On June 7, I had the opportunity to discuss with the team in charge of Soulstice, as well as a presentation and access to a demo of the game. In addition to having answered my questions and having told me a lot about the inspirations and others, I confess that I was eager to get my hands on the title. You have to realize that this is a demo, and that many things are likely to change until the game's release on September 20th. Are you ready to get to the heart of the matter?
Compte rendu
The team gave us a report and provided an explanation of the manga-like inspirations of this game. ): Claymore.
The story of a woman who joins an organization called "Claymore", made up of half-human, half-demonic warriors and responsible for fighting the demons that kill humans. However, with the power being exhilarating, they risk losing control and becoming overpowered demons themselves. Nevertheless, women are more suitable than men in this work because the latter are more inclined to give in to their primary impulses and to the power they hold.
The story makes the parallel between Briar & Lute and Claire (the heroine) who accept the metamorphosis to save the people from the evils that ravage them, while being aware that they may be the ones who will ravage them if they are too weak. . Interesting concept that provides us with a basis to reflect on and see the title from a more particular angle.
We also had the right to ask questions, personally I focused on the difficulty of the title and the exploration. But nothing beats a good grip to get an idea, and I will develop this below, in order to give an opinion in real conditions. Time ran out because I wanted to ask more questions about the origins of the order and the people's view of it. Maybe next time !
My last question was mainly about the fact that one player controls Briar and the other Lute much like in the excellent Child of Light where one player controls Aurora and the other Lumine. It was explained to me that it was mainly for character gameplay reasons and, having put my hands on the game, I completely understand why. The game would be unmanageable with Lute's speed of action and effects.
History
We control Briar and Lute, two sisters who have merged into a chimera to fight the plagues of this world. Briar has become a super-powered warrior while Lute, who was sacrificed, is an attack and defense magic support attached to her. Your role is to eliminate the malevolent spirits, specters and other abominations that have infested the cities that have become ruins. But will your role stop at simple disinfection, or is your destiny even darker?
Graphics & atmosphere
The game is really very visually pleasing. The effects, the environment and the characters are really successful and offer us a very gloomy vision of this world and what it has become. We take pleasure in walking in this dark world, and sometimes, we feel a little the emptiness of an abandoned castle and the loneliness that goes with it.
On the soundtrack side, it's quite equal, well done, but we stay in the ordinary. On the other hand, the dubbing is well done and quite realistic, the life that inhabits the protagonists is, shall we say, speaking.
Gameplay
The heart of the game, as I like to say. In my opinion, for a Hack'n'Slash, it has to be rhythmic and not too heavy to hit the bull's eye, without getting too bogged down in infernal complexity tricks. Here, we have the right to a game designed to be played with a controller that will facilitate the exchange of weapons to make combos of madness with ease. We will find ourselves having to change weapons according to the enemies and to find what works best according to the skills unlocked in the talent tree (see below), Lute counters, and the number of enemies.
For the moment, only three weapons have been shown in the demo, but we know that several others are announced, such as the bow. I was able to test the basic sword, the enforcer (kind of a big slow and powerful blade), and the whip which does extensive area damage. But a QTE component will also have pride of place with Lute which can, if you manage to tap the right key (F by default for a keyboard / B for an Xbox controller), block the projectiles, a vital component for the first boss that the we will meet.
Later in the final game, we will be able to have access to rather powerful finishes depending on the weapons, as well as temporary power boosts that will drastically allow you to make better combat scores. Scores that will be counted at the end of each chapter to obtain resource rewards that will be used for talent trees.
Briar will be able, by visiting the appropriate NPC, to unlock weapons and skills related to them in order to expand his catalog of moves and succeed in making sequences that are not too complicated. While Lute, a character that you can only control via the banishment fields (to destroy red crystals and certain enemies) and the evocation field (for blue crystals and ghosts), as well as counters, will have a tree of much more important and crucial talent for the rest of the adventure.
Summary
From what I've seen, Soulstice has a clean and fast technique, an interesting visual, a decent soundtrack and a story that I could only glimpse but which seems promising to me. However, it's hard to decide only with a demo and a presentation, because even if I really like it, I'm waiting to try the final version to tell you to go for it. So I'm going to settle for a "to watch with a good eye", hoping that it continues in the right direction, while having the little je ne sais quoi that will make the title something unforgettable.
