When it was initially revealed during Soulframe Devstream 13, with a little more at PAX East, Preludes 14 definitely sounded like an exciting update to delve into. A brand new Fable centered around a ghostly duel aboard a pirate ship, a brand new dungeon, new weapons, and a new dynamic looking siege? What could go wrong? Well, outside of all the exciting new content, some very glaring issues were laid bare during this update. But let’s start with the cool new content first before we get to the troubling parts of it all.
A Cool But Puzzling Pirate Fable
To start things off, the headliner content in Preludes 14 for Soulframe was the new Fable. The Wreck of Mestra Carmo. This Fable was fun, but repetitive. It involved finding ribbons on shipwrecks and being teleported to a ship to have a duel against a Ghost Pirate. The story revolving around it was not as engaging as the Omen Beast Fables were. If there are to be more of these in the future, I just hope that a more sympathetic or empathetic connection can be formed through the interactions better.
As for the content itself, the duels are fun and worth engaging in. The walking to and from each shipwreck, however, is very time-consuming. This Fable rewards you with the new Duelo Pact, with the ability to go back for more duels to get the first-ever rapier in Soulframe and some new armor.
The Pact is very interesting, but not as strong as I was hoping for it to be. The first ability is a singular gunshot you can aim with, which is fine, but against bosses or crowds, it’s not the most exciting ability to use. I think if you got more shots as you leveled up the pact, it would be stronger, but the passives are more reliant on perfect dodging with the bleeding perk locked behind random procs from perfect dodging. I am just not enjoying my time using the Duelo; it feels like an underwhelming reward at this time. It would be preferable that the shadows from perfect dodges stay as they are, and the bleeding be in a weakened state that was guaranteed on melees. It just feels lackluster when paired with the honestly impressive rapier that arrived in the update.
The Rovgot Ruins in Soulframe is Amazing
No complaints to be leveraged against the newest dungeon in Soulframe. That is the new Rovgot Ruins. The Rovgot Ruins are Mendicant-centered from a fallen Ode tower. This dungeon is very short, has incredible taunting and narration from the Wazzard of Wastes in the Bromius Fable, and a solid boss encounter at the end. When you leave the dungeon, it’s also a straight shot to get back to the entrance. You can just run forward and keep farming to your heart’s content. As far as content in the game goes, it’s perfect. It’s what I hope most dungeons turn out to be moving forward.
The Siege of Mirifuir Showed Me How Vital These Types of Activities are Going to be
I have not exactly talked about Sieges in Soulframe, as they are not exactly “exciting” to me. The Siege of Mirifuir changed that for me, and I want more of these now, a lot more. Mirifuir is an Ode fort that has a very interesting way to start it, and it is a very welcome challenge in the game. Especially for someone who relies on his courage and greatsword build for endgame content.
This Siege has 2 big areas, some light platforming, and 3 unique bosses. The lead up to these bosses were fantastic. They also had a unique shielding mechanic that made me bob and weave around their weapon attacks while I killed the mobs around the area to finally damage them. The best part of it was just finding all 3 ready to take you on in the finale. It is insanely good design work, and my only complain was the randomized loot that was recently hotfixed to be reward according to ranks earned in your runs. Speaking of which…
If sieges are going to be regular content, 2 things need to be static:
- Rewards have to be tied to ranks.
- And how to get higher ranks needs to be clearer in-game.
Whether that is suggesting a timetable, or detailing that dying lowers the rank, something needs to be done to make all of the sieges, right now and in the future, much more exciting and farmable. Speaking of farming, I hope in a later update that either logging or running a dungeon resets the sieges, too. This would allow for more opportunities to farm and enjoy the missions.
Orlick’s New Codex is Nearly Perfect
One of the big changes in Preludes 14 was the change to the Codex system that is hosted by Orlick, one of the ancestors in your Nightfold. Originally, he used to offer unique totems for uncovering histories across Midrath, and just host the ability to replay Fables. Now, on top of replayability for Fables, he also hosts a fully uncoverable Codex of enemies and animals alongside little missions that act as tutorials.
