Titan Souls

omg the run back so annoying

Nice for what it is, wouldn't buy for full price, get it on sale

👍

A satisfying, short experience with good art but not a lot of replayability due to the simplicity of the gameplay.

6.5/10 (decent/good)

Quite short and honestly easier than I expected, a lot of cute boss designs and was worth the on sale price I paid. The arts amazing and the game play is intuitive and encourages pattern recognition and optimization. I was disappointed with the hard difficulty, it just seemed to make things faster, not really requiring more thought but just either waiting or perfect execution of the mechanics, this is alright in principle but considering the simplicity of the encounters it doesn't really feel rewarding but just boring. To be fair I only beat the first 2 or 3 bosses in hard mode before getting disappointed and closing the game, so maybe they put more effort into later bosses hard modes, but I doubt it. I will note I liked the slime boss more in hard mode because it required you to only hit the orbs containing the heart, bur it wasn't much more entertaining.

Harder than Malenia

Cute game. I can confirm you can at least beat normal mode on keyboard (keyboard and mouse isn't an option it's just keyboard) in a reasonable amount of time (took me 6 hours). I also have a decently nice PC so no lag/whatnot although I can only imagine this game is pretty light. Some of the bosses get annoying, but you're always closer to winning than you think

NOT a 'Souls-like' at all. (It's a great example why these 'souls-like' tags are basically like astrology – it's so bloody vague that it can mean almost anything). Why?
1. No weapon or combat variety – one of the KEY elements that makes the Souls series fun
2. No 'souls' mechanic!
3. No vertical castle climbing or gravity!

So, if you go into this expecting a souls-like experience? You'll be completely disappointed.

Onto the game itself:

I don't play only Souls-like. I enjoy almost all genres. This game is more like a puzzle game than an action game. It's stylised in a JRPG fashion. As a puzzle/action game it failed miserably. The 'world' is unnecessarily cumbersome and large. It's completely empty! This game is purely a boss rush (but you have to run through empty areas of nothingness just to play the game). The game itself is extremely short otherwise. Now the boss fights? They're basically puzzles with gimmicks you have to figure out. Sure you might be able to brute force your way through via the clunky controls and movements. But that's definitely not how the game is supposed to be played. And the puzzles? They're not very inspiring.

BUG: the game doesn't work in Full screen mode for me. It behaves as if I have multiple monitors linked together or something.

To end this: having a bloody doge roll does not make a game "Souls-like". Dodge rolls existed for as long as video games existed. And the one-hit kill? That's not a "Souls" mechanic either. So at the end of the day I'm still wondering why the hell there's a "Souls-like" tag.

And as someone who loves Souls games and enjoys puzzles, the game just isn't fun.

you just cant play without errow keys and that sucks

Essentially, Shadow of the Colossus made by an indie team. That's what it seems and that's what you get. Interesting, engaging, and focused on the one concept of one hit kills, this game is great for what it is. Wish I had played it before Death's Door, the next game by the same devs.

Rage bait

Very unique boss fighting game
10/10

Writing this just after I beat the game. This legitimately might be the worst "souls-likes" I've ever played (if you can even call it that) as well as one of the most frustrating and unpleasant experiences I've ever had playing a game, period, I pretty much never write reviews but this game was such a bad experience I felt like I had to say something. In short, my biggest problem with Titan Souls is that it markets itself as a souls-like without any of the things that I’d expect out of one.

First off, this game is basically a boss rush. Don't let the huge, empty open spaces between boss doors fool you. The gaps between serve no purpose besides wasting your time. There are no NPCs to talk to, no "basic" enemies, nothing. A defining feature of a typical souls-like is the exploration and level design, the way these games form crossroads that force you to go off the beaten path, finding key items, power-ups etc as you loop back to where you started and unlock that door that was sealed off or that barrier that required a special spell to bypass.

