Deathbound is a Soulslike with some interesting new ideas | Hands-on preview

Deathbound is a new Soulslike from Brazilian developer Trialforge Studio that seems to combine elements of Thymesia and Mortal Shell, with a unique, somewhat beguiling setting. The world of Ziêminal is one of both fantasy and science fiction, with futuristic control panels, neon lights, and architecture mixing with sword-and-shield-wielding enemies, holy knights, crossbows and magic. It appears to be our world in the distant future, given some of the artefacts you collect, but it’s hard to pick apart what’s what in the demo build I played, but what I have seen so far has my attention.

We may have to wait for the full release to understand what’s actually going on, but for now it’ll suffice to say that the main city here, Akratya, is struggling to stay upright in the face of a devastating holy crusade of some kind. And into this grim arena strides you, not one being but, initially, three, bound together by the power of Essence.

The Deathbound, of which there are five in the preview build, act as interchangeable classes of which you can equip four at a time. Agharos is a huge hammer-wielding knight, Therone is a shield-bearing paladin, and Iulia is a freedom fighter armed with a spear. There’s also assassin Anna Lepus and magic-slinger Olivia.

What makes it stand apart from the previously-mentioned Mortal Shell is the ability to switch between these Essences on the fly. Attacking enemies increases your Sync power, which allows you to combo from one form to another mid-attack or mid-dodge. Your health is tied to your stamina, so when you’re close to death or exhaustion, switching to another Essence will refresh you, and further attacks will slowly heal your resting Essences.

Each plays very differently. For example, Anna is fast and weak, armed with a dagger and a crossbow, while Agharos is huge and slow, but deals massive damage. Collecting XP from enemies allows you to level up at special spots equivalent to bonfires, and you progress characters along a shared skill tree. While there are nodes that affect the individual, the bulk of the tree boosts all characters together,

Perhaps because you’re constantly switching characters anyway, there’s no character screen, just an inventory that allows you to equip two rings and an artefact, or assign consumables to your hotbar. There are no weapons to swap out and no visual customisation. Likewise, there’s no real character customisation at all, even in terms of skills and abilities. Besides being able to switch Essences, there’s little indication of what kind of combat or skill progression Deathbound will have.

The focus is definitely on mixing the existing abilities of what will eventually be seven Essences (at a guess; this is just based on the remaining blank portraits in the Essence screen). Equipping Essences that have shared goals or histories will be important, as this conveys buffs whereas Essences that are opposed will also draw a debuff from being paired together.

Finding Therone in the preview triggers a flashback section where we’re shown his history, whereas Iulia had no such sequence – which could just mean it’s not complete at this time and will be added in a later version. Either way, it seems that these sequences and item lore will be the main source of story in Deathbound, which seems pretty light on exposition so far.

At present, it also needs a lot of work. There’s no V-Sync option so screen-tear was horrendous for me, and the inversion controls are bugged, so inverting vertical also inverts horizontal, whereas inverting horizontally seems to do nothing. But besides this it’s also highly apparent that Deathbound just isn’t anywhere near finished yet.

The camera lock on simply refuses to work for some enemies, and if you force an enemy against a wall, your attacks will glance off the wall instead of hitting the enemy. Also, some animations cause your attacks to simply miss your target. It needs a lot of work to get it ready for prime time, but it’s promising so far.

Despite an intriguing premise and the novelty of switching Essences, Deathbound will need to bring a little more to the table at launch if it really wants to stand out. There’s not much nuance to any of it yet, and a lack of individual progression and customisation renders the Essences almost as pure loadouts, which they could be so much more than. But it’s very early, and the fluid combat, intriguing world and novel concept might just be enough to carry it when it launches.

Deathbound is coming soon on Steam. A demo is available now.