Lost Soul Aside |OT| Souls-free Action

Damn, Steam dgaf what chinese people say on their platform (this is from the comment section of the highlighted review here)

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Game feels, has the simple aesthetics and plays like a PS2 game — and it's great (so far) if you go in with these expectations
 



For 40 EUR I would've bought it for sure, it looks decent enough to me. But 70? Eh. It's still expensive even on key resellers.
 
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The optional challenge missions are awful

"defeat all enemies with 20% or less health" fair enough!
*game has 50 different ways of regenerating health in the middle of your combos so you auto-lose the challenge when you pass the 20% threshold. Literal 1-man-team retarded design*
 
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Monster design is so meh and even rips off from FF like Bahamut or Behemoth.
Combat seems fluid although simple.
Game is not priced well. You see a decent game like Mafia TOC asking for 50€ and this 70€.
Will add further feedback if i try the game for myself.
 
Judge Magister said:
Monster design is so meh and even rips off from FF like Bahamut or Behemoth.
Combat seems fluid although simple.
Game is not priced well. You see a decent game like Mafia TOC asking for 50€ and this 70€.
Will add further feedback if i try the game for myself.
Click to expand...

I def would not expect Sony to publish a SP game for less than $60 to start. Esp one that got a physical release on PS5.

It'll be on sale soon enough.
 
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I read some X previews and most of them said it is like a Ps2 era action game. My 2024 game of the year Stellar blade was also like an old school 90's game which means I will also like LS.
 
yogaflame said:
I read some X previews and most of them said it is like a Ps2 era action game. My 2024 game of the year Stellar blade was also like an old school 90's game which means I will also like LS.
Click to expand...
Stellar Blade looked and felt like a premium title from it's first trailer I think. It had a quite high production value. This one not so much. It really feels like it should be a 40-50 usd title. I'm interested, but not for this price.
 
Eurogamer Germany also gave 10/10 to Hellblade 2 so I dunno if they're reliable

At least they're charging $60

Although, $50 would have been better seeing the value of games like Expedition 33.
 
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Played a bit of the demo...Not sure what to think of it.
I think the overall look is nice, the buildings and environments look great, I wouldn't say the graphics are poor like some have but there's is something that's not clicking.
Gonna have to return to the demo, I like what I'm seeing but there's something not making me want to purchase it.
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Played the demo and, yeah, this isn't great.

The combat is ok but I found the evading and blocking felt awkward, and specially during boss battles the attacks are hard to read and there is so much visual noise and lack of visual feedback I wasn't even sure if I had evaded the attacks correctly.
Also most enemies essentially having a stagger meter you need to deplete to be able to launch them and do air combos suck. Movement in general feels kinda floaty and awkward too.

Visually the environments are quite nice but the character models and animations look pretty bad.

There's definitely some old school PS2/ early Ps3 era action game charm here, and despite all my complaints I still had fun with the demo. But I wouldn't pay more than $19.99 for this
 
I just beat it. Around 30 hours.

Let me first say this: I don't give any shits that the game wasn't reviewed by outlets before release or the fact that they released a demo on the same day that the game was released. With that being said, here are my honest thoughts after having beaten the game -once- (the game encourages multiple playthroughs).

Also, my background is around 4000h throughout the entire DMC-saga as well as probably a combined 1500h of Godhand, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta etc.

+
+ Level design isn't bad, I actually quite enjoyed it. Big green square buttons that go up and down elevators, randomly places chests, random platforming areas. They're not bad at all! Just very PS2-esque.
+ I really don't have issues with the graphics or that it's made in UE4. Graphics are overall solid and the environments varied and colorful!
+ The varied gameplay moments (ride the great sword, use the dragon to fly and grab balls, jump on top of flowers to bounce really high and reach new places) are fun to do.
+ Music is solid. Sometimes a bit too ambitious for what seems to be going on in the game.

-
- One of the worst "practice areas" I've witnessed to date. No options to do anything other than hitting that one monster they spawn for you; and guess what, he has armor that you have to break so you can't juggle him and practice combos until you've broken his armor. And even then, he will recover from the CC and you have to repeat the same thing over and over again.

