Soma Spirits: Rebalance

LOVE THESE GAMES

Wrote a review of this under my the Indie Hell Zone curator name, but I enjoyed this! In fact, my stance on the difficulty of having only two playable characters has changed due to my own work and I understand the merit of it now. This is a nice enjoyable RPG with Banjo-Kazooie stylings, which is definitely a change of pace from typical Earthbound inspirations.

Fun story and interesting battle mechanic

Lovely game, I truly enjoy playing Soma Spirits: Rebalance. The art is cute, the music is amazing, the characters are loveable and the story is very engaging. I can't help but replay it often, since this is one of my favorite games. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who might be interested! I also really look forward to the sequel, Soma Union! Overall great game, 10/10.

Cool artstyle, good music, fun gameplay, and great writing.
...I'm only here to add an extra review to this game that's likely flown under many radars, please do try it!

Delightful game. Lovely for the cost. Cute artstyle, fun gameplay, good characters, all around good. Definitely worth playing.

I really really enjoyed this little game. There was a nice twist on the standard turn based battle system, I never felt like it was too hard or too easy (which is great for a game about balance!) My in-game time looks really long but that's only because I often leave the game running while I do things and then come back to it. Which was also a treat because some of the game music is fantastic!! My guess is closer to 10 hours to completion. If you enjoy jrpgs (think earthbound), cute stories, touching moments/lessons, or just want a short palate cleanser...for 3 bucks you can't go wrong here.

I am not much of a reviewer of RPGs, but just wanted to say that I find this to be an excellent game. I love the two halves of the world, and the gameplay within. And the characters are cute as well. Top marks from me.

Soma Spirits is an interesting RPG game with a load of positives and only one real flaw for me: overuse of combat.

The storyline of Soma Spirits involves Heart and Soul, two Guardian Spirits who watch over two different halves of the world of Soma. Heart watches the colorful half of the world run by pure joy, while Soul watches the monochrome half of the world run by pure sorrow. The world of Soma used to exist as one entity until a historical event split it into the two halves, separating emotions and changing its reality. The conflict of the game starts with the world's balance of joy and sorrow shifting, and the two Guardian Spirits must step out to resolve it.

While the above may sound relatively simple, or maybe even overly simple ("What is good and what is bad?"), the actual adventure is quite a bit of fun. The majority of the characters you interact with have a lot of interesting personalities, and there is quite a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor that helps you enjoy your time as well. The decisions that you make along the way definitely impact the experience, as they can cause cutscenes to change quite a bit or even generate different boss fights in new areas, which was interesting.

The gameplay involves exploration of multiple parts of the world, thus resolving Soma's imbalance one piece at a time. In order to do so, you must shift between the two different halves of Soma in order to navigate and also make your decisions in the plot.

As can be seen in screenshots for the game and mentioned earlier, Heart's world contains a lot of bright colors while Soul's world is filled with various levels of grey. You shift between these halves via portal doorways. When you do so, the game's maps will change, with different pathways opening up, thereby letting you solve puzzles by switching back and forth between the sides of Soma.

Switching between the halves of the world will also affect the combat system. The combat in itself is a simple turn-based RPG style, as can be seen in many RPG Maker games, with only one big change. Both of the characters have Power, Support, and Spirit magical attacks. Spirit attacks require SP which accumulates 1 point per turn of combat and can be used almost at any time (unless the characters are under a certain stat debuff).

However, the different halves of Soma affect which character can use Power or Support. The Power attacks are main attacks against enemies mostly, while the Support attacks involve healing and empowering the other teammate. Whoever runs the half of Soma you are currently within can use Power, while the other has to use Support. More specifically, Heart can use Power attacks in the joy side of Soma, while Soul is forced to use Support only, and vice versa.

The types of enemies that you encounter also change depending on which side of the world you are currently within, meaning that you really might not want to trigger as many battles in a certain side depending on your experience levels or which side is more difficult to you.

This point, in fact, leads into the only real flaw I found in Soma Spirits. While the combat system tries to make things more unique than generic RPG battles, I still found that the game actually overused the amount of battles you encounter and makes the fights become boring anyway.

The areas are filled with little slime sprites that run around the map to trigger battles. There are red and black slimes, where the former ones move extremely quickly and try to follow you, meaning that they are almost unavoidable, while the latter ones move slower and can sometimes be dodged. Even so, many of the places you encounter them are small in width, so the slow-moving slimes can still be encountered easily.

Then, you have the fact that switching between the halves of Soma can cause all of the slimes to respawn, meaning that if you are in the middle of a puzzle that requires multiple portal entries, you could encounter the same slime over and over and fight way too many times.

All of that is pushed further by the fact that many of the enemies are actually quite overpowering. It is somewhat weird in that many enemies do not have a lot of defense, but most of them have really high offense. Certain battles can simply kill one of the characters in less than 2 turns, leading you to heal every turn essentially. If you do not want to spend a lot of time healing, then you have to delay the plotline and grind battles to gain levels for a long while. Even the equipment and items you gain do not drastically help.

