Soulframe is Digital Extremes’ latest game, a free-to-play fantasy action RPG. Currently in its Preludes stage, a pre-alpha build of the game, the Soulframe Devstream brought news, a 30-minute demo of the latest Fable, “The Story of Bromius,” and the announcement that everyone who has ever signed up for pre-Alpha access would be granted entry into Prelude until 11:59 pm Eastern on July 19, 2025.
“Over a year now of players going hands-on with Soulframe in our Preludes pre-alpha builds, we’ve learned so many lessons and built a lot of new features for us as a studio,” said Geoff Crookes, Creative Director of Soulframe, in a release to the press.
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“After last TennoCon, we put a huge amount of effort into improving combat fluidity and continued that passionate work into exploring brand new features like player social hubs, asynchronous player messaging with World Trees, among so many other additions. Today, we shared the latest additions to our next Preludes build, as well as what’s to come. We promise to all existing and future players to keep trying new things outside our comfort zone and work with you to create something we’ve all been looking for,” he said.
The Floppet is your new favorite pet.
My first introduction to Soulframe, which was announced at 2022’s TennoCon, floored me. With a combat system that offers melee, ranged bow, and ranged casting, the demo took us through one major boss fight, which introduced a new enemy, the Wazzard of Wastes.
Highlighting the boss fights in the Story of Bromius, attendees and viewers of the livestream were taken through an emotional story, connecting the Envoy (the player character) to an ancestor, Bromius, a bear whose work is to tend to and plant seeds. As Bromius struggles to get a seed to grow, he’s corrupted by the Wazzard of Wastes.
To navigate the world, you’re accompanied by your Floppet, the adorable companion creature that is a blend of a rat and a bird. The floppet is probably the cutest part of the demo, with a flight animation that takes into account the bottom-heavy character model that you can’t help but smile at.
The Wazzard of Wastes is spreading rot throughout the elder trees, rooted within the heart of the Galvinar swamp. A magical mini-boss, players get a new look at what Magick-focused combat looks like. A standout feature is the fresh parry feature. It’s capable of reflecting projectiles at the tainted thaumaturge, creating a satisfying ping-pong effect.
Soulframe’s combat is in-depth and diverse.
In addition to showcasing Magick combat against the Wazzard of Wastes, the developers also shared a fresh look at the martial arts manual that players will use to customize their combat. Inspired by historical medieval martial arts manuals, this one offers a stylistic and customizable approach to skill progression and combat techniques, allowing for individual playstyle preferences and taking into account the constraints of a traditional leveling system.
Viable offensive and defensive build options can be mixed and matched from close-range melee focused on creating space with dodges to ranged damage that can close the gap with timed parries to more supportive roles, and other combinations.
This progression approach allows individuals to tailor their Envoy’s strengths to their preferred playstyle. It becomes additive to situational party composition when playing cooperatively with others across a variety of encounters.
The demo also highlighted the next Omen Beast boss fight: Bromius. In the fight, you travel to the Neath’uns underground, full of corrupted Sproutfolk and environmental puzzles hindering the rehabilitation of the mutated three-headed Bromius. The combat and the ability to immediately switch between the different combat styles make it easy to want to pick up the game.
Combat shines in Soulframe’s 30-minute demo.
But the actual hook is Soulframe’s dedication to emotional storytelling. In just a 30-minute condensed demo, the audience saw Bromius’ story—his hardship, his caring, and how you can intervene. The environmental storytelling in the demo captures the shifting atmosphere while the score propels you deeper into the fantasy world.
Before I saw the demo, I knew very little about the game, and as a result, I didn’t think I would have an emotional investment in it. And yet, by the demo’s end, I was emotional. I was invested in Bromius and sincerely wanted him to survive. I also wanted to help.
At the core of Soulframe’s narrative structure is that the player taps into their ancestors to gain new abilities. Told through Fables, the connection to the past and the world’s mythology prioritizes nature, wearing its clear Indigenous and Celtic inspirations on its sleeve. By tasking the player with reaching into the ancestral past, Digital Extremes is crafting an emotionally resonant story that resonates with the current times—a beautiful strength of the fantasy genre.
Soulframe’s attention to emotion is its biggest strength.
More importantly, the demo playthrough also showcased that the game is designed for player co-op, one of the first times the studio has shared a look at that kind of play in a Devstream. In addition to the gameplay, the Soulframe Devstream during TennoCon also debuted the first set of hairstyles available for players to customize their Envoy, which was showcased by the development team.
Currently, eight different hairstyle cosmetics are in production, with additional customizations for Envoys to personalize themselves still to come. The hairstyles featured in the Soulframe Devstream included straight, curly, and variously styled hair at different lengths.
Soulframe is offering a unique, beautiful, and artistically interesting look at fantasy that we don’t currently have in the games space. To put it simply, this is something I have been waiting for when it comes to fantasy in games, and more importantly, it is something that I can play with someone else. The co-op component is what makes the difference, allowing players to experience the emotional and lore aspects with someone else, which only adds to the game’s strength.
Soulframe is currently in pre-Alpha with no defined launch date as of now.
