Titan Souls: how to find the snowy region and kill Stratus, Yeti and Onyxia Take on the might of Titan Souls’ laser-spewing, column-probing stone terror, its bare-bottomed yeti boss and its. He's not lying, the boss doesn't have music or anything. He's called truth and he doesn't do anything but talk, go down as far as you can when you're heading for the Titan Slayer's castle and there's another staircase. Down there is a masklike Titan and a hidden path to a cave. Through that he is there.
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I'm on the final boss of Titan Souls, and I'm ready to throw my controller across the room.
I've died what I estimate to be about 30 times in this particular fight in developer Acid Nerve's overhead, pixel-art action game, which is really just a small fraction of the total number of times I've died over the course of the game, but I just don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I know what I need to do, where I should theoretically be aiming my single arrow. But that doesn't seem to matter, and here comes death number 31—
Except no. Not this time. This time, there's a bright flash of white on the screen, and my opponent is the one who fell. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what happened. And, again, in the interest of honesty, this fight neatly ties a bow on top of my Titan Souls experience, places it in a proverbial, one-word nutshell: anticlimax. Despite moments of real boss-fight brilliance, Titan Souls feels like waiting for a slot machine to pop just a little bit too often, and when it does, the reward is a chance to do it all again.
To be totally honest, it doesn't seem like the titans were hurting anybody
Titan Souls doesn't do any heavy lifting to explain its premise. You start alone in a world with just one arrow and a quickly apparent goal: to kill everything you meet. This is less sociopathic than it initially sounds, because the world of Titan Souls is mostly empty, a set of ruins that should feel very familiar in its top-down perspective to anyone with a history in eight- and 16-bit adventure games, especially the Zelda series.
As you explore the starting temple you'll find rooms with giant sleeping creatures — which, to be totally honest, don't seem like they were hurting anybody — and wake them up (by shooting them with your arrow) and then kill them (also by shooting them with your arrow).
Comparisons to games like Shadow of the Colossus and its giant bosses are unavoidable, which Titan Souls seems to be satisfied with, given the lack of any real info or context. Even the titans you come across are an opaque sort of mystery — some kind of text appears at the bottom of each encounter, but it's complete gibberish in all but two encounters I came across.
Titan Souls' limited vocabulary stretches to its basic mechanics as well. You have one arrow, which you fire by holding a button long enough to nock it; the longer you hold the button, the farther your arrow will fly. You can retrieve the arrow by walking over it, or you can hold the fire button to pull it back to you with force — which can kill as effectively as a direct attack. You can also roll, and holding the roll button down lets you run just a little faster than usual.
And ... that's about it, honestly. There's a world to explore, but it's mostly empty, absent a few rudimentary puzzle bits here and there — and, admittedly, a few neat secrets that reveal optional additional titans. But there's no progression, no growth outside your own skills. It's just you and your arrow. Instead, Titan Souls lives and dies in the fights with titans themselves, and, in turn, the emotional work you may need to perform to die over and over and over again while confronting them.
Each boss has an achingly video game-y weakpoint that will almost always be immediately apparent, whether it's the orange-ish brain in the center of a gelatinous mass or the pink butt of an abominable snowman. For most bosses, defeating them is a simple matter of hitting that weak spot, which is easier said than done. It takes time to aim an arrow, and while you're drawing down, you're stuck in place. Add to that the tendency of every titan to move rather actively in a way that will kill you instantly — in addition to whatever other attacks they're throwing out, which are also usually fatal — and it can be a real pain to put the pieces together.
You'll notice here I'm not using the word 'challenging,' because I'm not really sure that challenge is the right word. For many bosses, I knew what I needed to do to beat them almost immediately. I'm not just talking about what spot to hit, either. Rather, I knew what their behavior patterns and attacks would be, and I knew what kind of position I needed to be in to kill them. The trick was getting in that position.
As it turns out, I almost always accomplished this by figuring out a specific part of the room to stand in when I woke the titan that would put me in a nearly immediate position to hit its weak point within seconds of the fight starting.
After a few bosses, this didn't feel like a challenge, it felt like a war with a random number generator, waiting for exactly the perfect attempt to make my shot, and it was far faster to die to the boss and start it over than try to avoid a few minutes of attacks to have another perfect shot.
