I beat the first boss on the first try. Second boss made me so frustrated I started making monkey sounds and rattling my chair after choking at the last 1%. Third boss made me experience all 5 stages of grief (mostly anger). Then I got jumpscared by a giant crow.

Pretty good so far, 10/10 would recommend.

Really good game however I feel like the Dark souls comparisons are only to the game's detriment. This game is much more 'Titan Souls' with health bars and abilities rather than being any type of souls-like. Has a short, well crafted campaign that is more focused on replayability rather then content and the art style is a visual feast. Would highly recommend for a quiet afternoon however I'll note if you go into this thinking this will be pixel art Dark souls (not that I would blame you with how they've advertised the game) your going to be disappointed.

Perhaps Eldest Souls is not for me. I found the game to be very difficult in ways that were more annoying than genuinely challenging. I might return to complete it one day but after beating the first handful of bosses, I needed a break and never really got back into it. If you're really into 'souls-like, boss-rush' titles or gain a lot of self-fulfillment from challenging experiences, you might enjoy this game more than I did but do yourself a favor and wait for a steep sale.

- Player movement feels slow and sluggish. Enemies telegraph their moves well-enough but you're so slow that the RNG of placement for enemy attacks can sometimes make it impossible to dodge or escape an AOE in time. Dashing is overly constrained by limited usages and distance traveled. It's also very easy to get 'stuck' on a boss when you're in close proximity and trying to maneuver around them.

- Battles take FOREEEEVVVVERRRRRRRR. The bosses are so beefy relative to the damage you inflict. The basic attack is basically worthless and the fully charged attack is only marginally stronger. Coupled with the nightmare that is your movement speed and considering the absurdly quick manner in which the bosses spam their fast-moving attacks, you'll spend much of a battle desperately trying to get close enough to the boss to land a hit only to chip off 1/50 of it's health bar.

- The game has generally uninteresting lore. You discover little notes and talk to a handful of folks that provide small snippets of insight into the world you're playing in but you're not given any meaningful reason to care about what happened to the world or what your objectives are in fixing things. Obscurity works well in the Dark Souls series because of the pretty scenery and focus on tight gameplay but it doesn't work here when the visuals are uninspired and the mechanics feel unrefined.

I enjoyed this game, but it's very unbalanced...
The first time i finished the game i didn't even understand half of the bosses' mechanics because with ANY combination of shard or skill you can just face tank 90% af the attacks and use your Dps to heal through anything.
So i decided to do another playthrough with base damage and without using any skill or shard (there is even an achievement for that), and i realised that there are a lot of problems with mechanics from each boss.
From lingering hitboxes, to windup animations that are the same for 3 different attacks, to attack that don't even have a startup animation, and even rng combination of attacks that make almost impossible if not impossible to not take damage (which there is also an achievement for).
It's not at all a bad game, but there are better boss rush game out there.

Edit: also anything outside the bossfight is forgettable, and there is not a single dialogue or codex that is worth reading

I heard y'all like bosses, so we put some bosses in your bosses so you can boss while you boss dawg.

Games too short. Wait for a sale. At the current amount of content it should not be 20 dollars, it should be at max 10. Other than how short it is, its great.

+1 just be aware it's only boss fights. No minions. If that is something that will put you off

This game is really good. A must-play for people who like Furi, Soulslikes, or boss rush games. I bought and played this on Xbox right before Elden RIng came out, and I did it again on PC to support the developers.

Also, don't listen to the negative reviews of this game. They complain about the combat being too "clunky" and the difficulty being unfair, but this is false. I completed the game and I found all of the bosses to be challenging, but fair. They just heavily punish you for reckless decisions, same thing for combat. Yes, you're only given 3 dodges that recharge slowly, but you're rewarded with a free dodge if you time it perfectly with an enemy attack. This means that rather than mindlessly panic dodging, the player is encouraged and rewarded for analyzing the boss's move set and dodging appropriately.

Eldest Souls is at its best when you’re dodging attacks with symphonic precision, using your giant sword to spray colorful visual effects across the screen. It’s a game that knows what it excels at, choosing to focus on intense and varied boss encounters that are as tough as they are enjoyable. Although this choice has some unwanted consequences, fans of Souls-like titles are likely to enjoy this boss-rushing journey.

I’ll address it right away: when it comes to gameplay, there’s little to see aside from the boss battles. It’s clear that a lot of time went into making them, as they are entertaining to fight and come with many surprises up their sleeve, but the same can’t be said for the world you’re inhabiting. In between the blood-pumping clashes, you can explore the game’s smaller areas. Although the pixel art that forms them is pretty, the sites you’ll visit are mostly forgettable. There’s also little to do in them other than finding items that you can gift to the individuals you meet, granting you some lore exposition. I would’ve loved to see some more unique and inspired locations, and perhaps a proper reason to scour the world.

