Our own Talune Silius reviews Enotria: The Last Song
Link to Game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2102450/Enotria_The_Last_Song/
Enotria: The Last Song could easily be summed up as a game that needed more time in the oven. Even if you get past the many bugs and glitches that are standard for new releases, there are a lot of balancing issues that really hold this game back. It is surprising seeing the price point for this game when other small souls-likes don’t cost as much. Much of this review will feel like minor nitpicks. But do those nitpicks hold this game back?
The story and setting of Enotria: The Last Song is probably its most unique and celebrated aspect. Seeped in Italian folklore, the land has been cursed by powerful magic, trapping it in an endless play. Every human is given a mark, which grants them a job in the play to conduct for eternity. You will take the role of a maskless one (one who was never given a role), free to choose your own destiny. You seek to destroy the masters of this play and hopefully bring it to an end and free its citizens. To do this, you will embark across the multiple lands of this fictional Italian countryside as you face many cursed enemies along the way.
It is refreshing to have a souls-like that doesn’t have you crawling over crumbling ruins or fallen civilizations. From the moment you step out of the starting cave of the game, you are greeted with picturesque sunflower fields and beautiful cities overlooking the sea. The level design of Enotria: The Last Song is one of its best attributes. There is an incentive to explore the many nooks and paths, as there are secrets hidden everywhere. Upgrade materials, weapons, lines (spell-like abilities), and items dot the twisted paths. The game is split up into 3 major zones, with each one sprawling out like a maze. I never found a bad area and often found myself stopping to just look out over the vista at the various landmarks I was adventuring to.
The gameplay of Enotria: The Last Song is what you would expect from a modern souls-like. It focuses heavily on parrying and dodging to win. Parrying is the primary name of the game here. Every enemy and boss has a posture bar that, when full, puts them into a stagger state where you can crit for high damage. You also have access to various lines that act like weapon arts or spells. These special attacks can be filled by attacking so it is always a good idea to be on the offensive.
Where Enotria: The Last Song slightly differs is its usage of 4 elements to create a rock, paper, scissors style combat system. To summarize, there are 4 different elemental effects in the game (Vis, Gratia, Malanno, and Fatuo). Every element is strong to another element and weak to another. Every weapon deals different elemental damage types and most (not all) enemies are aligned with one of the four elements. There are also line abilities that can allow you to temporarily buff yourself with elements. This keeps you on your toes as you always need to stay conscious of what element you are using in order to keep fights from dragging on.
In concept, this is an interesting system. However, I do not think the system is well fleshed out. Having to make sure you always have a way to deal with the different elements limits the build variety. And by late game, it feels like the damage bonuses from different elements starts to drop off. Elements seem to be locked to areas of the game, and I just found it easy to go pure damage and have a line to swap elements as needed. But I have mixed feelings on if the system was fleshed out well enough or even needed. I’m sure I could have shaved off a few hits here or there by swapping weapons better equipped for the elements. But I just found it easier to focus on a playstyle I enjoyed.
It doesn’t help that the tutorial provided in this game is awful. This game’s tutorial is so abrupt and terribly executed that it inspired me to publish an entire article regarding tutorial design. But my summary is basically that the game’s tutorial uses multiple pop-ups over the course of just a few minutes to try and teach you all the systems on offer. It turns out to be waves of texts that could have been done in a more natural and engaging way. Returning to the tutorial after completing the game made a lot more sense once I had understood the mechanics organically. But on first playthrough, I was personally overwhelmed by so many pop-ups after sitting at the first rest site. Minor gripe I know.
But how is the combat in this game? I think the core of the combat is really fun. When you can pull off the blocks and dodges perfectly, there is a nice gameplay loop of combat and exploration. The enemy variety feels extremely lacking, but not for the reasons you would think.
Each area does introduce new enemies and there is a huge roster of mini/main bosses. The problem is that almost every single enemy and boss in this game is a variation of a human. And many of the “new enemy types” reuse the exact same attacks as the old enemies. Even many bosses are just beefed up normal enemies with a second elemental phase and a bloated health bar/damage.
