Enotria: The Last Song review

Our VerdictItalian folklore makes for a unique setting, but Enotria lacks the smooth combat and smart mechanics you’d look for in a decent soulslike.

Our Verdict

Italian folklore makes for a unique setting, but Enotria lacks the smooth combat and smart mechanics you’d look for in a decent soulslike.

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It’s been a good couple of years for soulslikes. BothLies of PandBlack Myth Wukonghave continued to demonstrate just how far you can push this formula, adding smart new ideas, but transposing the fundamentals to an entirely new setting and mood. It’s honestly the thing I love the most about this genre; how you can take this framework that players understand and use it as a vehicle to explore a new setting or mythology.

NEED TO KNOWWhat is it?A soulslike based on Italian folkloreRelease dateSeptember 16, 2024Expect to pay$49.99/£39.69DeveloperJyamma GamesPublisherJyamma GamesReviewed onWindows 11, i5-12400F, 16GB DDR4 Ram, RX 6800 XTMultiplayerNoSteam DeckYesLinkSteam

NEED TO KNOW

What is it?A soulslike based on Italian folkloreRelease dateSeptember 16, 2024Expect to pay$49.99/£39.69DeveloperJyamma GamesPublisherJyamma GamesReviewed onWindows 11, i5-12400F, 16GB DDR4 Ram, RX 6800 XTMultiplayerNoSteam DeckYesLinkSteam

For Lies of P that was a dark and moody adaptation of Pinnochio, a children’s story from the 18th century, while for Black Myth Wukong it was Journey to the West, an even older Chinese novel from the 16th century. I’m not sure what it is about the soulslike genre that allows developers to adapt such varied source material, but for my part I think it’s the perfect combo of something you know and something you don’t—a familiar set of mechanics in a fresh, unfamiliar locale.

It’s for that reason I was particularly excited to play Enotria: The Last Song, a soulslike rooted in Italian folklore. It’s something I know very little about, but as with Black Myth Wukong, I was excited to receive a schooling while murdering bosses and exploring sunny mediterranean-inspired regions, albeit filled with dogs, traps, and all the usual soulslike accoutrements.

Sun-soaked shores

The first thing to say about Enotria is that, despite its faults, it’s a very pretty game. Whether it’s the decorative masks and carnival costumes you don as the Maskless One—what your character is known as—or the sandy beaches and rustic towns you battle your way through. It’s an entirely unique vibe, and one I haven’t seen in a soulslike before. I do think it’s a bit lacking on the NPC side for its genre, and its map design feels quite linear for the most part, but each region has its own particular flavour.

I was pleasantly surprised when, in the second region, I found myself exploring ancient Greek ruins and fighting an army of cannon-wielding conquistadors. Even if the regular bosses can sometimes feel a bit samey, the main bosses at the end of each region are fun and thematic in terms of their visual design. The setting is definitely the strongest element of Enotria and if you’re particularly into Italian folklore, you’ll be in for a treat.

The main visual drawback with the game is how bad the motion blur can be, but luckily the devs recently added an option to turn it off since the demo, so I’d suggest doing that if you’re particularly prone to noticing it.

Combat woes

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Enotria review - Rooftops

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Enotria review - Church

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Enotria review - Colossus

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Enotria review - Zanni

(Image credit: Jyamma Games)

Enotria review - Red Cardinal

Weapon combos are simplistic and enemy attacks don’t feel balanced towards the game’s weapons. If you take a polearm or an ultra-greatsword, for example, you won’t even have time to hit most enemies mid-combo, which means all you can do is sit there and parry the same attacks over and over again—enemies and bosses have very few attacks—until they’re stunned.

Enotria lacks that necessary combat flow that’s so important for soulslikes in making you feel that you can master the system

Another poor aspect of combat is the almost Pokémon-esque element system. During your travels you’ll encounter enemies or bosses of a particular element, either Vis, Fatuo, Gratia, Malanno, and you’ll deal much less damage to them unless you use a weapon or mask line to infuse your weapon with the right element. The game gives you three loadouts you can switch between at will and two weapons for each in order to cope with this, but the system feels pointless to me.

Crafting your own build is a big part of the soulslike experience, so being forced to cover enemy elemental weaknesses with your weapons infringes on that freedom a bit, especially when it’s an arbitrary system that doesn’t really add much to the experience or enemy difficulty beyond plain tankiness. Builds should be about playstyle, not simply covering a specific damage type.

Playing your part

Image1of5(Image credit: Jyamma Games)(Image credit: Jyamma Games)(Image credit: Jyamma Games)(Image credit: Jyamma Games)(Image credit: Jyamma Games)

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Enotria review - Citadel

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Enotria review - Tall masked character

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Enotria review - Town

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Enotria review - Mural

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Enotria review - Painting

You have four mask line slots where you can equip these abilities, and as you explore the game, you’ll find more. My primary issue with them is that they take quite a long time to charge via attacking enemies—though you can speed this up in the skill tree—and you very easily get stunned out of them during the casting animation, which exhausts that use. It means that if you are going to use mask lines at all, you need to develop a very precise understanding of how long they take to cast, otherwise they’ll make you more vulnerable than simply parrying would.

Curtain call

Enotria is clearly a labour of love in terms of its setting, but that’s what makes it frustrating when the experience doesn’t quite add up. It feels like a game that would have benefited from early access or more time for player feedback and development, since it’s so close to being something far better. Tweaks to weapon balancing, mask lines, enemy attack animations, hyper armour, and health would change a lot.

As it stands, though, Enotria lacks that factor I get when playing a smart soulslike, coming across some minor innovation or mechanic that suddenly makes me think “Wow, that’s really clever!” or occasionally even mechanics I wish FromSoft would incorporate back into its games. The combat will certainly carry you through if you’re invested in the setting, but the endless parrying, elemental system, getting stunned out of mask lines, and how hard it is to use slower weapons will likely grate on you. For me, at least, soulslike combat should feel like a second skin, and Enotria doesn’t achieve that.

The Verdict57Read our review policyEnotria: The Last SongItalian folklore makes for a unique setting, but Enotria lacks the smooth combat and smart mechanics you’d look for in a decent soulslike.

The Verdict

57Read our review policyEnotria: The Last SongItalian folklore makes for a unique setting, but Enotria lacks the smooth combat and smart mechanics you’d look for in a decent soulslike.

57Read our review policy

Enotria: The Last SongItalian folklore makes for a unique setting, but Enotria lacks the smooth combat and smart mechanics you’d look for in a decent soulslike.

Enotria: The Last Song

Italian folklore makes for a unique setting, but Enotria lacks the smooth combat and smart mechanics you’d look for in a decent soulslike.

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The newest soulslike on the block, Enotria: The Last Song needs a bit more rehearsal timeItalian soulslike drops ‘suicidal’ June release date after realising it was set to come out the same day as Shadow of the Erdtree

A man in a plague doctor-esque golden mask stares into the camera.

The newest soulslike on the block, Enotria: The Last Song needs a bit more rehearsal time

A man in a plague doctor-esque golden mask stares into the camera.

Italian soulslike drops ‘suicidal’ June release date after realising it was set to come out the same day as Shadow of the Erdtree

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

Wordle answers

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Our Verdict#

Sun-soaked shores#

Combat woes#

Playing your part#

Curtain call#

Our Verdict

Sun-soaked shores

Combat woes

Playing your part

Curtain call