Eldest Souls

Eldest Souls on PC is a top-down action RPG and focused boss-rush Soulslike from Fallen Flag Studio, published by United Label and CI Games. Steam still lists it under the original name, with no verified rebrand or replacement edition. Its appeal is direct: enter the Citadel, study each Old God, refine a combat build, and win through execution rather than grinding.

This is not a conventional Soulslike built around long routes filled with disposable enemies. The Citadel connects its major encounters with labyrinthine passages, NPCs, questlines, and lore, but the central experience remains a sequence of demanding boss battles. That narrower structure is the key fact for PC players deciding whether the game fits their tastes.

Boss-rush combat with a top-down view

The combat uses a readable top-down perspective that keeps arenas, attack patterns, and hazards visible while bosses fill the screen with projectiles and area attacks. You fight with a greatsword, move quickly, and rely on precise dodging, positioning, attack timing, and pattern recognition.

Every Old God is designed as a distinct combat problem. One encounter may test your ability to control space, while another pressures you with layered attacks, changing phases, or dangerous arena placement. Success comes from learning the fight rather than overpowering it through conventional equipment levels.

The game’s rhythm is built around repeated attempts. A failed run gives you information about telegraphs, safe zones, attack windows, and phase changes. The most important progression is therefore both mechanical and personal: your character gains options, while you learn how to use them.

Players expecting a large enemy-filled world should adjust their expectations. Boss encounters receive far more attention than ordinary combat, and the surrounding Citadel mainly exists to connect fights, hide story details, and provide a small amount of exploration.

Build crafting through Talents, Shards, and Infusions

Eldest Souls gives its combat more flexibility through Talents and abilities that let you shape how the warrior handles pressure. Defeated gods provide powers that can be combined into different approaches instead of forcing every player into one fixed moveset.

Shards are central to this system. Boss rewards can alter attacks, defensive behavior, movement, or special abilities, and their effects change depending on how they are assigned. This encourages experimentation between encounters rather than treating each reward as a simple linear upgrade.

Infusions add another layer to build planning. They modify the behavior of core actions and can create tradeoffs between damage, survivability, mobility, and resource management. The strongest setups are not automatically the most comfortable ones, so players must match their build to both the boss and their own habits.

The combat toolkit includes normal sword attacks, charged attacks, dashes, and stronger abilities tied to the selected build. The game rewards players who understand when to commit, when to disengage, and how to turn a narrow opening into a burst of damage.

That build focus gives Eldest Souls more replay value than its compact structure might suggest. A boss that feels overwhelming with one setup may become manageable when you change the way you generate damage, recover from mistakes, or approach movement.

The Citadel, Old Gods, and dark fantasy presentation

The story takes place after humanity rebelled against the Old Gods and imprisoned them inside the Citadel. Their revenge causes a great Desolation, leaving a lone warrior to confront the beings responsible and uncover what happened to the kingdom around them.

Narrative delivery is deliberately indirect. NPC conversations, environmental details, questlines, and scattered lore gradually expand the setting instead of presenting a continuous cinematic explanation. The structure will appeal to players who enjoy piecing together dark fantasy mythology from fragments.

The visual identity is built around 16-bit pixel art with elaborate lighting, large boss silhouettes, and strong color contrasts. The compact view helps communicate hazards, while the pixel presentation gives each Old God a clear visual identity without depending on photorealistic detail.

Although the game uses Soulslike language, its format is closer to an action-focused boss challenge than to a traditional role-playing adventure. There is no expectation that you will spend most of your time clearing standard enemies, farming equipment, or crossing a huge open map.

What is included on PC?

The current Steam package includes the main single-player game and the free Depths of the Forgotten expansion. This additional content opens a new region, adds three bosses, introduces special weapons, expands weapon customization, and provides a new powerful ability.

The expansion is especially relevant for returning players because it adds more than a short side challenge. Its new weapons can introduce meaningful advantages and disadvantages, while the additional Shard and encounters extend the build-crafting and boss-mastery loop.

