Eldest Souls is an isometic Hack 'n' Slash game, which is a cross between the two games/franchises that may come to mind when one hears the word "Souls", namely FromSoftware's "Dark Souls" and Acid Nerve's 2013 indie darling "Titan Souls". The Dark Souls influence is self-explanatory, and the game's almost excessive revelling in long walking sections, with breathtaking, yet somehow uncanny and melancholy visuals, evoking a sort of "ancient liminality", as well as its boss rush structure, are where the Titan Souls influence is unmistakable. It was developed by Fallen Flag Studio (Jonathan Costantini, Francesco Barsotti and Sergio Ronchetti) and published by United Label and CI Games on PC, on 29.07.2021.

+ Gorgeous Graphics and Animation, paired with somewhat clever environmental storytelling
+ Creative Boss Design
+ Wonderful Orchestral Soundtrack by Sergio Ronchetti
+ Interesting, Stylized Cutscenes
+ Pretty fun, Weighty Combat (though the skill tree for a 6-7 hour game is maybe a bit much)
+ You can redistribute skill points at will
+ Some very surprising moments during the fights, that genuinely caught me off guard

- Typos, extra spaces, weird sentence structures in the notes strewn about the world
- No Pause feature (A thing I despise in Dark Souls’ offline mode as well, and this game doesn’t even have any online functionality that could half-explain this glaring oversight)
- Got stuck in a wall mutliple times during one of the bosses (The Rejected Daughter)
- Dodge seems a little inconsistent (sometimes you dodge into an enemy, and your character genuinely dodges, other times he just stands there, even though you have stamina – the timing in general seems a little off somehow)
- Active Shard attacks (R2) kept getting stuck on nothing in some boss fights, thus consuming the charge, but not properly activating
- Characters don’t feel too fleshed out
- Odd, last second attempt at didactic storytelling
- Obtuse quest design (also just feels unnecessary in a boss rush game in general)
- Skill point unassignment should have a confirmation screen, I ended up having to painfully respec, one-by-one like four times during my playthrough.
- Slightly finnicky hitboxes (especially during the one platforming section)

Eldest Souls sets out to do many things, and it is definitely a valiant and commendable effort, in spite of what I am about to say. For all that Fallen Flag Studio set out to do here, however, it falls a bit short on most fronts, sans visuals and music. The game has an identity crisis: It wants to be Dark Souls, and thus, an RPG, but it only has about nine bosses (and 3 bosses from the free DLC), with each one granting one skill point. There are three skill trees: one that is all about aggression, one that is all about counterattacks and one that is all about defense. I chose the aggression one, and it was a solid way to play, but it still leaves me wondering if a whole, semi-elaborate skill tree system isn’t quite past the scope of this 5-6 hour experience. It also wants to tell its story through elaborate notes, but a lot of them are not written the best, and I even found one duplicate note. They provide little to no context: The story ultimately falls flat to me and its message seems last-second and deflated.
The bosses are a joy to fight, and are all immensely interesting mechanically. It is clearly visible that this is where all of the time and money went. So I wonder: why couldn’t all of the effort have been spent here and on creating a satisfying world? The environmental storytelling is there, but it never quite leads anywhere. Some characters seem like they come from wildly different games. The notes that you felt might provide context, actually just reveal more cryptic writings: Mostly field reports describing the thing that is right before your eyes at that very moment.
While the combat is fun, for the most part, it can feel a little weird: from the hitboxes, to the timings, to the damage received – often things end up feeling off in one place or another. Not enough to frustrate me, but enough to leave me confounded. Abilities (active shards) sometimes refuse to work properly, too. There is one platforming section, which is just okay.

The game has some fantastic ideas and even some refreshing attempts at execution (for example, one boss has two phases, and after you beat the first phase once, it takes significantly more damage on subsequent tries, to advance to the second phase faster), but it needed some more direction, practice on the side of the designers and time in the oven to molt from a jack of all trades, master of none, to a truly memorable experience. If you, like me, still enjoy seeing developer's efforts at creating the art they are so passionate about, then be sure to pick this game up, it might still surprise you (like it did me a few times) if you can look past its flaws and shortcomings.


