Soul Stalker Review

If you enjoy games like Vampire Survivors and Brotato, but wish there was a cute and cosy version of those games, Soul Stalker may be the title for you. Developer Rad Hood incorporates gameplay from both titles to make a bullet-hell style game where you follow a node-filled roguelike map to advance through each stage and get to a new area. 

You start playing as Gale, the blue-haired protector of a group of ghosts who live on Earth. You will go on missions that require you to capture apparitions making this world safer for all the ghosts, like the mushroom, who reside here. The protagonist will be equipped with multiple weapons to take down these apparitions that are coming to attack, as apparently, you are known as the Butcher of Souls and are fittingly called the “Soul Stalker”. Gale isn’t the only stalker available here to take control of, Vixen is also available to play as. 

Gale is a wandering mercenary with a max health of 60 and regeneration of 35 along with 10 other unique stats. His attacks are Steady Blade which stabs nearby enemies and Ace Gale which attacks around you in a circle. Vixen is a huntress (in a cute fox costume) who has projectile weapons that pierce two extra times but her health is lower at 50 and regeneration of 20. Her weapons are Axe Gale, like Gale the other character, (that's going to be confusing) and Burning Blade which slashes nearby enemies. Other characters are unlocked by completing tasks like starting a run, getting a critical hit chance over 50%, or killing 1000 enemies. There are 21 characters total to unlock.

The game begins in a quaint village where a group of adorable ghosts live. If you have ever had a chance to play Outbound Ghost you will recognize the art style in this title as it was created by the same developer. This game is full of adorable 2D character sprites in a variety of 3D cel-shaded environments. Before going out on a mission, you can visit with the resident ghosts, like a talking mushroom, and hear useful information about things like the Job Board, or tidbits like: “ummm yummy yummy ketchup! :)”. 

While exploring the village you will find a wooden table with a huge collection of candles on it. Each of these candles represents one of the 21 characters that you can play as, so it is essentially a character selection screen. There is a bench that is where you will select your weapon, and there is a spot to select trinkets which are items with passive bonuses. However, the weapons and trinkets require souls to purchase, so you will need to go out and slay some evil spirits before going shopping. 

When you are ready to head out on a mission, visit the Journey Globe where you are sent out to defeat the evil souls. You are first taken on a map that has nodes and branching paths where you can select which to follow. The nodes that you visit represent battle stages against enemies; campfires to recover some health and transform weapons; stores to purchase and upgrade weapons, or trinket shops. 

Jumping into battle stages you will see that your main goal is to survive for the amount of time listed at the top of the screen. When you begin, you only need to avoid the enemies coming at you and survive for 20 seconds. Once the time is up, you will move on to the next node on the map. The whole battle goes by very fast and it feels like you are just getting started when it ends. It’s weird because these battles end surprisingly fast and they take place in a very small area. Sure the background changes as you challenge new areas, but it feels like you don’t have very much room to manoeuvre in. 

Soul Stalker lets your character wield between four to six weapons at the same time to battle the waves of apparitions coming after your spirited friends. With 35 different weapons and 84 trinkets to acquire to level up your character, there are a huge variety of combos to equip your character with. 

The controls here are quite simple to use, if you are playing on the Switch, you will move your character around using the left thumbstick, and to dash to avoid enemy attacks you use the B button. You won’t have to worry about swinging your weapons around and this game automatically swings your weapons around so you won’t have to worry about button mashing to take down all the enemy spirits coming at you. If you run out of health you will get a game over and get sent back to the beginning of the run to start over again.

Soul Stalker is an alright bullet-hell game, but something about it just makes it feel a bit boring and not as exciting as other titles in the genre, it doesn't bring anything new to the table. The more chill-sounding music, and small stage sizes make this game not as adrenaline-filled and enticing and it should be. If you are looking for a more cute version of a bullet-hell game, this one may be of interest to you, but besides the great aesthetic, other titles in this genre are more fun and addictive to play. Be warned that if you choose to play Soul Staker on the Nintendo Switch, you will experience some lag when the screen is full of enemies that are coming towards you to attack.