Highlights
- Enotria: The Last Song introduces a unique mask system for flexible loadouts in combat.
- The game encourages experimentation with weapons and skills rather than punishing early-game choices.
- The innovative loadout system could potentially impact the entire soulslike genre for more diverse combat.
Ever since I beat Elden Ring, I’ve been a sucker for FromSoftware’s titles in particular and soulslikes in general. In a few months, I’ve also beaten Lies of P, Dark Souls 3, Lords of the Fallen, Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls Remake, and more. However, some of these games are rather harsh when it comes to build diversity, and it’s one of my biggest bugbears with the genre’s most popular games.
Almost all of these games tends to punish you for not fully devoting yourself to one build or weapon of choice, which can lead to some difficult scenarios. For instance, more than once I was stuck with bosses that were just faster than a swing of my giant sword, and I had no other option than to switch to non-upgraded weapons, dealing extremely low damage.
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I’m sure I’m not the only person who has experienced this. Thankfully, for people like me, the upcoming soulslike Enotria: The Last Song by Jyamma Games presents a possible solution for the problem.
Dare To Challenge Established Rules
Enotria: The Last Song is a vibrant, sunny soulslike game inspired by Italian folklore, an inspiration that is reflected through its environments, music, characters, enemies, and outfits. In a genre dominated by dark post-apocalyptic worlds, Enotria already sets itself apart through its presentation, which might be enough for some. However, the developers didn’t limit themselves to appearance only and decided to experiment with the genre’s more annoying mainstays.
Enotria has a unique mask system that allows players to switch their loadouts on the fly, even during combat or in the middle of boss fights. You can create up to three different loadouts, each with its own weapons, armor, perks, and combat skills (known here as Mask Lines). New masks can be obtained by defeating the toughest bosses, as well as collected through careful exploration, raising the importance of that side of the project.
Unlike almost every other soulslike game before, which forces you to commit to a single path early on and stick with it for the next 50 or so hours, Enotria is built differently, potentially fostering the most diverse approach to combat seen in the genre to date. For instance, if I’m not into grinding, I probably wouldn’t be able to upgrade more than a couple of weapons to higher tiers in Lies of P or Lords of the Fallen. As a result, my approach to combat and bosses remains the same until the very end, just after the first ten hours.
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Here, there’s no need to choose just one or two weapons from its huge arsenal due to the inability to level up everything, nor do you find very limited and expensive respecification options. In contrast, Enotria encourages player experimentation with skills and weapons rather than punishing them for early-game mistakes. This adds a previously unseen level of versatility, allowing for quick adaptation to different scenarios, such as changing your heavy and hard-hitting layout for something faster and more agile.
Potential For Lasting Impact
To not be limited only by words, there’s an Enotria demo available on PC and PS5 until July 30, allowing you to explore the first couple of huge and diverse areas. It features three boss fights, dozens of enemy types, and over 20 weapons, perks, and combat skills to try out. It took me just over five hours to fully clear the demo, and it gives you a taste of everything in the game. Considering the demo’s impressive playtime and small size, check it out if you’re even remotely interested in soulslikes.
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Unfortunately, during my time with the demo, I wasn’t able to fully grasp the potential of the loadout system (since there are no options to respec stats or downgrade weapons in the first hours), but it looks promising. The idea of not being completely bound to just a few weapons or skills, as seen elsewhere, is very appealing to me, and it’s surprising that no one has tried to solve this archaic issue before Enotria. If this feature is truly well-realized, it could impact the entire genre — or rather, it should.
Combining this fresh loadout system with a set of established rules could pave the way for an even more flexible and diverse combat approach within the soulslike genre. If players not only have access to a great selection of gear but also know they can reroll their preferences almost anytime they feel like trying something new, it could change the way we usually approach the most difficult encounters in the game. Just figure out the opponent’s weaknesses and switch to the most appropriate build variant — easy as that.
2023 was already an impressive year for the soulslike genre, and this year is shaping up to surpass even that. Upcoming titles such as Enotria: The Last Song, Black Myth: Wu Kong, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and, of course, the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, already promise hours of exciting play. Hopefully, the most innovative features, like this one, won’t go unnoticed and will be pushed even further in the coming years.
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