Vambrace: Cold Soul
Release Date: May 28, 2019
RPG, fantasy, roguelike, 2D, adventure elements, indie games, side-scroll, Game Pass, EA Play, singleplayer
OpenCritic
Steam
Vambrace: Cold Soul is a roguelike game in which we try to bounce the city from the hands of evil powers. One day a mysterious stranger appears, which may become the last hope for the fighters.
Devespresso Games has already delivered a successful two-dimensional survival horror called The Coma: Recut. The next game of the Korean team is Vambrace: Cold Soul. This time the developers have prepared a mix of adventure, roguelike and RPG.
Story
Action in Vambrace: Cold Soul takes place in the city of Icenaire, which was cursed by the evil Shade King. The location was taken over by the piercing frost, which, to make things even worse, raised the dead from their graves. The few remaining survivors took refuge deep underground from where they fought a desperate battle. One day a mysterious stranger appears in the city...
Mechanics
Vambrace: Cold Soul is a two-dimensional title. The game is divided into several phases. First we travel through the underground city in search of members of our team, which we choose from among warriors belonging to five races (including people and elves) and ten character classes. Each of them has different characteristics - one works well in short range combat, the other supports the other members, e.g. through healing. After gathering the four-person party, we equip the heroes with the necessary equipment and set off to the surface. There we have to face groups of dangerous opponents.
The combat is played in a turn-based system. The players order their subordinates to attack, defend themselves or use a specific skill. We should be very careful because the battles are not easy, and a permadeath mechanic is present in the game. This means that if one of the heroes dies in battle, we say goodbye to them forever, which can be painful if it's a more experienced characters.
During the adventure we acquire new equipment and elements needed to craft equipment, as Vambrace: Cold Soul features a simple crafting system. In addition to the main tasks, there are also side missions, where we can get new skins for characters.
Technical aspects
Vambrace: Cold Soul adopts dark fantasy visuals and characteristic graphic style, used by the studio's main artist - Minho Kim.
Last updated on April 20, 2020
Videos and Screens
[1:15] Vambrace: Cold Soul trailer #1
Nintendo Life: 4 / 10 by PJ O'Reilly
Vambrace: Cold Souls is one of the best-looking games we've seen on Switch – it really is a stunner – but in terms of gameplay, it's a pedestrian affair. Dungeons are boring and difficult, combat is bereft of any real strategic depth or flair and it thinks nothing of wasting hours of your time for zero reward. The story gets off to a cracking start and it's obvious that an amazing amount of artistic talent has been channelled into creating the City of Icenaire and its surroundings, but, in the end, it's all rendered a little pointless by the fact it's attached to such a monotonous and dreary plod of an RPG.
Pure Nintendo: 6.5 / 10 by Kirk Hiner
I liked Vambrace: Cold Soul, but it's certainly not for everyone. It requires more patience than many gamers can afford, and that's even among those who are already into roguelikes. If you can settle into its groove, however (and won't lose it when you're sucker-punched right out of that groove), there's some good, challenging fun to be had here.
TechRaptor: 9 / 10 by Kyle Johnson
Packing some serious challenge, Vambrace: Cold Soul grips you with atmosphere and gorgeous visuals, even as the combat isn't as deep as it could be.
Vambrace: Cold Soul Summary
Game Series: Vambrace
Platforms:
PC Windows May 28, 2019
PlayStation 4 August 29, 2019
Xbox One August 28, 2019
Nintendo Switch August 29, 2019
Developer: Dvora Studio / Devespresso Games
Publisher: Headup Games
Vambrace: Cold Soul System Requirements
PC / Windows
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB RAM, graphic card Intel HD or better, 5 GB HDD, Windows XP 64-bit
Recommended: Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, graphic card 512 MB GeForce 7900 or better, 5 GB HDD, Windows 10 64-bit
Darkest Dungeon-inspired Vambrace: Cold Soul Launches
Vambrace: Cold Soul, a roguelike heavily inspired by Darkest Dungeon, will be available today on Steam and GOG.com. Console owners will have to wait for the launch until September 2019.
video games
Konrad Serafinski
May 28, 2019