Soul Knight

There’s very little in the way of narrative depth and backstory at play here – get some stones, defeat some bad guys – and it’s a good thing. It’s all about the action, and there’s lots of it with every corner turned. Unlike a lot of games in the growing roguelike category, Soul Knight’s simple arcade gameplay will appeal to those who might never play another dungeon crawler or an RPG in their lives.
That honor goes to Enter the Gungeon, but it doesn’t take long to see what the primary inspiration for this game probably was. If you’re into the roguelike offerings of Nuclear Throne or Enter the Gungeon, this mobile game was made just for you. It’s solid to the core, and while it somewhat ironically lacks a soul or identity of its own, it revels in tossing pretext aside and getting to the action. Most importantly, especially for a lot of people who read this site, the economy is a glorious, unobtrusive, generous, beautiful thing. This is Soul Knight
I really like it when games combine guns magic and swordplay. Taking down melee fighters with a well timed spray of bullets before switching to a sword and surprising a sniper can be nice and satisfying. Mixing genres also shakes up your expectations, you have no idea what’s around the corner.you’re given a pistol with unlimited ammo and set loose in a dungeon. Crawl through room by room defeating all the enemies the room will throw at you until you’ve finally cleared it. Success doesn’t always come easy. You aren’t going to run out of bullets, but neither will your enemies. Some beasts will try to chow down, but it’s the enemies with pistols and spray guns you’ll have to watch out for. Duck, dodge, run around like a chicken with your head cut off – whatever it takes to keep yourself alive. Health points are easier lost than gained, especially once you hit the big boss.

The graphics are solid – two-dimensional with an authentic retro arcade feel. There’s a reason those of us who grew up in the nineties remember the SNES so fondly – for some game types (and this is one of them) nothing compares. Keeping it simple here is what keeps it fun. Run and shoot. Shoot and run. No getting distracted by the graphics, in-game music or anything else. Pure action. Pure fun.
Brought to us by Zeyang Li and ChillyRoom Inc., developed in Unity, Soul Knight is quite clear even from the App Store description that it doesn’t care about the story and details so much. It wants us to have the fun and shoot the guns. This is reminiscent of an OrangePixel Games take on Gungeon, like a Heroes of Loot [$3.99], though not quite as strong. You move through extremely symmetrical dungeon rooms and hallways fighting baddies that spawn whenever you cross the room threshold. You can’t shoot into the rooms from outside or vice versa, so all action is contained within, though you can see what to expect.

Targeting is done completely automatically. You’ll shoot at the nearest target, letting you focus on dodging bullets and enemies. I’m generally OK with this, but it does make shooting at explosive barrels and such a pain. I’m the kind of gamer that simply MUST clear a room of crates and other destructibles before moving on. Right now, you can only aim in a direction by moving in that direction and it’s awkward. Combat is fine though. Considering how cramped some of these rooms are, I see why they wanted to emphasize your dodging, but I’d prefer a twin stick method as an option. Interestingly, this game employs a kind of Halo-esque recharging shield mechanic in the form of armor. You can take a hit or three if you need to clear a corner of room to hide in before recharging and suffering no health damage.
Your game begins with a brief cutscene explaining that demons have stolen the crystals that protect the world and that only a hero is required to reclaim them, you are then shown a living room full of them. With only one who will fight without premium currency. The actual dungeon crawling can be interesting, with varied buffs, weapons and traps to mix up each room and the weapon selection is massive for what I was expecting. Each weapon type plays differently, a polearm, beam weapon, gas gun and broom launcher will all make you rethink your strategies.
The Rogue like elements of the games means that there won’t be a similar stages as the one you just play. The game is very similar to the popular Steam / twitch live stream game “Enter The Dungeon”. If you had played it, then you might notice the similarity.

The game boasts an arsenal of 120 different weapons, from your basic pistols, shotguns, and machine guns, to rockets, lasers, bows and arrows, melee weapons, magic staves, and plenty of silly nonsense weapons like plungers that launch little poos and a fish that shoots a laser beam, because tell them they can’t. Magic staves served all kinds of purposes, from summoning a couple weak blue balls to circle your character to an omni-directional blast, to summoning hordes of the freaking undead to fight for you. The real joy in games like this are the weapons that you get and wish you never had to put down or feel extremely sad to lose. Like the Fusion Drill. My god, that beam weapon was glorious.

