Readers, this writer will be up front with you: I dreaded thatEnotria: The Last Songwould be the type of game that I would definitely love to watch and admire, but hate to play. In this case, it’s third-person soulslike games. I just never tend to be all that good at them, and yes, that weirdly only seems to apply to this particular breed of soulslike. Give it aZelda-ish isometric angleand everything’s hunky dory,but the moment such a game veers closer to resembling the genre namer, suddenly my skills seem to drop. Not sure why, but as I still enjoyedLies of Pquite a bit despite it handing my behind to me on a silver platter, I figured that another such game built around Italian folklore would still be quite a treat, and maybe, just maybe, things would be different this time around when it came to the difficulty.
As it turns out, it was a hard no on the difficulty.Enotriadoesn’t even let you get past the tutorial without having to kill a named boss with a massive health bar. Not the most challenging fight, but soon after, there were suddenly enemies who could easily finish you off in about three hits or so, not to mention status ailments getting introduced surprisingly early. It did not help that locking onto enemies felt awkward at times, in one instance deciding to lock onto a person on a ledge high above nowhere near the current fight. The core combat is the standard light attack/heavy attack/dodge roll/parry/stamina system, and it gets the job done, but even with the various additions, the main impression one might get from the game is that you already have to have some skill with the genre in order to succeed here.
Let The Sunshine In
All that said,Enotriais still quitefun,it’s just the type of fun that might require a time sink, which may turn some off. But there are definitely terrific reasons to keep going, and that lies with the visuals, world, story and how they all contribute to the game. Given the image that one tends to have of the typical From Software-style soulslike (with the exception ofSekiro), it’s the impressive sight when you first emerge from the caves at the start and find yourself not with bleak, dark ruins, but a sun-kissed field of sunflowers. Granted, the first thing you do in this field is basically slaughter some townspeople, but it’s still a striking visual that immediately lets you know that this is going to be something different.
Things get even more impressive once you reach the first city, Quinta. And oddly, it comes down to one person. Not just Pulcinella, the character set to serve as your ally for the game. But just past them, you walk past someone dancing who just…dances. Someone whodoesn’timmediately attempt to kill you. It’s a minor thing, but it drove home the fact that this “City of Actors” felt like an actual, livable city. Of course, there’s a reason why everything seems so normal on the surface, and this is whereEnotriatruly gets to shine. That is, in its story and gameplay integration.
The Show Stopper
The setup is that the land is under the grip of the Canovaccio, an eternal play created by the Authors that keeps everything locked in a constant loop, a stasis that causes everything to stagnate. Everyone just acts out their same parts, over and over. This is where players come in as The Maskless One, seemingly the only person inEnotriawithout a role. Their goal is to become the Mask of Change and end the stagnation once and for all. To do so, they can pick up masks from defeated enemies and equip them to change their role, granting them new abilities with different loadouts that you can customize and swap between. This is the meat ofEnotria’sgameplay as well, and it makes for terrific stuff, and not just because you can switch between three masks/loadouts on the fly.
Enotria: The Last Song Prepares Massive Demo, Reveals New Release Date
Hungry for more soulslikes with unique twists and setups? Jyamma Games has you covered with Enotria: The Last Song and its upcoming demo.
Befitting for a game with lot of inspiration coming from commedia dell’arte (which makes for a lot of great character designs as well, be they enemies of other NPCs), there’s a heavy emphasis on themes of theater and creativity at play here. As mentioned earlier, each mask provides a Role to play as, each getting a unique skill. You can also equip masks with Aspects that alter statistics further, and gain buffs via the Path of Innovators. There you can spend Inspiration as a currency, actually gained by discovering bits of lore. Even your equippable spells are known as Lines, which you earn by dealing damage to enemies. You even have sections where you can use Ardore – passion and feeling – to alter reality itself in order to solve puzzles, find secrets and more.
The idea of being trapped in constant stagnation, this beautiful form of decay, is already a unique enough story hook. But with the theater angle, ending the stagnation takes on a creative approach. In fact, you pretty muchliterallyhave to take a creative approach. Via the loadouts and customization, you basically write your own roles. Create characters that defy the Canovaccio’s status quo. Become the scene stealer, writing your own script with your own lines, crafting everything based on every place you explore. Not only that, but crafting all of these unique takes on various mechanics,Enotriais essentially disrupting the status quo on a meta level as well, becoming its best when it serves up mechanics that alter the typical soulslike formula. It’s a simple-yet-brilliant approach that perfectly ties together the world and the gameplay, and Jyamma Games should be lauded for it.
It’s a world that we can’t wait to see more of, even if this writer’s own short time with it so far meant getting their butt kicked quite a bit. But hey, maybe I just need to workshop things until I have the roled I need. Plus, this demo is only a small preview of things to come. And it’s quite likely those reading this well do better and find a lot more to love withEnotria: The Last Songas you can check out its demo right now via Steam and PlayStation 5, ahead of the game’s September 19 release date.
Enotria: The Last Song
A soulslike game inspired by Italian folklore, Enotria sees players attempting to end a cursed, eternal play. To do so, they’ll have to don a variety of masks in order to give themselves the skills needed to succeed in combat.
