Pick a difficulty with your eyes open
🚶 Wayfarer
The gentlest of the four. Built for people who came for the choreography and the world rather than for the wall.
🧗 Pathbreaker
The middle setting, and the one to pick if you want the fights to push back without taking the evening.
🔥 Hellwalker
The hard mode. Assume every defensive option matters and that sha-chi management is the whole game.
💀 66 Days
A permadeath variant, named after the heart Soul is borrowing. Not a first-playthrough choice unless losing the run is the point for you.
Worth deciding
Which platform
PS5 and PC only. If you play mainly on Xbox, there is no announced version — and no date to wait for, which is a different thing from a delay.
Whether to fight the parry
Blocking spends the same resource as your heavy attacks. If you come from games where blocking is free, that is the habit to unlearn first, and it is cheaper to unlearn it deliberately than mid-boss.
Whether to commit to a weapon
Upgrades can be reset to recover what you spent, so investing in the first blade you like is not a mistake you have to live with. Pick the one that feels good and stop optimising.
What it costs
| Edition | Price | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $59.99 | The game, plus the pre-order Legacy Outfit and Treasure Basin accessory |
| Digital Deluxe | $69.99 | The above, plus the Wulin Legend and Blood-Steel Form outfits, a digital art book and the soundtrack |
Set your expectations to the right genre
S-GAME has said plainly that this is not a soulslike, and the previews back them up: the combat is closer to Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden than to Dark Souls, with Souls-style level design and Resident Evil's pacing bolted to it. That matters before launch because it changes what you should practise. Reading enemy tells and choosing between block, parry and dodge is the skill; learning to walk backwards through a level with a shield up is not.
The endgame is where other people show up
🧍 The story is yours alone
Single-player, start to finish. No co-op campaign has been announced and none is implied.
👥 After it, not so much
S-GAME has described multiplayer dungeons, boss rushes and roguelike abysses as endgame content to be tackled with others. If you are buying it to play with a friend, that is the part to wait for.