Vambrace: Cold Soul Reviews

Vambrace: Cold Soul is ranked in the 19th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
2 / 5.0
Sep 9, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul falls down in almost every way that matters, and there are far better games out there more worthy of your time.

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4 / 10
Aug 28, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Souls is one of the best-looking games we've seen on Switch – it really is a stunner – but in terms of gameplay, it's a pedestrian affair. Dungeons are boring and difficult, combat is bereft of any real strategic depth or flair and it thinks nothing of wasting hours of your time for zero reward. The story gets off to a cracking start and it's obvious that an amazing amount of artistic talent has been channelled into creating the City of Icenaire and its surroundings, but, in the end, it's all rendered a little pointless by the fact it's attached to such a monotonous and dreary plod of an RPG.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
5 / 10
Oct 16, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul is not bad, but it quickly becomes a mindless, repetitive, grinding slog of the same battles that require very little strategy, not to mention the lack of any sort of enemy variety.

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Sep 6, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul is by no means a bad game. It's far too derivative and simple to reach the same league as Darkest Dungeon as a classic, but it's an enjoyable time waster, with superb production values and neat, clean, classical turn based combat action. The best way to play the game is probably on the Nintendo Switch, too, since it's the kind of background noise that works while you've got the sport or a movie on TV.

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Cubed3
Athanasios
Top Critic
5 / 10
Aug 28, 2019

This is, for the most part, a disappointment. By no means a terrible game, Vambrace: Cold Soul plays it a bit too safe with its concepts, as most of them are straight up copied from better tactical rogue-likes and RPGs, and especially Darkest Dungeon. Gorgeous character design can only get you so far...

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Renan Fontes
Top Critic
5 / 10
May 29, 2019

Although the developers' love for the craft and medium is on full display at all times, Vambrace: Cold Soul does suffer considerably from just how much it proudly lifts from other titles.

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GameMAG
Top Critic
5 / 10
Aug 10, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul is a project that uses the mechanics of Darkest Dungeon in the hope of marrying them with anime style and a good plot. Restrictions spoil the gameplay, turning it into a worship of grind and pure chance. Devespresso Games released a variety of patches, but it didn't really help...

Review in Russian | Read full review

50 / 100
May 27, 2019

Sky-high ambition meets sub-par execution in this roguelike fantasy-epic. Vambrace: Cold Soul delivers a large helping of worldbuilding but fails to provide engaging gameplay to accompany it.

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May 29, 2019

The roguelike nature of Darkest Dungeon combine with more substantial narrative and exploration, and a Korean manhwa aesthetic. Unfortunately, the mechanics of Vambrace need work. Your squad of mercenaries is largely disposable, there's too much randomization in terms of progress, and there are several issues with the user interface. Perhaps a sequel can bring the gameplay closer to the excellent aesthetics, but Vambrace: Cold Soul doesn't come together completely.

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5.5 / 10.0
Sep 1, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul lacks the kind of depth that more appealing RPG and perma-death titles offer. Regardless, Vambrace looks gorgeous and does offer that first step into the challenging world of perma-death games.

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Sep 21, 2019

If you fit in Vambrace: Cold Soul's niche audience, you'll definitely have a fun time but overall, it's a tough game to widely recommend.

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6 / 10
Nov 13, 2019

If the art style and graphic execution are superb, its soundtrack fits the environment perfectly and the plot is carefully crafted, the gameplay experience falls short of expectations and as an RPG, it feels like a rather banal effort. While certainly not a bad game, Vambrance: Cold Soul gives the impression that it could be much more but instead, it doesn't leave the territory of an average experience, without any gameplay elements that would make it stand out.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

6.5 / 10.0
Sep 12, 2019

I liked Vambrace: Cold Soul, but it's certainly not for everyone. It requires more patience than many gamers can afford, and that's even among those who are already into roguelikes. If you can settle into its groove, however (and won't lose it when you're sucker-punched right out of that groove), there's some good, challenging fun to be had here.

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6.5 / 10.0
May 31, 2019

Vambrace is a successful evolution of the mechanics that made Darkest Dungeon such a hit, but despite its beautiful art style and interesting setting, the repetitive gameplay and lack of meaningful achievements make the experience for more tiresome than challenging.

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67 / 100
Jun 4, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul is a great love letter to Darkest Dungeon.

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Aug 21, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul is certainly a not an easy game, but I feel like you are rewarded with a pretty good story for putting in the work. Exploring the dungeons and managing very limited resources is both challenging and fun. The multiple endings do encourage you to play through the game more than once, at around 10 hours a run. this makes it well worth the $24.99 price point. If you’re up to the challenge there is a lot to love here, but if you’re a more causal RPG gamer, you may want to pass on this one.

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Gamefa
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
May 27, 2019

Vambrace Cold Soul is very much like Darkest Dungeon, but a lot simpler and less complicated. The visuals and art design are totally gorgeous and the story is dark and cold, but The gameplay has not so much depth or uniqueness to offer. The main audience of Vambrace Cold Soul would be the ones who enjoy turn-based combats and dungeon crawling vibes.

Review in Persian | Read full review

May 27, 2019

Vambrace: Cold Soul will surely keep you entertained and engaged if you prefer roguelike games. Unfortunately, bland combat, interface and info issues, along with some save file problems can hamper your enjoyment.

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7 / 10.0
May 27, 2019

Vambrace is an interesting game with a nice story but with a bad interface and some difficulty spikes, specially in the first few hours.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

7.1 / 10.0
Aug 29, 2019

Certainly one of the most visually-attractive games I ran into at PAX East, Vambrace: Cold Soul made strong impressions with its looks, style, and obvious difficulty...

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