A preview of Digital Extremes’ upcoming medieval fantasy game Soulframe, which serves as a spiritual sequel to their critically acclaimed Warframe, marked the beginning of a new chapter in the gaming universe at TennoCon 2024. While Soulframe promises a slower, more contemplative gameplay experience with a fantasy genre foundation, Warframe offers fast-paced, acrobatic action and a sci-fi scenario. In contrast to its predecessor’s fast-paced space ninja action, this game is characterized as an action-RPG with MMO-lite aspects and is available for free in the play store. The occasion gave players a thorough look at the game’s special elements and particular method of character development and battle.
The TennoCon demo began with a cinematic cutscene that sets a grand stage for the game’s narrative. The scene introduces a dramatic medieval battle through the perspective of a bird flying in a rainstorm. The bird’s flight reveals a night-time siege where an army assaults a castle with catapults and arcane magic. This intense and chaotic setting is contrasted by a serene moment within the castle, where a mother cradles her baby amidst the turmoil. This poignant sequence transitions seamlessly into the character creation phase, introducing players to the game’s innovative “momcrafting” system.
Players create their in-game mother’s look first in Soulframe, which adds a distinctive twist to character building. The mother’s physical characteristics, including her hair, eyes, and other features, are customized during this procedure, which is known as “momcrafting.” As the player makes decisions, the game’s narrative narrator responds to them with lyrical descriptions and striking metaphors. It becomes more than just a visual customization process when you include this interactive storytelling element in character building; it becomes a narrative experience. The game’s narrative begins when the mother gives the infant, which is the player’s character, to a handmaid after setting her appearance.
Following the character creation, the demo advanced to showcase the core gameplay mechanics of Soulframe. The game features an expansive open world, which players will explore to access procedurally generated dungeons. This design approach is reminiscent of Warframe’s method of creating missions from random tilesets, ensuring a dynamic and ever-changing gameplay experience. Players will navigate this open world to engage in quests and battles, encountering a variety of challenges and environments.
Soulframe’s Nightfold, a private hub where users may oversee their progress and engage with other game components, is a noteworthy feature. The Nightfold offers a place for players to manage gear, advancement, and customisation, much like Warframe’s Orbiter does. The spirits of players’ ancestors, who are essential to the game’s progression mechanism, can be encountered within the Nightfold. Aside from crafting and cosmetic customization, these ancestors help with other areas of the gameplay. The Rat Witch Verminia is one of the recently revealed ancestors. Verminia is a cosmetics vendor and an alchemist who assists players in creating elixirs. The center area gains use and charm from the huge, amiable wolf that players will find in the Nightfold. It also functions as a mount.
The Pact, a cursed arm that serves as a character class in Soulframe combat, is emphasized heavily in the game. Players will swap out their Pact to access various sets of magical abilities instead than using the customized Warframes from Warframe. The character displayed this mechanic in the demo by throwing and recalling a halberd, which is akin to the legendary hammer of Thor. By enabling players to use both melee and ranged attacks against opponents, this feature adds another level of flexibility to the fighting system. Players must plan ahead and modify their tactics during battles as the combat is supposed to be slower and more methodical in keeping with the game’s overall tempo.
Additionally, the presentation made clear that Soulframe is presently in Soulframe Preludes, its testing phase. December 2023 saw the start of this pre-alpha testing, which was by invitation only. Digital Extremes announced during the press preview that they plan to open up the game to additional players in the fall of 2024 so that more people can take part in the testing phase. With the help of this expansion, the game’s development and eventual release will be influenced by the insightful input received from a broader audience.
With its unique and inventive take on the action-RPG genre, Soulframe is a captivating addition to Digital Extremes’ portfolio. An encouraging look at the game’s potential is offered by its unusual character creation system, large open environment, and innovative combat system. Soulframe is positioned to create a big impression by offering its audience depth and originality as development continues and more players interact with the game. Watch out for Soulframe in the upcoming months because of its strategic combat, dynamic customization options, and intriguing story components.
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