Soulstice Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Soulstice (Xbox Series X)

Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
by Adam Dileva

It’s been a while since I’ve played something similar to an action focused combat game like Devil May Cry or a Bayonetta, that is, until now. Soulstice, developed by Reply Game Studios, takes some inspiration from classic games like Devil May Cry, but adds some twists and a genuinely interesting narrative that had me hooked as I became more powerful the further I progressed. You play as Briar and Lute, sibling sisters who are what’s known as a Chimera, working for The Order, part of the Holy Kingdom of Keidas. Interestingly though, your sister Lute is actually dead, living as a spirit that’s tied to Briar, even through death. She made a huge sacrifice that allowed the pair to become a Chimera, so they have a special bond that is seemingly unbreakable.

Sent on a mission to recover the city of Ilden from ruin, there’s a massive tear in the skies above the keep that has an invasion of Wraiths corrupting and taking over citizens of the city, causing everything to burn within. A Chimera is the only ones capable of protecting mankind, so it falls on you to do everything you can to survive and stop the invasion. It turns out that three Chimeras were actually sent, but since you were the last to arrive, you’ll need to search throughout the city amongst your enemies for your partners.

At first the narrative is a little confusing and convoluted, but given the 15-20 hour length, it eventually all plays out and comes together in a really interesting and compelling way. This is most primarily due to the fantastic voice acting from the sister duo (both are actually voiced by the amazing Stefanie Joosten, best known for Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) and main characters you meet along the way. I ended up actually caring about Briar, Lute and it brought me right into Soulstice’s world.

Briar will hack and slash her way through demons and enemies, trying to reach the tear to close it. Fully capable in combat, Briar also has plenty of abilities, also relying on her sister Lute for offense as well. Combat and exploration starts slowly in the beginning, but as you get closer to your objective and progress in the story it starts to pick up in all directions, going from a somewhat average action combat game to one that never lets off the gas.

Briar can explore the city, but it’s generally quite linear aside from a few short branching paths that are usually dead ends that house a few collectables or secrets. Interestingly, the whole game aside from battles actually has a fixed camera. This means you’re exploring the world the way the developers specifically designed, unable to move or rotate the camera. This gives a cinematic feel, but I did get lost a few times because I initially missed a platform or doorway I was meant to go through, unable to distinctly see due to the fixed angles. While these fixed angles are functional, sometimes it can get a little messy in the sense that it may move drastically when you reach the new ‘section’, whipping the camera to a completely different direction, taking you a slight moment to readjust and change the movement direction on the controller.

Because of the linear level design, you’re very confined to the path you’re supposed to take. Even though Briar can jump insanely high, double jump and even dash, you can’t cut corners even over tiny ledges due to invisible walls, forced to take the design pathways and staircases. The environments of the city, inside and out, have a very brooding and dark feeling, especially in ruins, but levels can run for very long and can feel repetitive in the later half. There was one section of a staircase and platform that I swore I already did previously outside the city walls, only to see it again shortly later on.

Combat begins quite basic, having you with a main and secondary attack based on the two weapons you wield. Your main weapon is a long sword that resembles like a homemade weapon that maybe Cloud trained with growing up, the secondary being a massive pickaxe looking weapon that is slower but can deal more damage to armor. While you don’t plate Lute directly, she also helps in combat with her powers also. While you only have some basic attacks and combos in the beginning, this will change a couple hours in when you start to spend specific currencies you gather from breaking wooden boxes, furniture as well as defeating enemies. As you string together different combos you’ll see enemy health bars deplete, though become used to almost always being surrounded by a half dozen enemies or more simultaneously. While it’s never a fair fight, Briar and Lute have plenty of abilities to make sure they come out on top and survive.

As you reach specific spots along your journey exploring the city, you’ll suddenly have portals open and enemies pour out to try and defeat you. In most instances you can’t really continue on until you defeat all enemies, so you’re forced to fight in a confined area before moving on. The camera unlocks during these fights, able to freely move or even do a camera lock on specific enemies, but you’ll almost always have to fight two or three waves of enemies. And this is the general structure to each level: explore, fight waves, explore, fight waves, repeat, sometimes culminating in a massive boss fight at the end of certain chapters.

Switching between main and secondary weapons during combat is seamless, and with different types of enemies, each weapon has strengths and weaknesses that will help you earn a better score in combat. You’re forced to always use your main sword, but the other secondary weapon can be swapped out later on as you earn and unlock new weapons, though this isn’t until a good handful of hours into the game. I wish I could have swapped out the main sword for one of the other weapons as well, but unfortunately it’s not an option.

