Soulstice

There is something about a game that grabs your attention right out of the gate! Soulstice wastes no time throwing you right into the action, starting with a painstakingly beautiful stained-glass mural being shattered to pieces as we are thrown into an epic battle. But let’s take a step back for a minute. There’s more to this action RPG than button-mashing through the breakneck introduction.

Briar and Lute are soul-bound sisters merged into a Chimera, an ultimate weapon created through sacrifice. Working under the mysterious Order of the Ashen Blade, our protagonists travel through the ruined city of Ilden, at one time the commercial heart of the Holy Kingdom of Keidas, to find the source of the evil overwhelming the land. With one half of our protagonist pair, Briar, an unstable and unruly Ashen Knight, and the other, Lute, an ethereal spirit called a Shade, can the sisters overcome the evil and bring balance back to Keidas?

Combat is arguably the main draw of an action RPG, and Soulstice delivers on that front! Beating on the baddies as they emerged from portals was a joy, but I found myself torn about some of the combat gimmicks introduced in the first act. The need to switch between blue and red forcefields to destroy specific enemies felt a little forced, and adding in timed, color-coded forcefields that temporarily interrupted Lute’s powers felt unnecessary. Simplifying the combat would have made things much more fun, especially when fighting the first boss, which felt more like a test than a triumph.

Another area where Soulstice needs more polish is with its camera. On occasion, when you bash an enemy into a corner of a smaller room, the camera will whip around, completely obscuring the view of any enemies lurking behind you. Very annoying. However, even with these combat complaints, I was happy that I chose to press past the first act. The rest of the game featured more consistently enjoyable combat and epic boss fights that kept me cheering on Briar and Lute. As I progressed, these gimmicks became second nature, and I found myself getting more absorbed in Soulstice’s story.

Character progression in Soulstice can be explored as much or as little as one desires. You can upgrade Briar’s weapons and Lute’s passive abilities by gathering two resources in the field, red and blue crystals. Weapons are obtained by progressing through the story, and while I found myself sticking to the first secondary weapon I got for most enemies, I did enjoy the variety. On the downside of the upgrades, I eventually found myself locked out of half of Lute’s skill tree. Maybe I was just missing something important to allow me to upgrade her other passive abilities?

Story progression and cutscenes show the care put into the world and our protagonist. Lore periodically trickles out between fights through “Echoes.” These can best be described as interactive cutscenes accessed through Lute’s powers. Upon finding a clickable point of interest, players watch events play in the past, followed by our protagonists’ interpretation of what happened. Portraying past events to the player in this visual way, though not revolutionary, was a nice change of pace.

Our protagonists regularly report to their superior, Observer Layton, about their mission progress. Besides providing the aforementioned upgrades for our protagonist, he also gives you further insights into the lore. These conversations are a mix of mandatory and optional, allowing players to choose how invested they want to become in the Holy Kingdom. This wary partnership-to-unlikely friends dynamic between our protagonists and Layton also deepens story development.

Alongside the overarching narrative is the sisters’ relationship. Lute will also periodically engage in banter and conversation with Briar while exploring, commenting on the world around them. These little story details make the journey through the Kingdom of Keidas more meaningful and memorable, and I found myself more invested in the story than I expected when I began the game. The small cast of characters leads to some fascinating twists and turns, creating a surprising amount of depth in a shallow amount of time.

Soulstice’s soundscape swaps between purely atmospheric and battle-ready tracks. The combat music fits the theme, but between all of the swinging and dodging between the Corrupted and Wraiths, I found the music can get a bit lost. However, when you feel the battle swinging in your favor, like when there’s only one beefy target or a bunch of little grunts, you can take the time to enjoy the beats accompanying the spilling of monster guts! The background noise when exploring Ilden, however, can be a little bland and grating. The game’s soundtrack doesn’t reach the heights of, say, Bayonetta, but that’s completely fine!

Graphically, Soulstice shines beyond its AA origins. So much care was put into this world’s construction, and it shows. Though you are confined to one city, leading to asset recycling, the game does its best to showcase different districts. Though I played the entirety on the Steam Deck, I recommend trying it on a more powerful PC or a console. The game looks and plays fine on lower graphical settings, but the cutscenes, especially the flashier ones in the beginning, can look a little rough.

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.