Enotria: The Last Song review: beautiful world, lackluster combat

Review information

Revised platform: PS5
Available at: PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
Release date: September 19, 2024

If I had a penny for every time a soulslike was inspired by Italian material, I’d make two cents. Which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice. This second time is Enotria: the last song, following the excellent 2023 P’s lies.

Enotria It’s more inspired by Italian folklore than a single piece of media, however, and forms the backdrop to a visually stunning world, with plenty to love in its setting and worldbuilding. For many, this alone is worth playing Enotria to – just to see how beautiful and creative your environments look.

It’s a game that’s otherwise unfortunately let down by a convoluted jumble of gameplay systems – from equipment ranges and skill categories to the use of Italian nomenclature for items and status effects. It can be quite difficult to understand, and that’s before you get to some weightless combat and lackluster boss encounters. However, I still think Enotria It’s worth playing for its impressive environmental design and occasionally clever level layouts.

Life of the party

Enotria: the last song

(Image credit: Jyamma Games)

In a world populated by puppet-like humanoids, you are the Maskless One, a being who can assume multiple forms (and therefore play styles) using a variety of masks you encounter throughout the game. Said masks change the Maskless One’s appearance and provide unique bonuses. One mask, for example, can increase heavy attack damage, while another can increase the number of refillable healing items you can carry.

Masks form the basis of your loadouts, of which you can configure up to three. Within a single loadout, you can equip up to two weapons, four active skills (known here as ‘Lines’), six passive skills that can be unlocked through a skill tree, a defense stone that grants unique effects when defending with success, also as an ‘Aspect’ that can increase or decrease the five statistics that govern the game.

Best part

Enotria: the last song — (Image credit: Jyamma Games)

Enotria’s art direction is simply sublime. The wonderfully detailed environments are brightly colored, often sunny, creating a rather pleasant atmosphere that is not common in the soulslike subgenre.

It’s all a lot to take into account, and Enotria doesn’t do a particularly good job of explaining everything – even in the first few segments of the tutorial. As a result, you may spend a lot of time wondering how each individual piece of your loadout will actually benefit you. This is made worse by the game’s complicated terminology.

Elemental damage effects, item names, and even the speed at which a weapon is swung are all written in Italian. I can’t complain too much about this, as it fits the setting and overall themes of the game, but it does impact readability. At the end of the game, I still needed to look at the tutorial notes to remember what effects like ‘Fatuo’ or ‘Gratia’ had on enemies. Maybe I should have started Duolingo…

Fortunately, the four main status effects – Dizzy, Wicked, Radiant, and Sick – are easier to understand. But beyond that, they are very different and more interesting than the usual poisons, paralysis and so on, as they all have a beneficial effect in addition to a negative effect.

Dizzy, for example, reduces your overall defense, but also increases your damage and stamina regeneration rate. Radiant is super cool, causing you to recover health points (HP), but being attacked will trigger an explosion that will do massive damage to you. I absolutely love it and it shows Enotria thinks outside the box in many of his gameplay aspects; I just wish everything was explained a little better in the game.

All the world is a stage

Enotria: the last song

(Image credit: Jyamma Games)

One thing that doesn’t need explanation is Enotria’s Stunning world design. Its sunny environments pop with bright colors, something I’m really not used to seeing in the best soulslike games, which usually have a suitably dark tone. Definitely play Enotria on an HDR-capable screen, if possible; the game is certainly suited to that.

I was also very impressed with Enotria’s level design in general. While it doesn’t reach FromSoftware’s levels of complexity, Enotria features many winding streets, alleys, nooks and crannies that encourage the player to get out and explore, while also keeping the critical path easy to follow. It strikes a great balance between linearity and optional exploration.

Unfortunately, the game falls far short in the combat department. While useful for a soul, weapon attacks often feel lacking in impact, making the entire affair feel rather lackadaisical. It’s not horrible by any means, but it’s not as engaging as some of its contemporaries, including P’s lies it is clear Elden Ring.

The game is also quite easy overall; Upgrade materials are plentiful, as is the experience (EXP) required to level up. In fact, I reached level 60 just a few hours after my first playthrough. It’s a relatively short game too, especially for those who like soul. You can easily finish the game in 20 hours, which allows Enotria to run a very good rhythm, and the game is not unwelcome.

Unfortunately, the boss fights are also quite disappointing, with many encounters after the Dark Souls 2 ‘big guy in armor’ formula. There are some standouts with truly impressive designs – like Zanni The First Mask with its monstrous, distorted form – but even they fall short in the difficulty department. Facing a big boss, only to eliminate it in less than a few minutes on my first try, was a common occurrence, which certainly felt anticlimactic.

Accessibility

There are not many accessibility options in Enotria: the last song. However, what is here is welcome. There are colorblind modes for deuteranopia, tritanopia, and protanopia and you can even adjust their intensity on a scale of zero to 10. There’s also subtitle support for 13 languages (as well as an Italian dub for dubbed audio, which is a nice touch).

Should I Play Enotria: The Last Song

Play if…

Don’t play if…

How I Reviewed Enotria: The Last Song

My move Enotria: the last song It lasted around 14 hours and I experienced most of the game’s boss fights and locations with plenty of exploration and item hunting mixed in. I also made an effort to experiment with several different loadouts through the Mask system.

I played Enotria on the PS5 with a DualSense Edge controller on an LG CX OLED TV, almost exclusively in its 60fps performance mode, which I found to work extremely well, with little to no frame drops. The 30fps graphics mode is similarly stable and offers an impressive increase in detail, although I found the game to be more fun and fluid in the higher frame rate option.

First revised in October 2024.