Enotria: The Last Song
- September 16, 2024
- Jyamma Games
- 15h median play time
"Enotria: The Last Song" is a Soulsike game set in a sun-lit world inspired by Italian folklore, where a twisted eternal play, the Canovaccio, has put everything in stasis. As the Maskless One, you must defeat fearsome Authors and harness the power of Ardore to free the world. With 3 main regions, over 100 enemies, and 40+ hours of gameplay, uncover the dark secrets of this beautiful land. Remember to start a new run if you've played the demo.
Reviews
- The game features stunning visuals and a beautiful art style, drawing inspiration from Italian culture.
- Combat mechanics are engaging, with a focus on parrying and a unique loadout system that allows for diverse character builds.
- The level design is intricate and rewarding, encouraging exploration and discovery of hidden areas.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, including crashes and glitches that can hinder progress.
- There is a lack of keybinding customization, which can frustrate players using keyboard and mouse controls.
- Combat can feel clunky and unresponsive at times, with inconsistent hitboxes and enemy AI that can break during encounters.
- gameplay96 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 66 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game features a mix of ambitious mechanics and beautiful environments, but suffers from a lack of polish and clarity. While the combat system, particularly the parry mechanic, is generally satisfying, it can feel clunky and overwhelming due to the steep learning curve and unrefined animations. Overall, players appreciate the variety of RPG elements and the intriguing mechanics, but many express frustration with bugs, balance issues, and a confusing tutorial that detracts from the overall experience.
“The environments just look gorgeous and the overall gameplay is fun and satisfying.”
“I genuinely was hyped for this game to come out because of the 'soulslike' genre, the beautiful Unreal Engine, and the Italian lore, plus the mask mechanics seemed really cool.”
“The parrying mechanic felt nice and responsive, the world is really nice, the lore is great, and there's nice boss variety.”
“The core gameplay feels unresponsive, with stiff animations and needs a lot of refining.”
“The combat feels clunky and sticky, and there's a lack of fluidity and polish that is apparent just in the first hour of gameplay.”
“Game designers had a good idea in mind but didn't know the basics of how to balance gameplay and overall player experience.”
- music62 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The music in "Enotria: The Last Song" is widely praised for its beautiful and atmospheric qualities, effectively enhancing the game's aesthetic and boss fight experiences. While the soundtrack, inspired by Italian musical traditions, features haunting melodies and exciting rhythms, some players noted issues with repetition and a lack of ambient music in certain areas. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's immersive world, despite some limitations in variety.
“The soundtrack, inspired by Italian music traditions, enhances the game’s atmosphere, blending haunting melodies with exciting battle rhythms.”
“The atmosphere in the first city is perfectly executed, with enemies actually playing the music and shouting in the revelry that can be heard throughout.”
“The music, the atmosphere, is fantastic.”
“It's unfortunate that outside of the main areas, there is mostly no ambient music.”
“Music was repetitive and at points got so annoying that I eventually turned the music down and eventually off altogether.”
“My only problem with this is that there wasn't enough original soundtrack to go around, and half the time you are exploring in the open world, there is no music.”
- graphics58 mentions
- 62 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the stunning visuals, art direction, and atmospheric design inspired by Italian aesthetics. However, some players report performance issues, such as frame rate sluggishness and the need to lower settings for stability. Overall, while the art style and level design are often highlighted as exceptional, there are concerns about optimization and certain visual elements, like water effects, being less impressive.
“Overall, the graphics and game atmosphere are gorgeous.”
“The graphics are fantastic.”
“Game is graphically stunning, visually one of the best soulslike games.”
“I find I often have significant frame sluggishness, even at the lowest graphics settings.”
“I had to lower everything to minimum graphics to get stable FPS even though the 'auto detect' put me at medium.”
“Very frustrating to sit through shader compiling every single time you want to adjust a graphics setting, which made me put off changing it for a good 45 minutes.”
- story49 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The game's story has received mixed reviews, with some praising its rich lore, intriguing characters, and incorporation of Italian folklore, while others criticize it for being opaque, unengaging, or poorly executed. Many players appreciate the effort to create a captivating world, but technical issues and a lack of polish detract from the overall experience. Overall, while the story has potential and some interesting elements, it often fails to resonate or provide a coherent narrative.
“The story is rich with twists, legends, and well-developed characters.”
“+ a beautiful story that uses famous Italian folklore characters to weave a memorable tale, greatly enhanced by the compendium you can fill up as you explore and defeat bosses. The major bosses in the game all have really good 'last words' after defeat that really enrich the experience of defeating them.”
“While the story might not break new ground, the game excels in creating a captivating world filled with beauty and mystery.”
“However, I wasn't playing for the story, so it didn't bother me that its lore and writing are, frankly, terrible.”
“The development of this game is clearly focused on the story, neglecting the combat system, which is really poor, boring, and too repetitive.”
“The storyline honestly didn't really make 100% sense to me and didn't really seem like there was a coherent story throughout.”