But ok, to be fair there are plenty of souls-likes out there that are just boss rushes and I don’t have any problem with that, so long as the bosses are actually good.

So, are the bosses in Titan Souls any good? Far more importantly, are they even what one would consider “Souls-like”?

The way I see it, Titan Souls is far closer to Zelda than Dark Souls in terms of boss design. In Zelda games, the challenge is in figuring out the bosses’ weak point, and striking that weak point when the opportunity presents itself, usually repeating around 3 times. Similarly, EVERY SINGLE boss in Titan Souls has some gimmick that needs to be learned or some weakpoint that needs to be exploited. Hitting these once is usually enough to end the fight. This means pretty much every fight is going to end in a matter of seconds.

This is pretty much my biggest gripe with the combat. There is no flow state or rhythm to the fights like there is in a typical souls-like. Every fight in any other souls-like is like a dance weaving back and forth between offense and defense. That’s not the case in Titan Souls. You either execute the fight perfectly within the first 5-30 seconds or you die. Even if you KNOW what you are supposed to do, it is still frustrating trying to align that perfect shot or take advantage of that brief half second window to shoot. Even the in-game music feels completely out of place because of how anti-climactic some of these fights are and how abruptly the music ends. It feels like you're just banging your head against the wall until you get lucky.

It’s like if they made a souls game except there was no exploration or leveling or weapon upgrades or auxiliary tools and EVERY SINGLE boss was some derivative of the Bed of Chaos. Is that the boss that comes to mind when you think of souls-likes? Cheap gimmick bosses like High Lord Wolnir, the Ancient Wyvern, etc.? Is that REALLY one of the defining features of “souls-like” combat? If they want to lackadaisically slap the “souls-like” tag onto their game then I’ll use the actual souls games as a comparison.

If Titan Souls is just a boss rush and the bosses aren’t actually souls-like, it really begs the question: Why does Titan Souls even have “Souls-like” as one of the tags? What defining features of Titan Souls is even adjacent to that genre?

Dying a lot? Well I definitely did die quite a few times, but that can be true of any difficult game. Being hard is too broad to define a souls-like.

Rolling? Well, not only do the rolls in this game not have i-frames, they also aren’t tied to a resource either. Would this make Zelda a souls-like because it has dodge rolling? Probably not.

Pattern recognition and learning the bosses’ moveset? Is that really exclusive to souls-likes? Does that make Cuphead a souls-like because you have to learn the moves in order to properly dodge attacks?

Having "Souls" in the title? Well, if that's the case you got me there. Stupid old me, it's literally slapped onto the name of the game!

Again, if this game was marketed as an action-puzzle game I would’ve known immediately that it wasn’t for me and steered clear of the game. As a puzzle game, I think this would actually be pretty cool with a few tweaks to the bosses attack windows and maybe the addition of a health bar to lengthen the fight. But if you seriously want to call Titan Souls a “souls-like” then by its own standards it is probably one of the worst souls-likes ever made.

I beat it in like an hour and 58 minutes. Def do not buy this full price. The respawn times are kind of abysmal. Only play this if you're okay with tediously walking to a boss room only to be killed in one second flat. It's honestly a good game outside that.

Very fun game, simple yet challenging, cool aesthetic, and feels great when you finally land that killing blow

I hate stairs in this game.

Titan Souls - a delightful blend of frustration and triumph, where every tiny pixel counts!

Battling colossal bosses with just one arrow feels like a game of high-stakes dodgeball—except you’re the ball.

It’s punishingly fun, and each victory has you dancing like you just won the lottery. Bring on the rage!

You think, then you hit Congratulations! You didn't understand. You rethought again and finally won. 
Also, the bow is overpowered. My doctor said if a titan could fall, it would be his foolishness, not the idea of others. 

game

Why is this masterpiece only mostly positive?!?!

