The recent release ofEnotria: The Last Songinto the continually growing Soulslike genre was always bound to draw plenty of comparisons to the work of FromSoftware. Interestingly enough, the game tends to stick more to the playbook of the originalDark Soulstrilogy rather than other FromSoftware games likeSekiroorBloodborne, despite its heavy emphasis on the parry-centric combat of the former. Thanks to its somewhat stiff movements and animation,Enotriais garnering plenty of nods to the originalDark Souls, but its enemy placements and emphasis on group encounters share more in common with the series' “black sheep”:Dark Souls 2.
The originalDark Soulsforces the player into plenty of situations where they’re threatened by multiple enemies but switches gears to a greater focus on challenging, one-on-one encounters in its latter half (beginning withreaching Anor Londo). Conversely,Dark Souls 2resorts to delivering challenges to the player through sheer volume, placing plenty of ambushes and gank mobs in the player’s path. These enemies are weak and easy to deal with individually, but facing them as a group proved to be incredibly frustrating.Enotriacommits a similar misstep with its enemy placements, and it, unfortunately, draws an unfavorable comparison toDark Souls 2because of it.
Enotria: The Last Song’s Group Encounters Are an Exercise in Frustration
It doesn’t take long beforeEnotria’s encountersbegin proper, with the game’s introduction wasting little time before letting players dive into things headfirst. In just the first area of the game, the player finds themselves not challenged by single enemies but instead groups around just about every corner. Considering the game places a strong emphasis on parrying and singularly focused encounters, these group fights quickly go from tense to frustrating before the game has even had time to properly endear itself to players.
The greatest offenders aren’t the melee fighters but instead, the enemies that use ranged weapons like crossbows or throw exploding grenades containing one ofEnotria’s many elemental effects. On their own, these enemies are weak and will often go down in a single hit. Taken together with foes that get right up in the player’s face for an exchange of blows, though, they become one of the deadliest obstacles on the battlefield. None of these enemies have much health and are easily dispatched, but the constant interrupting of attacks by ranged blows from enemy mobs makes that easier said than done.
How Gank Mobs Undermine Enotria’s Otherwise Satisfying Parry-Heavy Combat
Fighting multiple enemies at once is a common Soulslike challenge and one to be expected, but the degree to whichEnotrialeans on this mechanic gives it a somewhat unfavorable comparison to one of theworst aspects ofDark Souls 2. This is made all the worse thanks to the game’s emphasis on parrying over dodging, with the dodge mechanic not nearly as useful in tense situations and the parry mechanic impossible after having an attack interrupted by taking damage from an off-screen enemy.Enotria’s dodge mechanic is arguably more useful than, say,Lies of P’s, but it still takes a backseat to parrying.
Ultimately,Enotriafails to provide many challenging individual encounters outside ofboss battles. Instead, the game relies on throwing numbers at the player to overwhelm them, and in many ways, it succeeds. This is a disservice to the game’s combat, though, because whenEnotriais firing on all cylinders it feels incredibly satisfying to parry, riposte, and Unravel foes. It’s just a shame that, for many encounters, players will be actively seeking out ranged cannon fodder before locking into an engaging battle.
