Despite being out for over a week, Preludes 16 in Soulframe arrived with a handful of cool new features added to the game. Let me be clear, however, that these new features are cool overall. A few of them are still a little half-baked and a little annoying, sadly. But before we get to that part, let’s focus on the good first. Because the good definitely outweighs the bad this time.
Fishing in Soulframe is Absolutely Addicting
Fishing is finally available in Soulframe and, as mentioned above, it’s a dangerous thing to get into because it’s very addictive. First, you have to find a shrine to cast your lure from, then find where a fish is (and they are properly shown even at night!) From here, it’s simply a fun little battle where you have to tug the reel in the opposite direction of where the fish is going, pull back to stun them in the air, and you even get a triumphant little fanfare at the end.
The goal of this mini-game so far is to just get fish bits to make kibble and treats for your little wolf pup, and nothing else at the moment. I hope this game mode stays tied to niche stuff in Soulframe and has nothing to do with anything important, like the fishing in Warframe ended up being. Please, Digital Extremes, keep it simple and fun, and also make the level-up system feel important, even if it’s just for skins for the spool.
The Puppy Bonding is Adorable and Engaging
In preparation for the puppy becoming your player’s mount in the game, you can now “bond” with it. This can be done in ambiguous ways. Whether you want to take it for fetch or have it with you in battle and give it treats, every little action matters. I just wish the way to upgrade the pups’ stats weren’t vague. I know a manual is too much to ask for, but a crash course in-game would have been nice.
There’s not much else to say about the bonding at this moment, but I will give credit where it is due. Having the pup out while playing normally feels important and beneficial. This is due to the fact that you get little bonuses depending on which stats get upgraded. Such as boosting your health, movement speed, etc.
Now onto the half-baked and annoying parts of the update.
Temper Changes are a Good, But Grindy Start
This update added the ability to manually add tempers to your weapons. You will first need to break down enough weapons that have said temper before adding them, then pay a fee at Tuvalkane to add those tempers onto any weapon you wish. Sounds sick, right? Well, that is until you see it in practice.
For starters, your progress is not shown in a way that’s readily accessible. You always have to go to Tuvalkane to check your progress. It would be much better to see that progress tracked similarly to armor/weapons fragments when breaking down a weapon. This would take away that little bit of friction to make long farming sessions more focused instead of scatterbrained.
On top of all of this, the fee you have to pay to add tempers is Lampyrite. Lampyrites are earned in a variety of ways, but that’s not really the issue. It’s the fact that you need 1 of each Lampyrite – common, uncommon, and rare to use the service once.
This is a problem, as it raises the bar of entry beyond what is necessary. I feel you should only need to use one of a specific lampyrite depending on the rarity of the weapon; for example, 1 common lampyrite for a 1-3 star weapon, and 1 uncommon for a 4-5 star weapon. Also, since this statistic is viewable on the puppy’s passives, please show us how much a temper adds to a weapon so we can decide what to add to a certain weapon type.
Strange Matchmaking and Pretty Weather
In my general critique of Soulframe in April, I mentioned how the game needed better matchmaking options for people who just want to drop in and out. They started with world trees showing players, and now they added opt-in matchmaking at revive shrines all across Midrath Island and in dungeons.
This is great, but there is one small problem with it. The first and only time I used it was inside the Undercity, where I joined someone else’s game and got dragged into the overworld and not into the same dungeon. This feels odd, as it would make sense to only allow matchmaking in cohesive ways: dungeon matchmaking in dungeons, overworld matchmaking in overworlds. I am not sure if this has been fixed, as I cannot find a game during the times I play right now.
Finally, they also added a dynamic weather system to Soulframe, and it does not eat up any GPU/CPU resources. I do not see framerate drops when it rains, and it’s amazing to see this implemented in a way that feels additive overall. Also, FSR3’s addition finally took away the little grainy effect the Rovgot ruins door would show when opening as well, which is a plus. But there is now a new problem that pops up in the Nightfold where you can see a giant black square under your feet when exiting Tuvalkane’s menu sometimes.
Closing Remarks on Preludes 16 for Soulframe
Overall, I enjoy the highlights of Preludes 16, but the background features need more love. The Temper system needs a little more ease of access, and matchmaking needs to make sense. This update is pretty much solid, and I can feel the need to fish under my skin, even more so than the spear fishing they added in Warframe in 2017. I eagerly look forward to Preludes 17, and hope any problems I’ve mentioned get addressed.
