Early Hours: Eldest Souls
It’s abundantly clear how much adoration Fallen Flag Studio has for FromSoftware’s renowned and critically acclaimed Souls series, along its various branching games. An indie studio taking inspiration from Souls is nothing inherently new, with Hollow Knight being the shining example of success in this space. But what Fall Flag attempts to achieve with their debut title is blending Souls-likes within a boss rush format. Both of these genres have always felt as if they were inside the same piggy bank, but only now with Eldest Souls are existing on two sides of the same coin. If I may be honest, learning Eldest Souls fell within the range of the boss rush genre raised a red flag.
Where boss rush games and Souls-likes distinctly differ are the fodder enemies. In Souls-likes, there will be an army of enemies scattered throughout the open world create a slight challenge on your way to the next fog gate. Boss rush games do not have minions scattered throughout their worlds, only leaving arguable the core reason people play these games; the bosses. On the surface, eliminating fodder enemies may be a huge plus, but this also eliminates a strategy for some Souls players, particularly newcomers. Fodder enemies provide the opportunity to grind and aid in crafting the RPG elements of your character, especially when faced with a brick wall that a challenging boss may securely plant in your path. In boss rush games, you have what you need to succeed from the start. It all just depends on you. The concern was simple: does blending these genres make the result too difficult or feel unfair? Well in my brief time spent with Eldest Souls, it’s hard to provide a definitive answer to this question. But what I can already confidently say is that Fallen Flag’s debut has it's hooks in me, crafting a game I will periodically come back to no matter how defeated I may grow.
Before we get into the thick of it, I want to be clear to those reading how much I’ve gotten through at the time of writing. According to a review guide provided to media, there are nine Old Gods. I have defeated the first two, with three and four taking turns bullying me in the schoolyard. With that context, its important to take this piece as an early impressions piece of my initial thoughts on the systems in place, the combat, and how they effect the flow of the game rather than a full fledged review. As I mentioned, this is the type of game I will revisit to chip away at throughout the weeks and months ahead of me. This doesn’t reflect my thoughts on the game. This is honestly just how I typically play Souls-likes on my first approach. So now that we’re all caught up, let’s talk.
Since Eldest Souls is a genre-blend, I feel the best way to express my thoughts on the game thus far is by breaking down each ingredient of the recipe; Souls-like and boss rush. The Soul-like elements directly effect how the boss rush side feels, so its only appropriate to begin with the inspiration behind of Fallen Flag’s foundation.
The Vault Hunter’s Dream
While Eldest Souls’ core combat and over aesthetic is a blatant love letter to FromSoftware, what I found most intriguing about its unexpectedly complex and layered RPG system is the likeness to Borderlands. Coined as the Ability Sandbox progression system, the game offers you three distinct fighting styles; Windslide, Berserk Slash, and Counter. Each of these distinct styles cater to your typical range of Souls players, which feels like a remarkably thoughtful decision from Fallen Flag. Windslide promotes utilizing mobility to control the arena, which may be familiar to Dark Souls players. Berserk Slash encourages an aggressive offense, the state in which Bloodborne players feel most comfortable. Counter is for the patient hand with precise timing, similar to how you’d find success in Sekiro. FromSoftware fans all have our favorite series, so the ability to cater your skills and play style directly is quite refreshing. Being a Bloodborne lover, Berserk Slash made sense for how I play. The branching options is the extent of the Borderlands comparison. Unlike Gearbox’s system, once you choose a skill tree, you are locked out of the other two. There is no dipping into other trees. Thankfully, you can respec if you change your mind.
The Ability Sandbox takes an even further step into its customization with the use of Shards and the Infusion System. This is Fallen Flags twist on what Dark Souls does with Boss Souls. Take everyone’s favorite good boy, Sif. Defeating Sif rewards the player with the Soul of Sif. These Boss Souls can either be popped for a mass amount of souls to level up, or utilized to craft special weapons. In Sif’s case, the Greatsword of Greatshield of Artorias. But in Eldest Souls, you are not only rewarded with a skill point to use towards the one of three trees, but also given their take on a Boss Soul; a Shard. One way Shards are useful are as an active ability, which in my experience early on, can effect the environment to clear paths or potentially uncover secrets. But the more interesting utilization is with Infusion. The Shards you gain from bosses can be infused to passively effect combat abilities in unique ways; dash, charged attack, Bloodburst (more on that later), and the two specific skills tailored to each of the trees. Each Shard can effect the various abilities in a multitude of ways depending on your combination; one Shard can cause a massive lighting strike with Bloodburst, while the other may create an AOE of healing.
