Face the frost fall and seek answers in Vambrace: Cold Soul, the latest title from Devespresso and Headup Games for the Nintendo Switch.
Vambrace: Cold Soul is both a beautiful and brutal RPG with roguelike elements that will punish and test players looking for a challenge. The city of Icenaire has been put under the blight of “The Frost Fall” a spell that has formed an ice wall around the city, driven the citizens underground and caused the dead to rise as wraiths. You take command of Lyric, the first outsider to enter Icenaire, that has come into possession of a mystical Vambrace that allows her to traverse the frost walls. As she seeks answers about her father, players will forge alliances and attempt to uncover the mystery of her father’s disappearance. On your adventure you will create a team of up to four to travel to the surface in search of answers. Each character has different sets of skills to help you fight and survive the horrors that await you including ghosts, wraiths, golems and bandits. Players must attempt to traverse “dungeons” that are set up as surrounding neighbourhoods and city districts, moving to the end of the level will move player’s teams deeper into the fray bringing greater risk and reward. At the end of each dungeon there is a boss battle that really tests players mettle in combat.
Combat in Vambrace: Cold Soul has fairly by-the-numbers turn based combat where each character has a certain “reach,” meaning you want the tankiest member of your squad up front pulling damage and ranged characters at the back. Tactical thinking is rewarded as both sides can be buffed or debuffed depending on the skills and class of your teammates. Enemies start off feeling fairly easy but get progressively harder as you move through each dungeon, a Geistometer measures the terror in your team and once filled signals the arrival of stronger wraiths, so don’t stick around for too long in one place. As you explore each area you will find constant resources and loot but also booby traps and other hidden dangers. Characters will fall if either their health or vigor falls to zero, this leads to some real tough situations where party members can fall shortly before or after big battles which feels rather frustrating.
Where the game really shines is in the art which looks terrific, Vambrace: Cold Soul has impressive amounts of detail in both character and world art. The majority of the game is done as side-scrolling adventure sections with pop up interactions for looting and other various actions but there are also illustrated random encounters players will stumble onto as they progress. The story is interesting and there is a fair amount of mystery and intrigue as both the player and Lyric learn about the city of Icenaire. Side quests can be completed in multiple ways allowing Lyric to make new allies and enemies depending on whom players choose to help. There is quite a lot going on under the surface in Vambrace: Cold Soul meaning that the game is as unforgiving as the city it is set in.
Overall Vambrace: Cold Soul is an interesting game that unfortunately has some uneven difficulty spikes that may leave players feeling a little cheated. There is plenty to enjoy here and dedicated players that are able to dig deep and take in all the mechanics will be rewarded with lush visuals and an interesting story.
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Mat Panek
Retromancer – Collector, repairer & fan of retro games & tech. Atari to Amiga, Nintendo to Sega! LD, Zip, Beta and a proud dad! One half of the TiredParents on Twitch.
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Disclosure: Vambrace: Cold Soul [Nintendo Switch eShop code] was kindly provided by Headup Games for this review.
