Review ‘Soulslayer’ (Switch)

Review code used, with many thanks to Navila Software

“Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.”

Who? Where? Which weapon? For generations, around the world, Mr. Boddy has met his end at the hand of one of six infamous Suspects in this favourite family game.

Wait, wait, WOAH! I apologize, that was actually the description on the box of the popular 1949 board game Clue (or Cluedo as some of you may know it by).

However, this lovely 2019 game, Soulslayer, holds a similar idea, but in Soulslayer there is less board, and more video, in terms of actual gameplay.

You play as the protagonist Yao Xiu, the eldest daughter of Yao Hongyuan, the Chief of Justice; so obviously, you are a high status noble. Your mother was Yao Hongyuan’s first wife – but she passed away before the start of the game. Given to Yao Hongyuan after your mother’s passing, but UH OH! Pappy has remarried! So Xiu appears into a family with a stepmammy and a couple of step-siblings.

We all know how scenarios like this tend to go, amirite?

You are correct, this scenario does not bode well for Xiu. Especially since, BAM! Right at the start of the game someone attempts (and succeeds in the attempt) to murder you – and the day before your wedding no less! Rude!

Now we enter into the “Whodunnit?”: was it the stepmother hoping to elevate her own children? Or how about your stepsister, does she want you out of the picture so she can be the one getting married? Does your fiance have ulterior motives? What about your maid, does she secretly resent you?

Unlike the board game Clue, you only have three chances to figure it out, and it’s your own life on the line!

“I’m a god – I’m not THE God, I don’t think.”

No matter how hard you try, Xiu will die. That’s how the game starts, so accept it. Luckily, an unknown voice on your way through the afterlife doesn’t want you to die in such a way, so it tells you you have three chances to figure out who is trying to kill you and why. If you fail to figure it out… well, I’m sure you know what is going to happen if you don’t figure it out.

I think it’s a fun and funky concept, it’s like Clue mixed with ancient Chinese times mixed with a choose-your-own-adventure. Believe you me, just like in those old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novels, there will be many times when you will pick the path that leads to death. Make sure you bring plenty of bookmarks; or if you were like me, just stick your finger between all the different pages and try to remember which finger you need to go back to…

Wait, I’m being silly! This is a video game! My point is, you will probably want to make a lot of saves! After my first play through became a hard-fail, and I managed to die, yet again, on the third day, I went back and did a replay that involved many-a-save.

In this game, every choice you make is pretty imperative and will alter Xiu’s path through the story quite drastically.

That’s what I really like about this game. It isn’t messing around. It isn’t easy to figure out either! Basically everyone is a suspect in some way. And there is more than one way to die, so I couldn’t just rely on being like “Okay so that’s my death, let’s figure this out.” Instead, the elusive killer will find another way to destroy you if you manage to dodge their initial plans.

Pretty perfect for Halloween spook times, eh?!

As well, every time you have to restart from the beginning, you lose all of the clues you figured out in previous playthroughs. Now while they can’t steal the information out of YOUR head as the player, they can steal it from Xiu, and she will have no idea what’s going on and you will have to gather those clues again to get her back on the correct path.

Having the right clues and information at the right time will determine if you can go to certain places, talk to certain people, and ask certain questions.

It’s a delicate balance on a tightrope with Xiu’s life on the line.

“Don’t mess with me, pork chop. What day is this?”

The art is very much different from any visual novel I’ve played before.

Soulslayer was created by a Japanese studio of women (how awesome is that?! SO AWESOME!), and taking place in an ancient Chinese setting I can see that they wanted the artwork to reflect that. So it doesn’t have the typical Japanese “anime” look that the majority of their visual novels would have. Nor does it have that stereotypical “western” look like Dream Daddy or Akash. I think this is really a benefit to the game, it’s something new and different and that makes it stand out artistically.

The sound effects and music as well have that ancient Chinese feel. It definitely adds to the atmosphere and helps heighten the emotional tension. Well done Navila!

What is also very cool is that it is fully voiced by a Chinese voice acting cast! At first, I found it a bit distracting because of how interesting the language flows and sounds, and my brain has no ability to recognize any of it. So I would find myself reading the text box while the characters were talking, and then not taking in ANY of what I’d just read. So I’d have to go back and re-read it all after the voice acting had stopped.

But then I died once and the Death God (or Soulslayer) said to me: “Did you recognize the voice?” And I was like “OH NO! CRUD! I didn’t because I had the voices turned off!” So I turned them back on again. C’est la vie.

“Sometimes I wish I had a thousand lifetimes. I don’t know, Phil. Maybe it’s not a curse. Just depends on how you look at it.”

Believe you me, you WILL wish you had more than three chances to figure it out. OR, maybe my ability to solve mysteries isn’t very good. I now know I probably won’t be getting that job with the Scooby Doo gang any time soon…

Either way, I had a lot of fun with Soulslayer. Trying to unravel a mystery is basically a universal human trait, so I think that since it definitely appealed to me, it will likely also appeal to you (maybe), and most humans.

It’s a visual novel, so the controls are pretty standard. Control stick or Dpad to move your cursor around, A to select and B to cancel. There are a few times when the information in a clue will fill up the page, and then you have to hit R and L to scroll. Nothing too tough or fancy.

The Little Niggles

Sometimes when the English text is just slightly too much for the text box, it will do this weird thing where some of the text goes out of the box below, and then the text becomes obscured and hard to read. A tad bit annoying. More annoying in handheld mode though; when I was playing on my TV I was able to read between the lines (haha, literally) and make out the text.

Final Verdict

A nifty little visual novel about murder and intrigue and trying to stay alive. A nice little romp, especially at this spooky time of year! Worth a purchase if you’re into mysteries and reading. I feel like if you’re one of those avid “True Crime” book readers, this will especially be right up your alley!

P.S. Bonus points for you if you got that I was making a bunch of Groundhog Day references! Get it?! Because Xiu is repeating the same day over and over?! Bah! Go watch the movie if you haven’t, it’s an excellent – and now classic – film.