With that out of the way, though, I’m pleased to report that Eldest Souls is damn good. The bosses that you’ll spend most of your time fighting offer exuberant action that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you struggle to keep up with the frantic pace, and their diversity make them complex enough to justify spending hours in battle.

There’s no Bed of Chaos or Royal Rat Authority here. Each battle presents a new challenge while still not relying too much on obscure gimmicks. I was often surprised by the number of ways in which a boss could kill me, whether it’s rapid arrows, ice spikes, or a good old thrust. The game also makes use of the top-down perspective by introducing bullet hell-like segments in which dodging is the key to survival. My experience with similar titles did not come to my aid; the game obliterated me more times than I can count.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567515503

By the second boss, I was sold. A captivating and varied moveset combined with foreboding music that told me just how screwed I was shaped one of the game’s highlights. But it just kept coming. The bosses got harder, my death count rose, and my warrior slowly developed a potent moveset.

What makes the fights so enjoyable is how distinctive the bosses are. The first one pits you against a watchdog who’ll charge at you with a rusty sword, damage you from afar by slamming its shield into the ground, and occasionally hop around the arena. Later on, the game throws an icy warrior at you, whose frosty attacks will slow you down if you’re not too careful. No two bosses are the same — at least up until the final one, which disappointed me. It’s a good boss, but I expected something more grandiose for the finale, and it’s too reminiscent of an earlier one.

Offing your enemy is so fulfilling, even if they just jarringly disappear upon their demise. Because the action is so fast-paced and the stakes so high, you rarely have time to look at the health bar on the bottom of your screen. Yes, people are busy and pressed for time these days, but I'm sure no one would mind giving the bosses a few seconds to die.

Now that I’ve talked about how the bosses will kill you, it’s time for how you will kill the bosses. The lone warrior you play as wields a heavy greatsword, so your attacks will be slow but devastating.

Initially, the low amount of stamina might seem too restrictive, but it provides a nice change of pace from other titles — you can’t just dance around the arena. Dodging through attacks will refill it quicklier than playing the waiting game, so you’re encouraged to face your enemy head-on. Some of the battlegrounds are also small, which forces you to grasp the enemies’ movesets.

To some, the lack of multiple weapons will be worrying; won’t it limit the replayability? Luckily, the game introduces a unique progression system: upon death, a boss will drop its shard, which can be infused into one of your moves to amplify it. The shards won’t change your attacks fundamentally, but they add a welcome sense of variety.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567478893

On top of this, you can choose between three play styles: Windslide, focusing on rapid movement; Berserk Slash, which allows you to charge up your fury and unleash it; and Counter, one all about deflecting attacks. Each comes with a skill tree and a special move you can use during battle. The ability to respec your skill points at any moment means that you’re free to experiment, so you don’t have to be a min-maxing god to create a powerful build.

If you finish the game and decide it wasn’t challenging enough, the New Game+ mode spices up each boss and even gives them an additional attack. I was surprised when I discovered this, and I’d like to see more developers do the same. You can also replay fights from the main menu, so if you’re in love with one of the later bosses, you don’t have to play through the game again.

Earlier, I mentioned the lore. Admittedly, I had trouble getting invested in it. To me, it seemed diffuse, as if concentrating on the stories surrounding the gods rather than the overarching narrative. The introduction cutscene gives a good first impression with an interesting creation myth, but the lore struggled to keep my attention afterwards. Perhaps this can be blamed on the uninspired world design. Dark Souls uses environmental storytelling to make you wonder what transpired in the locations you visit; Eldest Souls doesn’t have that benefit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567477871

When I look back on the 11 hours I spent playing Eldest Souls, I remember the exciting boss fights and interesting progression system. The game is far from perfect, but many of its flaws come from the focus on making these fights as good as possible. And when the bad parts of a game aren’t in your face the entire time, they don’t have much of an impact — at least that’s how I feel about the debut title from Fallen Flag Studio, a developer who clearly has a lot of passion for making games. If you’re looking for some boss-fighting fun, go buy this.

PC technicalities: Intel Core i7-10700K, RTX 2070 Super, 16GB DDR4 RAM @ 3200Mhz, NVME M.2 SSD | 1440p, 600-800 fps.

Having trouble with the Old Gods? Call upon the aid of the Devils in the Detail!

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.