You begin with only a single combo or two, but will unlock more as you progress once you purchase new moves and abilities, each different for every weapon. This slowly opens Briar’s combat prowess as you become more comfortable in battle, eventually able to easily toss enemies in the air, combo them, slam down and move onto the next enemy. You can see where the Devil May Cry influence comes in during combat. It took a good few hours for me to really get a good grasp on the combat mechanics, not because it’s overly complicated, but it can feel a bit ‘stiff’ at times, so you need to know what its limitations are. Movement is slow in general as well, but once you get a good feel for the flow of combat and best strategies, it will start to feel more natural. Unfortunately once that happens, new mechanics are introduced that force you to play completely differently than the first few hours, adding more to constantly monitor and balance.

You don’t play Lute in combat directly, as she will automatically help you by shooting enemies with her abilities, she acts more like your defensive shield, allowing you to block, parry and freeze enemies who attack you if you time it right. Tapping ‘B’ when the prompt shows on each enemy will allow Lute to do a specific counter, though this is limited based on her upgrades as well. Eventually you can upgrade Lute’s abilities for attack or defensive maneuvers based on your playstyle. The better you do in combat the higher the sisters’ Unity Meter will rise, eventually filling and allowing you to use a powerful special attack. Get hit and the meter drops, do better and it rises. These special moves eventually turn into some crazy and spectacular attacks that even have its own brief cutscene that can thankfully be skipped after seeing it a few dozen times already.

Even though you don’t control Lute directly other than blocks and parries, you do need to watch her to make sure she doesn’t become too overwhelmed and overloads herself. If this happens she will burst, leaving you vulnerable without any way to counter for a brief time until she returns. Once you have to deal with using her red and blue shields, that’s where combat becomes more of a chore. Eventually Lute can use these blue and red fields, used for a number of reasons. For example, if you find a stack of red crystals, hitting them won’t do anything. Instead you need to have Lute pop a red shield around you, making any red crystals vulnerable for attacks. The same goes for blue crystals, needing the blue shield around you to be able to destroy them. There will even be some platforming sections that look impossible until you see that there are platforms that you can only stand on when the blue field is being used, so you need to be switching between the two at times. I think you can see where this is going.

The same goes for enemies shortly in, red or blue, only able to be hit when their within Lute’s correctly colored bubble. She can’t hold this force field open forever though and will eventually overload if left alone. Hitting enemies will lower the gauge though, so you have to be aggressive while fighting these specific enemies or simply take down the field to let her recover a moment, leaving you vulnerable without being able to counter. You can probably see where this starts to become a chore, especially when you need to fight red and blue enemies simultaneously, also ensuring that you’re hitting and locked onto the correct enemy. Even worse, eventually you’ll need to fight these tough red enemies that once you defeat them, a blue spirit pops out, and if you don’t defeat those quick enough they will possess another enemy and you’ll need to start all over again. Keep in mind you’re rarely fighting one enemy at a time, so it can be chaotic at times.

Sure you’ll eventually get abilities and upgrades that can make combat easier and more manageable, but it does become a chore at the best of times. Picking up the red and blue currencies are how you’ll upgrade Briar (red) and Lute (blue) and purchase special items, and these constantly flow in throughout your journey. After each combat section you’re graded based on a bunch of different parameters like time, hits taken, etc, giving you more bonuses the better you do.

Surprisingly there’s a bunch of different accessibility options included as well, something I didn’t expect. While there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from in the beginning, you can also toggle a bunch of different options based on which types of assists you want or need. There’s an auto-combat mode where Briar will continuously attack until the enemy is dead, an option to have Lute automatically use her blue and red fields when in range of a crystal, platform or enemy, or even changing QTE presses into single press or holds. There’s a few other options as well but it’s great to see more options available for those that may want or need.

Briar, Lute and the main characters are designed quite well, and while there’s not too much enemy variety until much later, they are all designed well, being quite distinct from one another. The city in ruins makes for a very dark and brooding backdrop that sets the tone of the adventure right from its opening moments. Combat is generally quite fluid and the red and blue that is scattered throughout the world is a great contrast to the dark environments. The main characters are all voiced wonderfully and written quite well, pulling me right into the narrative even further. Music and combat audio kicks in at the right moment to pump you up, especially when fighting a massive boss blocking your path at the end of a chapter or enter a crazy berserk mode.

I was expecting a quick five or six hour journey with Briar and Lute, but it’s actually more a good 15 to 20 hours depending on your difficulty level, skill and how much you want to explore. That said, it does overstay its welcome and the last half did drag on a bit, as I eventually wanted to be finished with it and move on. Those that are looking for value though will no doubt have plenty to do with multiple difficulties and even two harder ones that can eventually be unlocked as well.

Far from a perfect game, Soulstice feels like it has a soul and some heart. Made by a smaller studio you can absolutely see the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta influences, and while it may not hit that level quite yet, it’s a great homage regardless, a game that should be enjoyed by fans of the genre.

**Soulstice was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 8.2 / 10
Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.0 / 10
Sound: 8.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Soulstice (Xbox Series X)

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