Immortal Souls: Dark Crusade
Monsters. Slimy ghouls. Lightsaber-wielding Knights Templar. And one vengeful trench coat-wearing vampire with guns, claws, and a trusty baseball bat. Mix them all together and you've got the dark, gothic backdrop of the online Flash version of Comic Book RPG's 2010 indie strategy-RPG title, Immortal Souls: Dark Crusade.
In Immortal Souls, you play John Turner, a reluctant vampire on an action-filled mission where he takes down hordes of impressively-animated enemies across eight story-filled chapters. The turn-based gameplay is similar to Bejeweled and Puzzle Quest, with a 4 x 3 grid of icons representing different colored attacks and defenses. Enemies have weaknesses to certain colored attacks, encouraging you to find specific patterns on the grid for maximum success. Clicking on chains of the same icons leads to longer, more powerful attacks, and is the key to winning battles against multiple enemies. Outside of the battles, there are also RPG elements that let you level up your character, add skills and attributes, and purchase equipment to strengthen your attacks.
While much remains the same from the downloadable version, Immortal Souls now features multiple enhancements. One of the biggest updates is the new character class system. There are three classes (Warrior, Scoundrel, and Manipulator) to choose from at the onset that grant your character various powers to manipulate the 4 x 3 icon grid. These manipulations (called "Tech Skills") prove essential during battles whenever the random layout of the grid deals you a bad hand. Some Tech Skills let you reshuffle the layout, while others add bonus chain icons or make normal attacks more powerful. In addition to these Tech Skills, there are also special power icons on the grid that let you combine different colors in chains, leading to some awesome combos. Players of the original will also note that now enemies can sometimes miss, healing and defense can be chained like attacks, and animations feel faster and smoother.
Analysis: This new version of Immortal Souls, with its updates and additions, feels much more refined and a lot more fun. Some elements, like the graphics and animations, still shine in their original hand-painted comic-book look, while the story is now less complicated and the action feels more fair. I especially like the class system, with its Tech Skills that can turn the tide in your favor when all seems lost. The new achievement system also makes fighting through the repetitive rounds of enemies feel more compelling.
At the same time, certain issues still remain. There's still no way to exit battles early, and the game's over-emphasis on earning gold trophies by beating enemies quickly doesn't have much of a payoff. It would have also been neat to see enemies perform attacks that affect your icon grid, as is done in games like Puzzle Quest. Regardless, with its new layers of features and streamlined, turn-based action, Immortal Souls has become a more accessible title for the casual gaming public... one you shouldn't be afraid to sink your teeth into.
Walkthrough Guide
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Immortal Souls - Strategy Guide
Classes
When you start the game, you get to choose between three different classes, each with various bonuses described below:
Warrior: Increases damage by 5%
Tech Skills:
Full Offense - Changes all heal and shield tiles to attack tiles
Berzerker - Increases damage to enemy armor dramatically
Armor Pierce - Sacrifices a tile and performs a melee attack that completely destroys the first enemy armor color encountered
Scoundrel: Trophy requirements reduced by 1 turn
Tech Skills:
Gamble - Refresh and Re-randomize attack grid
Power Gamble - Refresh and Re-randomize attack grid with one Power Up move
TurnCoat - Allows you to change 1 tile into any type of tile of your choosing, Power Up excluded
Manipulator: Gives chain attack meter bonus
Tech Skills:
Swap - Select a tile and switch it with another tile on the board
Tactical Insertion - Allows you to select a tile and convert it into a Power Up move (allowing you to create multi-chain attacks)
Conversion - Converts an attack tile and all of the same attack tiles connected into a tile type of your choosing (red to orange, etc)
Equipment Store
In the equipment store, you get to upgrade your Skills and Tech Skills, as well as buy items and equip your character.
Skills include:
Gun (Purple)
Martial (Orange)
Melee (Blue)
Vampire (Red)
HP (Green)
Items include:
Trench Coat
Boots
Baseball Bat
Guns
Amulets
Defeating enemies awards you with XP to get more skill points, and cash to buy items in the store.
Whenever you buy an item, it goes into your inventory. You need to click the item in your inventory and drag it on your body to equip it. Note that some items require you to be at a certain Level before you can equip it.
Mousing over an item will reveal what skills it boosts when equipped. Make sure you focus on items that enhance skills you're already strong at to overpower your enemies.
Special Items
There are four special items you start out with. Once they're used up, you can only buy them by redeeming gold trophies, which you earn by defeating enemies in as few turns as possible. They are:
Randomize Moves - Randomizes your attack moves.
Double XP - Doubles XP until end of battle.
Randomize Moves Plus - Randomize and gives you a power move.
Double Power - Gain x2 damage until battle ends.
There's also a special "Double Cash" item you can purchase for 15 gold trophies that lets all characters gain x2 cash from battles.
Battle Tips
Always pay attention to the color above your enemies (their shield). You should try to attack with the same color, since each color attack will totally remove one of the same colored dots or bars.
Some enemies have multiple colors in their shields. If possible, use Power Up icons to combine color chains to eliminate multiple shield colors.
Your first use of your class's tech skill is always free. If you are the scoundrel class, don't forget to re-roll the board at the onset if you get dealt a bad hand.
You will need to unlock the bottom two tech skills for your class in the Equipment Store. Once you do, the number below the skill indicates how many rounds need to pass before you can use that tech skill. Add points to your tech skills to lower this number.
Don't forget to chain more than one color together to keep your attacks going.
When low on health (or you need to shake up the board a bit), use shield and health icons. Otherwise, focus on attacking most of the time.
When there are multiple enemies, don't forget to click the one you want to attack. You'll see a red animated cross under the enemy currently selected.
Posted by: J-Witz
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August 12, 2011 8:27 PM