You’ll draw 5 random Soulbits at the start of the battle. Each item has an amount of Soulbits (cards) which act as your actions. Combat is turn-based, however, depending on what weapon or armour you equip, your abilities change. This supports a seamlessly in-depth combat system that is the major shareholder of SoulVars. The UI is all-encompassing, creating a whole border filled with stats, attacks, time of day etc. SoulVars’ transition onto consoles and PC doesn’t ever manage to shed that mobile game skin. If you haven’t taken a dip in either Apple Arcade or games that aren’t pay-to-win, you’re missing out on some delightfully bite-size games. I think it’s important to note again that this was originally a mobile game. I quickly started to disregard what was going on and set my focus on the diverse game mechanics instead. You mostly face quippy one-liners that have a stench of attitude but fail to explore the characters in any meaningful way. Some will be allies, whilst others have defected and become corrupt and that’s about the gist of a story. They’re more of an official group that does Yakumo’s job too and the source of the tech behind beating the Dominators. Most characters you come across are fellow Soulbearers who are part of DDO (Dominator Disposal Organization). You meet Yakumo then a second later you enter a tutorial for the gameplay (which I’ll talk about later) and it doesn’t slow down.

When I mentioned briskly being thrown into the role, I really mean it.

However, this is the extent of explicit lore or big picture you’ll get playing through the game. There are a whole lot of lore factoids you’ll find in the glossary, such as Souldivers being the device to extract souls to harness, or gates opening as the result of Dominators, having varying power levels.

Soulbearers are humans who can bear another soul as they’re resistant to Dominator influence, meaning they can transform into their AltSoul and defeat them. These Dominators came after human souls were able to be converted into data, causing them to manifest from humans and devour other souls. Monsters named Dominators are plaguing Japan and it’s up to you to stop them. You’re briskly thrown into the role of Yakumo, a Soulbearer for hire. So did I have a royal flush on the horizon, or did I end up playing 52-card pickup? Let’s get into it. Blending the influence and the setting just sealed the deal for it to be something I could potentially get stuck into. I’ve recently discovered a love for deck-building games after reviewing Wildfrost, making SoulVars instantly intriguing.

SOULVARS for mac download