Over the last decade, soulslike and kung-fu punk games have risen to prominence thanks to the popularity of FromSoftware’s Souls franchise, or similar action games Devil May Cry 5, Ghost Of Tsushima, or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The popularity of these games has led to the creation of other games like Phantom Blade Zero, Code Vein, Mortal Shell, Nioh, Lies of P, Remnant 2, and even Elden Ring.

Now, a new game RPG is set to take the stage and offer a new twist on the challenging soulslike genre. At Summer Game Fest, I (Killerkdemons) had the opportunity to get a sneak peek of Jyamma Games’ upcoming “Guido soulslike” (as our editor calls it) game Enotria: The Last Song.

Prior to Summer Game Fest preparations, I had not heard of Enotria: The Last Song. Despite my limited knowledge, after watching the trailer for the game and looking at the concept art, I knew I had to play it. The idea of slaying Italian shadow demons called to me.

Looking at the art, the notion of exploring Italian-inspired enemies in vibrant and colorful areas was an exciting contrast compared to the artistic style of From Software’s Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. Although the art style was brighter, you could still feel the Souls-like undertones.

Hands-on gameplay of Enotria: the Last Song

Upon arriving at our meeting, we were asked to sit down on the couch and to look at the different character builds. Rather than forcing the player to build a specific way, the game gives players three masks to control their play style.

As the player kills additional bosses and enemies, they can find new masks to utilize. These masks can be switched interchangeably during combat allowing the player to switch up their tactics to suit their needs.

SGF Gameplay Demo

For the demo, we were tasked with killing three of the game’s early bosses, each with its own unique playstyle. Rather than giving us time to warm up by fighting some of the smaller enemies, we were thrown directly into the lion’s den.

To be honest, being thrown right into the fray made the challenge even more satisfying. The urge to overcome something you’ve just seen and prove your merit pulsed through my veins.

For the sake of the demo, all skills from the skill tree were unlocked. Additionally, we were allocated 10,000 Memoria to level up before each boss, these Memoria “Souls” could be used to level up weapons or improve our character’s Virtue (Attributes).

The five attributes are: Fortitude, Cunning, Attunement, Alacrity, and Erudition. For the sake of survival, I chose to assign most of my points to Fortitude and Cunning (Health and Attack).

Taking on the Bosses

After I was done leveling, I was ready to undertake the first boss, Curtis, Prince of Laughter. Fighting Curtis and learning his patterns while trying to figure out the mask switch option was a bit much at first. Because of this, I decided that it wasn’t worth utilizing the mask switch option and to focus just on taking out the harlequin with the weapons and abilities we had on hand.

After a few deaths, we were finally able to overcome him, it took roughly seven tries before overcoming him. Once we had slain Curtis, Prince of Laughter, we were told to teleport to the next boss, Vermiglio, The Red Prior. This fight seemed daunting at first, but his movements were fairly easy to pick up.

In fact, out of the three bosses I faced, he was probably the easiest. On the third try fighting him, I was able to kill him. The third boss without a doubt was the hardest, as when you get him close to death, his attack style changed dramatically.

You had to learn how to predict his attacks since a cloud of dust shoots up when he lands, concealing the attack. In this fight, I died close to 15 times – some of those deaths were due to a visual bug that wouldn’t lock on to the correct area of the body and left me open to attack.

After defeating the third and final with only a minute to spare, I found out that I was only one of five to complete the demo. This fact felt extremely rewarding since it was one of the last demo sessions I had during Summer Game Fest.

It’s worth noting Enotria: The Last Song really looks and plays great except for the visual bug in the final boss. Still, I had fun killing and dying to the bosses in Enotria. I am definitely looking forward to the game’s release in September.

Enotria: The Last Song will launch this fall on September 18th across Windows PC (via Steam) Xbox Series X|S, and PS5