Recent reviews by Finngon

HOW IS THIS ONLY 4 EUROS?!?!

Amazing map, fantastic soundtrack, and almost MORE content than in the base game

My mind has been blown.

I believe the gameplay is pretty godo, although would want something to trifle the constant aggressiveness.

The graphics look great, and the game runs well. I have absolutely no problems with that. Also there are a good bit of content to do, including the story, the arcade quest, and other silly stuff like Tekken Ball.

However the microtransactions are very predatory. Leaving out Tekken Shop until a month after release was scummy, the nostalgia costumes not even being compatible with other customizations is scummy, the copystrucking of mods is very scummy, and the temple being paid dlc to everyone (including ultimate edition buyers) is beyond scummy.

Make it what you will. I recommend the game on its gameplay, but I heavily disapprove the monetization that they've applied to this game. Hence, this review will be not recommended until further notice. If you plan to buy the game, do not buy microtransactions (except characters you want).

After having 100%'d the game, here are my thoughts:

- Story was enjoyable, even if the main character had a one-note syndrome

- Gameplay was smooth, even if simple. I have no complaints here

- I love being able to change between characters to be able to attack in tandem. Link attacks are great feel to use, too.

- Isha felt a bit awkward to use at times, but she gets much better after some upgrades.

- There were a ton of backtracking to be done, needing to go through the same places over and over again. It gets boring pretty fast given the little amount there is to actually explore

- The game was too easy for a veteran metroidvania player

- 16 hours for a metroidvania is... fair. I kind of would've wished for more post-game content though.

I think this could be a good place to start for people enjoying the metroidvanias if they are not wanting to go to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I kind of were wishing more from the game though at the end, since fetch quests get boring after a good while.

Still, not a bad game at all. I can recommend it for a good 10-15 hour trip. 7/10

From what I tried for the first hour on the first two stages (first time over 15 minutes, second time to about 25 minutes), I can see the appeal of the game. Dark, old school graphics like Diablo, and grim atmosphere and an interesting way of permanent unlocking with the equipment

Personally, this game isn't for me though.

See, what I enjoy about Vampire Survivors or Soulstone Survivors is the huge variety of weapons to use, and surviving with the weapons you're dealt with. Unfortunately here, your main weapon is very heavily emphasized for it doing the most damage by default. Sub-weapons (or Ability Traits as this game calls them) not only are found only from bosses, but there are only 18 of them. And you can't even use the weapons other characters have.

I do praise Halls of Torment having different kinds of enemies to watch out for, and bosses can be unique. Although I didn't appreciate the first stage's boss being faster than me lmao.

If you enjoy the emphasis on the main weapon, or you like the aesthetics of Diablo, or just generally you are interested, give it a try! it's only 5 euros.

But if you're like me and enjoy the weapon variety in your survivors-games, you can give it a try, but be ready to be a bit disappointed.

7/10, just not for me.

Now that I've played over 50 hours, here are my takes without spoiling anything:

- Looks great, Capcom fixed the FPS issues in the city in the recent patch for me. Although the game does sometimes still drop frames for reasons unknown.

- Character creation is phenomenal. Just disappointed there's only one save while the character creator had 5 save slots.

- I absolutely LOVE the amount of places you can go and explore. Caves are exciting, overworld is very fun to traverse, and camps are excellent in terms of their use. This game is explorer's dream.

- The game is slower and a bit more methodical compared to the first game, but in a good way.

- Pawns' AI has improved by a good bit. They do still have very stupid moments at times, but at least they're not as bad as in the first game. I'm still a bit indifferent about the specialization part, mainly that you just overwrite your previous specialization without being able to change back to old one easily.

- Knockback/flinch/stagger system is very bad, and skewed in favor of enemies. All vocations outside of Warrior will flinch from all hits 100% of the time, regardless of armor worn. And the amount of time you're flinching from a hit can be up to 3(!) seconds - way too long time, and enough to at times let the enemy combo you to death. Meanwhile most enemies in midgame only start flinching after couple hits. Even warrior can only take couple hits before it, too, will start flinching. You could probably double or even triple the values players/pawns have and it would STILL not be enough.

- Gold is a bit hard to find. Same with ferrystones.

- I really enjoy doing the finishing moves. Rewards staggering the enemy and makes it that you're not always flinging enemies around with your jumping heavy attack like in DD:DA lmao.

- New vocation skills are pretty fun. I love the choices of modes with magick archer, I like being able to speed up spells with mage and sorcerer, and I enjoy the new Mystick Spearhand. Each vocation having a gimmick is cool as well! However...

- Trickster is god-awful and should be rehauled. It's just badly executed vocation (Support vocation with no damage, and no actual supportive skills). Enough said. It should've been more closer to Mesmers in Guild Wars 2...

- Microtransactions were also in the first game (NOT Dark Arisen version). However that doesn't make it OK. It didn't in DD1, and it doesn't here. However you can obtain these in-game just fine, so just ignore them.

So far, I think I'll go with a recommendation (7.5/10), but I'd probably recommend you play Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen first. While this game improves on some parts, it falls flat on many others. It might be best to wait and see if they improve the game for the better. Is it a game I enjoy? Yes, even with its flaws. But it could be better. and I hope some of the things are addressed.