It wasn't always this way, of course. On some titans, I never died at all, firing blind, miracle shots within seconds of the encounter's beginning. This bled out any real sense of achievement. Dying over and over again waiting for the right chance felt like a war of attrition; nailing a perfect, lucky shot felt like, well, luck.
Where's the fun in that?
But there are some encounters in Titan Souls that present a sense of exploration and discovery that the rest of the game fails to deliver.
In one such fight, an enemy shoots off blobs of poison that turn to gas when they hit the walls of the combat area. While the blobs will kill you instantly, the gas poisons you more slowly, distorting the screen and making combat slightly more difficult — until you're poisoned a second time, which seemed to make my character faster and easier to control. A third dose killed me, because of course it did.
This was one of my favorite moments in the game, in part because I had to spend more time looking for an opening, which created an extended sense of tension. There are a few fights like this, which require not just pattern recognition but give and take. Solving these little mysteries provided me with a real sense of success. This feels especially ironic given how it violates the very strong core demands Titan Souls makes elsewhere regarding machine-like precision and trial and error.
Wrap Up:Titan Souls finds its best moments when its willing to spare the rod
There's a kind of satisfaction to be had in beating Titan Souls' meat grinder, but I only found a feeling of triumph at those points where it stepped away from its die-hard tendencies. In a game that usually kills so quickly, Acid Nerve finds its best moments when its willing to spare the rod, even if it's just for a few minutes.
Titan Souls was reviewed using a pre-release Steam copy provided by Devolver Digital. You can find additional information about Polygon's ethics policy here.
About Polygon's Reviews
6.5 Win
The controls(keyboard users)Whilst it is advised to use a game pad, mine was broken at the time of playing this game so i used a keyboard. The only time it gave me problems was a tricky shot to melt ice! Not too tough tho!Movent, the only thing keeping you alive!This is controlled by the directional buttonsHold 'X' to runRolling, the fun way to move. Basic TipsThroughout my titan soul journey, through making this guide and the first play through i picked up a few things that i feel i need to share!1. The save points, use them!If you die you will be sent back to the last one, so if your last boss was the titan soul and you wanted to go fight say.
Mol-Quyin and you die. And like a dummy you didnt take an elevator or stand on a save point.
You will be sent back to the last one.2. Elevators are save points!This is just nice to know!3. Rolling is fast.If you are doing a speed run or just hate going slow, rolling everywhere is a blessing and rolling downstairs is AWESOME! Go fast like sanic my friends!4.
Death will happenRemember this and dont give up!5. Titans will never go easy on you, so kill them!Just watch out!6. Keyboards limit your play but are still doable.If you have the choice, i would advise a gamepad xD7. Weak points are easy, but do take some observation!Dont die, skillfully dodge the attacks and learn their patterns, from there you will learn the ways to kill them my friends!
A little reminder and disclaimerThere will be spoilers, strats and info.Depending on where you decide to walk the bosses order will vary.The names names are their real ones, no lie (its the truth).Also, it is worth noting, that once you kill the final boss you can go back and redo the bosses to get the achievements so don't frett about being the badasses you are if you kill it too fast;DFirst areaSludge heart: heart of the guardian- A retake of the classic ooze monster.- Divides into 4. So if done well you can have only 5 on screen.- For the achievement you will need to seperate them all (maximum splits).- As for all bosses, one touch will kill you.- The goo it drops will slow you.- The achievement is to splint the ooze into the maximum number of segments, i recomend kiting all the oozes into an area to avoid chaos and do some pro dodges.Weak point: Final ooze state heartSPOILER- There is no spoiler. This takes patience and skill. No trick other than. The fire area!
Located to the bottom left through a secret enterance in the hub zone.Full of magma and other awesome stuff!!My guess, is that the titan body / structure in the area that isnt accesable is that of the 'head' boss known as Gol Quylin.Gol-Quyin: disgraced guardian of the second gate- This boss is a beast, with a seemingly infinte reach, spin attack and control over fire plumes.- The strat i used unintentionally got me the achievement but as it was the only way i could kill him i'll share it without the spoiler!- The achievement is to kill the boss whilst its spinning, seems easy enough. Cause it is!- Aside from issues of timing, the spin kill is the best method, simply kite the boss until he decides to spin at you, get some space, turn and shoot!Weak point: Exhaust pointSPOILERPtch clearly if you expect a spoiler here you dont read the paragraph prior;DMol-Quyin: molten creation of Gol-Quyin- As a disclaimer here, in my run through the game, this boss caused me the most pain.
