Having played all Dark Souls titles and Bloodborne, I am always on the lookout for good titles that deliver nearly the same experience as that of Eldest Souls. Ever since I came across Eldest Souls, I was interested in playing the game since the developer had been showcasing some amazing combat footage from the game as trailers. Developed by Fallen Flag Studio and published by United Label and CI Games, Eldest Souls is a pixel-art, boss-rush title that is inspired by Dark Souls as well. This is our review of the PS5 version of Eldest Souls in which we slay some Old Gods using our greatsword made of pure obsydian.
Eldest Souls revolves around the story of a lone warrior who arrives in the Citadel to take on the Old Gods trapped within who are now evil. You are equipped with a greatsword made of the purest Obsydian which is the only element capable of defeating the old gods. On its core, Eldest Souls is a boss-rush title which means that you will be fighting only bosses in the game. However, for its combat, the game takes its inspiration from soulslike titles such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
Eldest Souls offers you three fighting styles to choose from for your build however instead of going for just one fighting style, you can mix and match skills and get a balanced build as well. In addition, your points are not locked once you invest them in skill trees. You can remove them and re-assign all of the points on the go to have any sort of build that you would want at any time. Each of the fighting styles is unique and come with their own hefty skill trees. After you have earned a Skill Point, you can invest them into any one of these trees to unlock a new skill or a boost or a bonus to an already unlocked skill.
These three fighting styles include Windslide, Berserk Slash, and Counter. Windslide is more along the lines of agility and speed while Berserk Slash is all about offense and powerful attacks to deal as much damage as possible while compromising on the defense side. Finally, you have Counter which is the defensive fighting style, and it offers you more protection at the expense of offense and DPS. You can mix and match skills and abilities to create a more diverse build but since I loved the Berserk Slash, my primary build was all about dealing damage to my enemies. It certainly made my defense poor, and I was dying with just two hits from a boss on average, but I was dealing a great amount of damage on my part as well.
Bosses play a vital role in Eldest Souls because there are no traditional enemies in the game, unlike Dark Souls. In Eldest Souls, your fights are only with the bosses and while you are not fighting with your enemies, you are exploring the Citadel and advancing towards your next boss. You do not get to fight other enemies in corridors or rooms as you do in Dark Souls or Bloodborne. This also means that if you die in a boss battle, you do not respawn back at the save spot but rather you are at the entrance of the boss fight’s arenas, so this ensures that the battles are instantaneous, and you do not lose your tempo. However, when it comes to dying, Eldest Souls is similar to the game it takes its inspiration from. You will die a lot in the game.
Before we go into why you will die a lot, let’s first talk about the combat of Eldest Souls. I would like to begin this section of the review by saying that Eldest Souls features one of the most fluid and amazing combat I have ever played in any video game. The controls are crisp, and the movement is precise. Never, will you say that I wanted to do this, but the controls made me do this. The movement and the fighting are extremely fluid and the fight remains in motion even if you are a safe player. One of the aspects that did bother me while fighting is the slow stamina-regen.
Dodging is important in a game like Eldest Souls however you can three bars for stamina and all three are out pretty soon since some of the bosses attack in combos as well and you have to quickly get out of the way to avoid all of the attacks. The stamina bars regenerate annoyingly slow and you are often out of stamina if the boss quickly follows with another attack. However, the developers had to do something in order to keep the game challenging and I guess this is their way of making the game more challenging.
For attacking the boss, you get your basic attack combo and if you press and hold the attack key, you land a charged attack which deals more damage but is slow however if you land this charged attack, you fill your attack meter and activate Bloodthirst. Bloodthirst is a charged state which increases your movement speed, your attack speed, your attack damage, and every hit that you land on your enemies, you would replenish your health back if you took damage earlier. You can also dash around if you have stamina.
Dash gives you a small invincibility window as well and if you dash through an enemy attack, you will regenerate your stamina quickly for a short time. While Eldest Souls gives you all these mechanics that make it sound easy, on its core, the game is not easy to play in any way. Despite you having the ability to gain your health back or making the stamina regenerate quickly, the game is still challenging. Most of the bosses were killing me with on average just 2 hits as they deal massive damage with their powerful attacks.
