SOULVARS, an RPG by solo developer ginolabo, was originally one of Asia’s top mobile games in 2022. SOULVARS has since been ported to PC and consoles by publisher Shueisha Games, and while there are some minor translation issues that I at first mistook for creative slang, the port holds up pretty well. The UI has been completely redone for consoles while preserving the original style of the game, of which SOULVARS has lots.
You play as Yakumo, a freelance Soulbearer working for the Dominator Disposal Organization (DDO) to take down Dominators, malicious entities that corrupt human souls. As Soulbearers, you and your party are immune to Dominator influence thanks to an alternate soul within you, which also lets you transform into a more powerful, temporary form. Unraveling a web of conspiracies on the hunt for a missing person, you navigate pixelated urban vistas like highways and cityscapes in a search for the truth. That’s how I understand it, at least, since the game never outright explains any of this outside of some in-menu lore glossaries.
The story sounds great on paper, but trying to piece it all together from the actual narrative, of which there is very little, feels like playing cards with half a deck. SOULVARS throws you straight into the mix, which works with a bit of contextual narrative, but things just keep going without any introduction to the world or characters. The sparse dialogue often feels too short, unclear, or relies heavily on the player having read the aforementioned glossary. Even entirely new characters are introduced as if you should already know them. The story definitely takes a backseat to gameplay in SOULVARS, but I found that the gameplay more than made up for the cryptic nature of the narrative.
Combat plays out like a mix of classic turn-based RPGs with deck-builder elements thrown in. Your weapons and gear determine your deck, made up of soulbits in place of cards. They range from attack variants like slash and shot to support variants like charge and heal. You can combine soulbits to fuel more powerful combos, like using heat and land to create a fireball or combining charge and heal for a more powerful heal. You can’t just combine whatever soulbits you want, though, since you first need to unlock each combo. From what I saw, it does seem like most soulbits can eventually be combined, which is a testament to the sheer variety of options you have at your disposal.
While there are deckbuilding elements to SOULVARS, the RPG elements make it less about chance and more about balance. Learning to conserve soulbits and items is crucial once the game starts to throw multi-wave battles at you since drawing more soulbits after you run out requires you to sacrifice some health. You can make up for an empty hand with various skills that allow you to load specific soulbits and combos, although you’ll quickly run out of SP if you rely on that method. While SP can be restored by resting or using items, you can only use a set amount of items per battle. Do you use a cure capsule on a near-death ally, or do you restore the SP of your healer?
There is a pretty steep learning curve if you’re not familiar with turn-based RPGs or deck builders. I’ve played quite a few and I still struggled out of the gate to grasp the system at play. A big part of the problem is that SOULVARS offers very little in the way of a tutorial, and crucial information is hidden away in the tutorial section of the in-game menu, which itself is hidden behind another menu. For example, you start every battle with one AP, which lets you use one soulbit. Creating soulbit combos requires a corresponding amount of AP, which you can acquire more of through tactical actions like exploiting enemy weaknesses, buffing, debuffing, and more. SOULVARS tells you absolutely none of this if you don’t go looking for it.
There was a point where I found myself unable to overcome a segment of SOULVARS even with the best gear I could find at the time. I had misunderstood another crucial aspect of the game: souldrivers. Souldrivers determine your passive stats, soulbit combos, and ability slots based on your sync rate with them, but something I didn’t realize until halfway through the game was that SOULVARS calculates your passive stats based on the stats of every souldriver you’ve leveled, not just the one you’re actively using. This information wasn’t even available to find in the tutorial menu, nor was any information on the actual effect of each stat. I’m not sure what the actual carry-over rate for stats is since it doesn’t seem to be one-to-one for inactive souldrivers, but by increasing the sync rate of a variety of souldrivers you can massively boost your party members in areas where their main souldriver is weakest.
Unclear game mechanics aside, the gameplay is very rewarding once you do get it. Setting up appropriate combos can devastate otherwise daunting foes, especially when you’ve taken the time to buff your offense. While it can be tempting to attempt to brute force a battle, I found that I did overwhelmingly better if I took the time to set up buffs and debuffs followed up by an all-out assault. It was pretty much necessary to take advantage of every tactical option playing on hard mode because you simply don’t have the resources to keep up with enemies otherwise. On top of that, there was a difficulty spike towards the end of the game that I was only able to overcome by grinding and optimizing my build. Actually knowing how to play SOULVARS helped, admittedly.
