The Soulslike genre continues to add notches to its belt with the release ofEnotria: The Last Song, the first title from Jyamma Games that attempts to spice up the familiar formula in ways that both work in its favor but also dampen the overall experience. In a crowded search for the next big Soulslike,Enotria: The Last Songcertainly stands out with its visuals and potential to honor and rival FromSoftware’s beloved titles. However, performance issues and overwhelming mechanics can aggravate even the truest fans of the genre.
Enotria: The Last Songfeels like a true successor toDark Soulsbut even with innovative ideas that challenge the genre, some parts seem underbaked to the point of frustration. Yet there is still a thrilling journey within the torment the Maskless One will face.
Italian Folklore Crafts Potential for Stories Untold
Enotria: The Last Songfollows a classic Soulslike narrative formula by providing a lived-in world that players piece together. In a world ravaged by the Canovaccio, players step into the shoes of the Maskless One. As a puppet with no notable strings or any given role, destiny can be crafted against the Authors who reign in this world of repetition.
The Italian folkloreinvolved within the environment and plot serves as a refreshing foundation, but it lacks meaningful and memorable interactions and side stories with some of the world’s NPCs. When Soulslikes have enemies at every corner, a non-hostile face always elicits interest. Sadly,Enotria: The Last Songdoesn’t provide them with the voice, importance, or reward to make unraveling their stories worthwhile. This doesn’t serve the story as a whole, and New Game Plus doesn’t offer any incentive to return to the world either.
A Fierce Combat System That Feels Great, if Not Occasionally Lacking
Enotria: The Last Songgives players the standard combo of light and heavy attacks that consume stamina. Combat is, and should be, at theforefront of a Soulslikegame, and Jyamma Games blends elements of the subgenre together to create an experience more reminiscent ofSekiro: Shadows Die TwicethanDark SoulsandElden Ring. The elements ofSekirocome from an overreliance on a parry and deflect system, which will not stun enemies, and instead, will build their Unravel gauge to allow players to utilize a devastating finisher.
Learning the ropesof the unforgiving parry windows can be frustrating at times due to some of the aggressive combos from enemies, and the slowness of certain animations makes these attacks feel unpredictable – yet deflecting them for a satisfying clash of metal and Unravel build-up is its own reward that requires consistency and an intensely trained eye.
The combat is a challenge that is fun to work against and, with a few refinements here and there,Enotria: The Last Songcan take the stage among the very best Soulslikes out there, especially with its introduction of genre-new mechanics like Mask Lines. Mask Lines offer a variety of offensive and defensive abilities that complement different playstyles. Acquiring them through charge-ups by hitting enemies is simple enough, and unleashing them to cut through even the largest of foes shows their integral design to the combat flow.
Boss Fights and Enemy Types Excel in Design and Challenge, Even in Repetition
Bosses are an integral focus of the Soulslike genre, andEnotriaoffers a great selection, each varying in difficulty and potential. The central bosses are few, and they offer some memorable encounters. Whether it’s an overwhelming size that makes for a claustrophobic lock-on, or one of intense speed that will test everyparry and deflect, unique boss encounters can be both limited and occasionally exasperating – yet always euphoric to defeat.
Outside of the game’s main boss rooms, players can find a pantheon of lesser bosses that still offer equal challenge. Without a unique gimmick, it can get a tad repetitive to see the same sword-bearing knight but with a different colored ailment, and the same can be said for a few bosses, like the plethora of giant crabs. The challenge is always present and engaging, even if it would be nice to see alternative designs inthis fantasy world.
With each area brimming with dangerous enemies outside the boss rooms, players are going to have a fun time engaging in the combat, even if the enemy types repeat themselves after a while. Underestimating some enemy types is a lesson learned, especially when it’s against a giant crab with a cannon strapped to its claw, or an automaton that loves a fake-out hit to make the player mistime their parry. While fun at first, seeing these enemies time and again makes certain parts of the experience predictable.