Honestly, I would say that I wish that the game had way less emphasis on having RPG battles and more on simply having the plot, the world, and puzzles. Despite that issue, I still enjoyed my time with Soma Spirits and think that the story was quite enjoyable.

Gameplay:

I don't typically like rpgs of this type, however this one is different, and I actually enjoy the combat in this game. there are many games similar to this one where I liked the dialog, but I couldn't continue the game because i felt the combat too dull. this game on the other hand is totally different. they even have a light world dark world gimmik that actually adds to the game and the combat.

Story:
I dont know how to say this without spoiling anything. essentially, as you go through the game, you need to decide if you would rather have people lose their happyness, or lose their sorrow. But in order to keep order to the world, if you take the sadness from one person, you need to take the happyness from another. It forces you to think about if one persons dreams and desires are important enough so that you take the dreams and desires from another person. or would you rather take the happyness from this person so that someone else you meet later could be happy.

Music:
YES

One concept I became interested in the last couple of years the idea of light and darkness. I just find it very interesting that someone who’s pure darkness may be a pretty nice guy while someone uses light might have evil intentions. And here’s a game that tells a story about light and darkness.

Story:

Long ago, the Sun King ruled over the world of Soma. But soon he became corrupt and used everyone as his plaything. After he was defeated by a pair of heroes, the world was split in two. One a world of Joy. The other a world of Sorrow. These worlds are protected by a the optimistic Heart and pessimistic Soul and after obtaining a strange orb, they go on a series of adventures to save both worlds from disaster.

While there is a story here, it’s more a bunch of small adventure that lead to a finale. It’s good that Heart and Soul are such a great duo. I had a smile on my face when they have conversations since Heart’s love of everything around him was a delight and is balanced by Soul’s blunt and to the point nature.

On thing I thought the game did really was those short adventures and the moral choices in them. Yes, this game has a moral choice system. In each story, you meet someone who’s having a dilemma of some kind and you have to figure what what would be the best solution to deal with it, either to remove their Joy or Sorrow. And there’s no wrong answer, it’s purely based on what YOU think is the best idea. The highlight for me has got to be the Freezing Fjord which I won’t spoil but it felt like even if neither choose matters to the game, there is an impact to the area.

If I had to nitpick something, I had to mention that I found Evil Heart to be pretty bland. I mean Evil Soul was pretty unsettling and felt natural to his development while Evil Heart’s development felt sudden and his personality was just dull.

Gameplay:

Ahem. NEW GAME +!!

In order to get around the dungeons, you have to switch between the two worlds as some paths or puzzle elements are blocked off in each world. like a dead end might be near a portal and when you go through it, there might gone or there might be stairs.

The combat is unique as it’s just two people with one main attack and one supporter. Who’s who. That depends on the world you’re in. In the Joy world, Heart is the fighter and Soul is support and in the Sorrow world it’s reversed. And like the worlds themselves, they are the same but different. They both have two elemental attacks, a buff and debuff and a status effect to name a few of what they can do. Yes, most enemies are the same between worlds but you can’t use the same strategy as for example if you fight a joy enemy weak to ice, Soul can’t use his ice magic so he has to give Heart ice powers to hit them with is regular attack. You also get SP ever turn to use spirit powers which are are like limit breaks that can deal star damage or drain MP to name a few.

Presentation:

I didn’t really talk about the worlds in story cause I wanted to talk about them here cause the art and music both show the difference between the two. The Joy world is very bright with lots colour. Everyone has a happy face and the music is very joyful to a psychotic degree that even the boss track is happy and upbeat.

The Sorrow is the complete opposite. All the colour is grey, you can’t see anyone’s mouth or are either sad or angry. The music sounds more like a regular RPG but as a more downbeat tone that even the intro to Soul sounds harsh.

I was reminded of Gloria’s Teather from Psychonauts with how the music and set represent the two moods. If I were to pick favourite's, I have to pick the Joy world, mainly because I love bright colours and I prefer the fun music. But that’s just personal taste.

I also want to add that the first time

Verdict:

This is a really good game. It’s not long and even does morality better than Undertale (There I said it.)

10/10

Cute little RPG. Wonderful story, fun to play. I suggest playing the first time how you like, then doing three more playthroughs: one as each side of the story and last as a neutral.

I first played this when it was free and not as well developed as the rebalance. It was fun then and the added content only makes it better. Soma Spirits is another Earthbound-inspired game a little like Undertale, except with a lot less of the things that bugged me about Undertale. It's a lot less trollish and a lot more light-hearted and you almost always know what you're supposed to be doing.

