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This mobile Soulslike is full of fascinating ideas and janky execution

2K View2023-11-09

Blade of God II:Orisols

8.9

Lore-RichAction RPGActionRPGSouls-likeOnline Co-OpViolentMultiplayer

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SHOULD I PLAY BLADE OF GOD II: ORISOLS?

If you’re absolutely obsessed with Soulslike games, have exhausted the myriad of other strong recent releases in that subgenre—like Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen—and truly believe that you want to experience this type of game on the go, then sure. Give Blade of God II: Orisols a shot. Whatever you do, though, don’t go into this game expecting a polished or particularly immersive experience. It experiments with the Dark Souls formula in interesting ways, but calling it “rough around the edges” would be generous.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve spent around six hours with Blade of God II: Orisols, leveling two of the game’s three characters, completing the first “realm” of boss encounters, and making some progress into the second area. I’ve also spent plenty of time messing around with the nitty-gritty RPG stuff at my home base between levels. This has included enhancing my armor, upgrading and assigning my combat abilities, and summoning souls, which is this game’s version of a gacha.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT BLADE OF GOD II: ORISOLS?

• It’s all about the boss fights, baby. While Blade of God II’s levels often feature a small handful of weaker enemies, they are all extremely short, linear jogs to get to the main event: the bosses. Epic, challenging battles against fierce bosses are one of the highlights of any Soulslike. And since Blade of God II is trying to adapt that formula to mobile, it makes sense to cut out the fat and just focus on what’s most exciting. It helps, as well, that the bosses have clearly had some extra effort put into their design, even if the result is sometimes goofy, such as the weird minotaur bull with a bearded human face that I took on in one level.

• Some Monster Hunter trappings. While Blade of God II is undoubtedly modeled after Soulslikes in how it controls, feels, and looks, it also takes some inspiration from Capcom’s beloved Monster Hunter series. Since it’s meant to be a continuously played mobile game, there’s an element of grind, requiring players to revisit old boss fights at increased difficulty levels and attempt to win rare resources. While it’s hard to tell how it will play out in the long term based on the current closed beta test, I feel comfortable saying that I think blending Souls-style combat and world design with Monster Hunter-style upgrade grinding is a system with a lot of potential for fun and addictiveness.

• Building your own combos. While Blade of God II doesn’t have the full character creation of a traditional Dark Souls game, it does include a fair bit of choice in how players develop their characters. Players can swap between three premade heroes, each of whom has their own weapons and play style. From there, each hero earns a total of three class types as they level up. And then within each individual class type, I was able to learn different combo pieces, assign them in a string that fit my preferences, and modify them further with souls earned from the gacha. Players who love tinkering with each detail of their arsenal will find a lot to enjoy here.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN BLADE OF GOD II: ORISOLS?

• Squishy, imprecise combat. Soulslike games live or die based on the quality of their combat, and the harsh reality is that right now, Blade of God II’s approach just isn’t up to par. Each swing that connects with the enemy has all the impact of slapping someone with a wet sponge, and since the early bosses, at least, don’t deal much damage, I never felt like I had to be careful or considered with my attacks.

The game also focuses heavily on countering certain enemy attacks by using a “break” skill when the incoming attack glows blue. That system is fine on its face, but Blade of God II struggles to find a balance between the exact timing and mastery that this style of game would usually demand, and making the timing window much wider but far too easy. In essence, these problems turned most of the boss fights I conquered to boring slogs rather than intense battles to the death.

• Nonsense story. In one major break from Soulslike tradition, Blade of God II has a lot of plot, and none of it is very good or interesting. The game’s Norse mythology-inspired setting held some vague appeal for me. But every level seemed to both begin and end with a lengthy cutscene or bizarre dialogue that was nearly impossible to follow. I tried my best to pay attention, but within a few levels I couldn’t really understand what was happening at all. At that point I gave up trying to follow and just started skipping the story.

• Questionable gacha implementation. Love it or hate it, gacha games are gonna gacha. To Blade of God II’s credits, I found the souls that I pulled from the gacha system interesting and well-designed, and they make a hugely noticeable impact on attacks when equipped. But that’s also the problem: Souls earned from the gacha can be absolutely core to a certain attack or combo string reaching its full potential. While this isn’t an issue in the early game portions I played, I can’t see how it wouldn’t become a major problem in the end-game—and a source of pay-to-win frustrations, considering that PvP is a part of Orisols’ content. Oh, and there’s also multiple paid battle passes and a bombardment of “special offer” microtransaction notifications.

• Poorly explained morality system. After defeating most bosses, I was introduced to the soul hidden within those bosses and given the opportunity to either finish the job and execute them or offer them redemption. I’m a fan of big narrative choices like this in games, and it could provide an interesting wrinkle to an otherwise recognizable formula. However, I never got a strong sense of what the difference between the two options was, much less if (or how) it was affecting anything. I believe the choice is only tied to the story, so maybe if the story made more sense I would have followed what was changing.

• Toasty phone. After half an hour or so of Blade of God II my Samsung Galaxy S21 felt like it was getting ready to burst into flames. The game never actually stopped functioning—and my phone never actually stopped working—but it did become uncomfortable to hold due to the heat, which would have been frustrating if the boss fights had been intense enough to require my close attention.