One of the mechanics to spice up enemy encounters is that of the four ailments. Some enemies might have a different colored health bar, which just means that they will be immune to damage types of that color. While this canshake up the formula, it can be irritating to remember what element is weak to what, and it’s never nice to feel like the game is forcing you out of your preferred playstyle. There is also some complexity within these elemental damage types, as each one provides a different ailment to affected enemies that may seemingly benefit them, like how Vis creates Dizzy which increases stamina and damage at the cost of defense. It’s not necessarily a debuff since there are notable advantages within, so it’s best to explore areas and actively avoid these elemental ailments.
Exploration is Rewarding and Conflicting
The immediate impression upon the Maskless One’s awakening is one of awe and beauty. The sun-soaked lands act as a striking and welcome opposite to that ofDark Souls’ enchanting moon-lit gloom.The world is one of the game’s strongest aspects, and across its three zones players will find an assortment of distinct designs to be admired. From the rich history of colorful Italian architecture of brick villas piled on top of one another filled with echoes of celebration, to the eerie ruins and temples of gods since abandoned –Enotria: The Last Songstuns with the open areas available, holding secrets and rewards for those daring enough to steer from the path.
Within these bustling landscapes come some issues in terms of performance. Even high-end PCs might falter occasionally from frame rate drops and a rare crash, and while these performance issues are sparse and inconsistent, they can ruin the beauty of new zones.
Inside each zone, there are a few gimmicks that should have been used more often instead of being restricted to some scarce instances. In one of the opening levels, players are shown the importance of Reality Rifts and the Adore Burst, which allows players to temporarily change the environment to reach inaccessible areas. This seemed like a fun mechanic that could lead to some interesting puzzles, but it doesn’t come into play nearly as much as it should. An innovative mechanic like this is left abandoned in favor of the typical shortcuts and locked doors seen in other Soulslikes, which leaves some areas feeling a tad linear.
Another intricate mechanic involved in exploration is that of red rifts found in certain areas. Interacting with these red riftsopens up unique challenges,most commonly in the form of a boss fight that has a layer of inconsistency due to some fights being far too easy and others being wildly powerful. These challenges benefit from being entirely optional and certainly offer more content to those who seek them. While it’s nice to see not every challenge interfere with progress, it can still ruin some momentum to lock some of the toughest bosses behind a red glyph.
Immense Potential for Build-Crafting Is Held Back by Its Ambition
Through different Masks, the Path of Innovators, weapons, and Parry Gems, players can create 3 unique loadouts to switch between on the fly, or alter at any time at this game’s bonfires, the Reality Knots. The mixture of different skills and aspects does allow for great customization options and build-crafting, but it is hard to experiment outside of the tried and tested method of bulking up and hitting things with a big sword.
Boasting over 120 different weapons across 8 weapon classes, it was fun at first to experiment with the different styles of weapons to see how their speed and power contribute to playstyles. However, there wasn’t much difference between them that warranted trying out more than a dozen. Through a plethora of accessible upgrades, the hulking strike of a greatsword offered the best experience due to how each heavy swing matches in the pattern of certain parry windows, and while some weapons have hidden buffs, complexity like that makes it easier to pick the weapon that does the most damage.
A central aspect of the loadouts and role-crafting is that of Masks, which will provide players with not only a fashionable new set of clothing but also with a few bonus attributes to compliment the way they play. There are, however, a few balancing issues with these Masks, as some offer bonuses to damage threshold, stamina, and even increased charges in the healing properties of Armonia Amber. This made some builds superior to others and meant that throughout the game, it was better to swap between the same two rather than try something with more risk.
There is a lot of beauty inEnotria: The Last Songand Jyamma Games deserves to be commended for its efforts to stand out in a saturated market. With immersive connections to Italian folklore and an adoring love of subgenre, Soulslike fans will certainly enjoy the world of challenge. But while the combat is innovative it could use some polish.
