Actual Sandbox RPG's Like Kenshi are Rare, But Soulash 2 is Looking Ambitious

[@trashl0rd]

The circular character portrait is fine on the overworld, but they definitely need to have legit character sprites on the maps proper.

[@matty101yttam]

Yeah i'm with you on this. It's a symbol not a traditional character image, like the local area objects have actual images so it's weird to not give the player one.

[@codeyfox622]

absolutely. It seems like a good choice to save that for closer to a final release

[@JordianLoL]

100% the coin portraits are so much worse then the last game

[@thwomp1542]

The coin portraits are so unbelievably ugly

[@gr-fk8sd]

100% agreed I loved the first game I'm sure there just place holders since a lot of races and creatures are still missing I bet they'll add all of the old races as monsters to fight, Artur does great work and it a obvious great idea.

[@manshapedhole]

I adored the spritework in the first game. I hope these portrait-coins are just placeholders.

[@krelekari]

idk bout yall but having played dnd before i didnt notice nor care about the tokens being portraits havin some sprite art that gets customized with the character would be cool, but the game already give so much to get bogged down in the details of how your creativity is displayed especially when mods will exist just like soulash 1

[@manshapedhole]

That's fair, I'll play it regardless. I put a tonne of time in SA1. I haven't even dipped into mods for the original. Are there any that you would recommend?

[@Jrock420blam]

@@krelekari I have played DnD since my first deployment in 09 and still do and it is always more fun with all our cool painted figures than when we didn't have them and had to use place holders

[@lucascastro2802]

I honestly hate the token characters :( It has no personality

[@lucascastro2802]

@@krelekari I played dnd using erasers as characters, but i really dont like tokens. I dont care about having a complex animated character either, but tokens just feel unnatural

[@scotthansen3635]

I've been in the discord for the game since the first one. Artur is a super down to earth developer and he puts a lot of care and community feedback into his games. This is very early, just released into EA this last week. I have no doubt he will take everything the first game did well and improve on it in every way. He's expecting to be in EA for another year still.

[@JohnClarkW]

Ulfsire ( Path of Achra dev, who is also a great guy ) is a big fan, and views the first one as an essential of its generation of randomly generated open-world roguelikes. PoA has amazing pixel art and fun fast roguelike gameplay, but the story is just go kill all the things in the next area.

[@lilkhmer5]

Per dev on the Character coins: Artur Smiarowski [developer] Hehe, this is a common concern. At this time, and for a few months, it will remain until I can show you all my whole vision for what I would like to build with it. Then we'll run a devpoll so I can see what everyone thinks, and we'll decide whether to rollback to sprites, allow them through modding, or double down on what I want to build. So for now, let's call it an indie experiment that will last for some time. :)

[@CaioDrago]

Thanks for the info!

[@tobiastheblueman]

Yeah, you're right about the character coins. I'm hoping that since it's so early on in its development that it's more of a proof of concept & that they'll implement animations later on. Let's just hope for the devs' sake that they see these comments & use the constructive criticism wisely, if they truly want their game to succeed, that is. Other than that, seems radass af! Edit: sheeeeit, even doing the whole Battle Bros thing with their somewhat stiff character design accompanied by slight battle animations & sound would do this game wonders

[@Nitidus]

The thing is if they were actually placeholders I would expect the dev to tell Splat when sending him this demo so he can make a video on it. I can't believe they wouldn't mention it.

[@Herebrand]

It looks interesting, but I do agree on the character token. Part of the enjoyment for me is seeing the changes from equiping items and advancing abilities.

[@JosephCoco]

9:20 Levelling up hitting-a-guy-in-the-face-with-mace reminds me of _Betrayal at Krondor_. The highlight of their mechanic is you could level your abilities faster when they were unskilled, but drinking alcohol made you temporarily less skilled. So I would get sloppy drunk (in game) and fail at picking locks for hours. When I sobered up I was a master. Imagining someone doing that in real life is both precious and depressing.

[@Bill_Garthright]

Heh, heh. I don't remember that. But then, I probably just never figured it out.

[@notmyrealname977]

... precious? my man, i hope you dont talk like that irl. weenie cringe af

[@kingjamestres]

I LOVE the concept of this game the fact that it looks like this as a demo is a massive plus to me. Definitely gonna keep an eye on this games development.

[@ItsYouAreNotYour]

Don't get it twisted. This is the game and the game loop gets boring quickly.