- BIGGEST minus in the history of minuses: MISSING SFX DURING COMBAT! There's no feedback when hitting enemies, there's no feedback when getting hit. I honestly thought there was something wrong with my audio-setup so I switched to headphones and the same issues persisted. Basically, you don't feel like you're dealing damage to the opponent and you don't know when you get hit. It's SURREAL how this wasn't polished further, because this genre -needs- SFX in order to get a distinguished feel of what's happening on the screen amidst all the chaos.

- Visual noise during combat. Combine the fact that you don't hear anything during combat, now add that it's impossible to see incoming attacks because of the amount of shit that happens on screen and you've got a recipe for disaster.

- Base difficulty is too easy, they should've had difficulty options at start and not after you beat the game.

- Random spots that are not translated

remAVTO.jpeg


- The optional challenge missions are awful. Oh, here's a mission where if you want to maximize reward, you have to "defeat all enemies with 20% or less health". But wait, 50% of the moves I do regenerate my health so I'm locked out of those moves! What the fuck?

- No custom controls, I had to switch L1 (dodge, wtf?) with O (block, wtf?) through the PS5 custom menu.

- Laggy menus, literally 500ms input delay. Why?

- ATROCIOUS "storyline" and story telling. They slam dunk 1000 terms, 1000 places, 1000 things you should know within the first 3 hours of the game. Calm the fuck down fellas'

- No running —> attack animation, instead you get the normal "neutral" attack even while running and that feels CRAZY not to have. I get that even DMC has you going from running to neutral but the neutral in this game locks the character in animation for like 2 seconds unless you dodge out of it.

- Music transition, or rather lack of with its instant cuts from battles is a choice indeed. You go from this insane boss music and the second you kill him, it abruptly gets cancelled and quiet.

- Abundance of material that are never really used in-game ever.

- The skill tree is abysmal with lack of clarity what things really do. It's like this, "Whirlwind". Okay cool, let's see what Whirlwind does. Description: "Whirlwind is enabled when you Cross Slash the opponent mid-air after juggling with Demon Blast or Hardcore Leap". OK? Are you okay, game?

- Camera speed too slow even on max, and doesn't help that you can't press R3 to reset camera in front of you

- One of the least impactful parries of all time. I see the blue shit coming from the enemy, I press parry, nothing happens. Of course the fact that there's no real response from doing anything in battle doesn't help.

- Way, WAY TOO MUCH yapping between Arena and the main character.

- My character can, mid-air whilst juggling an enemy, lose attack "charges" and that's STUPID. No amount of light or heavy attacks should be enough to "exhaust" the amount of damage you can deal mid-air. And yes; I already know you can cancel out of air by pressing dodge and from there re-enter mid-air status again by why is this even a thing?!

I can probably keep going, but it is what it is...
 
Yoshichan said:
I just beat it. Around 30 hours.

Let me first say this: I don't give any shits that the game wasn't reviewed by outlets before release or the fact that they released a demo on the same day that the game was released. With that being said, here are my honest thoughts after having beaten the game -once- (the game encourages multiple playthroughs).

Also, my background is around 4000h throughout the entire DMC-saga as well as probably a combined 1500h of Godhand, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta etc.

+
+ Level design isn't bad, I actually quite enjoyed it. Big green square buttons that go up and down elevators, randomly places chests, random platforming areas. They're not bad at all! Just very PS2-esque.
+ I really don't have issues with the graphics or that it's made in UE4. Graphics are overall solid and the environments varied and colorful!
+ The varied gameplay moments (ride the great sword, use the dragon to fly and grab balls, jump on top of flowers to bounce really high and reach new places) are fun to do.
+ Music is solid. Sometimes a bit too ambitious for what seems to be going on in the game.

-
- One of the worst "practice areas" I've witnessed to date. No options to do anything other than hitting that one monster they spawn for you; and guess what, he has armor that you have to break so you can't juggle him and practice combos until you've broken his armor. And even then, he will recover from the CC and you have to repeat the same thing over and over again.

