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- United Label
- United Label
- United Label
- United Label
Eldest Souls
Released On: Jul 29, 2021
76
6.8
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Where to Buy
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
76
64% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
36% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
76
64% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
36% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It’s one thing to craft a game with such an entertaining yet punishing series of fights. It’s another to do so with the kind of design philosophy that’s so quick to convince it more than deserves its rightful place. But that’s exactly what Fallen Flag have achieved with seemingly impeccable ease here. Bold, brilliant and consistently surprising throughout, Eldest Souls’ fresh approach to combat marks one of 2021’s real gems.
Though it wears its overly obvious influences on its sleeve, Eldest Souls is an incredibly satisfying boss rush that still manages to set itself apart. Its brilliant combat is complimented by a smart skill system and some incredible pixel art. Designed with replayability in mind, it’s a little bit of a bummer that its impressive customization doesn’t really blossom until partway into your first playthrough. But one thing that’s there from the start is that feeling of immense glory after every hard-earned victory: Ceremoniously slumping onto the living room floor, clutching the carpet for dear life with one hand while exhaustedly flipping off the television with the other.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 22 User Ratings
6.8
59% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
18% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
23% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 22 User Ratings
6.8
59% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
18% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
23% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Fans of games like Furi and Devil May Cry may be surprised with how well Eldest Souls can produce the same sort of frantic and expressive action those games are known for. Its “soulslike” credentials don’t stem from replicating the slow and plodding experience that the subgenre is known for very much. Instead, it’s the focused and diverse boss encounters, on top of the snappy combat and clever customisation. Eldest Souls may not change the face of soulslikes just yet, but it at least demonstrates that there are still new ways to interpret them.
Eldest Souls has an objective: to make us work hard and, finally, leave us with a feeling of satisfaction for the victory. Does it succeed? Yes, but for this reason, it's not a game for everyone.
The boss fights might drag on a bit more than they should. Nevertheless, the battles are well crafted, offering high challenge but fair. Kudos to the deep progression system, with myriad of options that begs to be implemented in a more extended game.
Eldest Souls is one of the most beautiful indie games out there but the hurdle to get into it is far too high. The skill points handed out to upgrade your character do little to help while there is no room to learn the mechanics. The notorious Souls difficulty is only amplified in the boss-rush genre, which makes this a near-impossible entry-level game. For anyone who enjoys Dark Souls’ most difficult segments emphatically because of the challenge, Eldest Souls has a lot to love. But that’s just it - Eldest Souls is one for the die-hard fans and no one else.
The word that describes Eldest Souls best is: painful. The promising core gameplay is buried under a ton of flaws. Horrible controls, a boring story and a non-existent learning curve make it so that not even souls-veterans will like this game.
What can I say... very nice and juicy pixel art. Not the most exciting and intriguing story, but for a boss rush game, it's a pretty good addition. The music is great. The price is low, especially if you catch a discount. And that's all, perhaps.
I have experience in playing this kind of games. Big, like Sekiro, and small, like Saltborn, but I can say that this game is not suitable for everyone, even such kind a player. I didn't like the game-play of this game. It is original, yes, but IMAO this originality does not suits to the hell that sometimes happens with the bosses. How did one write "combat dance with the boss"? ... yes, that's right, it looks like this... but this dance is only for those who are especially stubborn on hardcore gaming. Only for them, the game will be give a pleasure in fact. Especially since some of the bosses are made in the dishonest-bullet-hell-in-a-small-arena pattern.
I got some pleasure from the visual-story-music, but I'm not going to recommend this BDSM experiment. This is, IMAO, a very niche product for a separate group of masochists among hardcore players.
... on Isshin in Sekiro, my nerves were not in that condition...
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PC
It's okay... not sure how else to feel about it.
It's definitely fun to beat up different kind of gods and some of the bosses are fundamentally well designed but where the game falls flat are the controls and the gameplay in general.
The controls feel clunky and slow, you can't dash through bosses and some bosses have very weird hitboxes.
It happens quite a lot that some bosses with charge attacks just push you to the wall of the arena and you can't move anymore because you're stuck between them and the wall.
I'm also not a fan of the need to use charge attacks because they take a long time to charge up and the bosses are generally pretty fast so you always have to find the perfect window of opportunity which feels more like RNG than skill tbh.
Right now i'm at the spider boss which is one of the worse bosses in terms of design imo.
The arena is very small and gets absolutely covered with AoEs so there's really no room for you to move around anymore. Really not sure what to do there.
I'll beat her eventually but some bosses really just feel like a drag or being very RNG heavy instead of being a challenge.
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PC
Devs probably thought that chopping spongy bosses with toothpick over and over is fun. Skills are joke (at least at the beginning) and absolutely irrelevant as the damage output is ridiculously small. You cannot dash through bosses and get stuck easily. Avoid this rubish.
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PC
Frustrating, bare bone game without any real motivation for player to finish it. For me its the worst souls clone that I ever played and I am a long fan of this type of games. Avoid like plague. No world to explore, no level up, no mobs to fight...nothing. This its a lame shameful act to extort money form unaware players. Developer go and do something else you got no real qualities to make even a mediocre game, not to say a good soul game.
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PC
Summary Eldest Souls is a challenging, pixel-art boss-rush game. The Old Gods have long been imprisoned. Humanity has prospered. Great Kingdoms have arisen from the now forsaken temples of worship. But no longer… In their final act of vengeance, the Old Gods have unleashed a great Desolation upon the world. Farmlands have turned to deserts, riv...
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox One
- Xbox Series X
- PlayStation 5
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date: Jul 29, 2021
Developer:
- Fallen Flag Studio
Publisher: United Label
Genres:
