Soulvars review – this ain’t no ordinary deckbuilder

My associate is obsessive about deckbuilding video games. A lot in order that I’ve absorbed lots of information concerning the style by means of watching them play numerous hours of Slay The Spire, Wildfrost, and plenty of others. I used to be excited to check out Soulvars as a result of it promised to mix the artwork model and story of video games that I like with the mechanics of her favourite style. What’s the purpose of attending to evaluate a recreation when you can’t share it with somebody you’re keen on, proper?

Writer Shueisha Video games describes Soulvars as a “pixel artwork turn-based deckbuilding RPG”, ticking so many bins in my thoughts of what makes recreation. So you possibly can think about my shock whereas enjoying the sport that I can’t discover any semblance of a deckbuilding mechanic in sight. Each different a part of the outline is there: stunning pixel artwork, conventional JRPG turn-based fight, however undoubtedly no deckbuilding.

After I was solely just a little bit into the sport I thought that I used to be in a tutorial stage and the deckbuilding would come later, however I nonetheless haven’t encountered it. Whereas enjoyable and distinctive, the Soulbit fight system heralded as Soulvars’ deckbuilding component simply can’t be described as that. In comparison with video games like Wildfrost, Slay The Spire, and Inscryption, the Soulbit system is actually only a strategy to chain combos. So when you solely take one factor from this evaluate, let or not it’s this: Soulvars isn’t a deckbuilder.

What Soulvars is is a superbly animated JRPG following Yakumo and his Soulbearer colleagues as they beat up harmful Dominators infesting the streets of Japan. You’re employed for the personal navy contractor DDO (Dominator Disposal Organisation) and use your varied Soulbit combos to take out threats day and evening. Apart from the very fundamentals, I can’t actually familiarize yourself with the story that Soulvars is attempting to inform, however I’m having time nonetheless.

That is undoubtedly a recreation for individuals who don’t thoughts doing a little bit of studying. Every loading display is full of helpful hints and there’s a reasonably complete fight tutorial on the very starting, nevertheless it’s full of lots of recreation universe-specific terminology so I’ll admit the vast majority of it fell out of my mind nearly instantly after studying it. At first I struggled with the varied gadgets and gear I picked up, not figuring out what to do with all of it. Fortunately, there’s a particularly helpful useful resource within the pause menu that helped me familiarize yourself with all the pieces quite a bit sooner – the DDO NaviMenu.

This menu has all of it! Tooltips, explanations of Soulbit combos, enemy knowledge, a glossary of phrases, and way more. My gameplay expertise since discovering this menu has been quite a bit smoother. Figuring out that I can look one thing up any time I’ve a difficulty makes Soulvars quite a bit much less irritating. Nevertheless, I do know that this sort of tutorial may be horrible for many individuals. Usually, I want video games to show me all the pieces I must know as I progress by means of a recreation and I feel that hiding all of this info in a not-immediately-obvious menu is inaccessible as hell, however at the least it exists and also you’re not left fully at the hours of darkness.

It’s clear that Soulvars is impressed by outdated JRPGs and that the builders poured lots of love into this mission. There’s the choice to use a VHS-style filter to the sport to make it really feel nearer to the inspiration supply materials which I respect, and the menu says you possibly can change between illustrations and pixel artwork. I’ve flicked this change a number of instances as a result of I actually love the illustration model of the sport’s key artwork, however I haven’t observed any change in my gameplay. The place are my illustrated group members?

I understand that this evaluate sounds extraordinarily unfavourable, however I’ve had a reasonably good time to date enjoying Soulvars regardless of it not being the sport I anticipated within the slightest. There’s one thing very satisfying about dungeon crawling and turn-based fight that should be why the style remains to be thriving in the present day. Operating into the identical enemy kind repeatedly will get a bit tedious, however I’ve solely actually skilled that subject by means of my very own fault, getting misplaced and never figuring out learn how to use the map. Every battle I begin makes me really feel stronger and I’m operating away from fewer and fewer robust enemies.

Efficiency-wise, Soulvars runs like a dream on the Swap. It’s not that shocking given the pixel artwork model and the console’s large catalog of present JRPG titles, nevertheless it nonetheless felt nice to play the sport for the primary time undocked and never need to throw my Swap out the window. Menus are sized properly for docked and undocked play, and I feel I want enjoying it undocked to nearly emulate enjoying a Sport Boy Advance recreation from my childhood.

My time with Soulvars to date has been irritating however satisfying, and it’s actually laborious to summarise the sport for evaluate given what number of twists and turns I really feel like I’ve skilled alongside the best way. I do know for a proven fact that long-time JRPG followers will most likely like this recreation quite a bit, and I can consider many different kinds of folks that will hate it. My finest recommendation can be to take a look at some gameplay clips and resolve for your self when you’ve bought what it takes to know Soulvars’ story and mesh with its mechanics.

When you’re one of many aforementioned JRPG followers, take a look at our Last Fantasy Pixel Remasters evaluate to get some perception into the pixel-perfect assortment. We’ve additionally bought a complete information to the most effective JRPGs on the Nintendo Swap.