A few days ago, we were invited to a closed-door presentation by developer Reply Game Studios and publisher Modus Games, who planned to show us their new title: Soulstice in detail. Before we had already had the pleasure of seeing the game in motion, thanks to some other gameplay that the studio had published, but this time we were lucky enough to see the title in more depth (even enjoy it at its controls) and we came to explain our first soulstice demo impressions.
Briar and Lute, inseparable sisters
As we could see in the first videos of the title, the protagonist of the title (named Briar) is always accompanied by a kind of ghost / ghost, called Lute, and the one that we later discover is our own sister. From what little we know of history, we know that Briar is a warrior named “Chimera”, born from the union of two souls that gives her superhuman abilities..
Our couple of protagonists are forced to travel to the «Sacred Kingdom of Keidas» to face an invasion of beings, called «Wraiths» that come from a place called «the Veil». Reply Game Studios told us that at all times they have sought to create a very special relationship between the two sistersmaking it clear that he drinks a lot from the world of Japanese manga, something that from what we saw, is very good.
A classic hack and slash
Thanks to Reply Game Studios and Modus Games, they provided us with early access to an exclusive demo of the title, where we were able to play one of the first levels that we will be able to enjoy when Soulstice launches. The impressions we have had when playing the demo have been very, very goodsince without a doubt the combat system drinks a lot from other titles of the genre, giving a more than good result.
Briar’s control is agile and attacking with her is easy and very satisfying (although there are times when she gets “stuck” between animations). Having different weapons at our disposal, the combats are very varied, and the combos that we can do are spectacular to say the least.
On the other hand, our sister Lute serves as our protector, since we can do “parries” thanks to her powers, or attack different enemies thanks to a kind of shield that she summons. Obviously, the two protagonists will have their respective skill treeswhich we can improve with two types of items that we will find on the map.
Soulstice aims to be one of the surprises of the year
The closed-door presentation ended with the confirmation that the title will be released on September 20, 2022, and we can tell you that the Reply Game Studios game promises to be a surprise for the end of this year. Narratively, it will not reinvent the wheel for sure, but the premise is very good and it attracts a lot.
On the other hand, playably drinks from the kings of the genre, and it shows for good. The duality between Briar and Lute is great for the gameplay, making many situations (such as parries or the help that our sister provides us) create great and very funny situations. As a final climax, we were able to fight a final boss and we were surprised by its variety of phases, creating very diverse situations.
Visually we already see that the studio has made a very good mix of “stylized” designs with a dark artistic direction. Soulstice has gone from getting our attention, to looking forward to it later this year, so now it’s time to wait eagerly (and a lot of patience) for that September 20day chosen for the Reply Game Studios title to land on our consoles.