“Don’t worry, everyone dies the first few times.”
I’m told this as I’m pulverized, again, killed by a giant cube of ice.
“I’m sure you’re going to get through. It just takes a few times.”
Tucked away in a compound of metal trailers outside the confines of E3, “behind the Hooters”, was Devolver Digital. The publisher, smartly focusing on helping independent developers get their products noticed and onto digital storefronts, had corralled (quite literally) an incredibly diverse collection of games. Titan Souls was one of these, revealed for the PS4 during the Playstation press event that Monday.
The game, a top-down Zelda-esque action game birthed by a Ludum Dare competition, is simple in premise: the lead child-like hero has one arrow and one hit point, and must take down a series of giant boss monsters that have one hit point each. The 16-bit art direction adds to the seemingly retro simple design; it’s easily approachable and appears almost familiar.
Except that, like actual 16-bit games created 25 years ago, it’s devilishly difficult, almost frustratingly and controller-throwingly (?) so.
But that’s also its most important positive.
It only takes one hit to kill one of the colossus-sized bosses, but they move erratically, hide their weaknesses, and are extremely aggressive. Absolute perfect timing and skill is the only way to defeat one. That, or complete mind-fucking “how the hell did that happen” luck.
In my battle with the cube beast, it wasn’t until I accidentally launched my arrow (which returns back to me if I hold down a button, causing the same damage on its flight back) that I also accidentally hit the roll button, sending me out of the beast’s way as it crashed into a flame in the center, melting and exposing its heart. Now was my chance! The arrow was on its way back through the heart and BOOM!
I died. Again.
I had slid the wrong way, crashing into a wall and causing my arrow to miss. The beast resuscitated and crushed me.
“Yeah, you’re dying a lot.”
I knew I was.
The developers look just as perplexed at my performance as I am, though I’m actually having fun dying over and over and over again. I’m learning, I’m slowly getting better, and my luck is becoming more regular. If this is the essence of what makes games like Dark Souls and Zombi U so popular, I can see it. I can dig it.
I died several more times before I gave up on this boss, moving through the temple hub to others. The final tally during my half hour was 2 “wins” out of the 8 or so bosses available, with each taking similar amounts of trials. Nearly 25 or so deaths total, easily. But man, were those wins satisfactory. Fist-pumping levels. I wanted to go back and face the bosses again once I finally learned how to defeat them.
Clawmark’s Titan Souls looks like it’ll be a great, nerve-racking experience that will surely cause a strange, happy kind of frustration when it eventually launches.
“No one has died this many times so far. Do you want us to turn down the difficult for you?”
Nope. I’m strangely happy getting demolished.
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