Over the years we have seen a lot of games try their best to produce a good Soulslike game, does Deathbound meet the mark? and stand aside the greats that From Software has produced? not going to lie there have been some good ones and there have been some terrible ones. One of the latest ones that has come out that caught my eye was Deathbound, and thanks to the folks over at Tate Multimedia for providing me with a copy on the PlayStation 5 to see if this Soulslike game can stand its own against the greats.
Deathbound was made by Trialforge Studio and is a one-of-a-kind party-based soulslike set in a callous world where Faith and Science clash. Dynamically transform between fallen warriors with unique skill sets, combat styles, and rich history. Conquer a brutal reality where Life and Death were never more conflicted. The Story of Deathbound is told through the different characters that you can unlock throughout your journey.
Each has its own narrative and weight on the direction of the story. You’ll see them get along, and bicker but ultimately fight together to get to the bottom of Deathbound’s interesting story.
One of the big mechanics in Deathbound is the Essence system, this allows you to gain skills and memories and add fallen warriors throughout the world to your party. The party system in Deathbound allows you to absorb the essence of different characters that you come across and use them to fight with. Each character you come across has a different playstyle and talent tree.
You can have a max party size of four so choose wisely to whole sits in your party as some get along and some not so much. However, I found myself picking the characters I liked, one of which is the Essencemancer Haodai Tehkri who has the power over death and plays like a mage shooting poison balls and electricity from his staff.
There is a good array of different playstyles and Deathbound puts these playstyles behind characters rather than just allowing the player to use one character and pick up and switch between weapons. On top of this, you will find yourself wanting to master the Dynamic Morphing system which is a big part of Deathbound’s combat. You can combine the powers of your party by utilizing different attacks and powerful combos.
Timing is key here and it is a big learning curve to start with but when you get the hang of it, the combat can feel super fun but does feel clunky at times. One thing that did bug me was that if one of your party dies that’s it. At first, I thought that if one party member dies it will pull out the next but that isn’t the case so managing health and stamina is important as when healing you take health off other party members and stamina seems to run out quite fast.
The world of Zieminal isn’t for the faint-hearted made up of the technological past and medieval present, which makes for an odd pairing. There is a rich lore surrounding the city of Akratya but one that is crawling with unforgiving monsters and enemies.
Graphically, I love Deathbound’s art style, character designs, and overall world. Each character has their distinct looks and characteristics while the numerous amount of different enemies and bosses provide a pleasant array and good diversity when it comes to the types of enemies. The audio in the game is standard, the battle sounds, atmosphere, and music do a good enough job but the voice acting isn’t anything Oscar-worthy, unfortunately.
There is some good dialogue between the different party members that helps portray their ideals and builds relationships (whether good or bad) between one another. The idea of finding out about each character by seeing past fragments in a smokey haze is an okay touch but I do prefer a good cinematic cutscene to help drive the story along which doesn’t happen that often in Deathbound.
The level of replay value I think is quite lacking. It might have countless party arrangements that you can try and play with to see who has the best synergies and combos but I don’t think that game’s story and overall gameplay will drag me back.
Whereas with Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring I feel the want and need to try different weapons and see if I missed something on my first, second, or third playthrough but Deathbound is pretty linear in terms of areas that you can access. Yes, the map is pretty big and the overworld that you see is well presented but you can’t necessarily go there which is a shame.
If you want to grind levels to complete the skill tree and level up your character it is fairly easy to do and can easily be done just by playing through the story. You don’t need to grind as it seems that you can do it by just progressing.
Closing Statement
Don’t get me wrong, Deathbound does enough to provide an interesting playthrough. I think it is largely to do with the Party System, Morph Combat feature, and setting. I like the idea of having four different characters that you can switch between with ease and pull off crazy combos.
Though it does come with its frustrations in terms of the combat at times feeling clunky when your weapons are bouncing off th e walls as this game loves to have you fight enemies in tight areas. Deathbound’s release was a good call if it had been released around the time of Shadows of the Erdtree I think it would have completely gone under my radar but saying that I don’t think it can’t compare to other Soulslike-games that are currently on the market.
I would recommend others like Elden Ring or even Lies of P before Deathbound and it’s sad really because you can see that a lot has gone into the world-building and party system but it doesn’t do much other than be a decent gaming experience rather than a great one and for those reasons I’m having to give Deathbound a 6 out of 10 for having some good ideas but not being too memorable of a game.
Deathbound Trailer
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