Each area consists of 5 levels culminating in one of two boss fights, chosen randomly. Every so often you’ll get access to passive buffs between levels. These include basics like max health upgrades, immunity to fire, poison, or traps, decreased store prices, shorter charge ups for bows and beams, and more unique stuff like being able to hit bullets back at enemies with a melee weapon like a light saber or drastically increasing the chances you’ll find health potions in crates, which is just so nice. They show up everywhere after that. I’m just scratching the surface here. Naturally you’ll come across new random weapons in chests, but synergizing your weapon load out with your passives can make for godlike runs.
Aside from the chaos, one of the best parts of the game are the alternate weapons you can pick up along the way. Think there’s no way a blow gun will get you farther than dual pistols? There’s only one way to find out – experiment. When you pick up a new weapon, you leave the old one behind and it’ll stay there in case you change your mind a room or two later (so long as you stay within the same stage).
The control system in Soul Knight is pretty straightforward. An onscreen joystick in the bottom left corner is what lets you control the speed and direction of your movement (it’s so smooth you’ll be left wondering why more driving games don’t give you a joystick option). Your trigger is bottom right next to your energy meter.

One of the lessons you’ll learn quickly in Soul Knight is that it’s ok to need help. Your companion pet and, more rarely, additional companions collected along the way can be a real source of help throughout the game. When you’re running on empty – low energy, poor health – they can pick up some of the slack while you recharge a little. If you get sick of the companion pet you’ve got, a quick trip to the pet slot machine (50 coins a go) might net you something more your speed.
The balance is a bit of a mess, I once had a legendary weapon drop on the first level, the guns stats seem to make no difference and this is made even worse by the fact that nothing is explained to you. I want to know if I should swap my longbow for a toilet plunger, or at least make an informed decision. The graphics are 8-bit, with a lot of details differentiating the characters. The medieval fantasy and modern technology all seem to be part of the same world. The music is chip-tone and retro, especially the dungeon music, a rocking 8-bit beat that takes a full 5 minutes to start grating on the nerves.

The weapon that you will use also differ in each stages, but in sense they all have their sense of familiarity, it is a gun, blade, bow, or a laser. The weapon needs mana or soul to be used (The blue bar). Every weapon had their own advantages, with gun being able to deal lots of damage in short amount of time but can’t be used that much because of its quick mana expenditure.

Blade can deal a great damage but its range is shorts however it can be used as many times as you wanted because it got 0 mana expenditure. Bow can charge and deal a huge damage after charge, and laser that can penetrate the enemies but have a huge mana expenditure.
In some stages, after the clearance, you will get a buff which will help you in any way you wanted. There are some buffs where you could get a bonus damages and immunities to the traps you encounter. There are also a lifesteal effect. Potion up effects, and many more.

There are also mercenaries and skill buffs that you could have in exchange of golds. It is definitely the best RPG this months or perhaps this year, but we will see. I mean, there is still 9 months before this years end right.
You always have a pet, which starts as a kitty, to help you fight enemies. You can buy other pets, but they seem to just be different skins. You can also find and recruit 3 random mercenaries to fight for you, provided you have the gold. These guys aren’t slouches either. They stay around until they die and are a big help, lasting a long time. I should probably go over the currencies. Gold resets every run, like coins in Binding of Isaac [$14.99]. You can use them at stores and to hire dudes. Gems are your premium currency, used for buying new characters and pets, upgrading your existing characters, among other permanent buffs. You can also play a slot machine in the starting lounge in the hopes of winning a super strong weapon to start your run with, or even just more gems.

