Siralim Review
Hello everyone! My name is Nolan aka Totaltoad and today I’ll be bringing you my review for Siralim, a randomly generated dungeon crawler with creature capturing RPG elements from Thylacine Studios. For me this game hits an all time high on the nostalgia meter! With graphics/sound/and gameplay that would be right at home on a Game Boy Color, but instead jumping at me through my PS4, all I could was smile… for the first hour.
Siralim starts off in true homage to old school RPGs with character name selection:
From there you are given the choice of which Magi class to play as: Chaos, Death, Life, Nature, or Sorcery. Depending on which class you choose, you will receive perks towards spells of the chosen type and a type specific starting creature. Promises of being “well-rounded” led me to choose a Nature Magi and received a Springtime Aspect as my first summoned creature.
After a quick tutorial on the odds and ends of Siralim, I was left to explore and battle through the realms.
Gameplay:
In Siralim you teleport to randomly generated realms by using a giant crystal. Once teleported, the player explores a partially revealed map where every step forward reveals more of what lies in the dark (fog of war). With summoned creatures in-tow, for each step you take the randomly spawned monsters on the map also move one step. If a monster runs into you or one of your creatures, a battle takes place. The battles play out like most other old school RPGs.
The speed stats of your creatures and the monsters you face determine the turn order, which is displayed in a box to the right of the enemies. Through a system of Attack/Defend/Provoke, the player commands his summons. I was a little disappointed that I could not choose specific attacks for each of my creatures. It seems the variety lies in each creatures unique abilities and not multiple attacks, along with what artifact they have equipped. Artifacts are an awesome addition to Siralim. Each artifact levels up as you defeat foes while it is equipped, and gain additional slots to apply gems to (gems add buffs to various stats).
Similar to many other games like Pokemon, a creatures strength and weakness to other monsters depends on type: Chaos, Death, Life, Nature, or Sorcery. Even with these weakness and strengths I found myself mashing X or “Attack” over and over again for the first three hours of battles. It wasn’t till I reached over level 25 did I need to pay more attention. It is important to mention that after every battle you creatures are revived and have full health. I was happy to not have to use Potions or Revives after matches.
The player can also use Mana to cast spells previously equipped to a spell-book. This is a unique way to involve the player him/herself in the battle, but isn’t well executed. First of all, most scrolls spells use up the turn of current creature you are controlling. Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing spells you can come across and use, but by forcing me to set aside a creature turn to use the spell it makes me reluctant to use. On top of that spell scrolls can only be used a certain amount of times. Scrolls uses can be increased to a max of 10 using an item called “Quill of Wizards”, but after 5 hours of playing I only came across 1. The most annoying part about spell scrolls is that once you equip a scroll to your spell book, you can not unequip the scroll without destroying it or using it up. You can only hold a certain amount of active scrolls, unless you invest ability points into your spell-book and those points are better off elsewhere.
Design:
When the player first enters a new realm through the teleportation crystal, a new quest will be given. Quests can have many different tasks such as: slaying certain monsters, collecting specific loot, or rescuing villagers from monsters. In order to be able to teleport to the next realm, the player will have to complete the given quest and locate another teleportation crystal in the realm. Once the teleportation crystal is touched, the player will be teleported to a random realm 1 level higher than the previous with a new quest. Spread throughout these realms are countless treasure chests and things to loot. It is important to constantly search for materials. Materials are used in many important aspects of the game: upgrading gear, summoning creatures, starting construction rituals, etc.
During battles players are given the option to “Extract” cores from wounded monsters. After a player obtains 3 cores of the same monster, the player can return to his castle and summon the creature with the allotted materials. This is just the beginning mechanic on how to fill your team with new stronger creatures. After fighting the same monsters over and over again while leveling up, I realized new construction rituals were available for me and the castle.
Siralim is unique in it gives the player many choices in upgrading your teleportation crystal and castle through “Construction Rituals”.
Once a construction ritual is selected and started by using a map in your castle, the player will need to harvest enough essence from killing monster in other realms. Once enough essence is harvested the player must return to the castle and complete the ritual. Construction rituals are essential, and must be completed to explore other features of Siralim. Through construction rituals new monsters appear in realms and additions to your castle such as a blacksmith and gem hall are accessed and upgraded. This gives the player way more game experience customization options, and possibly adds replay value. All in all this was a feature I enjoy fullheartedly. Adding new rooms to my castle continued the on going mystery of Siralim.
Presentation:
When it comes to new games that try to look like older games, I am a bit of a harsh critic. Siralim shines in its game mechanics not its visuals. My first graphic let down came when I summoned my first creature and there were no animations. In fact there are few animations through the whole game. There is no monster encounter animation, and no basic attack animations while in battle. Certain abilities and scrolls display a quick 2–3 frame animation, but most attack damage is represented by the target giving a quick flash. As you move around the game, the player and each creature only has a 2-frame walking animation. The map layouts and designs are not bad, but the in battle backgrounds are ugly at best (the one with all the skulls is my favorite).
Creature designs are a hit or miss for me as well. While I come across some creatures that are well designed like this Anguish Banshee….
there is still so many that look poorly made like this Gimp Mummy.
As I traversed the realms, I noticed each one had its own song. From the Nature realm’s beautiful whimsical harp to the spooky shoulder-turning Death realm’s 8-bit nightmare, I enjoyed them all. Most battles used the same 1 minute 15 seconds looped song, but every now and then a special battle would surprise me with a new tune. I only wished the victory song that played after successfully winning a battle was more than a 12 second loop.
Conclusion:
I can feel Siralim striving to find its own identity in the old school RPG realm. Siralim puts you into a world where your father died, and as new king you must grow to fill his shoes. In the time I played there didn’t seem to be much more to the story line, but new mechanics like Construction Rituals that allow me to expand my castle led me to believe more was out there. Even though game play was a grind, the game allows you to design realms to challenge yourself. With mystery mechanics like Nether Eggs and gem creation, and cool in game items like Arena Invitations, Exalted Emblems, Tickets, and Pandemonium tokens still awaiting my discovery, Siralim is a game I’ll continue to play.
Thank you for reading. Nolan — Totaltoad
Siralim gets a 5/10 (Flawed)
Thank you to Zack Hage and Thylacine Studios for supplying me with the code and giving me this chance to share my opinion with everyone. Check out my random video game videos on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd8mNw3LXaEC1AA5nxiThoQ
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