Soul Of Giga – Review
Soul Of Giga has plenty of potential. Its unique take on team building, synergy, and placement is a welcome take on the RPG formula. As it heavily takes some inspiration from other titles such as Pokémon and Yo-Kai Watch, the game does an adequate job of differentiating itself from the latter. Sadly the title now still suffers from a few issues that can affect the quality of its gameplay.
Story
Soul Of Giga takes place in a fantasy setting where the Giga are creatures who have special powers, similar to Pokemon. The people in the Land of Giga live peacefully until an evil empire hears of the endless powers the Giga hold. They decide to conquer the land and use the Gigas as tools of war, and now it’s up to Arc, the chosen student of the ancient Giga clan, to restore the land and defeat the empire using Giga himself.
In case of making a somewhat unique story, Soul Of Giga doesn’t win an award. Arc isn’t a very interesting character at all, and the few side characters the players meet exude the same energy. From the start of the story, all the players gather from Arc is that he’s a little naive and hasty, and that’s pretty much it. The majority of the plot tends to sway a bit too heavily, especially near the end of the game.
Graphics
Soul Of Giga’s art style is based on 2D pixel art, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. Even if the same can’t be said for the other factors, the Giga themselves are varied in shape and color enough to each ooze personality. The UI and over-world map is a case of weird design choices, however. In spite of it looking easy to manage and simplistic, the overall design makes it seem clunky and jarring. When compared to the Giga, the overall design of the overall map and UI are from two completely different games. Overall, the game does a fantastic job of making each Giga unique from each other, which is sadly hampered by the aforementioned design choices.
Sound
The sound design in Soul Of Giga is a mixed bag. The selection of chiptune music that varies from stage to stage is actually very good. Ranging from tranquil to borderline pandemonium, the music between battles is well done and well worth backtracking a few times just to listen to the previous tunes. Sound effects are good also, but there are a few issues. The UI sound effects when selecting areas have a pleasant ring to it, but during combat, things take a slight turn for the worse.
In battle, while the sound effects for the different Giga are pretty good, the majority of the sounds players will hear are shared between Giga. This means that depending on the attack, players will hear the same exact sounds; which do get repetitive after a few hours in-game.
Gameplay
Soul Of Giga is a more simplistic take on the popular monster-collecting RPG formula, adopting similarities to similar titles of the genre such as Pokémon, and Yo-Kai Watch. The game’s controls are highly accessible, requiring only a mouse to control everything on screen. The game is solely a single-player experience, with the main goal of traveling the overworld, leveling, and collecting Giga.
The game is easy to pick up. Instead of traversing the world in a format similar to other RPGs, players will travel using the mouse to click on different tiles, separated by regions. On the map, players will have the typical story missions, side battles that allow players to level up Giga, and special chests that give players special items to help them on their journey. The game does a good job of keeping things simple and accessible from the start of the game.
The gameplay loop also follows a simple to pick up formula. As Soul Of Giga is an RPG, the combat also adopts the popular turn-based style the genre is known for. Players will take turns with enemies, with the goal of reducing their HP to zero. There are three different types of Giga: Forest, Sky, and Sea; which in turn results in a rock paper scissors approach.
During battle, players will take turns doing basic attacks to dwindle down the enemy’s health bar. As players take turns, a bar will continue to grow over time, allowing Giga to use their special elemental abilities. Another important aspect of gameplay is placement. By placing Giga on the frontlines, any Giga placed in the background takes no damage, adding some depth to the overall simple playstyle.
After battles, players will have the option to either capture stray Giga or collect crystals that allow players to upgrade Giga and buy items. Simply put, the gameplay core is somewhat enjoyable, even if a little too simplistic. The problem mostly lies in the endgame, however.
Since it’s very easy to level up Giga just by grinding crystals, the enemies don’t seem to scale to the player’s level too well, taking even the smallest type of difficulty the game has and reduces it significantly. Even halfway through the story, it’s easy to just steam-roll through the game with the base Giga players collect in the tutorial. Game balancing is definitely a huge issue when it comes to gameplay.
Conclusion
Soul Of Giga is a welcome entry to players new to the RPG and monster collecting genre. At its core, the gameplay is actually fun, especially when mixing and matching different types of Giga to compliment a specific playstyle. The story and graphics leave much to be desired, except for how well each Giga looks. Players who aren’t bothered by the extremely easy difficulty will find some enjoyment in the title nonetheless.
Soul Of Giga - Review,
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