Short summary after 2 weeks of playing:

- Fun loop, good to have a way to keep bases self-sustainable
- Combat is good and tactical enough, although melee is weak. Probably expected considering guns later on
- The map is huge! And there's little to no places where the world feels empty. there's always something, let it be Pals roaming or chests/eggs/effigies to find
- Lots of little things done right, like each Pal serving a purpose in several ways, fast travel points not being that far apart, and each wild Pal having different personalities (some flee when they see you, some attack you if you attack their brethren, some attack on sight)
- Some minor bugs here and there, like sound bugs or Pals getting stuck, or pathing issues, some silly ragdoll issues. Had a few crashes (AMD GPU related) but it seems to have been fixed.
- Start is slow, as mentioned from other reviewers, but it's not a big deal, and a non-issue in multiplayer.
- Starting areas do have same-ish Pals at start, so don't expect your beginning to change too much unless you go out of your way to do it
- First boss is a bit of a difficulty spike, and next bosses you won't fight for a long time after that.
- The devs are communicating well so far. Let's hope it continues well after this.

Overall, this is a high recommendation from me. Worth the money for sure even at this stage. And with the roadmap showing they have a nice plan like adding more pals or islands and crafting stuff, the future so far is very bright for this game.

Are there stuff to be fixed or addressed? Yes. But as it currently stands in 0.1.4, things are looking great.

Soulstone Survivors is a Vampire Survivors-like roguelite, where you control your character is fighting numerous of hordes before facing one of many bosses. As of September 11th 2023, there are 14 characters, 5 maps, 8 bosses, and 56 weapons. (No easy way to know how many active skills atm)

+++ Customizability to your runs is through the roof. There are so many things to change in your build or run that it excels in this area. Every choice matters: Your character, your runes, your weapon, your difficulties, your skills.. everything. And I love it.
++ So much to unlock..! Like it's crazy amounts of stuff you can obtain from just playing the game that there's always a goal you can strive for during your runs.
+ The Endless and Overlord Cycles are a fun way to extend your runs, but are not forced upon the player.
+ Performance: The game run perfectly fine for me in 1600x1050 at 144 fps, no hiccups.
+ Proper bosses are welcome to this type of genre
+ Mouse aim for certain active skills makes it rather interesting. Though I'd like to expand on this and not only shoot towards the aim's location that then goes only straight forward. (Imagine like Tiny Planet or Wiggly worm from Binding of Isaac rather than always basic tears)

-- Late game and higher Curse amounts devolve into kiting around everything, turning into "The floor is lava." I don't mind dodging, but going around in circles 24/7 is annoying, especially if you have single target skills or short range skills. This also doesn't work with Spellblade's unique ability at all, where you have to stay put in one area for a long amounts of time. Simply no time to hunker down in a small area. Summons that can pull aggro is almost a must.
-- Screen pollution is really bad in this game. There are just too many things on the screen to see your characters. Even with the transparency of your abilities, some still can block your vision really hard (Any vortex attack, and summons for instance, and of course, enemies' attacks themselves like sandstorm)
-- Lacks "soul." No lore, no bestiary, and no skill library or so for now. The most recent update helps with the skill library by showing what each character can get in a run in their skill list, but I'd like a full skill library to see all what I've unlocked. Might change on full release
- UI in-game could be better. Mainly, if you hover over skills with your mouse while the game is not paused, it still shows the skills, very often blocking your vision when you're aiming with your mouse. It is especially annoying on the left side after picking many passive skills.
- Overwhelming start: Being shown all the runes and armorsmith right at the start is a little overbearing for new players. You could hide some stuff behind unlocks before the player knows of them. (I don't mean any hard unlock. Just like "Get your first character to lvl 10 prestige" for armorsmith tab, and "Obtain your first rune power" for unlocking the Runes tab)
- Maps are rather small and barren. There's little to no reason to explore them. There's also not enough of them, although that will change on full release.

I wish Steam still had a "maybe" option.

Overall, I think this is going to be a "Wishlist and wait a bit more" for now. I love the choices you can do, but I loathe the gameplay loop of high curses when it's combined with unable to see where you're going or where you even are. I mean, you can get used to them, but that doesn't make it a good design choice IMO. Mind you, I'm not advocating to make the game easier, but rather I want less of just running in circles because of a beam, and a constant fireball spam, and several elite mobs running at you all at the same time, and more of rewarding from dodging correctly. I do hope the problems are addressed. This is an early access game after all.

Still, I've enjoyed the game so far. If you don't mind the massive amounts of AoE dodging and Area denial that you always have to be moving, feel free to give it a try. It's hard to recommend the game though because of it.

I'll update this review on full release.

I was just as the gasp of activating a boss. Used oblivion in hopes to reduce it a bit so I can put another battlefield. Boss appeared with me completely unprepared and killed me.

0/10 I feel like I'm wasting my time with this.

Imagine a parody game done perfectly right with an addicting gameplay loop, topped with an astoundingly good soundtrack.

That's Vampire Survivors.

This is a must-try. Even if you don't like it, it's not like you fall far from spending 5 bucks

Such a fantastic combat mechanic, spoiled by lack of defensive options, and the absolutely deafening silence from the developers post-release aside from some small fixes.