Ever wondered what a game like Shadow of the Colossus would be like in 2D? Perhaps Titan Souls will answer that question. Acid Nerve and Devolver Digital’s PS4 and Vita game offers a variation on the task of killing over 20 titans. Let me warn you, though, don’t think it means the experience will be any easier.
For example, the titan I was facing in Titan Souls on the Vita was something of a bubble boss. The monster was in the center of some kind of gel, bouncing quickly around the dungeon. Running up to hack and slash it, a la Link, wasn’t an option.
That’s because the hero of Titan Souls is an archer. To attack, a player aims and charges up an arrow. The longer you charge, the farther it flies. Except this first boss had a habit of jumping around faster than my character could shoot.
Fortunately, that wasn’t much of a problem. See, the archer only has one arrow. It’s enchanted and, after it has been fired, the player has to hold a button to call it back. This works quite well within the game, especially for this boss, as it meant I could dash and dodge my way around the titan. I’d recall it, and it would attack the enemy on the way back.
Attacking this particular titan only made things more difficult. Every time the boss was hit, its sphere was split. After it was hit once, there were two gels hopping around its room. One had the boss in it, the other was empty. Every time it was hit, it would split into additional, sentient pieces. It actually felt like this fight took cues from a bullet hell game at once point, with the sheer number of extraneous bubbles bouncing around the field.
It was only a sample of how difficult Titan Souls could end up being. After all, I couldn’t pick and choose bosses. I had to face the Titan who was available, and only after winning could move on. Considering it took me three tries to best him and develop a good rhythm, I could see the game taking a substantial period of time to complete, even though there aren’t too many titans to defeat.
