Soulframe combat isn't perfect in the latest trailer, and that's okay

Soulframe recently unveiled its second big gameplay demo during TennoCon 2024. It was received positively by the inspired roars of a stacked RBC Place in London, Ontario. However, on the YouTube VOD, the gameplay footage is sitting on a 50-50 like-to-dislike ratio right now. There seems to be a near-unanimous verdict: the combat in Soulframe is awful.

This has sullied the public outlook on the in-development MMO action game from Digital Extremes. Many of its YouTube comments are an indictment of the state of its combat, but not all hope is lost.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective.

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Soulframe's combat looks like a janky mess, but I'm very hopeful about the game

The combat in Soulframe has a number of questionable design choices in the latest trailer. It is nowhere near polished enough to form the basis of a melee-focused action game. The tracking melee swings are off-putting, the weapon hitboxes are as bad as the Pursuer in Dark Souls 2, and the animations seem too floaty for a game rooted in weighted, slow combat.

Artful charm comes first, sparring comes after

If the Soulframe TennoCon 2024 gameplay footage seems style-over-substance, it's because it is. The development time it has filed so far was spent in cultivating a fantasy world with its unique identity, distinct from Warframe, a test it has passed with flying colors.

Combat is just as important in a game like this. After all, it's a live-service game that demands to be played for hundreds of hours. However, it's too soon to write off Soulframe as irredeemable. The baffling mediocrity of combat in the latest gameplay trailer is a result of resource allocation priority rather than negligence.

This is not the first time Soulframe has showcased its combat. The Preludes gameplay trailer from last year also had its first attempts at melee on full display. You can still see some of the gaffes: a dodge that glides, and a mockup of high-commital melee combat that feels a little off.

The reason why it looks particularly bad this time around is partially cosmetic. A series of screen-shakes, overexposed magic effects, glares, and odd camera angles make it look far worse than it plays.

When you take these annoying visual flairs away, some pressing concerns still remain. The small development team has apparently added recent features they haven't polished quite yet. However, I'm still hopeful for this fantasy MMO, as it was just about what I expected.

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A game in the pre-beta stage does not reflect a game in its entirety

The combat was substandard, but the boss design was rad (Image via Digital Extremes)

Of the many streamers who reacted adversely to the TennoCon 2024 Soulframe gameplay, Asmongold is the most popular, and arguably the most influential. He went so far as to call it "another Dead-on-Arrival MMO" if the combat stays this bad. However, this assertion is more sensationalist than critical.

We would be remiss to simply compare it to a AAA title which came out of the oven half-baked. It's not out of the oven yet—only just heating up. Soulframe is a passion project from some of the creative minds behind Warframe, and it's been in development for less than two years by a skeleton crew.

There are many traces of Warframe's DNA on how Soulframe looks right. The engine itself is a major upgrade, and the platform allows for technical feats that are not possible in Warframe. However, the developers have not figured out how to execute all of these technical feats yet.

Those who have seen the difference between Final Fantasy 14 1.0 and a Realm Reborn will know that miraculous recoveries are possible in making compelling combat. That was a game already strung out in the sun that was taken back to the factory to repair, and Soulframe is potentially years away from release-ready.

As Art Director Geoff Scott said in a dev vlog, Soulframe's combat is "animation-driven." Going by the Duviri Paradox update in Warframe, the developers of Soulframe have historically struggled with melee combat. Unlike Warframe, melee combat will be the lifeblood of Soulframe, so it is a foregone conclusion that a knowledgeable company such as DE will figure it out, slowly but surely.

Why show the half-ready combat then? As someone who followed Warframe since its beta days, I know the answer: it's the Digital Extremes way of doing things. Their methodology of game development takes place in a transparent lab where the community is very much involved. It worked with Warframe, which continues to stand the test of time, and with enough time, Soulframe combat can be great too.