Soulstice

My 14 hours purging Ilden of evil was an enjoyable experience, even with all of the gimmicks presented throughout the journey. Replayability is encouraged with various difficulty options, though I’m unlikely to play through it again. I would, however, love to experience the rest of the Holy Kingdom of Keidas in a sequel to Soulstice! This game is a good first step, but it will be up to future entries to refine the experience into the series it could become.

While the characters and story don’t do enough to push it over the top, Soulstice delivers a great action game that just about anybody can enjoy.

Soulstice finally brings a bit of Italy into the realm of hack 'n' slash, fully succeeding thanks to the excellent characterization of the game world and a layered and satisfying gameplay. Too bad for some problems with the room and an artistic sector not always up to par. It looks like one of the best surprises of the year.

Soulstice is first of all a technical action game a la Devil May Cry and, while not reaching the peaks of the genre, it defends itself very well and knows how to entertain. The variety of weapons and situations is discreet, but unfortunately the setting repeats itself too often, boring the player's eye. The plot is accurate even if not original or exciting, but it does its duty. If you are looking for a game that lets you have fun with controllers in hand, you have found it. It is a first step, mind you, and there is room for improvement in view of a following, but perhaps for this reason it would be worth supporting an Italian team that has something of its own to say.

Soulstice is a truly great action game, which despite taking many cues from stylish action titles of the past, carves out enough of an identity to stand out on its own. The system of controlling both sisters and maintaining auras while slashing through foes is intuitive and simple to master. Although the plot leaves many threads hanging, the development of the central sibling relationship and setting were enough to draw me into Soulstice’s world and want to see more. If you’re a fan of challenging action games and can forgive a slightly annoying camera, Soulstice is definitely worth checking out.

Soulstice absolutely works as a love letter to action games of the bygone PlayStation 2 era. Vitally, however, it does so without losing a clear identity of its own. Its combat system is unique in the way it asks players to actively monitor mechanics while also avoiding enemy attacks and dishing out flashy combos in true character action game fashion. Its boss battles leave quite a bit to be desired, and the level design may be a bit too narrow at points, but Soulstice manages to make up for these shortcomings with an emotional story and a unique brand of observation-based gameplay that ensures its status as a confident addition to the genre.

Soulstice is a pleasant surprise, in an era where the soulslike style predominates, to see a double AA production that bets on hack and slash and it works is great news for the genre. An attractive combat system, along with an outstanding graphic and artistic style, a remarkable soundtrack and a storyline that will make us want to move forward.

Though it may seem like an homage to the famous Japanese title, Soulstice is an action game with its own interpretation of the genre and gives a different type of joy. Its splendid visual and crisp action control enhance the overall experience. However, dizzy and limited point of views with repetitive backgrounds are the ones that hinder the immersion.

Soulstice from Reply Game Studios brings a strong story, a good amount of action, and paints a perfectly drab world to tie it all together. The backend gameplay design helps to add more value to the experience while motivating the player to keep exploring and pushing forward. The only caveat to the experience is the locked camera that will frustrate and hinder the gameplay at times. Overall, it’s a fun game, but it could use a fully controllable camera to make it even better.

Soulstice turned out to be a good stylish action game, with a solid combat system embellished with good ideas, able to tell its excellent protagonists, Briar and Lute, both through the battle and with the cutscenes. The story of Ilden's veil torn above the sky is intriguing, with beautiful twists and a well-studied mythology, it is therefore a pity that the setting is not able to sustain this charm, despite the very good basic technique, trapped in a artistic direction that is often too generic and redundant.

Soulstice is a beat them all with excellent gameplay and we can thank the duality of possibilities offered by Lute and Briar for that. The story is mysterious and transports us for about fifteen hours into a tragic story. Nevertheless, we deplore some technical defects, the layout of some levels or arenas, as well as the third-person view which may put off some people.