Enotria: The Last Songhasn’t had the best introduction, having now plateaued at a Steam “Mixed” review rating. However,Enotriastill does everything in its power to set itself apart from otherSoulslike gameswith its emphasis on theater and brightly-saturated environments.
At the heart ofEnotria: The Last Song’s premise is a knack for the theatrical, with each of its characters and its setting all reflecting an exaggerated presentation of Italian folklore. Despite its intentions, however,Enotriaultimately falls short of its own goals, lacking that dramatic flair it tries so desperately to attain by foregoing cinematic spectacle.
Enotria: The Last Song Needs More Cinematic Spectacle
Many of Enotria: The Last Song’s Boss Fights Are Anticlimactic
For all its theater,Enotria: The Last Songrarely impresses with cinematics. To be fair, it is one of the more visually captivating Soulslike games available, but those visuals are later let down by a supreme lack of theatrical buildups to its boss fights and major story moments. This is a harsh reality when looking at more recent releases likeElden Ringand its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, both of which boast some of the most enthralling cinematics ever seen in a Soulslike game, especially when its boss introductions take advantage of the surprise factor and opt for a more gruesome and bizarre showcase.
Enotria: The Last Song’s boss fights have their moments, but those moments are rarely cinematic. The majority of the game’s boss fights begin almost instantly and without any warning, in addition to generally featuring the same music track in every encounter. While said boss fights are many ofEnotria’s optional bosses and therefore could be justified in spite of lacking cinematic buildup or execution, even many of theSoulslike genre’s optional bosseshave been given better introductions thanEnotria’s.
Ultimately, this makes a lot ofEnotria’s bosses feel like needless roadblocks rather than memorable encounters, highlighting the need for a more theatrical experience in the game.
Cinematic Soulslike boss introductions not only help players establish the scale of a boss but also provide context for why they are fighting the boss in the first place. This is not to say that every Soulslike boss fight has an introductory sequence, however, nor is it always necessary. After all, one of the mostdefining characteristics of a Soulslikeis its ability to throw players right into the heat of battle with little to no warning at all. However,Enotriaultimately fails to implement this feature well, considering every one of its boss fights encloses players in an inescapable box of invisible walls, preventing them from leaving even after they’ve been given absolutely no time to prepare.
More Cinematics Would Help Enotria: The Last Song to Feel a Bit More Theatrical
Enotria: The Last Songlacks cinematics on a rather large scale, even outside its boss fights. There are, on average, one or two cinematics between regions, so depending on how much time players spend in each area, these cinematics can feel very out of context, especially in light ofEnotria’s incredibly cryptic narrative. Once players are in a region for an extended period of time, cinematics inevitably become scenes players might prefer to simply skip to get straight to the fight.
For a game that places such a strong emphasis on theater,Enotria: The Last Songlacks a surprising amount of stage presence. Its deeply saturated world and bright atmosphere are refreshing for a Soulsike, but its visual spectacle is let down by the absence of cinematics to break up the gameplay and provide players with an opportunity to seeEnotria’s world and bosses from a different perspective than they can by simply playing the game. Hopefully,Jyamma Games will consider improvingEnotriawith more cinematics in the future to increase its visual appeal and bring a bit more theater to its presentation.
Enotria: The Last Song
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Enotria: The Last Song is an Action RPG SoulsLike set in a fantasy world based off Italian folklore and culture.It aims to take the genre in a new direction, with a vibrant and sun-lit world based off Italian summer where the gameplay allows you to alter the world & enemies in systemic ways.It is defined as a Souls-Like but unlike other souls-likes we are depicting a world based on Italian summer colours, as we call it, ‘‘Summer-Soul’'.The objective is to bring Italian rich past and culture to the fore in a new way that is appealing to the broader public.What we need to convey from the art direction is the colours, vibrancy and general feeling of visiting Italy.Enotria: The Last Song wants to capture the heart & soul of souls-likes fanbase, with rewarding exploration, diverse player builds, varied enemy designs while giving a unique twist.With Ardore, the player always has access to different strategies, allowing them to influence enemies behaviors, dynamically alter the world around them, solve puzzles & harness the very elements of Enotria.