[@fullelement4886]

I liked the first soulash a fair bit and i love the more sandboxy direction #2 is taking! Extreme sandboxes are always my favorite games. Kenshi, Mount and Blade and so on. Just throw me in a world and let me explore and appreciate the freedom

[@ohmygoditisspider7953]

it's so not the same thing but try checking out some of the fallen london games, like sunless seas/skies.

[@stephanieking8299]

At first I didn’t think I could get into this game because of the graphics but it’s actually not an issue after a few hours. Excited for more updates.

[@flanjoh]

im a simple man. i see “like Kenshi” in the title, i get extremely excited.

[@Bill_Garthright]

It's not nearly as much like Kenshi as I'd hoped. But I'm still waiting as patiently as I can for Kenshi 2. :)

[@flanjoh]

@@Bill_Garthright agreed, but it does look promising. i hope the coins get replaced with actual sprites. i'm right there with ya on Kenshi 2 though. :)

[@CoolKidCroc]

I love the look of this game, great commentary as well!

[@casualdanattempts]

I don't need ambitious graphics to enjoy a game but this looks a bit too bare bones.

[@dawggydawgtown]

It's only a demo at the moment

[@ludwigthewhite3535]

full release wont have different graphics. thats how soulash 1 looked too and it uses the same engine. thats a game for people who like deep video game mechanics and have enough imaginiation to fill in the gaps left by the graphics.@@dawggydawgtown

[@anubisfox5765]

Agreed

[@casualdanattempts]

@@dawggydawgtown yeah, hopefully they do more with it.

[@TinchoX]

Agreed

[@TreseBrothersGames]

Love the stories that emerge from sandboxes like these.

[@Snow_White413]

"Assplanet" ends up more fitting than you'd imagine.

[@Skylord_F]

Wasn't sure that I would see the day that I have a game wishlisted before watching one of splatts vids but here we are.

[@Abuqital2000]

This 100% had to be inspired by dwarf fortress

[@ryanthele9346]

dude got me gentle dropping comparisons like kenshi that's some high asf praise

[@dragonmaster1006]

Four minute in and i'm getting Dwarf Fortress vibes Edit; Scratch that this is clearly Dwarf Fortress adventure mode inspired, the Kenshi comparison is wild

[@kadnhart6661]

Splat, I have important information for you: Last week we adopted a young cat, and she's still getting used to us so she mostly stays in her hidey holes. But when his video started playing, she hopped right up onto the mantle and spent the entire video chasing the mouse cursor around the screen. She's a lil' black cat and a good girl and you brought her out of her nook, thank you so much!

[@Nobody-zq8bl]

You have no children and vote socialist, don't you?

[@jessl1934]

​@@Nobody-zq8blPeople support socialism and there's nothing that you can do about it

[@kadnhart6661]

​@@jessl1934That other person must've dirty deleted, so the lack of context connecting my black kitty to socialism is absolutely wild lmao

[@BryceGoodson]

This looks like dwarf fortress adventure mode. Like pretty much the entire thing.

[@jucalebre7540]

This is amazing, always bringing the good games to us, ty

[@xNanukax]

game genuinely looks interesting, but completely agree with the character coin. A big part of these games to me are the aesthetics of my character. I absolutely love some fashion in games.

[@Crablover132]

Real though, even if its just pixel sprites seeing my character in some way is bigg part of the experience for me

[@torn1147]

This feels like the "rimworld" version of dwarf fortress's adventure mode

[@Erucus]

Been following this game since it’s announcement I’m so excited especially since this is just a demo I’m sure the dev still has a lot to add

[@TomTrustworthy]

Yeah splat a few months ago I was letting the dev know I didn't enjoy the character coins either. He replied saying that he wanted the characters faces to be easier to see and remember. Because making relationships with characters in game was an important part. Also this would help him create larger characters in a more consistent way (just a bigger coin). But he said once people start modding, people would change how character are displayed one day. He also said our feedback would help him as the game keeps improving.

[@GameTimeWhy]

I hope modders can fix the game but that's a big ask.

[@parokki]

Gameplay feels kinda like Kenshi on some level, but I'm not convinced about the visuals. Nothing against retro graphics (heck, I used to do videos about Famicom games), but looking at my weird lanky freak show run around the world was a big part of the Kenshi Vibe and I dunno if the floating head icons will feel the same.