You’ll need to grind quite a lot if you want top-tier gear or to max out your sync rate with different souldrivers. This is where the gameplay first started to feel repetitive, especially since normal battles generally give a sync rate increase of somewhere between 0.50% – 2%, with diminishing returns at higher sync rates. I did eventually find a way to make leveling sync rates more efficient thanks to the HarmonizerRing accessory, which boosts sync rate gain by 50%. Taking advantage of endgame anomaly gate battles can easily boost your sync rate from zero to well past 50%, greatly expediting the process. Tackling anomaly gates is one of the best ways to get better gear as well, though you might have to spend some time looking since they are random encounters.
Exploration is consigned to a grid-like map in urban areas such as highways, city streets, and parking garages. It’s worth investigating every nook and cranny, especially on return trips to explore previously locked paths. Other than grinding, exploring the map comprehensively is the best way to get new gear and abilities not found in shops. Speaking of shops, it’s actually possible to miss a few of them if you’re not thorough enough in your exploration. Different exit tiles in the same area will typically lead to new areas, so be sure to explore them all. I almost missed an entire shopping district before I decided to backtrack a little to see if I had missed anything.
There are some side quests to tackle off the beaten path, but there’s even less effort put into these side stories than the main narrative. I remember some influencer guy asked me to find his girlfriend for him, but even after I found her he was still asking me to go look for her. Maybe it was just a commentary on influencers, but the same thing happened later with a missing dog and even somebody’s child. Those side missions are the most fleshed out, too. An overwhelming majority of side quests are just missions to close Dominator gates, where you show up to fight the same few waves of enemies with some minor variations. There’s good loot, at least.
You can just buy gear if you don’t feel like grinding or exploring, but money was really hard to come by at first. I found myself spending most of it on healing items to keep my party alive mid-battle. This is less of an issue once you acquire healing arts, but there are also some pretty easy ways to make money. Beyond the obvious means of acquiring and selling loot, players can complete optional challenges (also hidden in the menu) that reward a medley of rewards ranging from permanent stat increases to cold, hard cash. Some of these challenges even revolve around using a certain amount of healing items, so I found it was a good way to get money back from investing in my party’s health.
SOULVAR’s pixel art style is gorgeous, calling to mind the flash games of my youth, and some of the enemies have pretty wicked designs. However, the backdrops in SOULVARS leave something to be desired in terms of variety. The mostly gray urban environments start to look the same pretty quickly, to the point that I had some trouble differentiating between areas. I would have loved to go through a park or maybe even gone somewhere out of town, but you’re consigned pretty much entirely to concrete roads, bridges, and complexes. Gray, gray, and more gray, which, to be fair, reflects the moody, somber atmosphere of SOULVARS. It would have been nice to have some different backgrounds to look at during all the grinding, that’s all.
The sound design lends itself well to SOULVAR’s atmosphere. Exploration is coupled with a somber, melodic soundtrack that reflects the emptiness and desolation of your surroundings. In comparison, the combat music comes out crashing with a pulsating symphony of electronic beats and accompanying guitar riffs. It’s like a digitized version of your standard RPG battle theme, infusing the gameplay with energy, excitement, and a touch of nostalgia. Even little things like UI sound effects or the satisfying “SHIING” sound you get when you successfully link two attacks help accentuate the experience.
Despite major presentation issues in terms of both story and gameplay mechanics, SOULVARS is a solid game beneath the ambiguity. There are countless ways to fine-tune your build, and the combat can be remarkably challenging. This rings especially true for later portions of the game where it feels like you have to pull together everything you’ve learned just to survive. And this game really is a learning process beneath it all, one that feels pretty smooth once you stumble past the kinks. It certainly doesn’t hold your hand in the process, which is sure to aggravate some while enticing others.
Austin played SOULVARS on the Xbox Series S with a review key.
