Enotria The Last Song Review: A "Summer Souls" With Overcast Skies

Enotria: The Last Song had ambitious goals when it was first teased as "Project Galileo" and officially announced in September 2022. The game's overarching premise promised a "Summer Souls" experience, set in a beautiful, Italian-themed world and incorporating the wildly popular Souls-like formula—punishing combat, tough bosses, "bonfires," an enigmatic world, and using a stunning Italian flair to tie it all together.

But does it live up to its ambition? The answer seems no sadly, though some caveats make this a more nuanced judgment. 

The Stage is Set in This Canovaccio 

Diving into Enotria: The Last Song for the first time, you'll familiarize yourself with your character, the Maskless One, and set out to free this sun-soaked Italian world from the Canovaccio—a twisted eternal play that keeps everything in an unnatural stasis. Guided by the mysterious Pulcinella, your mission is to defeat the Authors responsible for the Canovaccio and restore balance to the world.

As you might expect, the Authors serve as the game's bosses, and along your journey, you'll uncover lore about the world as you build up to these challenging encounters. Once all the Authors are defeated, you’ll face Arlecchino, the Master of the Canovaccio, with two possible endings: allow him to absorb your "soul" to fix the world, or break the Canovaccio entirely by defeating both him and his pupil, Pulcinella.

The core themes of the story—freedom, control, and defiance—are compelling, though the world-building occasionally falls short of its full potential. While there are plenty of lore tidbits scattered throughout, the game sometimes struggles to communicate the richness of its setting, leaving you craving a deeper understanding of the world and its inhabitants.

What truly shines are the well-crafted character moments. Pulcinella, especially, captivates with his playful yet mysterious demeanor, bringing a sense of intrigue to the plot. The gradual reveal of his true identity as Arlecchino's pupil is a standout, demonstrating the game's talent for subtle, compelling storytelling. So despite some weaknesses in Enotria’s overall narrative, these highlights keep the experience engaging for the most part.

A Puppeted Combat and Enemy System

When it comes to any Souls-like game, the big question is: how does it play? Enotria: The Last Song offers a smooth, satisfying combat experience that will appeal to fans of the genre. Players have access to various weapons, which can be imbued with one of four elements, each hard-countering another, adding a layer of strategy to every encounter.

The Sekiro-inspired parry mechanic is a central feature, letting you negate incoming attacks with well-timed precision and build up the enemy's "unraveling" meter, which, when filled, staggers them for a devastating critical strike. In addition to weapons and parries, the game features unique masks that grant buffs (with trade-offs for balance), as well as Mask Lines—special abilities that can be charged up for powerful effects.

There's also the Path of Innovators, a skill tree system that lets you customize your build by unlocking nodes and equipping them to suit your playstyle, and the Ardore mechanic, which is used to fight enemies and traverse the world. The freedom to mix and match weapons, masks, and abilities provides a lot of depth, giving players plenty of room to experiment with different load-outs.

You also have the standard level system, collecting Memoria to use for leveling up your Virtues (stats) and weapons. However, despite these strong systems, the combat can sometimes feel a bit restrictive. The game heavily encourages parrying, so it feels like the optimal way to play. Many enemies are designed around multi-hit combos or ranged attacks, making it difficult to avoid damage without relying on the parry mechanic.

While parrying can feel rewarding, it also narrows the player's options, making combat feel somewhat one-dimensional if you prefer a more dodge-centric or aggressive playstyle. That said, the boss fights, while also leaning heavily on parrying, are well-designed and provide unique challenges.

A standout moment for me was the battle against Pantalone and Balanzone, a dynamic duo that reminded me of Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls. Their contrasting styles—one slow and methodical, the other fast and relentless—created a thrilling and strategic fight that ranks as one of the game's high points. 

Enotria performs a delicate dance with its combat. While there are janky moments where it feels like you're being overwhelmed with little option but to parry, the game also delivers flashes of brilliance. These come through in its unique boss fights and select enemy encounters (I'll dive into one standout example later).

The Clouds in the Sun-Soaked World of Enotria

While Enotria: The Last Song excels in many areas, some issues heavily dampen the overall experience. These range from minor annoyances to more obvious and noticeable flaws. They don't ruin the game, they just stand as areas for improvement.

Performance can be hit-or-miss in certain areas, with some noticeable stuttering or lag that detracts from the otherwise beautiful aesthetics. Other small technical issues also persist, for instance, the menus, while functional, can feel clunky at times, with navigation quirks that might frustrate players, such as the inability to quickly scroll between top and bottom inventory lists.

On a larger issue scale, enemy hitboxes can sometimes feel a bit unfair, with attacks landing from unexpected angles. Some enemies also have large aggro ranges and can overwhelm you with projectiles while you're already dealing with melee opponents, making certain encounters feel chaotic and imbalanced, ending in a quick trip to your nearest Reality Knot.

Repetition is another issue. You'll encounter reskinned enemies and mini-bosses across different areas, which detracts from the sense of progression and immersion. However, I have to admit that the game offers moments where repetition works in its favor, such as the recurring mini-boss, Moretta.

Facing her twice before the third and final showdown with her feels not only narratively justified but also meaningful, as she grows stronger with each encounter. Her well-telegraphed moves and fair stagger windows make her a delight to fight, standing out against the more repetitive, copy-paste encounters found elsewhere in the game.

Once again, Enotria showcases strong gameplay mechanics and promising aspects, but the accumulation of smaller issues leaves the experience feeling like "death by a thousand cuts." As a player, I can’t help but feel that Enotria missed the mark. However, with a more objective lens, I can’t deny its potential to be a truly fantastic game if it weren’t for these small setbacks.

A Bright Future With a Few Clouds

Enotria: The Last Song is an action-packed, visually stunning game with a lot of potential. Its combat, while somewhat limited by an over-reliance on parrying, is fluid and rewarding, and its world, despite occasional shortcomings in environmental storytelling, offers a unique and captivating experience.

The game's main characters and bosses shine, and while there are certainly areas for improvement, Enotria still manages to deliver a solid and enjoyable Souls-like adventure.

With some polish, particularly around combat balance, performance, and enemy variety, I believe Enotria: The Last Song could truly become a standout in the genre. Even in its current form, it’s worth experiencing for fans of Souls-like games, especially those who are drawn to its Italian-inspired setting and rich combat system.