The further I got into the game, the more I noticed that the “new” enemies were just reusing the same attacks from old enemies. This means that my enjoyment was on a rollercoaster of highs and lows as I would get to a new area, enjoy traversal and exploration for about half the level, then get disappointed and bored as I fight the same enemies over and over.
This matches the lore of the game, where it is a focus on humans being cursed by the “Play”. But it’s not like there aren’t fantasy elements in the game. There are giant crabs with cannons on their back, robot spiders, and a few giants. So why did the game stop there? It’s clear that it was just easier to make humanoid enemies so that the developers could save on animation. And for the most part, barring a few annoying enemies, the combat is mostly enjoyable. But it also is a little bit disappointing when the credits roll.
There is also a decent amount of annoyance when it comes to the flow of combat. While it was fun for about 60% of the time, there are other issues that take some time to get used to. What causes an enemy to stagger is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes, you will perfect block an automan causing him to stagger. Then other times, blocking the exact same attack does nothing but build up their bar. The riflemen will fire constantly without any animations for reloading or recoil. The cannons point forward and are unmanned but will always somehow fire in your direction. Many enemies (like the automaton) will swing over and over with very little opening to attack, meaning you have to focus more on blocking. This is just one of the many minor issues that I saw with combat.
The same seems to be with the balancing of weapons. There is a huge variety of weapons in the game. Some of them have unbelievably unique and cool designs. But the movesets for all these weapons are generally relegated to the weapon type. And while I personally played with a big bonk weapon for my playthrough, the speed of the enemies, and the inconsistent staggers meant that playing with a large weapon often meant I had to become a god at the parry. This is because the weapon swing is often too slow and getting hit causes you to stagger out of your animation. This gets even more annoying when swinging a huge weapon has inconsistent staggers on enemies. Sometimes they flinch, other times they don’t. And no matter how much I tested, I couldn’t figure out what caused this.
This leads me to the boss design of the game. There are two types of bosses in the game:
First you have the standard bosses. But as stated before, these are mostly just regular enemies with one or two extra moves, an element buff at half health, and a larger health bar. These bosses are a mixed bag because so many of them feel underwhelming. A giant boss in one of the later areas felt out of place when it had the exact same number of moves as the room with 3 giants earlier. Another boss that was given their own room, had you fighting them as a normal enemy in the very next room. And each time, you will hear the same songs played repeatedly. It doesn’t help that many of the bosses will have a laughably easy first phase, but then once they buff into their elemental phase, suddenly their damage is multiplied.
The second type are the few main bosses. I have mixed feelings about how I feel about these as well. Some of them were interesting and fun to fight. But overall, I was let down by them. The balancing of many of the bosses is all over the place. One of the only non-human bosses in the game was so upsettingly bland to fight that it left a sour taste in my mouth. The penultimate boss was an amazing fight that felt like it really tested your combat abilities. But then the secret end boss has been hated by a lot of people for having attacks with unfair tells. Not only that, but the bosses will also often spam beams of light, completely obscuring their attacks. So, I left the game just feeling underwhelmed across the board.
Enotria: The Last Song is a strange game. The core concept of the game is solid, and it is at least intriguing to play. The lore is refreshing and some of the voice acting is great. I honestly feel like it is worth taking a look at if you are looking to play something new. But it feels like I can’t say one good thing without adding a “but” to balance it out. The levels are beautiful, but the sound design feels empty and too quiet at times. The combat is interesting, but you will be fighting the same enemies over and over again. The armor sets look extremely interesting but require a heavy amount of grinding to get the shards. I know that the developers released a roadmap to update and balance the game. I praise them for at least attempting to stick with it.
However, I will say that in its current state, I would wait to play Enotria: The Last Song. Let the developers put out a few more patches and see where it goes. Or at the very least, wait for it to go on sale. The current asking price is a little high for this game. As a current package, I think is slightly above average and a noble attempt as a souls-like.
Final Rating: 7/10