- BIGGEST minus in the history of minuses: MISSING SFX DURING COMBAT! There's no feedback when hitting enemies, there's no feedback when getting hit. I honestly thought there was something wrong with my audio-setup so I switched to headphones and the same issues persisted. Basically, you don't feel like you're dealing damage to the opponent and you don't know when you get hit. It's SURREAL how this wasn't polished further, because this genre -needs- SFX in order to get a distinguished feel of what's happening on the screen amidst all the chaos.

- Visual noise during combat. Combine the fact that you don't hear anything during combat, now add that it's impossible to see incoming attacks because of the amount of shit that happens on screen and you've got a recipe for disaster.

- Base difficulty is too easy, they should've had difficulty options at start and not after you beat the game.

- Random spots that are not translated

remAVTO.jpeg


- The optional challenge missions are awful. Oh, here's a mission where if you want to maximize reward, you have to "defeat all enemies with 20% or less health". But wait, 50% of the moves I do regenerate my health so I'm locked out of those moves! What the fuck?

- No custom controls, I had to switch L1 (dodge, wtf?) with O (block, wtf?) through the PS5 custom menu.

- Laggy menus, literally 500ms input delay. Why?

- ATROCIOUS "storyline" and story telling. They slam dunk 1000 terms, 1000 places, 1000 things you should know within the first 3 hours of the game. Calm the fuck down fellas'

- No running —> attack animation, instead you get the normal "neutral" attack even while running and that feels CRAZY not to have. I get that even DMC has you going from running to neutral but the neutral in this game locks the character in animation for like 2 seconds unless you dodge out of it.

- Music transition, or rather lack of with its instant cuts from battles is a choice indeed. You go from this insane boss music and the second you kill him, it abruptly gets cancelled and quiet.

- Abundance of material that are never really used in-game ever.

- The skill tree is abysmal with lack of clarity what things really do. It's like this, "Whirlwind". Okay cool, let's see what Whirlwind does. Description: "Whirlwind is enabled when you Cross Slash the opponent mid-air after juggling with Demon Blast or Hardcore Leap". OK? Are you okay, game?

- Camera speed too slow even on max, and doesn't help that you can't press R3 to reset camera in front of you

- One of the least impactful parries of all time. I see the blue shit coming from the enemy, I press parry, nothing happens. Of course the fact that there's no real response from doing anything in battle doesn't help.

- Way, WAY TOO MUCH yapping between Arena and the main character.

- My character can, mid-air whilst juggling an enemy, lose attack "charges" and that's STUPID. No amount of light or heavy attacks should be enough to "exhaust" the amount of damage you can deal mid-air. And yes; I already know you can cancel out of air by pressing dodge and from there re-enter mid-air status again by why is this even a thing?!

I can probably keep going, but it is what it is...
Click to expand...

So you bought the game? Or went to the Caribbean?
 
Yoshichan said:
I just beat it. Around 30 hours.

Let me first say this: I don't give any shits that the game wasn't reviewed by outlets before release or the fact that they released a demo on the same day that the game was released. With that being said, here are my honest thoughts after having beaten the game -once- (the game encourages multiple playthroughs).

Also, my background is around 4000h throughout the entire DMC-saga as well as probably a combined 1500h of Godhand, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta etc.

+
+ Level design isn't bad, I actually quite enjoyed it. Big green square buttons that go up and down elevators, randomly places chests, random platforming areas. They're not bad at all! Just very PS2-esque.
+ I really don't have issues with the graphics or that it's made in UE4. Graphics are overall solid and the environments varied and colorful!
+ The varied gameplay moments (ride the great sword, use the dragon to fly and grab balls, jump on top of flowers to bounce really high and reach new places) are fun to do.
+ Music is solid. Sometimes a bit too ambitious for what seems to be going on in the game.

-
- One of the worst "practice areas" I've witnessed to date. No options to do anything other than hitting that one monster they spawn for you; and guess what, he has armor that you have to break so you can't juggle him and practice combos until you've broken his armor. And even then, he will recover from the CC and you have to repeat the same thing over and over again.