[@hamishfox]

In my day we had ASCII graphics and we liked it!

[@SourBogBubble]

Thanks for the efforts. i liked part 1 sprites over the big heads in 2 to be honest. But not the game elements

[@anubisfox5765]

This is the perfect premise build a game imo, i just wish it was made by a big team capable of 3d graphics and as indepth gameplay as they have background systems

[@cfilorvyls457]

Seems to be a recurring trend with this dev. The first soulash was also ambitious and have great potential but ultimately lacking in depth/polish

[@Nitidus]

The "demo" sounds like it's simply an actual, good ol' open beta. Awesome.

[@EZRA-BET]

I'm personally not even that upset over the character tokens. Reminds me of playing a TTRPG which is one of my favorite passtimes.

[@The_Totes_Adorbs]

This screams to me, "Why not just play Dwarfie Fawtwess.

[@KevanWalter]

This game is great. Don't fall for the activist bullshit. The Dev is not hateful or a bigot. He made a game about lineage and politely told people he wasn't interested in adding LGBT content. The activists didn't like that and have been in the middle of a harassment campaign against the dev.

[@thetrashcanman7537]

If he was I’d buy his game quicker tbh but I’m still gonna buy just cause he refused to add gay sht

[@jardelainen8278]

I like the character coins

[@bestboy897]

I really love the concept of this game it definitely has a lot of potential. Hope they tweak it a bit, and make things less arbitrary and random and add models instead of the portrait icon

[@Unknowava]

Assplanet xD. Bro i love you so much. I always wonder how you can keep talking, saying so much interesting things, shits and funny stuff at the same time. Great job. I dont know what the worl orf indies would do without you.

[@Tyr1001]

Really reminds me of stoneshard. Hoping that games development picks up from its current slump again, but this game looks great and stands apart in a number of ways

[@Dante3214]

I bought the first one some years back and I enjoyed it greatly. I saw huge potential in it and it seems the dev saw it too.

[@T-51_]

Love kenshi

[@Bill_Garthright]

So, when are we going to get Kenshi 2, I wonder? I can't wait!

[@TheVorran]

I hope this game retains the options for playing an evil murderhobo. Like I hope they keep stuff from the first game like vampire and ogre and stuff as race options on top of what's in the demo. The demo is very fun though, and I'm super stoked to play the full game.

[@TheOnlyGhxst]

this game is such a cool concept. It's like dwarf fortress but an RPG roguelike.

[@yahyathegameenjoyer]

Who's gonna tell him

[@Sooner535]

Hey splat this game has gotten a HUGE amount of updates, the dev has religiously updated weekly/biweekly since it’s early access release. Nights be a good time to revisit?

[@ZachsWonderland]

Pirates famously had a resistance to death

[@Dave-ef5mv]

I love your content Splat, thanks yo you I discovered so much games that It would be impossible! This games is looking very good and have some promise. But yeah, I would like a proper character that updates with your gear.

[@hozic9929]

oh this seems like caves of qud or dwarf fortress type game... NEATO

[@nobertstanel9428]

Beaten Kenshi with 4 mil cats, 30 char squad with master gear. I don't drink alcohol but if i ever started & suddenly stoped, my first withdrawal hallucination will be that this is somehow close to Kenshi.

[@aesrys]

Splat, I believe your cone of vision was impacted by infravision. I "think" it actually makes your cone smaller during the day but better at night. I did a human run and my day vision seemed to be larger than yours.

[@meromex]

this reminded me so much of old dwarf fortress adventure mode

[@lostnumber08]

Soulash was quite fun. I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

[@hasanmuzafferoglu]

bro more people need to see this hidden gem.Btw if u like this type games, i recommend you the "Horizon Gate".

[@5ecretcode]

you fuse this game with ULTIMA RATIO REGUM, with the visuals of KENSHI and the living breathing simulation of a world that doesn't care about you and you will have the ultimate sandbox game.

[@digdude9721]

Even tho this was said thousands of times already, The graphics are too rough for me, i found my limit on what i can deal with. Completely agree with the coin thing. I truly hope the devs read these comments and do something about it.

[@Criotos]

You had me at having Kenshi in the title.

[@yuriski1]

If I can learn necromancy and turn myself into an undead, I might try this game.

[@samv5476]

Necromancy is planned and will be added during early access.

[@pellizcacristales]

Have you heard of Dwarf Fortress?