The gimmick in this game is that the world is split into a world full of joy and fun, and a world of sorrow where everyone takes life seriously. You play the twin guardians of the world, Heart and Soul. You can swap between the two worlds at portals as they overlap each other. The worlds are very similar but slightly different, with things hidden in one world that aren't there in the other. Heart and Soul have different abilities depending on which world they are in. The music, dialogue with NPCs and appearance/skillset of the monsters is different but related to each other, often with stupid puns involved. I love the humour in this game, btw, it can be so satirical at times, with an opportunity to visit the EXCITING EXCITING box factory and the creepiness of a candy mine run by sentient candy.

The game is fairly short and the plot twists so unsubtly obvious, certain characters practically tell you what to do for the true ending three times in a row. Still, it's better than giving out only bad endings unless you guess the random thing they don't give any warnings about whatsoever, which I've seen in some games.

Anyway, I really enjoy this game and it's very cheap. Buy it especially if you like Earthbound-inspired games.

The moral theme of Soma Spirits is my favorite part of it, and really why I bought the game in the first place. The game presents the player with real moral dilemmas that they have to participate in and decide for themselves. There's never a clear winner; each decision comes with its pros and cons and makes the player consider what the consequences of their action will be. The overarching plot of joy and sorrow is a little difficult to grasp (I still don't understand what the value of sorrow is supposed to be), but the individual moments are good in isolation.

Unfortunately, the creative limitations of RPG Maker show themselves when it comes to tieing the regular gameplay to the theme of moral dilemmas. While the game's narrative is about conflict resolution and creating peace, all you ever do to accomplish these goals is battle creatures with weapons and spells, which hardly feels appropriate. I hope in the future the creator is able to expand their toolbox to other game development software so that they can truly put their vision into every aspect of the game!

The turn-based battles aren't half-bad by themselves; the switching of power and support roles between worlds is neat and the various abilities give a decent amount of strategy to the fights. There were times when the battles felt more tedious than exciting, and there were times when the opposite was true.

The music and visuals aren't that great, but they're fun and get the job done.

Overall, I was satisfied with the game and am glad that I played it. I'm excited to see what this developer will create next, because this game feels like an early manifestation of some great potential.

A fantastic little RPG with fun battles, a silly world, story choices and many surprises. I played the original/free version a couple times and the price of this version is worth the game value rendered. I wonder if he'll revisit his game "Brave Hero Yuusha" another gem.

Edit: He did remake Brave Hero Yuusha !!

Heart and Soul one like me always wished to see within a commercial RPG Maker game. The game takes example from the Mother series (Earthbound) in making a simple turn based rpg that focuses on personality and charm and expands on that concept the way only this specific developer could. Soma Spirit is a unique experience that takes inspiration from multiple greats. If classic Rareware made an rpg, I'm not even sure they could match the amount of quirkiness shown in this one. Ultimately the game is a satisfying experience that any JRPG or non JRPG fan can enjoy. It is a pleasant place to be where the player has the choice to shift the direction of the story via cruicial choices. I am proud to say that I highly recommend this one.

If you want a more throuogh review written by me, stop by here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/8582/reviews/5413/

Awesome game 10/10, especially for it's price. Completed in a single breath, and still playing.

Tl;dr: A good game that is worthy of a look at by any RPG or Indie enthusiast.

If you are a fan of good RPG Maker games, this is a 100% must buy.

While by no means perfect, this game certainly has the heart and soul put into it with a wonderfully delightful style reminiscent of the Mario and Luigi RPG's (Two characters with both being usefull), A Link to the Past (Light and Dark World) and even a unique battle system that makes each battle a chess match. With branching stories and a difficulty setting, this game ozzes replayability.

Have I mentoined the charm? The charcters of this world are so interesting and fun to be around, and while the story isn't a shakespearean masterpiece, the characters and idea alone are certainly more and enough for an Indie Title.

It would be a crime to not mention the awesome soundtrack. Developer Torch 60 really served up one spicy soundtrack, with soothing, chraming beats in the light world, and fast, electric pieces in the dark world. It's a soundtrack so good, they even have a music player in game for you to listen to them all! Thanks Torch 60!

Overall, this game is worthy of a look at by any RPG or Indie enthusiast. It's a great game to play on those long weekends, and I hope to see a sequel, or even a new game, from this dev team in the future.

Great game so far! Love the music, it reminds me of the quirkiness of Rareware!

Sees trailer "This looks neat"
plays the game "Nice"
listen to music "Really nice"
Battle system "great combat"
Final thought "NOICE"

My opinion "This is a really good or nice game to play and im been enjoying it for about 2 hours now"

To everyone "If your bored and want to buy a $5.00 game on Steam i recommend buying this RPG for fun"

Havin' a good time so far!

Check out all the cute! Lookit that neat world-swap mechanic!

If you're in the market for a silly romp through a colorful (and occasionally monochromatic) world, check it out.