The last collectible is energy. All weapons, except starting weapons, melee weapons, and certain special weapons, are fired with energy instead of ammo. Your character is the magazine for this energy, so you can’t regain it by picking up a new gun or anything. Weapons have varying amounts depending largely on power and other utility. My first run I actually didn’t even notice this, and swapped my starting pistol for something else. If you run out of energy and have no energy-free weapons, it’s all up to your pet and mercenary companion to fight for you until you find more in crates or dropped by corpses. I always, always, always equip a melee weapon if I can. They’re superb for clearing rooms of crates and such, can destroy bullets, and if you have one with enough reach, you can even hit enemies through walls with them, but this is true of certain melee enemies too.
1. Don’t toss the Bad Pistol!

You can carry up to two guns with you at all times. You start out with the Bad Pistol at the beginning of every run. As the name implies, the Bad Pistol’s stats aren’t that great and the damage is minimal. However! The Bad Pistol also costs no energy to fire, making it handy in emergencies.

It’s much better than relying on the wonky melee attacks, not to mention the danger that comes with trying to get that close to enemies in the first place. Keep in mind though that you will sometimes find new weapons that cost zero energy, like the dedicated melee weapons. Go ahead and replace the Bad Pistol with these!

2. Try the Chest!

Having trouble early on? Try unlocking the Chest in the lobby before going into the dungeon. The chest costs a one time fee of 1000 gems to unlock, but it provides you with a common weapon to start out with at the beginning of every run.

3. Watch out for the traps!

The dungeons are host to tricky traps! The most common is your typical spike trap, but these are easy to avoid as long as you watch your footing. Beware of the colored barrels! Depending on the color, these barrels will do something differently if they’re hit by either you or an enemy.

    The classic red barrel explodes when it’s struck, dealing around 5 damage to anything around it. Be careful around these, as you can easily kill yourself in one explosion if your shields are broken. On the flipside, you can utilize them to wipe out a lot of enemies!
    Green barrels will leave behind a small cloud of poison gas. Poison gas can also naturally spawn in certain rooms, so watch out! Lingering around poison gas will sap your health away and slow your movement speed.
    Blue barrels shoot out a burst of ice crystals when they’re destroyed. Anything that is hit by one will freeze on the spot, disabling any movement or action. Obviously this is great for stopping problem enemies in their tracks, but be sure not to get hit by one yourself!
    Grey barrels shoot out darts. These have no special effects; they just damage you normally.

4. Use the Frost weapons!

If you find a gun that has the Frost prefix, use it! Frost weapons can freeze enemies (the same effect from the blue barrels) when you critically hit them. This effect is incredibly helpful during boss fights, as you can avoid crazy bullet patterns altogether if the boss is frozen. Couple this with the Knight’s special ability Dual Wield, and you have a very high chance of landing critical hits.

5. Useful powerups!

Upon taking a portal to the next level, sometimes you’re prompted with a random selection of power ups. Here’s a couple we’ve found useful:

    Increased chance of finding potions inside crates. Health potions are pretty rare by default, so you’ll want all the help you can get with restoring health. This will give you a point to breaking all those random crates you come across!
    Slower enemy bullets and increased pick up radius. The pick up radius is nice, but the slower enemy bullets is almost a necessity with the amount of bullets the bosses spray all over the arenas.
    Immune to traps. This one’s situational. This makes you immune to spikes but it does not make you immune to the barrel traps.
    Chance to restore health on enemy kill. This one is pretty straight forward and can give you a nice buffer between levels.

6. Try the Rogue!

The Rogue’s special ability is a combat roll that grants them invincibility frames. Much like the frost weapons, this ability is invaluable during boss fights when things get really crazy. The Rogue costs 2000 gems, making them the cheapest hero to unlock. You should aim to unlock the Rogue as soon as possible.
Something worth noting about Soul Knight is that the game is completely, utterly free-to-play. The game’s premium currency (gems) is available as an in-app purchase and can be used to unlock characters and revives, but they don’t have much bearing on the gameplay experience. Using a revive does kill some of the sense of accomplishment you might otherwise have from a really good turn. Besides, if you don’t want to use gems to revive yourself, it’s possible to watch an ad instead. Like with the in-app purchases, watching an ad is your choice and you don’t have to watch ads to have a good time. This is awesome in a lot of ways, but it is worth keeping in mind that if you don’t support indie developers like Zeyang Li who make great games like Soul Knight it’ll be hard for them to keep making games.