Last Oricru, The Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Last Oricru, The (Xbox Series X)

Friday, November 25, 2022.
by Adam Dileva

With how many Soulslike games release these days, it’s kind of difficult to not compare them to the best in the genre, making for quite a high bar for expectations. For some developers, this risk pays off if they can create something unique in its own way or is memorable. For others, they’ll get forgotten and compared like it's just another clone, trying to jump on the bandwagon we’ve seen endless times before. I don’t enjoy playing games for a challenge, I prefer more relaxing experiences where I can sink my teeth into the narrative or gameplay. That to me is fun, and yes, I’m aware that generally to play a Soulslike I need to ‘Git Gud’. For this reason, I generally don’t enjoy Soulslike games, forcing me to grind or repeatedly die numerous times just to finally beat an area or boss. My time is precious and limited, but I can absolutely understand those that do enjoy this challenge.

Heavily inspired from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Mortal Shell, Lords of the Fallen, and a bit of Gothic for good measure, The Last Oricru, developed by GoldKnights, originally debut as ‘LostHero’ but got a name change to the title we know today. If you’re familiar with the term ‘Soulslike’, you’ll basically know what to expect, though there is a heavier emphasis on narrative choices that will drastically change your game. You awaken somewhere strange without any memories other than a few blurry images in your mind, going by the name of Silver. The world you’re in seems to be in the midst of a serious conflict between two races, the Naboru and the Ratkin. While it seems the setting is set in a high fantasy backdrop, fighting with swords, shields and magic, there does seem to be a semblance of technology, though mostly forgotten.

I’ll admit, there’s a lot going on in the beginning that was hard to grasp. There’s something about the planet being partially terraformed, some sort of barrier keeping it safe, a mysterious item called “The Cradle”, and then there’s a mysterious AI head that is speaking to you at certain points. Sure, it all comes together later on, but the overall narrative isn’t terribly exciting or easy to follow at times.

Where The Last Oricru succeeds is having you pick sides and changing the world based on your choices. Do you side with the Naboru in their quest for dominance, or help the Ratkin that have been enslaved and simply trying to survive. With quite a bit of slavery and racism undertones, especially towards the Ratkin, I opted to help the Ratkin on my first playthrough, as there’s plenty of subtext if you can read between the lines of what’s being said to Silver from both sides. There’s no absolute morally ‘right' or ‘wrong’ choices, only a muddy grey area that you’ll need to play through numerous times to see all of the narrative angles and backstory.

This seems like a great backdrop to an interesting tale, and I’ll admit, I was intrigued at first, but once your protagonist starts to talk more and more, he becomes quickly insufferable with the poor writing and even worse voice acting. Being a burly dude with a half shaved head and beard, the voice that comes out of him is this frail and posh Sherlock Holmes accent that really doesn’t match the visual. He has so many terrible lines and ‘jokes’ that even I barely smirked when it was clearly trying to be a punchline. Having a main character that is unlikeable from the opening moments should have been a red flag.

What The Last Oricru does do well though is change the world around you and its outcomes based on your decisions. I sided with the Ratkin, so I was fighting the human Naboru race for the opening few levels. Starting over again and siding the other way, not only was I then fighting the Ratkin instead, but I got some different backstory that helped make sense of the overall conflict where both factions have their reasoning, good and bad, and you’re trying to decide who to believe and side with. Siding with one faction over the other doesn’t only change the enemies you face, but even the gameplay flow and maybe certain pathways. Many of the achievements are based on your narrative choices, so it will take numerous playthroughs to get them all. The game also forces an auto save every time you make a decision and action, so there’s no reloading an older save to see a different outcome unfortunately.

What I will give The Last Oricru credit for is its inclusion of multiple difficulty options. With a few different choices, I began on the Story Mode, intended to be a much easier difficulty so I could enjoy the world, narrative and setting without too much frustration, hopefully. For the first half I was doing alright, but there were some serious random spikes in difficulty with certain enemies and bosses that caused numerous deaths. I’ve already admitted to not enjoying Soulslikes for its difficulty, though I don’t expect many genre fans will find much difficulty overall with how basic the combat is comparatively.

Oddly enough, in the Prologue section, you’re taught the basics of combat, then are thrown into a forced stealth mission almost right away. Problem is, there’s no indicators to show you where enemies are, no crouch, no nothing in terms of stealth mechanics, and you’re simply supposed to know the layout of the starting area even though you’ve barely explored it to this point. Remember how I said the game force auto saves on you? Well, once I failed this stealth mission in about 5 seconds flat, my ‘choice’ was made and I had to live with those consequences that played out narratively. That said, my choices weren’t always completely ‘locked in’, as you’re given opportunities every so often to swap factions, but not often.

Tell me if you’ve ever played a Soulslike that has these mechanics before: When you rest at the save points your healing items are refilled, health restored and all enemies respawn. Check. How about defeating enemies for essence (souls) which is used as a currency to level up at said checkpoints? Double check. Having to manage your stamina meter, making sure not to block too many items, dodge too often or run too far. Yup, triple check. Heavily inspired by the classic Souls games is almost an understatement, being basically a copy of all of the core mechanics, even down to the ‘fog’ (see through blue here) doors that indicate a boss room ahead. Sure, when a game series does as well as a Soulslike you want to replicate that, but there’s got to be some originality at the same time, something lacking here.

Instead of one large interconnected world, each level is its own section that has a loading screen when you move back and forth if you decide to backtrack for whatever reason. There’s also seemingly only one save point within each, at least that I could find. While primarily linear for the most part, there is of course numerous branching paths between point A and B, housing many secrets and things to find for those that take the time to explore the world. Don’t expect any map, compass or indicator though of where you need to go, simply relying on your exploration and memorization skills. Now and then you’ll unlock shortcuts for quicker access later on as well.