The customization options and ability to truly tailor the combat, abilities, and skill to a players specific play style is not only fascinating, but very impressive; especially for an indie developer’s debut title. The combat is very much a Trial By Fire scenario, where the systems in place promote experimentation urging the player to ask “Boss A is doing this, so what can I do differently?” when getting absolutely battered. But as it pertains to a Boss Rush style game, I fear these systems are a bit too complex, getting in the way of its core combat and path to finding success. Defeating bosses is the only way (at least in the opening hours) to gain skill points, so if you hit a wall with those early bosses, you’re stuck. You have all the game can offer at that moment, but unfortunately it just might not be the right combination to crack the code.
Old Gods, New Tricks
Before getting into how the combat feels in practice, I want to make one thing perfectly clear - Eldest Souls’ bosses and their accompanying arenas are staggeringly beautiful in their design, scale, creativity, and execution in pixel art. I think the most frustrating part of being stuck on bosses three and four at the moment is not being able to see the others in action. Thankfully, I can spoiler myself courtesy of the supplied reviewers guide, but seeing the Old Gods brought to life with stunning animation work is quite something. But being able to actually see them in action? Well, that depends on you.
The offensive side of the combat itself feels great. You have the typical attack variety, light and heavy, paired with your ability chosen from the three trees. An aspect I adore is a mechanic borrowed from Bloodborne, but similar to Fallen Flag’s take on Boss Souls, it has a bit of a twist. Charge attacks propel you into a forward slash which triggers Bloodburst. Bloodburst is a temporary buff that allows you to regain health with each attack that follows. Akin to Bloodborne, this encourages an aggressive strategy.
But with aggressiveness comes the need to back off quickly, and that’s where I being to feel the cracks in the floor tripping me up. The dash mechanic is gauged by three bars, each with a cooldown. You can dash up to three times in a row, but will have to wait for that cooldown to regain full evasion. At least in these opening hours, the dash feels remarkably restrictive. Even when I feel out of the range of attack, three dashes was barely ever enough to get away from a combo flurry. Getting caught with my cooldown around my ankles, I’m met with instant, uncontrollable death. Additionally, the dash doesn’t always feel accurate nor responsive, which can lead to a frustrating demise. These cracks in the floor is where the game does feel a bit unfair at times.
Die, Die My Darling
The big question folks tend to ask when a game like this comes along always pertains to the difficulty. I’ve personally always been in the boat that does not think FromSoftware’s Souls games are difficult. Challenging, yes of course. But each of the game’s design serves as a teacher guiding you through its world. You do your homework, you study for the quizzes, and then a giant lizard, tree, or spider monstrosity will reward you with a passing grade. But in my time with Eldest Souls thus far, I feel like a second grader in a college calculus class.
The combat itself, save for a questionable dash, mechanically works and feels great. The biggest challenge I’m facing so far is that Eldest Souls doesn’t give the Soul-like side a chance to breathe. I mentioned the complexity and restrictiveness possibly being a bit much. If given the opportunity outside of the arenas to experiment or hone my skills further, I feel like the success rate may be much higher. The Boss Rush mantra is “you have all the tools you need, just do it”, but that becomes clunky when you’re dragging a toolbag with unknown contents around to the God of Light’s house. Ironically, the first boss was the only one I’ve experienced that felt fair; challenging, but after studying for the quiz, I passed. The second boss was welcomed with a massive difficulty spike, along with the introduction of the Ability Sandbox and Infusion systems that were quite overwhelming. As I’m getting crushed by the second Old God, I can’t but to think I’m missing something. Eventually, I do get through it, but it felt out of pure luck and not from a place of growth. Juggling back and forth between bosses three and four, I find myself once again at an even bigger loss. At least at the moment, that is. No matter how much I dodge, pace myself, or change up strategy and skills, I can’t tell what’s actually working for me. This very much may be growing pains in the opening hours. With more skill points and Shards may come more confidence in the load outs and skill trees. But so far my initial feeling is that Eldest Souls’ complex RPG mechanics, while utterly fascinating, may be getting in the way of a fun, exhilarating, more traditional boss rush game.
Continue?
I fear I may be coming off a bit too harshly in my criticisms, but that purely because of how much I adore the Souls-like genre and always find picking the foundations apart captivating. As I stated rom the beginning, Eldest Souls is a game I will continue to revisit and periodically chip away at until I achieve the ultimate victory. The core combat and Old Gods themselves have their hooks in me. The systems presented to new players will be overwhelming, but my hope is that in time it will slowly begin to make more sense and click further. The biggest concern wondering if players will be willing to give Eldest Souls the patience it requires. But if you believe you have that patience and you’re ready for a familiar challenge with a few twists along the way, the Old Gods will welcome you with open arms.
Written by Mike Towndrow