It has been quite a while since the last major update for the Preludes program for Soulframe. Preludes 12 added a lot to the game. Whether it was my new favorite weapons in the game, Greatswords, or fast travel, or the new Cogah hard-mode, there was a lot to take in, and the game felt more fleshed out as a result. This is all on top of the monetization switch being turned on and has, for the most part, been reasonable. Preludes 13, in comparison, is much lighter, but more substantial in certain ways.
Virtues Reworked into Simple Prisms
The most notable change in Preludes 13 is how Virtues have been reworked. The stats still seem to work the same, but to a much better degree, as they are equippable and save to loadouts. For instance, my build with the Bromius armor, his signature sword “Purity”, and the Mora’s Beast Prism makes me into an unstoppable, heavy-hitting killing machine with the Tethren pact. This is due ot a lot of changes with how the virtues affect the player.
Courage now makes you tankier by giving you more health. Grace now offers damage bonuses for archer gameplay and stealthy ambushes. All the while, Spirit offers faster cooldowns on pact abilities. But the way these virtues affect your armor is really important now. As mentioned before, the Bromius armor makes you nearly invincible to all melee attacks, even against open-world bosses. But the rest of the armor sets feel underwhelming in comparison, even the Wyld Oscelda set with a good Spirit prism.
The Prisms have easy sources to earn them from, which are your chosen faction. The prisms they offer only cost a single point of reputation for the starters, with the others being higher in the ranks. My only complaint with this system is that if I want to run a Grace build and do not have the Silent Rose’s medallion crafted yet, I will still need to buy a very costly resource from my current faction. I do appreciate them removing the weekly cooldown between factions, but there still is just that little bit of friction.
Reworked World Trees in Soulframe
The World Trees in the game so far have some unique functionality. They reveal the rest of your map, are fast travel points, and have a cute little messaging system that I feel is similar to social media (I personally call it Tree Twitter). Now they are directly tied to the Sparrow Tale’s faction grind. You can find 3 different options to choose from and even nearby mini events, like Avakot’s shop or world events like the collector ship or the Fort sieges.
What’s really cool about this change is that a faction agent can still spawn after you finish a Sparrow Tale to give you another one, making things faster. You can even find little items to turn it at the faction vendors to see
This is a great change, and makes the grind a little easier to control. But, you cannot see the reputation you gain in the menu, nor do the options for any of the mini events in the open world after any bonus reputation if you use the tree to mark them. I can understand this not working for Avakot or the collector. But the sieges and the new Organ operation could do with having just a little bit of reputation for taking the time to engage with them. Speaking of that Organ…
A Brand New Game Mode
Digital Extremes has been leaning into dedicated mission types lately with Soulframe, and with Preludes 12 came these metal Ode towers that polluted Midrath Island. Preludes 13 added the actual game mode, finally, and it is very fun once you know what to do. The Organ is simple, and can take maybe 5 minutes to finish. It offers the new Wazzard garb, which is great, but I would have taken more dedicated drops from at least the boss you face mid-way in the game mode (similar could be done for the Sieges). There is not much to complain about; the soundtrack is great, the mechanics are cool, and the flow of the game mode is just right.
Closing Remarks on Preludes 13 for Soulframe
Overall, Preludes 13 doesn’t really do anything wrong and makes the game flow a little better while making existing systems more interesting. I even appreciated the changes to the combat camera and how enemies won’t always just block the moment I get them to “one-hit” status. It’s a really good update, even with some things that could still be improved upon with the Prisms and the Sparrow Tales being accessible through the world tree. If anything, I am still longing for a toggle to see how much XP I get from kills. This was removed in an earlier update and could be helpful when leveling. I have even checked the UI settings to see if I missed it, and sadly, not.
Some Requests
- Allow for locking on with the cursor in the center of the screen during gameplay for easier targeting with ranged weapons.
- A toggle to remove the Mora and Sapphene recaps.
- Skip cinematic option for fast travel.
- Indicators for what bosses appear in which dungeon.
