Titan Souls - The Legend of Colossus Souls

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Saint of Killers
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PostTitan Souls - The Legend of Colossus Souls
by Saint of Killers » Thu Jun 26, 2014 11:57 am

1 HP. 1 Arrow. Many Titans.

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Titan Souls | PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Vita | Q1 2015

Play the game jam version for free: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-da ... w&uid=7984

Game website: http://www.devolverdigital.com/games/view/titan-souls





What is it?

  • Colossal Titans: Explore the ancient ruins of your forefathers and uncover more than twenty extraordinary and unique titans, each with their own savage attacks and hidden weakness. Find and exploit their faults to slay the beasts and consume the primeval power that lies within them.

  • Simple Combat: Loose your solitary arrow at the monstrous titans and summon it back to your hand to unleash another forceful strike. Dash and run from the titan’s attacks but do not fear death, as it is both inevitable and plentiful in Titan Souls.

  • Arcane Secrets: This realm is not without its secrets. Long forgotten titans are hidden in the shadows and prowling through the furthest corners of the land – find them, destroy them, and take their souls for your own to discover the true extent of the power that resides here.


EuroGamer preview

Hit the enemy's glowing weak spot! Learn its attack patterns, and dodge those dancing fists! They're commandments etched into video game lore, but some take those ancient edicts and turn them into something approaching poetry.

Team Ico's Shadow of the Colossus is built around the boss battle at its most explicitly lyrical, while Dark Souls turns its deadly encounters into taut, brutal verse. Titan Souls, a new action game from three-man developer Acid Nerve being brought to PS4, Vita and PC early next year by Devolver, boasts a more minimal brand of poetry.

Part of that minimalism is simply in Titan Souls' DNA. The original was the result of last year's Ludum Dare game jam, with its theme of 'You Only Get One'. Acid Nerve - that being Mark Foster, designer of the brilliant Chroma, musician David Fenn and artist Andrew Gleeson - came upon an artful approach, a boss rush in which you only get one hit-point, and you only get one arrow.

Such is the strength of the premise and the team that the Titan Souls which entered Ludum Dare after three short days of development feels like a finished article. You can play it for free right now - though you should excuse some of the rough edges - and you'll get a fair impression of the fundamentals of the fully-fledged game.

You'll notice some of A Link to the Past in the presentation, though the temple you explore in order to find each of the bosses is touched with a more direct melancholy. The waters are a little murkier, the moss a little denser, and there's a sense of being alone as you unravel a fantastical place, with the titans you encounter beyond creaking stone doors as your only company. It's a sense of isolation and enigma obviously indebted to Team Ico.

Once you go toe to toe with a titan, you'll notice small debts to other games too. The combat is savage, thanks in part to your paltry single point of health and also to the devilish attack patterns of enemies. Unlocking how they work, often while rolling furiously around the small, self-contained arenas, is a puzzle that distils the essence of Dark Souls. The thrill of downing a titan, too, is the same intoxicating shot of the tonic that gives Dark Souls so much of its appeal.

But to only talk about Titan Souls through the filter of other games does it a disservice, as Acid Nerve has created something with a spirit very much its own. Its combat is elegantly refined - you have one arrow, which in the final game can be fired out in eight directions rather than the four available in the Ludum Dare version. Once released, holding down the attack button can summon it back. You're stationary and therefore vulnerable whilst summoning, but you can also use the returning arrow to strike a titan in its path.

Facing down titans becomes an exercise in quick wits and even quicker movement. Skilful players will be rewarded with an even tougher New Game Plus mode once the 20 or so enemies have been dispatched, while lesser mortals will simply be satisfied by the challenge presented by the first playthrough. The titans in the demo are certainly a tough bunch. There's an ice bastard that noisily scrapes across the floor, and a block bastard who chases you down aggressively, only fleetingly exposing its weak point. Finally there's a stone-man bastard whose fists come crashing down in a mossy courtyard.

In the 20 minutes I spent playing Titan Souls I failed to kill a single titan, though that didn't matter one jot. This is one of those games where you learn to enjoy your many deaths. And it's one of those games where teetering on the brink between survival and oblivion has been elevated to an art.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... d-into-one


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Last edited by Saint of Killers on Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:54 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Rog
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PostRe: Titan Souls- LttP meets DS and gets stomped on by a Colo
by Rog » Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:06 pm

It's good to see indie games getting a bit more love on here. Probably because of PS4 and Vita.

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PostRe: Titan Souls- LttP meets DS and gets stomped on by a Colo
by Saint of Killers » Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:14 pm

This is going to sound so much like I was into indies before they got popular...

Hotline Miami opened my eyes to how awesome indie titles could be and that was *before* they were announced for PlayStation platforms. But yes, being a smaller game doesn't make them lesser games and so the more exposure/love they get the better because a) they deserve it and b) people owe it to themselves to play 'em.

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rudderless
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PostRe: Titan Souls- LttP meets DS and gets stomped on by a Colo
by rudderless » Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:51 pm

Yep, this is definitely one to look out for. Quite tough but incredibly satisfying when you nail that shot.

[iup=3595962]KB[/iup] wrote:People like Glen Whelan have a proper face!
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Winckle
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PostRe: Titan Souls- LttP meets DS and gets stomped on by a Colo
by Winckle » Thu Jun 26, 2014 3:44 pm

Rog » 26 Jun 2014, 12:06 wrote:It's good to see indie games getting a bit more love on here. Probably because of PS4 and Vita.

Yeah now they're on consoles it's cool and interesting.

We should migrate GRcade to Flarum. :toot:
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PostRe: Titan Souls- LttP meets DS and gets stomped on by a Colo
by Saint of Killers » Thu Jun 26, 2014 3:48 pm

Pfft! Hotline Miami thread had already hit ten pages *before* PS3/Vita version was announced. So there!

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PostRe: Titan Souls - New trailer showing off bosses and scenary
by Saint of Killers » Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:17 pm



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