Soulframe - Is it Just Fantasy Warframe?
Jan. 4, 2024Soulframe – Is it Just Fantasy Warframe?
Soulframeis an upcoming MMORPG being developed and published by Digital Extremes, the creators of one of the most popular MMO games ever, Warframe. The game has been in development for about a year and a half, and from what has been shown so far in trailers, gameplay footage and the dev stream from the CEO Steve Sinclair, it’s looking to be a pretty interesting title that is aiming to create a Fantasy version of Warframe with slower and more strategic gameplay, as well as a story inspired by the famous Studio Ghibli film, Princess Mononoke.
The story of Soulframe takes place in the fantasy world of Midrath, a realm of men, beasts, magic and divine entities. In this world, the Kingdom of Ode rules supreme, and has entered into a war against nature and its divine entities, the Omen Beasts; spirits of nature that were born from the God of Midrath, Alca.
In the midst of the war against Nature, the Ode have successfully captured and corrupted some of these beings, making them hostile and irrational. Omen Beasts that we have seen so far include Orengall the Wolf, who was chained up but freed by the player, Garren Rood the Deer, a corrupted beast the player must fight, and an unnamed Moose Beast that saves the player once they wash ashore on a beach.
The player is known as The Envoy, a character who was once a part of the Kingdom of Ode, but has since been banished from their nation to the northern Isle of Midrath, where the Omen Beasts roam. The Envoy now allies with the Omen Beasts, cleansing them of their corruption while defeating the inhabitants of Midrath who have been bewitched by the Ode to betray their friendship with the Omen Beasts.
There isn’t much out about the story yet, and a lot of the story information is hidden in cryptic poems and the puzzles on the Soulframe website from last year. However, we can see that the story of Soulframe is going to centre around nature and its restoration, primarily regarding the corrupted Omen Beasts.
The main location of the game is going to be the Northern Isle of Midrath, where the Envoy washes up. This isle is home to the Omen Beasts, as well as native inhabitants who have turned on the Omen Beasts for the Kingdom of Ode.
The isle is a vast forest that branches off into procedurally generated dungeons and instances. Within this vast Isle, players will discover various intriguing monuments and structures such as enemy villages, mysterious cabins nestled in the woods, and an enormous wall that seems to touch the sky.
If you look above, you will also be able to see a floating island, likely the Kingdom of Ode, alongside the moon that has a strange green ring around it. This iridescent green ring encircling the moon actually holds celestial significance in a long-forgotten religion in the world of Midrath. It was believed to be the place where Souls of the Departed find their rest. However, the souls of The Envoys’ Ancestors can be found throughout Midrath, unable to leave the mortal realm, perhaps as a result of the Ode’s scheming.
Besides the Isle, The Envoy can do a trust fall onto the ground to dramatically and fashionably enter the realm of Nighthold, the main hub. Nighthold acts as a domain that the souls of The Envoy’s ancestors can reside in, as well as the Omen Beast Orengall. Once the Envoy finds their Ancestors’ Souls and sends them to Nighthold, they will be able to talk to them and employ them to do various RPG things like blacksmithing or crafting, not unlike something likeDark Souls. As you find more and more of your Ancestors, Nighthold will become busier and busier, and transform from a barren landscape containing a few people to a proper village of your ancestors. The best part; there seems to be no loading screen between Nighthold and Midrath, making it a form of instantaneous fast travel.
Soulframe is a PVEco-opARPG with some MMO elements, much like its cousin: Warframe. There will be guilds or clans for players to group up in, but the game can be a single-player experience. The player will explore the Isle of Midrath to advance the main story, and get stronger over time with the new equipment and tools they find as they progress through the world, but there are many unique things to explore.
Firstly, let’s cover the doggo, also known as the Omen Beast Orengall. The Envoy rescues him from being captured and corrupted at the hands of the Ode, leading to Orengall the Wolf becoming The Envoy’s trusted ally in the fight against the Kingdom of Ode. Once you rescue him in your playthrough, you will not only be able to attack with him andpet him, but also use him as a mount to traverse the Isle of Midrath.
As you explore, you will be able to find various points of interest, and alsoNPCsor loot like ingredients, crafting materials orWeapons. When you interact with an NPC, you will be given different choices for dialogue which can only be chosen if you have a certain amount of points in one of the three stats in the game. NPCs found in the world can provide useful information like location of an Omen Beast, though not much else has been shown about living NPCs, as most that you find seem to be souls that are trapped in Midrath.
Dungeons and other mines or catacombs that can be found throughout the world are procedurally generated much like the missions in Warframe, though this time with a huge change in gameplay style.
Entering a dungeon will first show all the NPCs that you can find if you fully explore the dungeon; however, these NPCs aren’t alive. They are the souls of your ancestors, named Wandering Souls which can support you with temporary buffs if you find them within the dungeon. The Wandering Soul showcased in the gameplay footage was Frenn Jotar, the Fire King, who provides you with a temporary flame buff that massively increases damage from your weapon.
As you explore, you can find environmental hazards which can either harm you or can be used against enemies strategically, as well as special loot if you go off the main path, or an interesting bird that can lead you to one of the Wandering Souls in the dungeon.
