Lost Epic by developer and publisher One or Eight INC.—PC preview written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Starting off in Early Access, One or Eight Inc.'s 2D side scrolling Metroidvania and Soulsborne Lost Epic is off to a good start. With the previous Elder God gone and the New Gods who have taken their place, those with no power are left without protection and are being hunted down for sport. Until now that is. Taking up a sword in a realm of possibilities, you are a knight and your goal? Your job? Your obligation? Is to take those New Gods and their Holy Ones down.
Up until now, I've generally had a line of what I would consider a Soulsborne and what I would consider a Metroidvania. Metroidvanias have always been the combination of exploration with soft limits to eventually be overcome once you've found the items to do so. Soulsbornes? Same concept but usually in a more 3D situation all the while imposing penalties for falling in combat. Almost channeling it's inner Demon's Souls and finding itself more to the Soulsborne side of the equation like Salt and Sanctuary, Lost Epic is a challenge for more than one reason.
Part of that reason is that like any good Metroidvania or Soulsborne, there are going to be challenges that need to be overcome whether they be intellectual or combative in nature. A bit more on the combat side, for now anyways, Lost Epic doesn't hold its punches once it's taught you how to survive within its ring. Enemies small and large, on the ground or taking flight (very early and I hate those birds…) you're going to have to be careful as on this trip? There are no replenishing healing items like Estus Flasks or Dragon Hearts. Healing items? Those need to be crafted.
So it's with just that small tweak in the approach that can either leave you high and dry or damned near grinding enemies for currency and scouring the landscape for materials in order to craft new healing items. It wouldn’t have been so bad if this was just done with either items or with the currency known as Anima, but unfortunately, it requires both and if you’ve died? You’ll only have access to the physical items that have been picked up.
At this point in time, like a good Soulsborne, once you’ve died you’ll have the chance to go back to your point of death in order to grab what you had on hand which in this case is your Anima that is used to both level up yourself as well as craft new items and upgrade your gear. With a form of storage container for your items in which some are not required for anything but crafting, I am happy that the only thing that you lost is Anima as otherwise the adventure may have been a tad too brutal in the opening acts.
Now, something was bothering me until about last weekend when I finally saw the banner for One or Eight’s “Earth Wars” in which I realized, I’ve played, I’ve reviewed, and I enjoyed. Known a few years ago through another publisher as Earth’s Dawn, that really helped settle that nagging feeling that something felt familiar while also explaining why in Early Access the combat was already as solid as it is. The reason? They already knew what they were doing from past experience!
So with this settled and being able to enjoy and simply immerse myself into the world, there’s a lot to go over. Starting off with character customization as to really just settle what your anime-like character will look and sound like, the rest will be in your hands for how much or how little you want to do. I know this sounds a bit weird in the context of a Metroidvania and a Soulslike, but there are some elements that are required, fighting, leveling up and beating up bosses, but then there are other elements that are purely cosmetic and who doesn’t want to rock that classic “mustache” look?
To get to any of these points though, there’s a bit of mastery of the combat that’s going to need to be addressed first. Seemingly relatively simple in the beginning with regular and heavy strikes, jumping and dodging, you’ll soon find that your stamina is generally not enough to take on all of the enemies on screen without moving back for a few seconds in order to recover a little bit. In some cases this is just not possible as there’s just no space with everything going on which is why there’s also a counter system in place allowing you to strike at larger enemies with a skill at just the right time in order to not only give you an opening, but two seconds to breath. Unless you’re surrounded of course in which you’ll want to try to take THAT moment to recover if you can.
This is really where I had some issues with Lost Epic. There are some moments in time that are just so combat heavy in small and limited spaces that Gitting Gud will only bring you so far as larger enemies keep launching unblockable attacks one after another leaving you no chance to recover your already exhausted stamina bar. This wouldn't be so bad if you didn't take damage when having next to no stamina but unfortunately if your bar is empty and you try to dodge? Say goodbye to a chunk of hit points.
Otherwise what's currently present is a rather solid experience with plenty to already tackle and explore. While there are no character classes to select, you can customize your stats and adapt your playstyle to the weapons that you find allowing you for some versatility on how to approach different situations.
Summary
With a bit of a lull in the Soulsborne category, as we await several of the bigger releases coming such as Elden Ring, Lies of P, the latest expansion of Blue Sun to Hellpoint and more, Lost Epic which is currently in Early Access can easily scratch that itch as it moves through its own development process.
Score: N/A
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