If you have full health, instead of health gain, you can also press Circle to unleash a powerful attack Bloodburst which drains your Bloodthirst meter in a single attack, but it deals massive damage to your enemies. Apart from this, as you continue to defeat bosses in the game, you will sometimes unlock get a Boss Shard. You can equip these Boss Shards in your character inventory screen in various slots. You can either use them to unlock an activated bonus skill or combine them with your other skills and abilities to further enhance them.
All of these mechanics combine together to deliver a really solid and challenging experience. The boss battles are strategic, and you will need to learn the attack patterns of each of the bosses in order to defeat them. Each boss has its own strong skills and some weak spots. As you fight them, you continue to die however you also learn from your mistakes and they tend to improve them the next time around, and then you eventually beat the boss and it is extremely satisfying. You will die a lot of times however dying is not that punishing in the title and it only makes you learn from your mistakes.
During my playthrough, I was able to defeat the first boss easily and on my first attempt as well however when I reached the second boss, The Guardian, I thought that I will not be able to progress in the game. I dyed over 20 times on this boss battle alone and truthfully, it is not the toughest boss in the game as well. The game requires patience and pointless hack-and-slash will only get you killed quickly. I only managed to defeat The Guardian after carefully learning its attack pattern and devising a strategy to balance my stamina and my attacks between his attacks. This is the case with all of the bosses in Eldest Souls.
Each boss in the game is unique and comes with its attack style and strategy. You will need to learn the attack patterns and counter all of them in order to slay these bosses. Eldest Souls might look like a pixelated, retro title but it is brutal and extremely challenging to win. This leads us to the boss design and the game’s visuals. I loved how the game’s environment looks dark and twisted and makes you feel like you are indeed playing a dark title. The boss design in the game is brilliant as well. While some of them will remind you of the title it is inspired from but the majority of the bosses have their own unique look and design and the attacks of all of the bosses are unique to Eldest Souls.
The bosses look intimidating, and their attacks and animations are really cool to look at. Nearly all of the bosses also have multiple phases as well where some add powerfully, new attacks in later sections of the fight and some even change their initial shape during later parts of the battle. The soundtrack is yet another strong suit of Eldest Souls. Each fight is accompanied by a soundtrack that really puts you in the mood for some killing. The music picks up the pace when a fight is approaching and apart from the main fights, there are certain sounds at key locations that will also make your spine tingle. Overall, the sound design of Eldest Souls is amazing and really suits the game well.
Eldest Souls feels like a complete package with its retro visuals, solid gameplay, and brilliant sound design. While it may have taken its inspiration from the Dark Souls franchise, and we have seen plenty of souls-inspired titles come out however very few have actually managed to deliver on the front. Eldest Souls on the other feels a much better title with the only problem of being a little small when it comes to content. Depending on how good you are with the combat, you will not take long to complete the title and finish it all. However, the game is filled with various challenging feats that you can try after beating the game.
For example, if you are looking for even more challenges, you can try hunting down those trophies which require you to beat all of the bosses without getting hit or completing the entire game without dying once. If you really want to amp up, complete the full game and then defeat all of the bosses in the Abyss mode. While Eldest Souls might not be the longest title out there, but it certainly gives enough challenging scenarios to really test yourself in the game. I will highly recommend the title if you love to play challenging titles and are a fan of the souls-borne titles.
Final Verdict:
We have seen a lot of Dark Souls inspired titles in the recent times however I can say that Eldest Souls is probably the best title inspired by the souls’ franchise. While the RPG-mechanics are not too detailed in the game, overall, the combat feels pretty solid, and the gameplay is brilliant. Despite featuring fast-paced gameplay, the game still requires a strategic approach for each fight, and you cannot just hack and slash your way past to the credits screen. The world of Eldest Souls feels dark and twisted, the soundtrack tenses you up and the crisp combat mechanics all combine together to deliver a tough and challenging experience that Eldest Souls aims at delivering. If you love the Dark Souls franchise and want to play an indie version of it, Eldest Souls will really put your souls experience to the test with its challenging boss fights and strategic combat. Highly recommended.
Final Score: 8.5/10