[@TheNameIsJimJag]

Soulash 1 has only had been out for a year or so, and Soulash 2 has a large amount of flesh to it. Hope they don't get burned out.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

feels like dwarf fortress adventure mode, but with more emphasis on the adventure. i do hope combat is done in a better and more interesting way. maybe there could be a way to recruit npcs and have tactics involved, different attacks. idk.

[@brainstormsurge154]

I'm wondering about the roguelike mode. Can you do something like found a kingdom and your goal is to conquer the world? You can start with a specific family and every time you die you must pick a character that's in that family which includes people that you already know and might have helped. For example, you're a king that raises a family and each time you die you pick to play as one of your children which you would have helped raise. Now that would be interesting. Sort of a more sophisticated Rogue Legacy in a different genre.

[@MrJMB122]

The big focus is you can totally conquer the world you want to or build Crazy monuments

[@BlackGold-fc7tu]

Looks fun. Be nice if the characters were more than just a floating head though

[@kabirgomez7967]

I think I will wait for the adventure mode of Dwarf Fortress

[@godoftwinkies574]

I like it, needs a bit polishing but seems to be on the right track.

[@S4rr4ceno]

liked the video before watching just because of Kenshi on the title 🤪

[@richiebee33]

I'd love to see an update on this, Splatty!

[@lucienderthel338]

idk if you got to the basebuilding but it has one of your favorite features you can craft from storage when you basebuild

[@Locke_jaw]

OOOOF those coins.

[@Bill_Garthright]

You had me at Kenshi. :) I hope this game is even _half_ as good. PS. You get a knife and a water jug if you start with Adventuring skill. Very useful! Shields are pretty useful, too, because you can push enemies away from you.

[@kaptainkrunch593]

Beep is life

[@PRDarkDreamer]

Dwarf fortress adventure mode. This game it is.

[@pellizcacristales]

Please, do not compare Adventure Mode to this, that is a sin.

[@robertbloom4424]

This recipe of this game seems to be 2 cups of CDDA with a teaspoon of Morrowind and a tablespoon of Kenshi. With a pinch of Unreal World and a dash of Diablo.

[@iamnickdavis]

Like Kenshi... those are some big shoes. Lets watch and see :)

[@Jing9876]

reminds me a ton of Dwarf fortress adventurer mode.

[@tunnelsnake215]

I’m a simple man if it’s close to kenshi then I watch

[@chopper9778]

So its a little bit of Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead without any of the cool stuff mixed with Stoneshard?

[@armenhammer5015]

It'd be cool if the protagonist of the first game was the main antagonists of the sequel

[@roslolian11]

I don't mind the environment and graphics style but only seeing a coin in an RPG is a no for me dawg. When I play these games I wanna see it at least the weapon and armor changing, I don't mind static figures as long as they update.

[@ricks5756]

Unreal World isn't free - current;y costs $11 USD as of when I posted this.

[@PDF4711]

Seeing as most people really seem to not like the coin system. I wonder if keeping the heads from the coin and then just added a very disproportional small body underneath would actually alleviate this... 🤷‍♂

[@Warhammer_lover]

Just found your channel and I'm amazed. It's a treasure trove of dimonds, thanks you for revealing these games to us!

[@MrStoltverd]

Archmage rises is another very ambitious sandbox RPG rogue-like like game that may be worth your attention. It sadly has a very slow dev process. It has a LOOOONG roadmap and they already have DLC planned.

[@Ben-rr1pe]

Its like Dwarf Fortress adventure mode. Dwarf Fortress is such a great game!

[@ryfreedman]

Thanks. Looks fun!

[@goldfish1837]

Definatly very interesting. Character animation and items would need upgrades in immersiveness,but is sort of a type of game I always wanted to play

[@22Z222]

Reminds me alot of dwarf fortress, like if they took adventure mode and just ran with it

[@Peonchrist]

My biggest problem was changing directions changes the relationship to WASD. Figuring out how to move in a straight line took me a hyperbolic ten minutes.

[@Drakuba]

looks like something we wanted from first soulash. But once adventure mode for Dwarf fortress drops these games will get much harder time getting themselves relevant

[@Cotac_Rastic]

Lmao, when do you think that will be? After toady patches the bugs shtty ui that have been there since the dawn of time? I mean the games slogan among players literally is "losing tens of hours of progress to a rng event is !!!!FUNNNI!!!" I wouldnt expect many new players that havent been pushed off by the unnecessary UI and bloated features.

