Dispensing with the hordes of low-level cannon fodder found in most other games means two things for boss rush titles: Sophisticated challenge is of utmost importance, and developers can’t hide behind slaughtering mobs as an overpowered god to pad out the experience. It’s an admirable, ambitious, and exciting type of game, and developer Fallen Flag Studio's Eldest Souls has promise.
Screen Rant was able dive into a preview build for Eldest Souls, which took us through the first three bosses of the game with studio founders Francesco Barsotti and Jonathan Costantini along for the ride. The game’s fetching pixelated art style and terrifically dramatic soundtrack are the most clear and immediately noticeable strengths in a title that may have many more at launch. Several Souls touchstones are firmly present as admitted inspiration - as well as 2016’s magnificent Furi - but Eldest Souls has a few other twists that may make for a go-to repeat-play boss rush experience.
At first glance, things look a lot like most action-adventure titles. The main character in Eldest Souls swings an enormous, Berserk-styled blade, which seems to be the sole melee weapon in the game. Where enemies might lurk in the grim streets and corners of any other game, the Eldest Souls map is mostly unpopulated. An NPC or two may hide in the shadows, but their enigmatic dialogue and quest nudges don’t immediately give players any effective prompts for where to go, aside from straight and through the wrecked architecture of The Citadel.
First off among bosses is The Watchdog, a kind of lupine scavenger that functions as the tutorial. Broad melee strokes threaten the player’s minimal HP and hitbox, and some helpful instructions interrupt the combat flow and describe the pacing of Eldest Souls’ action sequences. Essentially, charging up attacks is highly encouraged, and connecting these properly engages a “Bloodthirst” buff, where players deal more damage and swing faster, as well as accrue slight healing with each hit.
It’s a satisfying set of basics which adds a great push/pull quality to the encounters in Eldest Souls. Much like a Souls game, a few wrong moves spells death - prompting a smartly-implemented near-instant restart, thankfully - but a few right moves can similarly bring the player back to full health. There’s also a slick but weighty dash with invicibility frames fully intact, and carefully managing the three available dash cooldowns is absolutely necessary, even with this first pushover boss.
Once The Watchdog is dispatched, the next layer of the Eldest Souls experience is revealed, which is leveling up and shard management. This is arguably the game’s greatest trick, presenting a kind of combat laboratory where skill points and special boss shards can be mixed and matched for a variety of effects, abilities, and buffs. Skill points are permanent and generally feed into one of three fighting styles; Windslide favors agile players, Berserk Slash is all about aggression, and Counter prioritizes parrying and deflection in battle. There’s a nice path of quirks and buffs through each style, where seemingly any approach seems feasible, though these choices may be punished by later bosses.
The Shards system is even more engaging. Essentially, Eldest Souls bosses relinquish unique shards when defeated, which can then slot into different aspects of the player’s moveset, meaningfully transforming how dashes, charge attacks, and special abilities function. There’s a surprising amount of depth and playfulness here, aspects which are quite unique within the boss rush genre, where battles lean towards a meticulously refinement to emphasize a stricter set of rules. It’s a great addition, something which should add legs to the game as players triumph over the 10 bosses, then seek to do it all again in New Game+ variants or via a special no-filler Arena mode.
While we weren’t able to test NG+ in the preview, it promises new attack patterns and abilities, which may turn The Watchdog into less of a pushover alongside other added elements. Time will tell, as Eldest Souls moves toward its launch date later this month. For that vertical of players who seeks the triumphant feeling of finally stomping a boss on the tenth or twentieth attempt, this game’s an excellent choice and one that holds a lot of promise.
Eldest Souls releases on July 29 on PC/Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.