There is no verified season-pass structure or paid gameplay expansion that needs to be separated from the main PC experience. The commercial model is a paid base game with the major “Depths of the Forgotten” content included as a free expansion.

Progression is best understood as a compact mastery loop: defeat an Old God, claim new combat options, adjust your build, explore the next section of the Citadel, and return to difficult fights with better knowledge.

Who should play Eldest Souls?

Eldest Souls is a strong fit for players who want fast, difficult boss fights, readable attack patterns, pixel-art dark fantasy, and meaningful build experimentation. It suits short focused sessions because the next objective is usually clear even when the solution is not.

It is also a good choice for players who enjoy turning a difficult encounter into a study exercise. The game expects patience, but its challenge is expressed through combat decisions rather than a large penalty for repeatedly traveling through enemy-packed areas.

Players who want a conventional Soulslike campaign may find the structure too narrow. The game has limited emphasis on regular enemies, equipment hunting, character creation, open-world exploration, and multiplayer systems.

For a broader 2D adventure with interconnected exploration, traversal upgrades, and more traditional Metroidvania progression, dark exploration platformers such as Hollow Knight offer a different balance between world discovery and boss combat.

PC platform features and localization

The PC edition is distributed through Steam and lists single-player support, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing. Steam Remote Play, online co-op, split-screen play, and competitive multiplayer are not listed as features for the game.

The storefront does not identify a separate launcher, dedicated mod-support framework, or anti-cheat system. The practical PC ecosystem is therefore centered on the Steam client, cloud saves, achievements, and the game’s solo combat loop.

Steam lists interface and subtitle support for English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian. Full audio is not listed for these languages, so the localization is text-based rather than a multilingual voice package.

Controller support should be checked against the current Steam input configuration and the player’s preferred layout before purchase. The storefront confirms the single-player PC release and its platform features, but does not present a separate console-style controller badge in the verified feature data reviewed here.

Players looking for another demanding 2D combat game with dark fantasy imagery can compare its atmosphere with gothic Metroidvanias such as Blasphemous 2, although that game places much more emphasis on exploration, regular enemies, weapons, and map progression.

Similar games on PC

The closest comparison is not a single genre label but a combination of traits. Eldest Souls shares the pattern-learning pressure of boss-focused action games, the build experimentation of action RPGs, and the bleak presentation associated with Soulslikes.

Deflection-focused 2D action games like Nine Sols are a useful comparison for players who value demanding encounters and precise reactions, but Nine Sols is a side-scrolling Metroidvania with a much larger exploration component.

Hollow Knight and Blasphemous 2 are better fits for players who want to explore a broad interconnected world. Eldest Souls is the more concentrated option when the main goal is reaching another boss, testing a different build, and improving through repeated attempts.

Eldest Souls FAQ

Is Eldest Souls currently sold under another name on PC?

No verified PC rebrand was found. The current Steam listing uses the name Eldest Souls, matching the title used by Fallen Flag Studio and United Label.

What type of game is Eldest Souls?

It is a top-down action RPG with Soulslike combat, dark fantasy presentation, pixel art, build customization, and a boss-rush structure. The game includes limited exploration and NPC questlines, but its main focus is defeating challenging Old Gods.

Is Depths of the Forgotten included?

Yes. The Steam listing describes Depths of the Forgotten as a free expansion included with Eldest Souls. It adds a new region, three bosses, special weapons, weapon customization, and a new ability.

Does Eldest Souls have co-op or multiplayer?

No. The verified Steam feature list identifies Eldest Souls as a single-player game and does not list online co-op, local co-op, split-screen, or competitive multiplayer.

How does progression work?

Progression comes from defeating Old Gods, earning powers, unlocking Talents and abilities, and combining Shards and Infusions into a preferred combat build. The long-term challenge is mastery of boss patterns rather than conventional loot grinding.

What languages are supported on PC?

Steam lists English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian for interface and subtitle text. Full audio is not listed for those languages.