[@Voitan]

I'm liking it, but I'm wishing that new skills are easier to learn. I made a traditional adventurer, and have had an easy time surviving, but it's a big struggle to even begin to learn how to make my own faction because I can't build anything.

[@Bill_Garthright]

As I recall, you can buy skills from NPCs. They're not too expensive, given that you can pick up stuff in villages and sell it back to them. :)

[@BardMichaelKelly]

@@Bill_Garthright - Buying skills from NPCs only increases your maximum potential level in the skill, not the current level of the skill. So it's a huge grind to get that first level or two so that you can actually craft stuff, and there's no shortcut through it that I've found. Also, I think that means that if you're interested in Pyromancy, you *have* to take it as one of your chosen skills. Most skills allow you to grind up your first level, whether it be breaking down equipment that you find (Tailoring, Blacksmithing, Weaponcrafting), using a weapon in combat (all fighting abilities) or flinging yourself off of a hill repeatedly (Athletics). But the only way to increase Pyromancy is by using Pyromancy in combat.

[@Bill_Garthright]

@@BardMichaelKelly I see. Thanks. And yes, I always started with Pyromancy (along with Adventuring and Defense). Nothing else worked as well.

[@BardMichaelKelly]

@@Bill_Garthright - My favourite start is probably Pyromancy, Adventuring, and Weaponcrafting - starting with a hammer. pickaxe, and waterskin. All of the combat skills are fairly easy to level up as soon as you pick up an applicable weapon type or shield, but I find that what is *hard* in this game is getting ahold of tools. With weaponcrafting, as soon as you can afford to buy some metal ingots, you can craft right from the start: - A knife for butchering corpses for vital food and bones/leather - A 1-handed bone axe for cutting down trees to get wood for craft-leveling your Adventuring skill - Tailor tools, for when you've broken down enough stuff to get your 1st level of Tailor or Leatherworking - A sickle, which lets you harvest wheat and cotton The only real tool that you can't craft at the beginning (and which is RIDICULOUSLY hard to get your hands on in general) is the pickaxe, because it's gated behind Lv16 Weaponcrafting. Which means that most of the toolmakers you meet out in the world don't have the skill to craft it. But if you start with Adventuring, you can have that and a waterskin right at the start. BTW, the easiest way that I've found to get that first level of carpentry and armourcrafting is to wait until you've got a couple of hundred $$$, find an NPC craftsman, and commission them to make about 20 of the cheapest thing that they know how to make, using the cheapest materials. Waiting to encounter that many things for you to break down out in the wild to earn your first level so that you can start crafting things to gain EXP can take a really long time.

[@Bill_Garthright]

@@BardMichaelKelly Very interesting. Thanks!

[@frocco7125]

This is so neat!

[@normalname3623]

Looking good !

[@tacoman22a]

ngl like the old soulash just would get bored with just killing always wanted to be able to build my evil empire so glade they are making a number 2 with more options then just killing

[@dukelornek]

ya I can't quite get behind the aesthetics although it also give me a big old civ vibe because of the world map.

[@DevvuInTheDetails]

Dragging human corpses to train athletics is free real estate

[@Elrohof]

9:13 Kind of a misnomer for skill-leveled systems, considering Bethesda only utilizes that for their Elder Scrolls series, which they practically haven't touched since 2013. And with the trajectory of Bethesda from Fallout 4 and Starfield, they'll have removed skills and skill levels by Elder Scrolls 6.

[@dannefan_senshi]

Cool it's like a modern day dwarf fortress mod

[@divinelyshpongled]

Yeah they need something more like battle brothers in terms of the image of your character, and have it change depending on what happens

[@galvanizeddreamer2051]

But will I be able to imbue a bicycle with the soul of my long dead grandfather?

[@Afrotaku_]

Looks like Stoneshard but simplified. I like it.

[@donnyking5635]

100 year old society 101 year old man

[@philip7kelly]

this aint replacing kenshi anytime soon

[@shortcake_ruby]

Reminds me of dwarf fortress

[@manio22]

14:14 Not sure where is UnReal World Free but on steam is 10,99€ right now. Thanks for this game presentation by the way.

[@littlej211]

Games like this are so intriguing, but they always tend to start feeling lonely before long. I would love a real sandbox experience like this that was Co op, but the genera historically does not support co op very well