Let’s tear that plaster off now: Eldest Souls is a Souls-like indie action game. Before you flee in horror and scream: “Not another one of them!” You should know that the game adds a nice twist by removing feed enemies and shortcut exploration so you can focus directly on elaborate, badass boss fights. Additionally, the struggle and progression of Eldest Souls provide bright ideas that make its challenge not only bearable but strategically satisfying as well. Yes, the game has some of the well-known trappings of the subgenre, but it manages to transform the “rush” into “boss rush”.
You are a lone warrior wielding a giant sword with a simple task: infiltrate a citadel imprisoning ancient gods who destroyed the world and kill each of them. That’s it. Scattered notes and the occasional NPC provide additional, sometimes exciting, context for this world gone wrong, but I was more preoccupied with getting my sword dirty than thinking about the how and why of it all.
Eldest Souls has its FromSoftware inspirations on its sleeve, but luckily it’s not that tough. For one thing, you don’t collect currency so you don’t lose anything if you die. Endurance only determines how many times you can dodge, which means you can swing your sword all day with no consequences. Armed with a heavy broadsword, your basic attacks are intentionally slow until you feel slightly unresponsive. It’s not a deal breaker, but it might feel tighter and it took me a while to get used to the fight.
My favorite aspect of Eldest Souls is that you don’t collect health points. Instead, you gain health by landing charged sword blows. This system does an excellent job of encouraging and rewarding aggression, and keeping my morale from crashing if I was pounded. Losing 90 percent of your health in the first few seconds of a fight? A few hard hits can patch you up like nothing happened. However, it takes a second to recharge this attack, so the reward is a risk. Still, I love the way this mechanic encourages me to keep the fight going, no matter how bleak things look, and has resulted in some incredible victories coming from behind.
The Old Gods provide a fun and extremely challenging combat glove that got me to use every skill. Every boss is fun, even those who took a dozen tries or so to topple. Favorites include a gravity-controlling mage and a deer god who is much more than meets the eye. Even the last great evil made me grin with excitement as I severed its seemingly bottomless well of insult. Enemies are multi-trick ponies who throw full screen traps, bullet-hell-style projectiles, and often change tactics or take on new forms in the middle of battle. Surviving their attacks can be annoying and I’ve seen the Game Over screen hundreds of times. Sometimes the sheer number of attacks to watch out for can get insane, but I always knew what I was doing wrong and ultimately succeeded by studying attack patterns while properly managing stamina. Instant respawns also kept me busy, as did the ability to try my luck against other enemies as several can be challenged at the same time.
To win the day, you’ll need to master the three fighting styles of Eldest Souls: Wind Cut, Berserk, and Counter. In layman’s terms, these are speed, attack, and defense. You can only equip one class at a time, and each has its own skill tree with skills and buffs, but you can always switch for free by respecting skill points. Whether I was producing homing projectiles with Windslash or unleashing devastating parrying attacks under the counter-tree, I found each class entertaining in its own way. As someone who is rarely respectful in a game, Eldest Souls has successfully pushed me to change my tactics when I hit a wall. Eldest Souls isn’t about figuring out which class a boss is weakest against, like rock-paper-scissors, it’s about figuring out which approach best suits your style of play. The ability to grant shards earned by bosses provides additional customization options for deceptively deep character formation.
In between killing gods, you’ll do light exploration, chat to characters like an ubiquitous bard, or curiosities like a talking frozen skull. These characters usually ask you to bring an artifact for them, so it is important to explore thoroughly to find well-hidden items. You can completely ignore these fetch quests as they will not affect the critical path, but you can earn perks like increased movement speed. It’s nothing special, but it fills the adventure well without feeling like unnecessary padding.
Oddly enough, the more Eldest Souls handed me my bum on a bloodstained platter, the more it grew on me. Breaking walls opened my eyes to the intelligent nuances of combat and made every mammoth confrontation even more exciting. When the game clicked, I jumped into the action with joy, excited to add another monstrous head to my proverbial wall. A New Game + mode increases the stakes of these titans and keeps you on your toes. Eldest Souls is a breeze if you already like punitive games of this nature, but the indulgent health system and sophisticated challenge can tempt newcomers to brave its dangers.
