Enotria: The Last Song – Hands-On With a Sunny Soulslike

ign.com:

Style can go a long way for an action game, where looking good is just as important as being good. Enotria: The Last Song got that message loud and clear, leading with remarkable landscapes and avant garde costumes to dress up its largely soulsborne-like combat fundamentals. I love some good soulslike clash and bang as much as the next gamer, but I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t ready for something new to the genre. Enotria, at least in theory, agrees with me there, and though my hands-on time was a great introduction to some bold new attempts to bring true combat classes and flashy special abilities into the very familiar system, it’s still a bit too early to know just how showstopping they are.

Enotria checks all of the soulslike boxes. It has stamina-regulated combat, with different weapons sporting various weights and animations, the greatsword being my favorite. It has dangerous enemies of various shapes and sizes, including jerky mini-bosses and a truly mean boss. You’ll collect “souls” that can be used to upgrade your character, so long as you don’t get killed, drop them, and fail to retrieve them before getting killed again. You’ll activate “bonfires” that serve as checkpoints and rest stops between legs of the sometimes stressful adventure. If you’ve played any of these in the past decade or so, you’ll know these are as basic to the sub-genre as boost pads are to kart racers.

So what does it do differently? Quinta, the city of aggressively jovial revelers that I skulked through in the demo, is unlike any city I’ve seen in the Souls games or otherwise. Bright and colorful tapestries and foliage drape down the walls of rustic, Tuscan townhomes and match the vibrant costumes of the city’s denizens. The sun