P.S.: I dunno why it says I only played 2h 'cause I completed it in 10h+ years ago.
Maybe because at the years ago recording offline gametime was not working correctly (?)

artstyle is amazing never got into it though not sure if too hard or not good

I beat it in 3 hours. YMMV.

The game is positively well-made, no doubt, but it is absolutely awful and I hate it with a burning passion

Good review for good game.

Titan Souls is a decent game that you must play.

I remember hearing about this game a decade(!!) ago by way of Game Informer and enjoying the little bit of gameplay they showed off, thinking that it was right up my alley. Despite constantly going on sale for a dollar I never actually got around to picking this game up until a few months ago after hearing about how beloved Death's Door was and finding out it was the same studio.

It was surprising then to see that despite this game's pedigree the actual completion rate (reaching the credits mind you) of the game is hovering somewhere around 10% despite it being a short game. After periodically popping in over the past week and taking out all of the various bosses I can better understand why.

Titan Souls walks a fine line of inspirations and comes away feeling wholly unique, even if it frustrates more than it thrills. The gameplay is exceedingly simple and the bosses are anything but, distilling down a very fun formula that I haven't seen replicated since.
The game design is well thought out even if it is often the core of frustration; you need to think fast, but you move pretty slow and you need to draw your arrow before you fire--you only have one arrow, but you can call it back across the field. There are numerous strategies you can build around this, and the best bosses from my playthrough are the ones that give you time to interact with them. Most of the time however, if you ain't moving you are pulped instantly--moving and thinking on the fly being half the game has its charms and the most memorable bosses having a nice mix of both, but the rapid chaos and innate nature of a one-hit-kill system can create for some interesting moments.

When I say dud, I will use the "final" boss as an example spoiler free. It's hard to say if this fight is *THE* filter for players but it nearly was for me. You have very marginal room for error, naturally less so than most fights. Most of the time I would enter, I would die instantly. On occasion I would feel the pattern and not mess up my dodge roll, and I would last a minute or two before getting splattered--except for one time. Without realizing it, I fired my arrow at the guy at a near frame perfect moment, winning the fight. All I could think was "that's it?"

Meanwhile a random mushroom boss that bounced around and spat hallucinogenics at me took me an hour straight despite the enormous weakspot I kept missing the shot on. I point this out because I am by no means a good player. I can almost guarantee your experience playing through this will be quite different if you play it; and there is some magic there. I'd say from my playthrough I took out 3 or 4 by accident, while another 3 or 4 were relative cakewalks. The rest kicked my ass to varying degrees that I would step away from the game a day or two to come back with fresh focus.

These examples aren't meant to be negative necessarily; the game invites this kind of chaos by design. So much of the game comes down to positioning. tight time windows and a handful of RNG that anyone committed to beating the game will have some wild things happen by chance or intent. There is a certain "watercooler" quality to this game that I would probably enjoy discussing this game with someone who's beaten it as well. The environments follow a classic formula but the richness of the pixel art and the animations behind them never failed to charm. Titan Souls' take on the Lost Woods was a particular highlight to figure out and explore and housed some of my favorite bosses, but I never finished an area feeling disappointed. In any other game with lower stakes and a generous health bar, most of these bosses would still be memorable--but its the high stakes that make for some sharp, tense duels or uniquely executed puzzle fights.

I would like to mention that the music seems pretty good across the board, but because every time you die you are sent back to a checkpoint instead of respawning in the boss room (and you will most likely die a lot) you are rarely going to spend more than half a minute or more in the fight to appreciate it. I did like how the boss theme picks up where you left off when you restart the fight, but this only served to highlight the pointless boss run you have to do each time. Did I mention you have to manually start the fight each time as well?

