[Review] Morbid : The Seven Acolytes (Nintendo Switch)

Morbid : The Seven Acolytes
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Still Running
Published By : Merge Games
Category : Action, RPG, Isometric, Souls-like
Release Date : Dec 03, 2020

For the longest time, Souls-like games were things I avoided like the plague. I heard and had seen how tough they could be, and had never come across such a level of challenge in the games I’d played in my life up to that point. However, watching a friend play Bloodborne I found myself getting drawn in by everything about the game : the lore, the combat, I even felt myself wanting the challenge. Now, a few years later and I not only enjoy these difficult games but I go looking for them. Sometimes the hunt is a success, other times not so much.

Morbid places you in the world of Mornia. You are the last surviving Striver, and you’ve trained your whole life for this purpose. Across the world are massive beings, the Seven Acolytes, and you must destroy them and the Gahars that have bound themselves to each Acolyte. Until you defeat them, the Gahars will rule over the kingdom to no end.

Any players who have picked up a Souls game before will begin to feel very familiar with this title almost immediately. Your character will start off empty-handed, but in the area where you begin you’ll find the things you need. Namely your first weapon and a couple of items to get you going on your way. Scattered all around the ground you’ll see various notebooks laid out, pages flapping in the wind. These serve as your tutorial guides and will teach you the things you need such as how to attack, parry, sneak, and also inform you of what specific items will do.

The area is also littered with enemies, big and small, for you to face. Equipped with your weapon, you can perform basic and special attacks, which pretty much just translate to normal and heavy attacks. You have a stamina bar to worry about which depletes with your attacks though so you won’t be able to just hack and slash everything in your way. Every time you fell an enemy you’ll be granted some experience, which collect into a pool and earn you skill points.

Naturally, the big pull in a game like this is the bosses. You can find plenty throughout, counting the main bosses and some “mini” bosses you’ll find hidden around various places. However it’s not until you take down the game’s first actual main boss that one of the key features of Morbid becomes available to you.

In this game, you don’t progress like you would think. There’s no collection of souls or blood echoes to dump into levels, instead you’ll be equipping the skill points I mentioned above to different blessings you can find in the game. These blessings offer different buffs and builds for your character, things like extending your health bar, damage output increases, and stamina recovery speed.

If you’re a more passive fan of the Souls genre Morbid might not be the game for you to jump into. This game can hit hard and slow and be very unforgiving. While some things get explained to you from the tutorial notes, other things are left unanswered waiting for you to just stumble into the right scenario.

However if you like the hard hitting and deep diving of an incredible tough Souls-like game then Morbid is absolutely a title for you. The pixel art is beautiful, the lore is great. As a whole the game can be pretty great and offer a steep challenge, but it can feel a little short and lacking as well. So while it’s fully expected to enjoy this game, it might be just as expected to end up wanting more in the end too.