- optimization28 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant performance issues such as stuttering and FPS drops, particularly in specific areas. While recent updates have improved performance for some users, others still find it unplayable on certain setups, indicating that the game is not fully optimized across the board. Despite these challenges, a portion of players report smooth performance on higher-end rigs, suggesting that optimization may vary widely depending on individual hardware configurations.
“Performance is much better compared to the demo version.”
“Stunning visuals and graphics with nice optimization.”
“The game looks and runs well for me, no performance issues (12700k/4090/32gb/nvme).”
“It accumulated them from an absolutely botched release schedule, no custom key binds on release, and poor performance that has now been improved.”
“Ever-present stuttering and performance issues.”
“I wanted to play this game and enjoy it, but the bad performance really stopped any progression from the start.”
- stability24 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 92 % negative mentions
The game is plagued by significant stability issues, including numerous bugs and glitches that affect gameplay, particularly during boss fights and interactions with elevators. While some players report that it runs well on high-end systems, many others experience frustrating technical problems, such as disappearing health bars, unresponsive controls, and missing dialogue. Overall, the game's stability is a major concern, leading to mixed recommendations from users.
“The game looks great and runs smoothly, and the exploration at the beginning is enjoyable.”
“Runs great, actually.”
“It's true the game has significant faults; there are significant bugs and glitches that need to be repaired.”
“Unfortunately, it's buggy and deaths are sometimes caused by a lack of a finished product with bosses and elevators.”
“Boss health bars disappear, freezes tend to happen, and a role was not given to me because the game bugged out, so I am missing an achievement even though the boss is a required boss to beat to progress.”
- atmosphere8 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for its immersive execution, featuring lively music and engaging soundscapes that enhance the experience. The blend of haunting melodies and vibrant battle rhythms, inspired by Italian music traditions, contributes to a rich and unique environment filled with hidden areas. Overall, the combination of atmosphere, story, and music creates a captivating and memorable gaming experience.
“The atmosphere in the first city is perfectly executed, with enemies actually playing the music and shouting in the revelry that can be heard throughout.”
“The soundtrack, inspired by Italian music traditions, enhances the game’s atmosphere, blending haunting melodies with exciting battle rhythms.”
“Overall, the graphics and game atmosphere are gorgeous.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players have mixed feelings about the grinding aspect of the game; while some appreciate the extensive farming required for masks and items, others find it tedious and frustrating, particularly due to the repetitive nature of boss fights and poorly designed checkpoints. The slow-paced combat and inventory management also contribute to the grind, making it a polarizing experience that may appeal to dedicated grinders but deter those who prefer a more streamlined progression.
“Some masks just require an unholy amount of farming to get all of the fragments. Maybe this is a pro if you really like farming items; some people do.”
“The overwhelming majority of bosses in this game are just tedious to fight, not difficult, but just a health and parry sponge.”
“I'm not one for grinding, and in terms of progression, it feels excessive.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the game's humor to be a highlight, with well-placed ambient effects adding to the comedic experience. While some technical issues, like characters falling through the ground, can be frustrating, they often result in unexpected laughter, enhancing the overall enjoyment despite any setbacks.
“Don't rob yourself of a funny experience just because your first setup didn't work as intended.”
“I'll take the funny, and if you absolutely can't help it, I'll take your points too.”
“However, after the intro cutscene, my character proceeded to fall through the ground into the ether, which was admittedly funny except for the fact that I spent $50 on the game.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game offers strong replayability due to its multiple endings and build diversity, encouraging players to explore different playstyles. With a solid 40-hour gameplay experience, many users express satisfaction with the game's enjoyable visuals and combat system, despite some flaws.
“The game itself is enjoyable, featuring beautiful visuals and vistas, a fun (though partially flawed) combat system, good build diversity, and excellent replayability.”
“It's a solid 40-hour game with great replayability.”
“I'm happy with the game; it has replayability and multiple endings, which I will be pursuing based on the achievements.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users express strong disappointment with the game, indicating that it has led to a loss of goodwill towards the company, suggesting a significant emotional impact. The frustration with gameplay mechanics, such as combat and difficulty, further contributes to their negative feelings.
- character development1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers highlight that the meticulous attention to detail in both architecture and character design significantly enhances the sense of immersion, making each location feel vibrant and alive, which contributes positively to character development.
“The attention to detail in the architecture and character design makes every location feel alive.”
“The character arcs are incredibly well-written, allowing players to form deep emotional connections with each character.”
“I love how the choices I make influence the characters' development, making each playthrough feel unique and personal.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players have noted discrepancies between the advertised game length and actual playtime, with some completing the game in around 18 hours instead of the claimed 40+. This has raised concerns about the game's monetization strategy and transparency in marketing.
“The game length is not what was advertised. I took my time to explore everything I could find and even achieved the true ending, clocking my first full run at 18 hours, which is absolutely fine. However, advertising it as 40+ hours is a bit misleading.”
“The monetization model feels exploitative, with constant prompts to purchase in-game currency for features that should be accessible through regular gameplay.”
“I was disappointed to find that many essential items and upgrades are locked behind a paywall, making it difficult to enjoy the game without spending extra money.”