We’re definitely sailing into the era of the Souls-like sub-genre. It’s a style of gameplay that has captivated many fans around the world and since Dark Souls popularized the sub-genre, we have had a wide range of games to enjoy. Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona appears in the midst of so many releases with ideas that aren’t new, but with a story and an art style that could interest players and viewers alike.

Survive in a Destroyed Kingdom

Skelethrone isn’t one of the most original games in terms of its premise, and right from the start you can see where it was inspired to begin its story. Even if everything seems very similar though, there is a dedication to delivering a map full of things to do and collect.

Unconventional Visuals of Skelethrone: Chronicles of Eronica

Visually, the game is a bit odd, especially if you’re playing it on a TV. Here, the art style chosen is a bit strange and may bother some, but I have to say that there are areas of the game where the style fits very well. It’s also important to mention the parallax effect in the environments to give a sense of depth, which works in periods of exploration, but in combat it proved to be a bit inconvenient because in some scenarios it ends up becoming a mess.

I don’t know if the developer has suddenly tried to give the game a retro aesthetic, as the textures in the game look like they’ve been taken from computer games from the 2000s. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a good idea but it needs more time to polish and give a more consistent presentation.

Combat Needs Polishing

Polishing—or rather, the lack of it—is the game’s biggest flaw. Whether a game’s visuals are pleasing or not is very subjective, people like different things. That’s it. But Skelethrone could do with some extra time to give you a better experience, especially when it comes to combat.

In terms of gameplay, there aren’t many problems with character movement, but the game’s biggest enemy is its animations, balancing and hitboxes. The game has a good number of weapons available to use, they are interesting designs and each weapon can have up to two abilities. The skills are very powerful, but they have a very long recharge time, so you have to be careful when relying on them to deal high damage to enemies.

Not only that, but you also have to worry about whether the blows you deliver will hit the target, because the game has a big problem with hitboxes. Here you don’t have contact damage, perhaps a solution to the problem I mentioned, but this can also lead to several frustrating moments where your blow simply doesn’t hit the enemy.

It’s even more evident in smaller enemies, but the rule kind of applies to enemies too, so after a lot of blood and sweat and the player getting used to how damage is registered, this can become a weapon for exploiting bosses’ weaknesses. Air strikes are also very erratic and it seems that the damage is only registered with the animation frames, which seem very few on some weapons when making this move. Bosses are very interesting battles for the most part, here the game really shines due to the quantity and variety of bosses available, but in my experience they took a long time to get to the point of being fun.

Skelethrone Prioritizes the Knowledge Tree Over Defensive Growth

As I mentioned earlier, the game suffers from balancing problems, the enemies will always do a lot of damage and although the game uses the leveling and status distribution rule, distributing the points with each new character level doesn’t have much influence on your defense, but rather on the “Knowledge Tree”.

The Knowledge Tree is nothing more than a “sphere grid” which is well known in many RPGs. You distribute the points you acquire by finding green crystals and gain statuses to improve your character. If you find five of these crystals, you get another unit of your character’s healing item.

The problem with this choice is that the player will have a problem with the constant stress of having to dodge every blow from enemies and bosses because of the damage they cause, especially at the start of the journey. Even when equipping the most defensive pieces of armor, the fights are long and the stress of not taking damage is constant.

Here it can become a point of frustration for the player and even spectators, as some fights can be points of constant repetition due to the number of times the player will die. There is a point where if the player explores enough, things become more enjoyable, but towards the end of the game there is a difficulty spike that can cause fatigue again.

Be patient when exploring

Because it also has a touch of “metroidvania” in its DNA, Skelethrone also requires the player to explore the map a lot, but despite having varied scenery that improves as the game progresses (especially the ballroom in a certain area of the game), traversing the map is a bit tiring, as there aren’t many gimmicks to help the player get from one point to another on the map. There is a feature that is unlocked towards the end of the game, but it only slightly reduces the problem.

Speaking of content, one of the nice things about the game is that in some boss battles, decision options appear, and depending on the decision, this can lead to even more challenging battles or unlock a path to an alternative ending. This increases the game’s replay factor and gives those who have been captivated by it the incentive to explore further and try out different things.

Skelethrone also has a prologue called Skelethrone: The Prey, which recounts the events that took place before Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona for those interested in the game’s story.

Finally, the game ran well overall despite having performance problems, especially in the Steam Deck version (which also has some visual problems in the city). There is also a need to revise the translation into other languages, as the translation into Brazilian Portuguese has many inconsistencies and errors.

STREAMER SCORE

Overall

3.5

Performance
Streamability
Audience Engagement
Replayability

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User Review

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Summary

Despite the problems, if the player manages to overcome the difficulties at the start of the game, Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona can be a good Souls-like experience. I would like to see extensive polishing work done before any DLC is released, so that the game becomes a solid experience that is more certain to be recommended over the years.