Just because a game doesn’t do anything differently, doesn’t mean it’s a bad game.

Something I regularly kept saying to myself while playing Soulstice, a game that plays everything incredibly safely. It follows its inspirations so closely, at times you’ll think you’re actually playing them.

Bayonetta. Devil May Cry. Ninja Gaiden and a whole host of other titles, they’re all here in one form or another. While I can’t say Soulstice does it better than any of them – combat, in particular, not quite hitting those same highs – combined the game comes together pretty well.

As Briar and Lute, you play as a Chimera and fight against waves of Wraiths. One half of you, Briar, has incredible combat abilities, while Lute has been sacrificed and bound to her sister, unlocking supernatural powers.

Your strength combined unlocks all sorts of possibilities, with Briar slashing at foes with her buster sword-esque ‘Ashen Vindicator’ and Lute using stasis fields to combat beings not of this world. She can even – helpfully – deflect incoming attacks to stop certain death.

The story is a bit top heavy to begin with, just throwing information at the player to the point where you’ll probably tune out but as the action starts proper and you get through some of the game’s initial areas, things start to click in a nice, more digestible way.

The environment does happen to be one of the game’s strong suits, with Reply Game Studios doing an excellent job with camera work, craning around tight corners, peeking down alleyways and helping you find things off the beaten track.

Soulstice is a stunning game and the cinematic action really help the game come to life in authentic ways, especially since it has an aura of mystery around its desolate docks and abandoned prison cells. That said, it is a fixed camera which can sometimes be a point of frustration when you want to look around a bit more or try to open up the environment.

Of course this is all complimented with action, of which the game has plenty, and the camera does at least enable you to get a better overview of your surroundings. The variety of moves available to you is also pretty surprising and even comparable to some of the hits mentioned above.

In the early stages, it feels quite tight and balanced, with combos flying around left and right and you needing to alternate attacks between flying mobs and grounded enemies.

But as you get deeper into the game, it all becomes a bit of a chaotic mess. There’s the usual grunts you just need to hit and dodge at the right times, but later on you’ll encounter ethereal beasts which can only be revealed by either of Lute’s stasis auras.

As such, you’ll find yourself needing to alternate between the auras quite regularly as mobs get more varied and while you’re trying to manage that on one side, you’re still dealing with projectiles and forces revealed by the opposite field on the other.

Timings are also a bit weird, with perfect dodges and counters being not only tricky to pull off but a bit hit and miss. I often found myself at odds with it, whereas in other games it felt so seamless and natural.

This game also really struggles with Resolution at 30FPS. With fast-flowing combat like this, the juddery nature of the mode really affects the game and detracts from the experience. Even though you want to see the gorgeous sceneries as intended, it’s really not worth it. Balanced may be your best option as it kind of gives you the best of both, but for me playing this on anything other than 60 FPS was a real challenge.

The only other criticism I’d make is that it felt quite tedious moving from battle to battle. The pacing felt like I was going through the motions and I quite often found myself either unsure what exactly was happening or wanting to get to the next phase to shine some light on things as I was getting a bit sick of button-mashing.

But I really have to hand it to Soulstice, it’s a relatively solid, polished, refined experience that scratches an itch. There’s a lot of new attacks to unlock, the game opens up new mechanics at a steady pace and the world and its characters are quite interesting to explore and meet.

While it lacks the tightness of the games it often tries to emulate, I had an enjoyable experience throughout and would definitely recommend giving this one a look if you’re not a fan of the Stiletto shooting witch or don’t have yourself a Switch.

Verdict

Soulstice is like the greatest hits of the genre splashed into one. It never does anything over and above but it’s a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable romp, despite some of its technical shortcomings.