Souldiers Review

Timing is a funny thing and can lead to drastically different experiences, and Souldiers exemplifies this perfectly. Reportedly, many who played it shortly after release had a miserable time with the game, and the issues are well documented across the internet. However, a lot has changed since release, and in 2026, Souldiers is a fully functional metroidvania after plenty of patches and fixes, aside from one key issue.

The story begins with a group of soldiers caught in the middle of a war who are suddenly transported to a mysterious world after an earthquake. From there, the focus shifts to exploring this new land and dealing with various factions and, eventually, a much larger danger.

Souldiers immediately scratches the old-school itch, and that’s probably why a lot of people took the dive back in 2022. However, after a quick run through part of Tempes Plains, the majority of the opening hours are spent in the dark, dank Spiders’ Lair (the picture above being one of the brighter parts of the cave), which does the game no favours, nor does it showcase the brilliant colours and hues of the plains, especially the Forest of Fyr, and slightly after, the vibrant hub city of Hafin. Of all the locations in the game, Spider Lair is one of the worst places to send players as the first major location. Because of that, engagement is slow during the caves, but things pick up considerably once you hit the Forest and City.

There are three different types of heroes to choose from: Caster, Archer, or Knight. This review is based on the Knight. This is an exploration-heavy game, and even by metroidvania standards, the world is large. There are tons of secrets, and for those who prefer keeping up to date with each area, it’s always a blast to return to older areas with each new movement upgrade. Level design is solid, with plenty of hazards and twists and turns to keep things interesting, but the challenge is never overbearing like in Aeterna Noctis. A few of the locations, like the Fire Temple, lack focus, as, at first, it is a place with lava pits and fire hazards, but later, there are tons of obstacles involving wind that would have been better served in a different area.

To aid in discovery, pieces of maps can be purchased by an NPC, while other parts are found in dungeons. The map helps in finding anything missed, and includes a tally of treasures and byguls, cute little flying creatures required for two side quests. Just be aware that, even with the in-game map, consulting a fan-made map, especially for the largest areas, such as the pyramids, sunken lab, and fire temple, might be required, as the layouts aren’t exactly intuitive.

Plus, a common pet peeve among metroidvania fans rears its ugly head here: not being able to mark maps or zoom in or out; a bizarre design omission. At the very least, maps fill in as you explore, and once dungeon maps are found, it’s clear where you need to go to advance, though there are some basic switch puzzles at times to progress.

Souldiers is said to be a difficult game, but for someone well-versed in metroidvanias, the normal difficulty (Soldier) should be just right challenge-wise, although slightly out of whack in that enemies sometimes pose a huge threat, while many bosses are surprisingly easy. Newcomers to the genre have the option to pick Explorer (easy), while genre veterans can choose Warrior (Hard).

As far as bosses go, they’re short of being DPS sponges, but with just a few timely dodges and heals, most of them aren’t very tough and require limited movement overall. Plus, a distinguishing factor between a game that’s merely good and one that is great or better is the little intangible aspects, such as how intimidating bosses are. Are they large, formidable opponents that force you to pull out all the stops? In the case of Souldiers, not really. Many are the same size as the hero, and most, regardless of size, don’t feel imposing.

The issue mentioned previously is an incredibly serious one. In this playthrough the game froze twice in a row on the last boss. In hindsight, the only possible culprit was that it froze both times during his teleport attack, frozen with the circle just after he disappeared into the void. If memory serves correctly, healing was attempted both times. Imagine sitting there, after nearly 40 hours and 100% completion, fretting, wondering if the effort was all for naught. This is so incredibly disappointing from a personal perspective, as there was eagerness to jump online to proclaim how the game performed perfectly, contrary to the many complaints it still gets, even in 2025 and 26. This is a pity because, despite a slow start, Souldiers settles into a nice gameplay loop and, as the hours melt away, might even leave players wanting more. Until the end.

Outside of discovery and boss battles, there are a few other addictive qualities: about two dozen side quests, including taking out nine super enemies, harder than normal foes, but not quite as tough as bosses. It is refreshing to see a game not overload players with side quests, which helps each one feel more meaningful. In fact, just one requires grinding for materials.

By finding specific materials, weapons, shields, and secondary weapons can also be enhanced for a small fee, which helps with damage output. Though the battle system is built to rely heavily on parries and blocks, it is possible to beat the game with a very strong focus on evasion. Going this route, though, realise the dodge cooldown is very long. Sure, cooldowns prevent endless dashing, but players who prefer a more dodge-oriented defense are punished too much because of that.

The soundtrack is evocative of the mid-90s, with catchy tunes, one of the best being the boss battle theme, and the sound effects are top-notch. There are few games that match the satisfying audio feedback after landing hits on bosses quite like Souldiers. Practically speaking, though, there’s no question when you hit their weakness (there are accessories that show enemy and boss weaknesses).

While there are no performance issues (until the last half hour), the control scheme is a little hard to get used to. The controls aren’t as responsive as they could be, and after experimenting with both a PS4 and Xbox controller and switching between them several times throughout, trying to figure out which one worked best, the Xbox One was slightly better.