- BIGGEST minus in the history of minuses: MISSING SFX DURING COMBAT! There's no feedback when hitting enemies, there's no feedback when getting hit. I honestly thought there was something wrong with my audio-setup so I switched to headphones and the same issues persisted. Basically, you don't feel like you're dealing damage to the opponent and you don't know when you get hit. It's SURREAL how this wasn't polished further, because this genre -needs- SFX in order to get a distinguished feel of what's happening on the screen amidst all the chaos.

- Visual noise during combat. Combine the fact that you don't hear anything during combat, now add that it's impossible to see incoming attacks because of the amount of shit that happens on screen and you've got a recipe for disaster.

- Base difficulty is too easy, they should've had difficulty options at start and not after you beat the game.

- Random spots that are not translated

remAVTO.jpeg


- The optional challenge missions are awful. Oh, here's a mission where if you want to maximize reward, you have to "defeat all enemies with 20% or less health". But wait, 50% of the moves I do regenerate my health so I'm locked out of those moves! What the fuck?

- No custom controls, I had to switch L1 (dodge, wtf?) with O (block, wtf?) through the PS5 custom menu.

- Laggy menus, literally 500ms input delay. Why?

- ATROCIOUS "storyline" and story telling. They slam dunk 1000 terms, 1000 places, 1000 things you should know within the first 3 hours of the game. Calm the fuck down fellas'

- No running —> attack animation, instead you get the normal "neutral" attack even while running and that feels CRAZY not to have. I get that even DMC has you going from running to neutral but the neutral in this game locks the character in animation for like 2 seconds unless you dodge out of it.

- Music transition, or rather lack of with its instant cuts from battles is a choice indeed. You go from this insane boss music and the second you kill him, it abruptly gets cancelled and quiet.

- Abundance of material that are never really used in-game ever.

- The skill tree is abysmal with lack of clarity what things really do. It's like this, "Whirlwind". Okay cool, let's see what Whirlwind does. Description: "Whirlwind is enabled when you Cross Slash the opponent mid-air after juggling with Demon Blast or Hardcore Leap". OK? Are you okay, game?

- Camera speed too slow even on max, and doesn't help that you can't press R3 to reset camera in front of you

- One of the least impactful parries of all time. I see the blue shit coming from the enemy, I press parry, nothing happens. Of course the fact that there's no real response from doing anything in battle doesn't help.

- Way, WAY TOO MUCH yapping between Arena and the main character.

- My character can, mid-air whilst juggling an enemy, lose attack "charges" and that's STUPID. No amount of light or heavy attacks should be enough to "exhaust" the amount of damage you can deal mid-air. And yes; I already know you can cancel out of air by pressing dodge and from there re-enter mid-air status again by why is this even a thing?!

I can probably keep going, but it is what it is...
Click to expand...


Great analysis. Better than every other I have read on "pro" outlets.

IMO this could be summed up in lack of experience on the devs side which led to lot of awful game design decisions. The lack of combat feedback is specially egregious to me.
 
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Signalis said:
Luckily I could cancel my copy before it was delivered this morning. Was up early to play the demo, the game fucking sucks
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To each their own, but I was genuinely surprised people were looking forward to this. To me it just gave off "we made this with AI" vibes. I mean, the overall look of the art didn't scream anything captivating or unique to me TBH. Could certainly be a just me thing I suppose, lol.
 
FalsettoVibe said:
Yeah. Feel kinda bad for the guy, but the game just took too long to release. Probably would have been received better about 4 years ago
Click to expand...

It would probably receive less scrutiny under a smaller publishing label. Sony marketing it and highlighting it as a key china partner game just puts more eyes on it and makes its shortcomings even more obvious.
 
Yoshichan said:
- Visual noise during combat. Combine the fact that you don't hear anything during combat, now add that it's impossible to see incoming attacks because of the amount of shit that happens on screen and you've got a recipe for disaster.
Click to expand...
This was my biggest problem with the Demo. The boss fight has a thousand small effects going on and it makes it near impossible to dodge or block consistently.

Then of course they made it a multi-healthbar fight.
 
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