A rather weird blend of soulslike and cRPG action

Mar 29, 2023 06:15 GMT  ·  By

Described by its developers as a mix of Baldur’s Gate and Dark Souls, Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms doesn’t really excel at neither. Fans of both formulas, the folks at Gamera Interactive have tried to implement the Dark Souls combat into a traditional top-down isometric RPG. That’s the only reason why someone would do that since these games require different set of skills.

While Dark Souls fans are champions of good reflexes, Baldur’s Gate players prefer a good narrative backed by a solid RPG combat system that allows them to prepare their fights in advance. Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms is trying to cater to fans of the both genre, but I’m not sure that’s a good decision.

One thing that’s certain though is that Gamera’s game is huge, not just in scope but also in scale. Set in the high fantasy world of Plamen, Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms puts you in the role of a champion of one of the four kingdoms that form the massive continent. Your main goal is to gather four shards that will allow you to access the Fifth Kingdom, occupied by Alaloth, as you try to save Plamen from complete destruction.

These shards are scattered across the world, hidden in the loot protected by monsters in the so-called Fighting Arenas. These are basically the game’s dungeons, although they have been designed to work like in Dark Souls. Before entering a Fighting Arena, you have safe camping area where you can cook/eat food, repair your equipment, and make any adjustments to your gear.

Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms
Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms
Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms
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Once you’re inside, you can’t do any changes to your gear. In fact, you are completely prevented from accessing your inventory. You have limited healing and an average number of monsters to kill before you can claim the dungeon’s prize. Each kingdom has a set of Fighting Arenas that you must complete in search of one of the shards, but they also contain other loot in the form of gold, weapons and armor.

In Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms, your character doesn’t gain experience like in a traditional RPG. Instead, you’re awarded attribute and trait points after finishing your first dungeon, third and so on. It’s a system that completely removes the need to balance the regions based on a character’s level, but also discourages running the game’s dungeons multiple times unless you really need materials to craft armor (which is basically useless).

Now, let’s talk a bit about the soulslike combat system. You can block, parry, dodge, as well as use light and heavy attacks. Characters and monsters have two bars: health and stamina. Once you deplete the enemy’s stamina bar completely, you stagger it for a second, so you have just enough time for one or two more hits. However, if you get staggered, you’re probably dead since by the time you get to react, the enemy has already finished its combo.

That said, it’s quite detrimental to try and use parry/block mechanics when you can just use heavy attack and then simply dodge. I found that this is the best strategy if you want to make the game as little frustrating as possible. Any attempt to block, parry or simply trade blows with the enemy will lead to your character’s demise (sooner or later).

Because you’re limited to maximum four healing potions/items, any mistake will cost you precious resources. In general, it’s better to save those for the boss at the end of the dungeon. Unless you figure out the one broken ability that can get you through the entire game without having to use any healing potions at all.

Overall, I don’t think the combat system has anything to do with the Dark Souls series. Although the basics might be there, it surely doesn’t feel like I’m playing a Baldur’s Gate game with soulslike mechanics. Trying to follow the combat tutorial makes the first few hours of the game frustrating, but once you learn that the best way to make sure you don’t get hit is to use the heavy attack/dodge combo, the game becomes a breeze.

The maximum level in Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms is four, so you have a limited number of skills that you’ll end up using, which isn’t that bad considering that most of them aren’t that useful. You can put a maximum of four points in each of these attributes: strength, dexterity, constitution and luck. They offer frustratingly low bonuses to matter in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the game’s narrative is conveyed through codex entries, so if you’re not a fan of reading, you’ll probably want to skip these. I find it a bit disappointing that a game heavily inspired by the Baldur’s Gate series didn’t find a better way to tell stories.

What I did like about the game is the world building and the premise. Despite many of its issues, I’m still tempted to check it out when it exits early access. I’ve been following the development of the game for quite a while and I’m curious what adjustments developers will implement before it goes gold, because right now there are many mechanics that are simply useless (crafting, attributes, skills, etc.).

Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms
Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms
Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms
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Conclusion

I have a feeling that Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms will be a very controversial title. Although it wants to offer players the best of both Darks Souls and Baldur’s Gate worlds, it doesn’t excel at either. For what it’s worth, I have to congratulate the developers for their courage to come up with something like this, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired.

Although I find the world of Plamen quite compelling, I was a bit disappointed by the very repetitive gameplay loop. Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms lacks the charm of a classic RPG, but it has some interesting ideas that are worth exploring.

That being said, if you’re mildly interested in RPGs, you’ll want to keep your eyes on this one. If you’re more of a Dark Souls fan though, there’s really nothing soulslike in Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms.

Preview key was provided by the developer.

Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms screenshots (26 Images)

Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms key art
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