Vambrace: Cold Soul

 Switch
Vambrace: Cold Soul Image
Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5 Ratings

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  • Summary: The King of Shades has cursed the great city of Icenaire. Now cast under a permanent blight of frost fall, its former residents have returned from the dead as mad Wraiths. Survivors take refuge deep underground where they lead a desperate campaign against this unearthly power. WoefullyThe King of Shades has cursed the great city of Icenaire. Now cast under a permanent blight of frost fall, its former residents have returned from the dead as mad Wraiths. Survivors take refuge deep underground where they lead a desperate campaign against this unearthly power. Woefully outmatched, they are forced into hiding as the King of Shades amasses an army of the undead above them. One fateful day, a mysterious stranger appears in the city with an enchanted vambrace. She may now be their only hope...

    You are Evelia Lyric, bearer of the Aetherbrace and the only human capable of entering Icenaire. The survivors now look to you as their best hope against the King of Shades. Only one problem... you're woefully outmatched, and survival is not guaranteed.

    Vambrace: Cold Soul is a narrative-driven game filled with memorable characters, brutal challenges, and deep strategy. To succeed, you must choose perceptive party leaders, camp to recuperate, navigate strange encounters, and survive deadly combat. Will you scavenge for supplies to sell or use them to craft new items for your next expedition? The surface of Icenaire is cold and unforgiving. So, prepare your party well before departing... lest you join the cursed city's undead.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. GameSpace
    Sep 12, 2019
    85
    Be warned Vambrace: Cold Soul starts out challenging. If you realize what you're getting yourself into, and go in expecting that you'll die quite a bit early on, then your persistence will lead to a fun, visually beautiful and rewarding experience.
  2. NintendoWorldReport
    Aug 28, 2019
    75
    Once it clicks, Vambrace becomes a fun and brisk experience that trades in the desolation and grind of Darkest Dungeon for a more compact and less replayable adventure. There are costumes to earn from sidequests and achievements to earn that unlock in-game art, but there’s no new game plus to expedite the process. That said, there are a few times when you get to make key decisions that affect the story slightly and reward you with different costumes, so there is some incentive to return. Turn-based RPG enthusiasts and those who wanted more story out of Darkest Dungeon will find a lot to like here, but those who want a more streamlined or directed experience are given the cold shoulder.
  3. Pure Nintendo
    Sep 12, 2019
    65
    I liked Vambrace: Cold Soul, but it’s certainly not for everyone. It requires more patience than many gamers can afford, and that’s even among those who are already into roguelikes. If you can settle into its groove, however (and won’t lose it when you’re sucker-punched right out of that groove), there’s some good, challenging fun to be had here.
  4. Cubed3
    Aug 28, 2019
    50
    This is, for the most part, a disappointment. By no means a terrible game, Vambrace: Cold Soul plays it a bit too safe with its concepts, as most of them are straight up copied from better tactical rogue-likes and RPGs, and especially Darkest Dungeon. Gorgeous character design can only get you so far...
  5. Nintenderos
    Oct 21, 2019
    50
    As interesting as defective. The soundtrack, the story and the character design almost make us forget some development issues. The title urgently needs a patch. Repetitive but addictive.
  6. Digitally Downloaded
    Sep 6, 2019
    50
    Vambrace: Cold Soul is by no means a bad game. It's far too derivative and simple to reach the same league as Darkest Dungeon as a classic, but it's an enjoyable time waster, with superb production values and neat, clean, classical turn based combat action. The best way to play the game is probably on the Nintendo Switch, too, since it's the kind of background noise that works while you've got the sport or a movie on TV.
  7. Nintendo Life
    Aug 28, 2019
    40
    Vambrace: Cold Souls is one of the best-looking games we’ve seen on Switch – it really is a stunner – but in terms of gameplay, it's a pedestrian affair. Dungeons are boring and difficult, combat is bereft of any real strategic depth or flair and it thinks nothing of wasting hours of your time for zero reward. The story gets off to a cracking start and it's obvious that an amazing amount of artistic talent has been channelled into creating the City of Icenaire and its surroundings, but, in the end, it's all rendered a little pointless by the fact it’s attached to such a monotonous and dreary plod of an RPG.

See all 9 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. heybranny
    Feb 15, 2023
    7
    Picked this up on sale and wasn’t expecting much given the reviews but I actually enjoyed it. Wasn’t too difficult either.

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