Preludes 11 for Soulframe has been out for over a month. The game is still in a pre-alpha state, so everything listed in this article is subject to change.
Back in June, I was delighted to properly critique the experience of Soulframe, starting with Preludes 10. In Preludes 10, Digital Extremes added the first real re-farmable world boss, alongside a new and unique dungeon and a whole new weapon class. It was a very meaty update, but Preludes 11 definitely upped the ante in several ways. Preludes 11 added a lot more farmable open world bosses, a whole new dungeon, new weapons, and customization systems. Not only that, but they finally added the Bromius fable story quest.
Preludes 11 for Soulframe is a fantastic update, but it fixes some problems with more problems. While adding more grind on top of the grinds that already exist. As well as making the challenging content feel even more challenging. But to properly describe why that is, we have to get through the best parts of the update. The first being the story quest regarding Bromius the Arbearer.
A Bear Possessed by Addiction and Fear
The Bromius Fable story quest in Preludes 11 was executed perfectly when I figured out how to start it. The game did not prompt me to talk to Verminia to start the questline, but when I figured it out, it was smooth sailing throughout. Leading up to the launch of the story quest, Digital Extremes talked about how they wanted to add “some bloat” to the quest to make the content last longer. I am happy to report that it did not happen.
The story quest played out beat by beat, exactly how it was shown, allowing for no errors to occur for a very emotional and eerie storyline. The writing is very mature (even the strong language used), the cutscenes are grim, and the hopeful and redemptive themes shone through excellently at the very end. I could listen to that beautiful church gospel-esque Song of Growth all day and feel like I want to cry. This is the quality Digital Extremes is known to deliver, and I am eagerly anticipating the next Fable in Soulframe. Especially with the Ode tease near the Bromius boss fight.
The story content was perfect for me, and it is the biggest highlight. Now for the hit and miss parts of Preludes 11.
Charming Animals in Soulframe
Preludes 11 for Soulframe added the new Totems and Runes system for the game. Totems are unlocked by entering soul mode near animals and lifting them up to sing and charm them. There are 6 different animals to charm, with 3 different perks depending on where a Totem is slotted, and each weapon needs a weapon-specific version of a Totem to equip it.
The totems serve as mods from Warframe but only apply to weapons. The perks are very situational, and they don’t add any noticeable damage boosts or improvements to a weapon. The extra smite chance is awesome in some Totems, but I do not kick enemies that much when I am being swarmed by a crowd of them.
The worst parts of the system are the necessity to have different Totems of each animal for each weapon type. You also cannot equip more than one of the same Totem if you find the perks for all 3 slots are more helpful than the other Totems. I also think there should be Totems for Pacts, but it is still the introduction of the system.
New Open World Bosses and their Runes and Loot
There are a lot of new bosses in the open world of Soulframe. Whether it is a giant spider, new Medicant bosses, a Nimrod, or one of the Avakot Mechs in the Bromius Fable, this update added a lot of variety and challenging encounters for new and interesting loot, if I could speak of half of them. There are a few new Hatchet-style weapons that drop off certain bosses. But those weapons share a loot pool with the same bosses that drop correspondingly themed armor (similar to the Mendicant King). What is worse is that they also have a chance to just drop Joinery’s for weapons, which are essentially Forma from Warframe with passive damage and perk additions.
The only part of the new loot I cannot speak about is the Runes system. There are 3 runes that are dropped by 3 different bosses. A bow-centered one from the giant spider, a sword-centered one from the Nimrod, and a sidearm-centered one from the Mendicant wizard you see above. I have killed these bosses multiple times each and have a lot of new joinery to choose from, and even more fragments to build the sword I killed them with. To say I am frustrated by the RNG and low drop rates for items I want to use and evaluate would be an understatement.
This would be a fun farm to do if the bosses respawned quicker and, in the case of the Nimrod, did not take out a third of my health with each swing of his weapon. The farm for the runes is very unfun otherwise. I think if there are 3 Runes in the game, having one spread to each of the factions would be ideal to warrant more grinding (despite the faction system still having hefty grinds to rank them up).
An Underwhelming New Dungeon
Finally, the new Neath’uns dungeon is beautiful and empty. Soulframe is the only game I will stand in place and pan around to look at a location’s striking beauty. The eerie feeling the dungeon gives off while exploring is felt visually and through the menacing giggling of the Avakots. I just wish there was something unique to find aside from resources.
The Undercity, Glades, and especially the Crypt of the Circade all have unique loot to earn by exploring them multiple times. I cannot say the same for the Neath’uns. I have not found anything aside from resources to build the loot from that Avakot mech. If there were at least a boss fight at the end of the run with another chance at that same loot, it would feel more meaningful. However, that is not the case, and that is very disappointing.
Closing Remarks on Preludes 11 for Soulframe
Preludes 11 is a very dense update with a very clear highlight with the Bromius Fable, and it builds a foundation for things to come. However, the grind is starting to be felt a lot more in the game. We are almost at Preludes 12, which is to be revealed this Friday on Devstream 11, and we still do not have a fast travel or mount to make traveling less tedious to run to each new boss or dungeon. The RNG and drop tables for the new bosses feel diluted and unrewarding due to the challenge they pose. While Totems feel very prototype-ish and are not noticeable in most situations in Soulframe.
There are still many ways and a lot of time Digital Extremes has to make some of these things better. After all, the crafting system took time to fix, so who knows where Totems and Runes end up. Aside from all of this, there are still things I personally want to see in the meantime. Such as a toggleable lock-on for melee combat to make sure I can stick to taking down one enemy at a time, and maybe Totems that are earned through unlocking each Mote from locations.
I really enjoyed playing through most of Preludes 11; the vision is great. However, the grind needs to be a little softer in the long term. Especially as far as factions are concerned. Let alone everything listed above.