P.S. I look forward to seeing more from these developers. A link to their website can be found here[fallenflagstudio.com]

Eldest Souls is an isometic Hack 'n' Slash game, which is a cross between the two games/franchises that may come to mind when one hears the word "Souls", namely FromSoftware's "Dark Souls" and Acid Nerve's 2013 indie darling "Titan Souls". The Dark Souls influence is self-explanatory, and the game's almost excessive revelling in long walking sections, with breathtaking, yet somehow uncanny and melancholy visuals, evoking a sort of "ancient liminality", as well as its boss rush structure, are where the Titan Souls influence is unmistakable. It was developed by Fallen Flag Studio ([b]Jonathan Costantini[/b], [b]Francesco Barsotti[/b] and [b]Sergio Ronchetti[/b]) and published by United Label and CI Games on PC, on 29.07.2021. [h1]PRO[/h1] + Gorgeous Graphics and Animation, paired with somewhat clever environmental storytelling + Creative Boss Design + Wonderful Orchestral Soundtrack by Sergio Ronchetti + Interesting, Stylized Cutscenes + Pretty fun, Weighty Combat (though the skill tree for a 6-7 hour game is maybe a bit much) + You can redistribute skill points at will + Some very surprising moments during the fights, that genuinely caught me off guard [h1]CON[/h1] - Typos, extra spaces, weird sentence structures in the notes strewn about the world - No Pause feature (A thing I despise in Dark Souls’ offline mode as well, and this game doesn’t even have any online functionality that could half-explain this glaring oversight) - Got stuck in a wall mutliple times during one of the bosses ([spoiler]The Rejected Daughter[/spoiler]) - Dodge seems a little inconsistent (sometimes you dodge into an enemy, and your character genuinely dodges, other times he just stands there, even though you have stamina – the timing in general seems a little off somehow) - Active Shard attacks (R2) kept getting stuck on nothing in some boss fights, thus consuming the charge, but not properly activating - Characters don’t feel too fleshed out - Odd, last second attempt at didactic storytelling - Obtuse quest design (also just feels unnecessary in a boss rush game in general) - Skill point unassignment should have a confirmation screen, I ended up having to painfully respec, one-by-one like four times during my playthrough. - Slightly finnicky hitboxes (especially during the one platforming section) [h1]Review[/h1] Eldest Souls sets out to do many things, and it is definitely a valiant and commendable effort, in spite of what I am about to say. For all that Fallen Flag Studio set out to do here, however, it falls a bit short on most fronts, sans visuals and music. The game has an identity crisis: It wants to be Dark Souls, and thus, an RPG, but it only has about nine bosses (and 3 bosses from the free DLC), with each one granting one skill point. There are three skill trees: one that is all about aggression, one that is all about counterattacks and one that is all about defense. I chose the aggression one, and it was a solid way to play, but it still leaves me wondering if a whole, semi-elaborate skill tree system isn’t quite past the scope of this 5-6 hour experience. It also wants to tell its story through elaborate notes, but a lot of them are not written the best, and I even found one duplicate note. They provide little to no context: The story ultimately falls flat to me and its message seems last-second and deflated. The bosses are a joy to fight, and are all immensely interesting mechanically. It is clearly visible that this is where all of the time and money went. So I wonder: why couldn’t [b]all[/b] of the effort have been spent here and on creating a satisfying world? The environmental storytelling is there, but it never quite leads anywhere. Some characters seem like they come from wildly different games. The notes that you felt might provide context, actually just reveal more cryptic writings: Mostly field reports describing the thing that is right before your eyes at that very moment. While the combat is fun, for the most part, it can feel a little weird: from the hitboxes, to the timings, to the damage received – often things end up feeling off in one place or another. Not enough to frustrate me, but enough to leave me confounded. Abilities (active shards) sometimes refuse to work properly, too. There is one platforming section, which is just okay. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] The game has some fantastic ideas and even some refreshing attempts at execution (for example, one boss has two phases, and after you beat the first phase once, it takes significantly more damage on subsequent tries, to advance to the second phase faster), but it needed some more direction, practice on the side of the designers and time in the oven to molt from a jack of all trades, master of none, to a truly memorable experience. If you, like me, still enjoy seeing developer's efforts at creating the art they are so passionate about, then be sure to pick this game up, it might still surprise you (like it did me a few times) if you can look past its flaws and shortcomings. [h3]Massive Thanks To Everyone At Fallen Flag Studio, As Well As To United Label and CI Games, For Sharing With Us Their Impressive Efforts.[/h3] P.S. I look forward to seeing more from these developers. A link to their website can be found [url=https://fallenflagstudio.com/studio]here[/url]