Enotria: The Last Song Review

Enotria: The Last Song has a big beautiful and brutal world. You, the maskless one, start with the basic weapon and pretty much nothing and have to work your way to the top of the food chain by defeating bosses, exploring the expansive world of the game, and collecting hidden loot. This review aims to give you a clear picture of what is Enotria: The Last Song and what can you expect by playing the game.

Switch Masks (Loadouts) on the Fly

Masks are the core feature of Enotria: The Last Song. You get these mainly by defeating story bosses and after that, you can configure their Mask Role, equipment, and a few Mask Lines in the loadout menu.

Once you have customized three loadouts, you can switch to each one on the fly as you explore the land in search of hidden treasures or while soaking your blade in bleeding out the bosses.

While most soulslike games do not give you the option to entirely switch a playstyle with one click of a button as you explore the land, this concept in Enotria: The Last Song feels fresh and welcoming. After all, you face a wide variety of enemies, each requiring a unique strategy to beat them.

For example, elite enemies hit hard, and wield a large-sized weapon that crushes you down with each blow. To fight these brutes effectively, you must have a weapon like a polearm that can help you maintain distance and attack from a range. Having a loadout that carries a polearm will instantly allow you to switch and beat the elite enemy effectively instead of having to beat it using a sword.

Most bosses become aggressive as you bleed them down to 50% health. They change the attack patterns and in most cases completely change the approach of how you could approach them. Luckily, with the three loadouts available to you to switch on the fly, tackling these bosses should not be a problem.

Status Effects are Mostly Positive

Status effects are one of the many core features in soulslike games where your character gets certain debuff once inflicted by a certain infliction. However, that is not the case in Enotria: The Last Song.

In this game, status effects act like a double-edged sword. These only impact you negatively if you are hit by enemies. If you are a master of parrying or dodging the enemy hits and continue to strike them back, you will notice the positive side of the status effects

For example, Dizzy is one of the many status effects you will be introduced to in the early game of Enotria: The Last Song. This status effect increases your damage when striking an enemy. However, you will also take double damage if the enemy hits you.

Another status effect is sipping the health bar. If you successfully strike an enemy without getting hit during the status effect time, you will feed on the enemy’s health. On the other hand, if the enemy or a boss such as Vermiglio, hits you as you are under this status effect, they will steal your life and replenish their health back per hit.

Parry is Optional But Feels Forced Sometimes

While games like Sekiro and Bloodborne are notorious for not giving you shields to soak some damage and leave you at the mercy of dodging or parrying incoming attacks, you will find the same forced nature in Enotria: The Last Song.

The combat in the game is not super fast like Sekiro nor fluid and smooth like Bloodborne. Your per-hit damage feels like a puppy hitting a wall – negligible damage at its best. And that is not the only worst part of the combat.

During combat each attack you land on an enemy or a boss builds the Unraveling meter, once it peaks, the target’s stance will break and will be open to take the finishing attack. This attack deals massive damage and is probably the only way you will need to rely on while defeating elite enemies and bosses to progress the game’s story.

Parry, which most Souls games give you as an optional mechanic feels forced in Enotria: The Last Song. If you do not parry, you will need to dodge and then attack – which takes forever while beating a boss.

While I am good at Souls games and learn the mechanics fast, not everybody is accustomed to this genre. This makes reacting to split-second attacks of bosses for parrying an impossible tasks. If you are someone who considers themselves bad at this, then you will hate Enotria: The Last Song for forcing you to parry your way to victory.

If not, then you will love this mechanic and will try to become a parry god and give bosses a beatdown.

Mask Lines Abilities Keep Combat Fresh & Unique

Mask Lines are the weapon arts that you can equip in the loadout, except these do not get tied to any weapon and can be used anytime after these are charged.

You get some of the powerful Mask Lines by defeating the Story and optional bosses. However, there are a few Mask Lines tucked away in the hidden treasure chests that are not easily obtained and usually require you to go the extra mile while searching for them.

Every time you strike an enemy or a boss, each Mask Line meter starts gaining. Once the meter is full, you can unleash that particular attack and unleash the full might of your character for a short duration on a target.

Some enemies do not take physical damage and to strike them effectively, you will need to deal Fatuo damage to them, which is mostly applied by hitting them with Mask Lines.

Each loadout can have one Mask Line at a time so running with three loadouts basically gives you the freedom of carrying 12 Mask Lines at a time. This freedom in combat adds unpredictability as you do not know how an enemy will react to your attacks but you can soon find out by experimenting with new Mask Lines on them.

The only downside of using Mask Lines is that you will need to wait for the animation to complete. These special attacks have a little longer animation than your standard light and heavy attacks.

Beautiful World Paired With Italian Music is Immersive

While combat is the core feature of Enotria: The Last Song, the beautiful world and the amazing Italian music keep the boss fights interesting. Boss fights such as one with Vermiglio have a dark and grim design but that is not the case with most battles you fight in the game.

I particularly can’t shake off the music I heard as I tried to beat Curtis, Prince of Laughter boss in the game. While defeating this boss is not an easy task, maintaining focus is not that easy too thanks to the amazing boss fight music you hear as you enter the boss arena.

As I tried to focus more on landing perfect parries during this boss fight, the music made me want to listen more, extend the boss fight, and not finish it quickly.

I have played my fair share of soulslike games and landing a good boss fight music is one of the criteria you need to do right. Luckily, Enotria: The Last Song ticks this box brilliantly.

Weapons, Weapons, And A Lot of Weapons

Soulslike games are good at giving you a lot of weapons to pick and project your play style for the rest of the run or change it up in the NG+. Luckily, Enotria: The Last Song gives you a lot of weapons to find the one that suits you.

You get weapons by defeating bosses and elite enemies. Sometimes, you can find special weapons by opening the treasure chests. During my first five hours of playtime, I had nearly 20 weapons in my inventory and I could not decide which one should I run with.

It was not until the Vermiglio boss fight that I realized that polearms are slightly better than swords and these might just fit the playstyle I need while playing Enotria: The Last Song.

You get regular swords, polearms, greatswords, and other blunt weapons in the game. While you may be good with the swords in other soulslike games, it is not necessary you find yourself comfortable this time around while playing Enotria: The Last Song. Therefore, I encourage you to experiment and find the one that suits you best.

Review Verdict For Enotria: The Last Song

While there are a few not-so-good things about Enotria: The Last Song, I can conclude my review that this is still a fun game that deserves attention. The world setting, combat, boss designs, and how the overall narrative folds feel fresh when it comes to playing another game that is based on a soulslike formula.

After playing the game for nearly 18 hours and about to reach the end of it, I am confident Enotria: The Last Song is easily a 7/10 game that you should not miss playing, especially if you like soulslike video games.

If you’re about to start Enotria the Last Song, I highly recommend checking out our beginner’s guide and best settings guide for it.