It's a shame that the best fight in the game--one that respawns you in the boss fight, nor pacing interruptions, and a continuously playing boss theme--is also a secret boss a good chunk of people might miss due to the easily missable trigger in the games semi-open world. It is the only boss that takes multiple direct hits, and it is hands down the best boss of the game with the coolest music, the strangest visuals, and the most skill based solutions. It is a really cool boss in a game filled with varied and cool bosses, and was absolutely worth the frustrations getting there--even though the boss before it nearly made me throw in the towel. As absurd as it is to write for a game near a decade old, I'd kill for a sequel that learned from this game's lessons and made fights like the secret boss more than just a one time thing.

While Titan Souls never lives up to its potential until the very end, I found it an incredibly valuable experience in understanding what exactly I enjoy from challenging games like these. A great way to kill an afternoon too! There is a lot it takes from and a lot that misses the mark, but there isn't anything out there quite like Titan Souls. Its the best kind of indie game that takes risks and polishes them into a splendid experience you can't have anywhere else.

Don't miss this one.

This game is freaking cool!

强推！！！公平对抗

It's a very tedious and frame-perfect game to win. I just don't have the shits to care enough to put in real deal time into a game I don't even like.

Don't buy this game unless you're going to play on controller. You cannot radially aim wtihout it. I have beaten this game with 8 directional aim and movement only. I have been filled with vitriol for its design because of it. I do not understand how the devs realize it is correct to put the respawn point 0 seconds away from the boss in a boss rush game, on the final 3 bosses, yet they do not do this for earlier ones. The forest/swamp bosses can have your travel time heavily out ratio your boss battle time.

Go play death's door if you're going to play something by these people. I have intrinsic issue with the play design of this game. In Death's door, I only have complaints as to how the narrative cannot create enough of it's own secret sauce and leans on the existence of other IP's and titles.

The game would be fun if you were able to change the controls and not have to walk so much after a death for being a boss rush game

Goated game

it be hard but it be fun
the concept is great too and explores it in very interesting ways, highly recommend

Pretty hard and good game
40% Skill
60% Luck

FUN!

I liked the initial world of the game and the tutorial area, the graphics are humble and sweet and I thought that the first area was getting me used to the bosses before putting me into the wider areas but once I learned that there were no mob enemies, points of interest or collectibles combined with the fact the map is so big makes the game SO BORING. I wasn't expecting all that much in the main world and was expecting it to be a boss focused game (I went into this blind) but I was expecting more and the game seriously lacks something for me and I can't believe I am saying this... but the game would've massively benefited with some collectibles in the map just for something to find, something to justify the size of the map considering how few bosses there are waiting for you in their own small rooms.

As for the main point of the game you have 1hp and so does every other boss, this gimmick quickly wore off for me and made the game rather tedious to deal with. A few times I would get hit by some lighting fast attack seconds into the first time fighting a boss, say oh, then respawn, run back and maybe get bopped again. Then I would land the killing shot and only once did it feel good, with my favourite boss and the only good one imo, Vinethesis. There were never any highs and lows of the game for me, I really want to like this game but its so f**king anti climatic to kill a massive boss in 1 hit. I feel as though they are almost trying to capture that moment in games when the boss is down to 1 hit left and so are you and its next hit wins, but any of that built up tension, anxiety or investment simply does not exist for me in Titan Souls. It was very much either I die or I win and when I would win I'd just move onto the next. I beat the game in about 2.8 hours but I think this game would benefit from multiple replays, something I'm mostly likely not going to do.

TLDR It is unique in the sense that you and the boss both have 1hp and that'll appeal to many but it may also get boring REAL quick. If you like boss rush, difficult and short games then this would be a pretty good one to pick up, but something about it just doesn't sit well with me. The whole game almost feels like a game mode, where you remove all other content from the game and just focus on the boss rush like in Bloodstained Curse of the Moon. Despite me dishing out a whole bunch of negatives this isn't a BAD game by any means but I personally didn't enjoy it.

from what little of the game i have experienced (i haven't managed to pass the first area yet), i find it fun, but extremely difficult.
I will update this review when i play it more.

I AM SHADOW OF THE COLLOSUS RAHHHH