Titan Souls was made during the 2013 game jam Ludum Dare where contestants have 72 hours to make a game according to the theme. The theme for 2013 was “you only get one” and so Titan Souls was born and it got a lot of attention for it’s beautiful pixel art, haunting sound design, and difficult game play so it was picked up by Sony and fleshed out into a retail release for PC/PS4/Vita on April 14th. Obviously it’s heavily inspired by SoTC and Dark Souls, but its still very unique and the prototype shows so much potential it’s incredible how 3 guys can make a free game in 72 hours that ends up being way better than a lot of games that cost money and had actual production budgets. I’m convinced it will be one of if not the best game of 2015, and I think most of you will agree after playing the prototype.
TL:DR
-20 titans
-you die in 1 hit
-titans die in 1 hit
-you have 1 arrow nothing else
-learn from death combat like DS
-like DS, player must seek out lore
-mysterious, desolate world like SotC
-new game+ mode makes titans extra hard
Insane is good right? lol try out the free version and see if you can beat it, it’s pretty tough and 4 titans in there will probably be a lot tougher in the retail version.
What makes the concept so brilliant is the design around the core mechanics. The developers talk about it in the video I linked, they wanted to make each titan a legitimate challenge not a tedious chore where you slowly whittle the boss’s health down or have it be phase based where you wait for the enemy to attack and reveal it’s weak point like in other games which is where the Dark Souls inspiration comes from, well that and the lore and plot being the responsibility of the player to find. Each titan has only 1 HP so instead of having a big life bar as a defense, their actual attacks act as their defense it’s really simple yet effective because it makes every second of combat feel intense because both you and the titan die in 1 hit, kind of like if you money match someone over who gets first attack lol.
EDIT: This game is so fucking hard I beat the rubix cube titan, but this brain got me stumped! Died like 10 times to it already, but seriously the music is haunting, it’s so gorgeous screen shots don’t do it justice, the controls and mechanics are buttery smooth, the game feels so…right!
You guys try the new demo yet? If you guys like it please spread the word to anyone else you think might be interested. Shit is polished as fuck! So much style, challenge, attention to detail, and powerful mood. It really does give me the same feel as both Shadow of the Colussus and Dark Souls while having it’s own strong identity.
The sound of tightening fibers when you hold down the button to draw your bow, the way water splashes when you try to dash in the water, the haunting yet calming music, the beautiful scenery that invites questions, the fact that after I kill the cube titan and go back into the temple to look at it for a split second it shows it’s eye open and quickly closing…even though I supposedly just killed it. The speed and fluidity of the mechanics, how simple yet effective the game play is, how this game really forces you to think on your feet, how you’re forced to walk all the way back to the boss from the start every time you die knowing fully well you’ll die multiple times lol.
Just beat the demo, had 21 deaths, one of the titans is a little disappointingly easy, another is sort of hard, and the third is really hard, you guys will know which is which when you try it. Really fun teaser for the full game!
Apparently not only is there a new game + mode with titans having remixed attacks and increased speed, but there’s also a no rolls mode and an iron mode which is perma death sending you to beginning of game if you die once!
You already beat the game? I’ve just started playing it about 1 hour in killed 4 titans and am just busy exploring the world looking for any secrets and admiring the scenery.
To answer your question though:
-Combat is havily dependent on timing dodge rolls, attack speed, and recovery
-As mentioned in OP death is inevitable and the enemy encounters force you to learn attack patterns
-There is a lore to the world, but it’s ambiguous and not fed to the player through cutscenes instead the player must find it and piece together what happened before, during, and after the game for themselves
-The overworld is interconnected in the same way DaS1 is, therE are even some shortcuts I found that are clearly inspired by it
-Visual tone and mood screams 2D DaS1, especially the darkroot garden section
These are all core tenants of what makes Dark Souls 1…Dark Souls 1 and I can clearly see it’s DNA infused in Titan Souls in my short experience so far, if you can’t then see that than I don’t know what to tell you other than you lack an eye for subtlety. This game ripped off the concept of Shadow of the Colossus, but it was merely inspired by DaS1 to create a game that shares similarities to the two, but is very much it’s own thing.
Also the “games should be priced according to their length” argument is a piss poor one that has been debunked here and elsewhere countless times over. A game like any product has no intrinsic value, it’s only worth as much as you think it is, and to show you how silly your point is I bet some of your favorite games could be beaten in a very short amount of time yet have had prices way higher than they deserve according to your own strict formula. Putting a price on time is stupid, instead why not put a price on fun? I’ve played 2 hour games that were wayyy more fun and memorable to me than some 10+ hour games and got more bang for my buck out of the former than the latter.
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy TS though =/, at least you gave it a shot SEE WHAT I DID THERE? =P
I feel a game’s value should be judge in terms of what value it has to offer.
This game feels very, very empty, nothing is inspired at all. These “path ways” lead to one direction as it’s very linear as to how much can be explored. Almost every boss has an exploit that’s way to easy to figure out (for some reason, stationary bosses can’t hit you if you’re too far).
"B-But bosses in o-other games can be e-exploded too"
Yea, I usually have to go out of my way to figure them out which take upon hours to understand.
This game was more like “I died. Oh wait, if I stood here-- okay I won”
None of the bosses felt creative. Some had a “plot twist” moment where instead of taking one hit they take two (OH MY GOD!!) and… that’s literally it.
Most “short games” can be beaten in less than an hour on say your 3rd try or so.
To beat this game first time in 2 hours and 30 minutes… no. NO
The music is good, but even the worst indie games have some of the best OSTs out there.
The Dark Souls feature you mentioned can be found in many, many, many, many games.
It’s kind of obvious the devs simply threw the name in there for marketing purpose, even though any actual features from the Dark Souls series is completely absent.
This game is on par that of an average flash game, and nothing more.
It’s… a terrible game. And honestly, it’s rare when I mean that about a game.
EDIT: Honestly, for 5 more bucks, get Ori and the Blind Forest.
A game that’s actually good and where the devs actually put effort into it.
If you think the game is terrible okay, that’s like your opinion man, sorry you wasted $15. But to say the devs threw on the Souls name for marketing purposes rather than because it has the core elements of what makes a Souls game infused into a very different game is you being wilfully ignorant you clearly didn’t bother acknowledging the facts in my previous post or watching Acid Nerve’s explanation of it in the video before making your statement. Also your "what you said about Z can also be applied to A-Y* argument is as poor as the value argument because #1 almost if not everything in DaS1 can be found in many other games as well so you’re using circular logic and #2 the series itself was inspired by taking the core elements of the Kings Field and especially Shadow Tower series and infusing them into a completely different game.
Lol fucking zoolanders mastubatory language was hella suspect. Thanks pwolf for being honest. This fucking guy “the splashing of the water made me shit myself with orgasmic pleasures unknown to mere mortals, omg!!”. Fuck outta here.
