Ceramic Soul

About

Ceramic Soul is a single player puzzle game. It was developed by Soul Soup and was released on April 29, 2022. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Within a Victorian manor, wake up as Yu, a porcelain doll, modeled to look like The Mother’s perfect daughter. Solve puzzles with the help of a detachable hand, hide from grievous threats, explore the manor, and search for your past to reclaim pieces of your soul and claim your freedom.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

69%

Audience ScoreBased on 95 reviews

graphics17 positive mentions

stability9 negative mentions

Unique and creative concept with interesting puzzles and a detachable hand mechanic.
Strong atmosphere with creepy and mysterious visuals, lighting, and sound design.
Free to play and a commendable effort for a student project with some polished artistic elements.

Severe performance issues including very low and unstable frame rates, making the game slow and sometimes unplayable.
Lack of graphics options and optimization, leading to frustration on many hardware setups.
Presence of bugs and glitches such as AI issues, game-breaking camera problems, and gameplay interruptions.

graphics
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
26%
11%
The game's graphics are widely praised for their unique, moody aesthetic and appealing art style, especially considering it's a student project. However, performance issues and a lack of customizable graphics settings cause lag and low framerates on many systems, limiting playability for some users.
- “Very good design and graphics.”
- “The aesthetic of the game is incredible and I would love to see more.”
- “Love the art style and the walking hand animation.”
- “Unplayable on a decent laptop with very slow FPS; lacks more options for changing graphics settings like low/medium/high, which would probably make it playable on more computers.”
- “There is no way to lower graphics quality, limiting performance options for players with less powerful hardware.”
- “The game doesn't run well on a 2019 gaming PC, and there are no options to change graphics settings or even keybindings.”
story
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
53%
20%
The story is unique, atmospheric, and intriguing, blending horror elements with puzzle-solving and a haunting soundtrack. However, it is often short, somewhat unclear or hard to follow, and feels like an incomplete draft, though still engaging enough to maintain player interest despite some confusion.
- “It had puzzles, a unique atmosphere, and the story is truly fascinating.”
- “Horror factors, story telling, eerie environment, cinematic music and puzzle solving was all there.”
- “Even with the bugs this was a fairly creepy game with a simple but sad story that seems to be a rough draft of a potential larger project.”
- “Story reads like an empty spaces story.”
- “Story: no idea what it's about /10.”
- “The story was a bit hard to follow overall.”
atmosphere
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game's atmosphere is consistently praised for being creepy, mysterious, and engaging, complemented by impressive lighting and artwork. It effectively creates a unique, immersive setting that enhances the horror theme and puzzle-solving experience. However, some players note technical issues like lag that can detract from fully enjoying the atmospheric elements.
- “It had puzzles, a unique atmosphere, and the story is truly fascinating.”
- “Great aesthetic, creepy atmosphere, and pretty cool gameplay.”
- “The setting and atmosphere are fun and engaging with excellent lighting work.”
gameplay
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
37%
27%
The gameplay features an interesting detachable hand mechanic and challenging puzzles within a creepy, aesthetically pleasing setting, but is marred by significant lag, frame rate issues, glitches, and slow pacing that negatively impact the overall experience.
- “Great aesthetic, creepy atmosphere and pretty cool gameplay.”
- “The visuals look good, the puzzles have a bit of challenge to them and the detachable hand mechanic is an interesting idea.”
- “The hand detaching mechanic is an interesting concept that adds variety to gameplay.”
- “Some of the mechanics are either unfinished or broken, and that is okay.”
- “However, on the other hand I had some real frame rate issues in large parts of the game, which could end up slowing the gameplay considerably.”
- “Core gameplay was not fun and very slow paced.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The game suffers from poor optimization, leading to significant performance issues, especially on mid-range hardware, with frame rates dropping dramatically during gameplay. While performance improves on higher-end GPUs, the lack of optimization detracts from the experience. However, given that it's a free, student-developed game, some performance shortcomings are somewhat understandable.
- “Had a lot of issues with the 1660 s, after using the 3070 ti, the performance is much better, and actually playable.”
- “Like already said by other players, the main problem is the optimization; I don't care if my computer is rumbling like when running Witcher 3, but at least Witcher doesn't go down to 4 fps when it does. It's a shame for all the sneaking around part that becomes just a long slow-motion scene.”
- “Just to see how much performance I get from it with and without.”
stability
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has notable stability issues, including glitches, bugs, and occasional freezing, which sometimes hinder gameplay and cause frustration. Despite these technical problems, players generally appreciate the concept and aesthetic, finding the game enjoyable albeit short and somewhat clunky.
- “Won't load and freezes my computer.”
- “Frame rate issues and glitches with collectibles and HUD elements make the game nearly impossible to beat.”
- “Really cool concept but so slow and so many glitches that make it unplayable.”
music
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
15%
14%
The music in the game is generally praised for its eerie, cinematic quality that complements the horror atmosphere and storyline, with some users highlighting its beautiful and fitting soundtrack. However, one user noted a technical issue where the music plays only briefly at the title screen. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong, polished aspect despite some gameplay and technical shortcomings.
- “Horror factors, storytelling, eerie environment, cinematic music, and puzzle-solving were all there.”
- “The soundtrack and art in this game are beautiful; I would buy an art book in a heartbeat.”
- “The game is well made with good graphics and music to match the game.”
- “Just loads up with some music to a title screen in what I am guessing are Japanese characters and then does nothing.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Replayability is currently limited, but users are willing to return once improvements are made to enhance playability.