This is a major upgrade, but I still miss the unique totems that existed for a while. It gave me a reason to actually uncover the histories of Midrath. I also like how animal research is tied directly to the charm mechanic. It incentivizes me to charm on the go instead of doing the mini-game out of boredom. I do not like how smiting enemies in combat is the only way to get their Codex entries, however. Some enemies die way too quickly in the heat of battle. Regardless, this new system is deep and very satisfying. Being given more perks for doing Orlick’s missions is a brilliant idea on top of having a way to teach new players the general mechanics, even smithing.
Runes in Soulframe are (almost) Ruined
Now onto the bad part of the update. Runes got changed systematically for the worse. Runes used to activate for a short duration when you smite and soul steal in combat. It gave the player a random moment of power, and I complained personally that I would love to pick my moments of power and save them for when they are needed. Digital Extremes listened, but fumbled the idea. Because now, Runes only activate when using heavy strikes from any weapon, and some runes were made unreliable because of it.
Let’s go over what went right. For staves and heavy blades, the heavy strike activation works perfectly for certain runes, as they add a multiplicative damage buff that can almost one-shot certain heavy enemies and make quick work of bosses. What went wrong is that some runes, like “The Hollowing” above, are made too situational for a payoff that is very underwhelming. Needing to strike an enemy 6 times to deal a fraction of the total damage from every strike leading into that explosion is not a good idea, especially if they don’t live long enough from those 6 strikes. What’s worse is how this affected bows.
In the critique of the update that the YouTuber SaraLovesArchery made (which she is an incredible content creator to watch for Soulframe news and evaluation of updates), she described her frustrations with how bows got hit with this change. Because they made the rune activation tie to normal charged shots. Bow combat in any game is designed to draw an arrow, hold it back, and use it at the right moment. I completely agree with her critique that tying a special ability to it was a mistake.
Luckily, they are changing how activation works for runes soon, but the fact that this even happened, and the fact that the new activation method might be harder to pull off in the heat of combat, is a little worrying. Similar to how Joineries got swung at, too.
Joineries are Practically Unappealing Now
This is a smaller change, but similarly poorly executed. Originally, Joineries could add the following, depending on the type and rarity:
- Damage increases.
- Life Steal.
- Headshot Multipliers for Bows.
- Cumulative attack damage bonuses for Staves.
- And Parry modifications.
Now, in Preludes 14 for Soulframe, they only function as attunement modifiers. This means that they are only for virtue attunement for damage output increases. While this sounds like a good idea on paper, and it is. It leaves the other little buffs on the cutting room floor. My builds for each weapon, major weapon type, relied on the above passive buffs. Such as lifesteal for greatsword gameplay, headshots for bow gameplay, and so forth. Not to mention, the basic joineries are just flat-out useless now; they give no cosmetic or low damage increases.
If the upcoming loot drop changes fix this, so anything can drop with those modifiers. Then maybe I can forgive this change, but putting the cart before the horse is never a good thing. Especially with how things went after they removed Idols from Pacts. These were ultimates that each Pact had to give you a leg to stand on in tougher content. They removed these in favor of runes. However, the rune system did not come until a few updates afterwards.
Closing Remarks
Overall, Preludes 14 in Soulframe is a double-edged sword. It adds plenty of good content and even a cool tutorial system. But the changes to runes and joineries hit me hard as a player who had already adjusted to the changes from multiple updates ago. Also, when using the new expanded FOV, it gives a very off-putting perspective when trying to quickly go back to my body when I am the sparrow. I hope this is addressed soon, too.
I hope the rune activation changes cure the grief felt across the community. As well as doing something more with joineries to make them feel more potent and worth the grind and investment. Only time will tell, and Preludes 15 should be the update that addresses this.
