The Holy City of Ilden is the perfect staging ground for a post-apocalyptic assault by the villainous Spawn of Chaos, an army of demonic creatures that happen to swarm the city from a huge rift in the sky. This could be a Fade Rift from Dragon Age Inquisition or a giant space-time rift from Pokemon Legends: Arceus. There’s nothing better than the battle-hardened warrior Briar and her ghostly companion Lute, Slash’s sister, to hold back the invasion. Both are chimeras. Members of the mysterious Order of the Ashen Blade and the supposed heroes of this world. Her relationship with the other Chimera goes awry, and you, playing as a dynamic duo, end up defeating Spawn of Chaos on your own. This is the premise of Soulstice. The game is a frantic third-person combat-focused action-adventure game with lots of unique combos, much like Devil May His Cry games.
In Soulstice, you spend a lot of time playing as Briar. Briar is chased by Lute in a ghostly form as he hacks and slashes through hordes of enemies while moving linearly from mission to mission, but in some cases, the key storyline is that he Lute in the sequence. You may also find yourself playing as a . The interaction between Briar and Lute is noteworthy as a distinct positive element. Notably, Lute has the ability to pacify so many of Soulstice’s enemies while attacking that he can (as Briar) dive in and deal some serious damage. This dynamism is deepened by the design of the world and its demonic inhabitants. Even more interestingly, some of these monsters are incorporeal until he presses the left or right trigger to activate one of his two different ‘fields’.
This is a very simple mechanism. Red fields correspond to red monsters and objects, allowing them to materialize and break apart. Blue fields, on the other hand, do the same for blue objects and monsters. What’s particularly interesting about this, though, is that multiple types of enemies attack at once. This means that you may have to make quick decisions to deal with each enemy type at the right time. increase. This gives Soulstice a strategic element that’s especially satisfying when managing resources and firing off combos in quick succession.
Soulstice maintains a steady pace from the start, gradually increasing difficulty and showing you the ropes through intermittent pop-up tutorials to explain new mechanics. Although the level design is linear, there are enough secrets hidden in every corner of this sacred city to keep the explorer happy. At first, Briar only uses two of the seven different weapons: the heavy and fast Ashen Vindicator sword, which is best suited for light attacks, and the rather painful Ashen Enforcer warhammer, which unleashes much heavier attacks. , this ability system looks incredibly dynamic. As you progress, you’ll gain access to a full set of diverse upgrades, including passive stat bonuses, and all-new abilities like Ferocious Assault and Thundering Advance. All pretty pretentious in their own way.
Admittedly, you’ll have to choose carefully where to assign your points as you progress. After the mission is over, you can power up your abilities using the methods described above, purchase items such as health kits and revives, and increase your total points. If not, you may come across an observer. The Observer is his mysterious NPC who sometimes cheekily taunts and offers his goods before explaining the background lore of a particular region. If you don’t like a particular ability, you can respecify your build here.
Each of Briar and Lute’s special abilities has the feel of being easy to learn but hard to master. They are all activated by some very simple button combinations. For example, consider a piercing lunge move that allows her to pop out by tapping her twice with the left stick forward and then pressing the Y button. Once you’ve learned how to combo each of Briar and Lute’s many abilities, including some of the most powerful attacks you can unleash, including some very cool synergistic abilities, there’s plenty of room to customize your playstyle at higher levels. But only after you’ve pulled off enough small combos to power up something called the Unity bar.
Normally, this score is given numerically after each battle, but adding a further nuance to this system, once your unity level is high enough, you can trigger both of them in a satisfying series of attacks, making everything on the screen enemies, but this ability should be saved for the right moment to make the most of limited Unity resources. Learning how to master a personalized moveset can be rewarding. So there’s definitely something for fans of games like Devil May Cry, God of War, and Bayonetta.
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Loreheads also have a lot to look forward to in Soulstice. Because the story seems rich enough to carry its own sense of urgency. Plus, there’s a Codex in case you miss an important detail along the way. I checked the codex and haunted the streets of Ilden and the cobbled, damp streets like corrupt guards wielding giant greatswords and making a concerted effort to pull them all apart. I enjoyed reading about some of the very interesting and dynamic monsters you’re seeing. Destroying armor before dropping a sizeable health bar to zero, Wraith activates a field of the appropriate color to incarnate and defeat him. You can zoom as it is.
Soulstice throws at you several variations of these monsters at once. And they often do so in some of the unique and difficult boss fights, each in their own way. In one such battle, you’ll have to go back and forth between hordes of monsters and the boss itself. I forget its name for now, but you can quickly deplete your health bar from a distance with a giant red laser arrow if you don’t plan your jumps properly. This might have been the toughest fight I’ve encountered since trying to beat the duo of Crucible Knight and Miss Bigot Warrior in Elden Ring.
With that said, I’m looking forward to Soulstice coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox platforms on September 20th.
