Review: False Hero is a Soulslike That Recaptures the Magic of Early FromSoftware
My first playthroughs of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls were special experiences. I never quite knew what was waiting for me behind any given corner. The worlds in both of these games were enigmatic, compelling in a way I hadn't quite experienced in the medium before or since. I didn’t want to keep playing through those brutal challenges just to be a badass hero fighting for whatever the game’s version of “right” was. Instead, I fought through as blindly as my protagonist, trying to discover the nature of the world while entirely misunderstanding—or understanding too late—what “right” and “wrong” even meant.
It wasn’t a scripted narrative trick like the twists in Planescape:Torment or Knights of the Old Republic. It was a slow realization born from discovering the truth of the world through my own hard-won battles. Dark Souls condensed discovery and knowledge into a video game, literally translating philosophy into world design and gameplay. False Hero, more than any other Souls game that came after it, has achieved that exact same feeling for me.
False Hero is an action role-playing game. Stepping into this lineage, False Hero casts you as a mysterious figure who discovers a legendary mask—an artifact that allows you to steal enemies’ combat abilities. A spreading eldritch evil known as Death is corrupting the world–spreading literal death across the Kingdom of Wisdom. It’s the perfect bed of narrative ambiguity with the choice of the player to retain the status quo, or allow Death to have its way.
Developed over the last 6 years by solo developer ‘Florian’ of Torchlight Games, he is behind the art, music, and game code–without the help of AI. An impressive feat for any game developer, but even more so considering the behemoth of an IP that Torchlight Games pitted themselves against: the Souls series. There have been many imitators that have come before, and those who pick and choose mechanics to create a more soulslike feeling. False Hero is not just a souls inspired game, it is a soulslike–though, like any good homage, developer Torchlight Games takes the formula and plays with it just enough to make it compelling, and unique.
Some of the hallmarks of a soulslike are the risk reward nature. Rest at bonfires, enemies respawn, healing items replenish, etc. It’s all the same here, even down to dodging with i-frames. Bosses sit behind fog walls. And the entire world has a mysterious, dreamlike feeling that no soulslike has quite captured since Demon’s Souls–some of which was even missing in Bluepoint Games’ brilliant remaster.
There are some notable differences: if you die, there’s no bloodstain waiting so you can retrieve your body. Instead, you just lose your accumulated upgrade points. These points also aren’t used to upgrade your character so you can manipulate their stats. You, instead, can choose to upgrade abilities and spells you collect from killing monsters. Abilities also replace traditional weapons. You start with a sword attack, and any other attack you gain is from defeating creatures and stealing their weapon arts.
While a lot of games slap a player into a soulslike environment and call it “good enough” developer Torchlight Games has a great sense of what makes a soulslike game good. Enemy placement is difficult, but never feels overly unfair. Bosses are not only difficult, but they are often hinted at through audio, visual or environmental clues–something a lot of soulslike games don’t accomplish as aptly as is done here.
Outwardly, False Hero’s biggest departure from the soulslike genre is its art style. Made with a “sort of” fifth generation low fidelity style, it looks like a game I could have played on my PlayStation growing up. This works heavily in the game’s favor. I argue that low res horror games are great because it forces the brain to fill in the blanks where fidelity comes short. I’m not saying that False Hero is a horror game, but it accomplishes a lot of the same effect here, also enhancing the game’s mysterious, dreamlike quality. Enemy design and environments are top notch. Just as the narrative forces you to piece together the truth of the world, the retro aesthetics force your imagination to fill in the visual gaps, deepening the overall sense of ambiguity
False Hero isn’t perfect, as much as I wish it was. It suffers from controls that feel a tiny bit floatier and stiff compared to a true souls title–but only barely. I can tell a lot of work went into making the character’s hits and movement feel just right, and while it’s a game that is great to play, it never feels quite as mechanically satisfying as a Miyazaki directed game.
There is also no multiplayer, so if you’re having trouble with a certain boss, all you can do is “git gud.” There are a lot of surprising options, however, like a gauntlet mode and a mode that allows you to fight bosses that you’ve already defeated.
I’m going to be keeping an eye on anything Torchlight Games does in the future, because False Hero is a brilliant game. It’s easily in my top games of the year list, and made me feel that sense of wonder that Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls did all those years ago.
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