Outside of dungeons and other enclosed structures, you can also find interactable monuments scattered throughout, which can be investigated by using a magic detection ability that functions similarly to Geralt of Rivia’s “Witcher senses”. This ability was used to solve a puzzle that would open a gate in a mine, so we can probably expect more puzzle elements. Additionally, at some points in Soulframe you will need to use a flute resembling a panpipe to unlock certain parts of the game. When you need to use the flute, you will be prompted to press buttons in a specific rhythm to unlock a path, or show an ancestral memory etc.
In the context of crafting and weapons, it seems like Digital Extremes plans to add crafting systems that extend past just weapons, with plans to add Fishing, Mining and Cooking into Soulframe. However, in regards to weapon crafting, it seems that weapons will have a production time like you would see inWarframe, which comes with the territory of FTP MMO games.
The combat of Soulframe takes a very different approach to the high mob density fast-paced action you see in Warframe, instead opting for a slower and more strategic form of combat with less enemies. It has the basic mechanics of ARPG combat such as dodging, rolling, blocking, parrying, and a wide arsenal of weapons such as a sword, dual swords, polearms, bows and others. SoulframeBuildson these basic mechanics with other features though.
First is a finisher attack that deals huge damage to an enemy after they are left vulnerable from a heavy attack or a magic ability that knocks them down. Next are throwable weapons, which return to your hands after being thrown like the Leviathan Axe fromGod of War, and also allow you to pummel your enemies with your bare fists after chucking a sword at them. Lastly, there is stealth in the game which allows you to sneakily get up behind enemies and hit them with a high damage backstab.
Alongside the combat functions is an attributes system, and a pact system which is used to equip magic abilities. The 4 attributes that The Envoy has are called Virtues, which are Life, Courage, Spirit and Grace. Life is the total health of The Envoy and the 3 other stats can be levelled to change how you build your characters magical abilities, which can be equipped by changing your prosthetic arms pact.
Pacts are defined by the prosthetic arm The Envoy equips, and it defines the set of 3 magic abilities that can be used in combat. The Pacts we have seen so far have been bonds with the Omen Beasts Orengall and Garren Rood, as well as an Ode’n containment gauntlet and a beginner Fey gauntlet.
Each gauntlet provides 3 magic abilities that are in different positions on the 3 ability slots. Each ability slot consumes a different Virtue; the left slot consumes Courage, the middle slot consumes Spirit and the right slot consumes Grace. It’s likely that levelling a virtue will increase the resource pool for its corresponding spell slot, as well as maybe increase the damage or effectiveness of the ability in the slot.
The named Magic Abilities shown so far have been Bestone, which summons a bird that turns enemies to stone, Mendmist which summons a mist that heals you when you damage enemies in it and Phantom Flock which summons a flock of songbirds to attack a foe. Other abilities shown but are unnamed include a Grace Spell which summons an electrical sphere that attacks enemies and a Courage Spell which conjures an explosion beneath enemies’ feet and knocks them back.
Also, a cool little detail about this prosthetic arm is that it’s most likely a reference to Princess Mononoke, and how Ashitaka’s arm was corrupted by a curse which gave it inhuman strength. With that in mind, maybe we will see a pact later on in the game that uses the strength of a corrupted being to wield powerful corruptionSpellsor abilities, which would be very cool to see.
In terms of the enemies you fight, there doesn’t seem to be much variety as of now. As you know, the inhabitants of the Northern Isle of Midrath are bewitched to attack the Omen Beasts, and are shown to be in clad iron knight armour with a range of weapons like polearms and swords. However, there were bosses who were showcased in the gameplay footage.
The first boss was Lady Deora, a friend of the Omen Beast Garren Rood bewitched by the Ode. She had a fairly simple attack pattern with her staff, and a special ability to conjure a black slime around the players body, trapping them and then exploding them. Her attacks were parryable and she often deflected blind strikes from the player, encouraging them to find openings rather than blindly attack and hope for the best.
Once she was defeated, the flute instrument was used to break the enchantment placed upon her. We will probably find many other characters that have been mind controlled such as her, and will need to use this process multiple times to cleanse the people of the Isle from the corruption of the Ode.
After that boss was a second phase initiated by the corrupted Omen Beast, Garren Rood. The beast had wild and reckless attacks that were actually parryable if timed correctly, and otherwise seemed like a straightforward boss without any gimmicks or tricks.
If you happen to die to an enemy or boss in the game, you will respawn at the last activated shrine in the map as a ghost. If you can get to your corpse before the time runs out, you get to resurrect with full HP.
The platforms the game will run on will likely be the same as Warframe; PC, Xbox and Playstation. If Digital Extremes will repeat the same process they did for Warframe, Soulframe will launch for about a year on PC, then be ported to Xbox and Playstation. It has been confirmed that there will be crossplay between PC and Console, and KB&M as well as Controllers will be supported.
As it stands from the footage we have seen, Digital Extremes is focused on creating a game that their community will love. It will be interesting to see how far Soulframe can take the open-world fantasyMMORPGgenre with the heavy footprint of Warframes design and complexity. We have seen how much effort Digital Extremes put into Warframe, with over a decade of consistent updates and expansions, so I cant wait to see how this game will shape up to be in a few years from now.
What did you think ofSoulframeand its gameplay? Do you think it will contain some of the same Gameplay features from Warframe? Let us know in the comments below!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
