Developer: My Next Games
Publisher: PlayWay, Movie Games S.A
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch
Tested on: Nintendo Switch
Soulblight – Review
Soulblight is one of those games for the hardcore players out there. You can succeed in one hour if you want to, but don’t get even a little sparkle of hope, because this game will literally kick you in the balls. The goal of this game is to defeat all the bosses in one run without dying. What seems to be an impossible job for some is an amazing challenge for others.
Story
The story goes that from a single drop, two forces emerged. They fought one another only to discover that living separately was against their nature. Throughout their communion, the soul tree was born and with it the world as we know it.
When the world was finally formed, the tree gave birth to a man. It fed him, raised him and the man was thankful. He cultivated the soul tree and built a sanctuary around it. But the tree became hidden from the world and started to wither. Soon after that, the blight took over and corruption spread.
This was told in the first minute of the game throughout a cutscene. Your goal is to seek the soul tree and fight the bosses and this will be your story throughout the game.
Graphics
Top-down games always have some nice chances with the way they handle their layout and graphics. Sadly, Soulblight didn’t quite get the memo here. The battle areas feel a little corrupted, but everything seems really basic and repetitive. The artwork and design of the cutscene and intro are breath-taking and the complete opposite from the in-game layout and graphics. The inventory is basic and only seems to exist out of white outlined boxes.
Sound
While you listen to the background music, it gets boring and a little repetitive after a while. Too bad actually, because it perfectly fits the theme and would be amazing if it was more diverse. The developers also failed to make the few characters, that can actually engage in a conversation, voice act. This is a huge missed opportunity. Which they did succeed in is to make every sound feel as eerie and corrupted as they intended.
Gameplay
Soulblight is a top-down action roguelite RPG. This title is one of those games which are unforgivable when you die you’ll lose everything except for some items you have stored in the sanctuary. The latter is a small area in-between the battle areas. The goal of the game is to beat all of the bosses in one run without dying. The game can be completed in one hour, but don’t get your hopes up, this game is too hard to master in only one hour.
You start off with a brief tutorial explaining the basic mechanics of the game. At the end of it, you encounter immediately a little boss which will get down to every last nerve of your system and you will probably die. After you are teleported to the underground washroom of the respawn room. Here you can clean yourself up and get back at it again.
In the respawn room we find a few nifty services which can be used. You can go to the shop, the armoury, the dummy training ground or even your storage chest. This will become more useful later on in the game because everything requires money. The only thing we would recommend if you aren’t comfortable with this type of genre is to try out the training dummy, the dummy will allow you to get better in no time.
When you are preparing for battle you’ll cross certain rooms where there are some choices which need to be made. Before you can enter a battle area, you need to choose a path. One path is normal and four are tainted. Tainted paths have a sort of objective and if you do not satisfy your taint, it will punish you. But when you manage to satisfy your taint it will give you greater offensive and defensive powers, this due to your synergy which allows you those boosts.
The combat system is a little different from other games, thanks to the grip mechanic. You can grip yourself onto enemies who are weak against it. Also, the combat has a distinction between distant and nearby combat. This is, of course, your own choice and what fits the best with your playstyle. The weapons and armour can be looted through chests and can differ in rarity, which makes them most of the time better.
Conclusion
The game left us frustrated and a bit hungry for more. Although the artwork and sound weren’t that good, hardcore games like these keep us coming for more. If you want an adventure which takes you to corrupted battle areas and where you can actually kill everything and become the hero, this is your chance. Keep in mind that this game will remind you of your Dark Souls experiences in terms of difficulty and some swore to never go there again.
Soulblight - Review,
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