get past a small barrier or that kind of thing. It’s as if the title featured modern graphics, but it suffered from “32-bit” syndrome, this generation of consoles that hosted the first 3D games. Of course, that doesn’t stop you from having a good time when you like the genre, especially since the art direction, Claymore or Berserk (depending on your references), has been the subject of great care (although some items are far from being copied and pasted from place to place). To take full advantage of it, Soulstice offers three types of rendering: performance at 60 frames per second, display resolution, and balanced for a combination of the two. Personally, we chose the latter option to get the best of both worlds.
Under these circumstances, what can we learn from the experience? Soulstice is the archetype of those adorable, love-made games, but it has technical issues that prevent it from achieving the genre structure it represents. As you progress, the adventure is not lacking in ideas, whether in enemies, puzzles, or tree skills that are available for this purpose, but it does lack a better technical foundation and a fun foundation for excellence. Sometimes the camera angles are chosen poorly and we come to fight against the game in hopes of advancing the story – which, too, takes a long time to get going. It’s a shame because the characters in Sleek shading (The lines around the characters give a cartoonish side) and the sometimes subtle embellishments show that the game wasn’t lacking in ambition. Maybe also…
conclusion
strength point
- Really luxurious decor in the places
- Artistic direction inspired by Claymore
- Spooky and interesting game
- force field principle
- Recording system for amateur score
- Dubbing Stephanie Justin (Metal Gear Solid 5)
- Age (25 chapters, many challenges…)
Weak points
- The still camera is often in a bad position
- A scenario that takes a long time to launch
- No visual regeneration
- Many items have been copied and pasted from one region to another
- Often messy fights
With Soulstice, the developers at Reply Game Studios likely have created their most ambitious game. beat them Tense that takes place in a world reminiscent of the manga Claymore, it plays on the duality of force fields (evoke, negation) and on a mixture of exploration, puzzles and action for fans of the genre. Unfortunately, the lack of means is felt along the length and we often complain about the poorly adjusted camera and obvious technical problems (sluggish, excessive copy-pasting, material from another time…). Not to mention this constant manipulation at the level of the side keys of the console. In the end, Soulstice is a game that is far from monotonous, but intended for fans of the genre and amateurs of scoring.
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