The timings needed for this boss are precise and i believe it may have been easier for people on gamepads but alas i wont know till mine works!! Just, good luck!- Found behind the lava waterfall- This boss is a cute molten blob of death.- It will spit lava and an exploding rock.- The rock is only spat out when the last one is destroyed.- The trick here is to make it spit the rock close to the centre and shoot your arrow in its mouth.- Make sure the rock isnt hit by lava and then call your arrow to you, this will drag the blob towards you. Try to aim for the rock, it is okay if it takes more than one attempt dont worry.- When the rock explodes on the titan it will splurt out the remaining lava and leave a crystal- Act bloody fast when this happens, you need to shoot the crystal before the lava reforms!- Good luck my friends!- The achievement, drop a bomb on the bosses head. Yeah its that.
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This area is located to the bottom right of the hub zone, just by the castle area and is home to 2 titans. There isnt much about this area that is overly difficult but there will be a brief on how to get to the first titan.Gol-Hevel: murdered guardian of the second gate- The name itself is intriguing, so other than these tidbits of lore, we are all left in the dark a bit about what has happened and the history of the titans. Probably one of my favourite areas in the game from a design stand point, it is located to the top right of the hub zone.Within this area the path you choose to take dictates where you end up, somewhere new or right back at the start?!It is home to 2 titans.Vinethesis: poisonous flower- To get to it, from the start make a right, then a left (go back on yourself) and then go up.- This titan will most likely kill you alot, not from its 'moveset' but more so from your greed!- It has 4 movesets.1.
Poison release, where the mouth opens and inhales.2. Vine slap, where the vines systamatically lift and drop.3. The poison cloud, this will follow you and engulf you. Dont stay in it too long.4. Whilst being the best place to roll down from, it is the area of the final boss.This area is located up from the main zone and through a gate that will need to opened through titan kills. Final 'Titan'The Soul: image of the titan soulThe most annoying part of this boss though in my opinion is the fact when you die and are respawned, you cant instantly roll to the stairs! You have to take a step back otherwise you bounce off!;D- This badass is a version of you if you didnt guess!- This will be a painful journey my friends.- But in overall, he isnt a bad guy!- How i do this, is how i did it personally, so some stuff may be irrelevant to the kill but i will tell you anyway.- The achievement is to knock yourself out!
I managed this by letting the soul grab my arrow and shoot it back at me, i got hit accidentally and it gave it me! Word to the wise, dont let him get your arrow, you need it. Dont read on if you dont want to know.
Will advise.This is.The: Truth.The true final boss that once all souls are collected you can battle.This creepy God, is much like the Full Metal Alchemist 'God'.The eye, ever present throughout your journey to this point and the creator of the titans is the true final boss.- The fight has three stages, the rings, the leeches and the eye's final form.The Rings- They will roll at you, but are easy to beat.- Simply move to the right and move down a bit.- The first ring will roll at you, listen for the sounds as it is a good indicator. Roll up as it is rolling.- The second ring will roll at you, roll left and quickly aim an arrow down and shoot at the ring with the eye.The Leeches- Most of the leeches will circle you, these will kill you if you go to them.- The bigger leeches with fly at you, kill them by shooting an arrow at them.- The eye is hidden as a leech, you need to shoot that one. Easy enough to do!The Eye: Final form- This scary ♥♥♥ Spider style eye will probably make you panic.- The large leeches will still attack you so you need to defend yourself from them.- The eye will shoot a laser at you, you should either avoid it, or kill the eye then and there by shooting an arrow at it!- My trick to doing this first time is to as soon as the round starts, run to the top left. From there the 2 leeches from the top will come at you and the 1 from the bottom will also, from that you can run between them towards the eye.
Run around the eye to avoid its first laser (close to it) and before it shoots its second, turn and shoot it. This has been my first guide ever!
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March 2023
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