Before I delve into the combat, I needed to mention the ‘A’ button specifically. This is how you jump, which is perfectly fine even if the animation is quite simplistic and ‘floaty’, but the problem is that the same button is used to pick up any drops or gear on the ground, to open doors and interact with switches. You can probably guess where I’m going with this. Need to open a door quickly or want to pick up gear as you run past? Well, you’re going to jump instead. You better hope there’s not an object near an edge and gap you want to jump across, because it’s basically a gamble as to which one it will prioritize in that moment.

Self-described as “The combat is complex and aims to create a tough but rewarding experience”, this is somewhat true, but not because of the actual design. Sometimes it’s tough because your build is ‘wrong’, other times because some of the enemies can decimate you in a single hit or combo if you’re not prepared properly. Be prepared to die a lot, which is usually a badge of honor in many Soulslike, but more frustration based here.

Combat is simple enough to understand, with Right Bumper being your main attack and Right Trigger its secondary. Left Bumper is for dawning my shield (if you use one) and the Left Trigger for its secondary. Weapons have interesting and unique secondary abilities, as I was quite fond of my sword that engulfed my blade in fire with its secondary ability. My shield was able to do minor heal with its secondary, which I purposely increased certain stats for to be able to use. Every item has a specific requirement for stats to be able to use. While I wanted to use a sword and shield combo to play more defensively, I opted to wear lighter armor and use quicker weapons, dumping a lot of my skill points into dexterity. Of course I would get the odd new items here and there that meant I needed a few points into strength or elsewhere to use, always enticing you to wanting to try it out.

You can certainly create some interesting builds, but it will take some time to really learn all of Oricru’s intricacies and find what works and doesn’t. Turns out my initial build was quite terrible in the latter half of the game, as you’ll barely do any damage if you focus on tanking, or be one-shot if you don’t pump some points into vitality to wear some heavier gear. Once you figure out a few of the items that are borderline overpowered, or which to avoid, things will be much easier from this point on. There is a magic component and build that can support this, but magic is done very oddly here. Magic doesn’t refill via potions or items for the most part, instead you have this starter weapon that will drain and sap enemies when melee attacked, thus refilling your mana. Yes, as a weak mana user, you’ll need to get up close and melee enemies to refill your mana, so why wouldn’t you just stay melee in the first place then? You can equip two sets of primary and secondary weapons/shields, easily swappable on the fly given the situation or needed secondary use. While most enemies that are cannon fodder are no big deal, bosses are either so simple that even I beat them in a single try, or get destroyed in a single hit from them, there was no real middle ground.

At the save points you’ll spend your essence to level up your character, adding to your stats, allowing you to equip and use new gear based on certain requirements. You can break down gear you won’t be using for materials and even upgrade your gear multiple times should you have the correct amount of materials. Be cautious though, as this isn’t explained at all, so I decided I would upgrade a bunch of my gear without much thought since I had the proper amount of materials. Well, doing so and making your gear a higher level also ups the stat requirements to use, so you can probably guess what happened. Yup, I was unable to use my preferred weapon until I went and leveled up some more to increase my stats to the number required to wield once again.

Having online and splitscreen co-op I initially thought would be Oricru’s saving grace. Well, while I appreciate the effort, some of the design choices I’d question. For starters, you need to be at a save point to open your game to multiplayer then send an invite. There’s no matchmaking, so it’s friends only unfortunately. Your invited friend shows up as a hologram of you and shares your inventory. Any items you’re not currently using they’ll be able to equip and use, so you better keep some backup items.

I initially thought that the items my friend was looting was being ‘stolen’, but they got put into our shared inventory, something that would have been appreciated to have been explained. When I went to a cutscene and talking to some NPC, my friend could still wander around, coming into my cutscene’s camera, completely ruining the immersion as he tried to constantly attack me and them. The worst part though, I hope you have a very giving friend, as they make absolutely no progress for their own game or character, simply there to help you, not even earning the achievements from my choices made either.

Being built on Unreal Engine 4, there’s definitely some pros and cons to its visuals and aesthetics. In terms of character models, animations and level design, there’s nothing really all that special here. What is done quite well is that some of the environments (except the bleak underground mine sections) and the backdrops can be stunning at times. The overall visual design is done quite well with its high fantasy setting with some technology mixed in, and certain vistas are absolutely worth a screenshot or two, but there’s nothing that will overly impress you, especially the deadness in characters eyes and poor facial animations.

Then there’s the audio, also a mixed experience. Spells and weapons clanging sound perfectly suitable, but the voice acting really brings down the whole experience, especially with how narrative driven it is. This is exasperated with Silver’s terrible writing and even worse delivery, and again, a posh sounding voice coming out of him simply doesn’t seem to visually match the character at all. Some of the secondary characters do a decent job, but Silver’s poor delivery is so distracting that it’s all I could think of and remember when I started to sit down and write.

At $29.99 USD (currently on sale), I’d be upset if it was priced any higher. For how clunky the overall experience is, I will admit there’s plenty of replay value if you can ignore all of its shortcomings, issues and suffer through Silver's delivery. While some might not being locked into their choices permanently, it makes you deal with the consequences of your actions, also a clever way to force multiple playthroughs if you want to experience everything The Last Oricru has to offer and I did enjoy going with my gut reaction rather than seeing a ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ option. Unless you’re a massive Soulslike fan looking for a new game to stream or master, it’s hard to recommend joining the Ratvolution.

**The Last Oricru was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 5.0 / 10
Gameplay: 6.0 / 10
Visuals: 5.0 / 10
Sound: 3.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Last Oricru, The (Xbox Series X)

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