One of the bigger showings at PAX West this year was a take on the Soulslike genre that draws inspiration from Italian folklore, Enotria: The Last Song. Almost every aspect of the game seems to pull from Italian heritage. The visuals (which are stunning), the storytelling, and even the core game mechanics all point back to Italy.
The main character is known as The Maskless One, a character seemingly unaffected by the Canovaccio, a twisted eternal play that keeps everything in an unnatural stasis afflicting all other characters. This leads to one of the main differentiators in its gameplay stylings: the ability to create loudouts with unique abilities and weapons and quickly swap between them, even during combat. These loadouts are represented through masks that change your appearance along with unique weapons, abilities, and skill trees. As you progress through the 3 main areas of the game world, you will find over 20 unique masks to augment your playstyle.
In talking with one member of the PR team, they shed quite a bit of light on the small development team. With most of the Italian game development jobs moving to the rest of Europe to bigger names like Ubisoft and CD Project Red, Jyamma Games set out to headhunt Italian game devs and bring them back to Italy to make a game rooted in Italian culture.
A word thrown around a lot during our talks with the team and during my gameplay demo was “theatre”. The enemies are trapped in an eternal play and all are forced to wear masks. They go about their day playing “roles” in robotic motions. I came up to one poor sap who was cutting down trees. When I approached he turned his attention to cutting me down. This was the first enemy that I encountered that presented me with a challenge. I faced him 6 times before finally emerging victorious. It was a punishing start to the demo but one I ultimately was happy for as it quickly taught me the game mechanics and how to survive in this brutal Italian countryside.
Although that enemy immediately turned to attack me as I approached, others throughout the world often won’t attack you until you provoke them. During my demo, I came across a variety of enemies that were going about their business including a group of dancers that made me almost feel bad for attacking them. It will be interesting to see how this mechanic carries over throughout the planned 30-50 hour campaign.
Overall I was very impressed with this demo. The camera, lock-on, and roll all felt a bit stiff, and the feedback loop for picking up items can be improved. It definitely needs some polish before its planned 2024 release date, but with a bit of TLC I can see myself dumping loads of time into this beautiful game.
