Soulash 2
A downloadable game for Windows
In a realm where gods have perished, a new era of strife has dawned. Seize power, forge legendary artifacts, and ascend to the divine throne in Soulash 2!
Immerse yourself in an innovative blend of traditional roguelike, roleplaying, and sandbox genres. Conquer an expansive fantasy world, embark on daring expeditions to challenge formidable beings, craft extraordinary artifacts, amass a fortune as a merchant or thief, or construct a monumental pyramid amidst the desert sands.
Conquer the world!
Each world in Soulash 2 is procedurally generated, complete with a simulated history. Generate unique settlements shaped by trade routes, character lifecycles, resource extraction, food consumption, occupations, wages, and the triumphs and tragedies of war - all before you etch your own legacy into their annals.
Forge your destiny
While conquest and destruction lie at the heart of the game, your fate remains unwritten. Soulash 2's skill-based progression system empowers you to unlock new abilities and actions through diverse activities, paving the way for unique possibilities. Embrace your inner explorer, artisan, architect, pyromancer, warrior, or forge your own path by combining different skills.
Master the art of crafting
Soulash 2's innovative crafting system lets you create items with your chosen resources. Recipes feature slots of different types that can be fitted with unique magical ingredients, bestowing items with unparalleled properties that amplify character customization.
Build your legacy
Elevate your dominion with an array of diverse structures: construct a humble hut nestled within a verdant forest, erect a majestic temple to garner adoration, command from a mighty castle atop rolling hills, raise an ice-encrusted tower amidst the frosty tundra, or unleash your sinister influence through a foreboding black pyramid in a sun-scorched desert. Alternatively, seize existing dwellings and reshape them, effortlessly molding the world to your dark desires.
Embrace mortality - or defy it
Select from three distinct modes to suit your playstyle:
High Fantasy Mode: Suffer penalties upon death, only to resurrect in the nearest friendly location. Beware, however - time's relentless march may still claim your character.
Dark Fantasy Mode: Experience true loss as death erases your character but leaves the world and your creations intact. Continue influencing the world as a new character.
Hardcore Mode: Face the unforgiving roguelike experience with permadeath that annihilates both your character and the world - no meta progression, no mercy.
Add to Collection now to get notified on release!
Soulash 2 is released as Early Access on December 4, 2023, see details here. Steam key is included when purchasing the game on Itch.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $15.19 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Soulash 2 v0.8.15 "Acidara's Lair"17 days ago
- Soulash 2 v0.8.14 "Battle Reports"30 days ago
- Soulash 2 v0.8.13 "New Weapons"45 days ago
- Hotfix v0.8.12.250 days ago
- Soulash 2 v0.8.12 "Map Filters"59 days ago
- Soulash 2 v0.8.11 "Chromium"73 days ago
- Hotfix v0.8.10.380 days ago
- Soulash 2 Hotfix v0.8.10.282 days ago
Comments
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I love old school RPGs, sandbox games, and basically everything else this claims to be. Was even more excited to see the dev not capitulate to the masses especially since that rarely happens.....i just really wish the game wasn't complete ass. Oh well back to the drawing board I suppose.
Any chances this will come to gog?
Probably around the 1.0 release.
Thanks Artur. Looking forward to it, the demo on steam was fin amazing.
What's the fuss about guys?...I wonder if there will be a port for phones?
It would be nice to play on the road
based woke destroying dev
Real question is why are all the anti woke people degenerates.
Stinky poopoo
The real question is why are you a degenerate?
I support the creator, I support the game, I played the first part of the game, I played this one too, Twitter as always proved how much its users are worth
бро, держись, геи не должны притрагиваться к этой игре
Dev compares "woke" mob to nazis, like he's ever been through any kind of oppression. L game. L dev.
Poopie poopoo
poop
No, he doesn't. You can't understand things, your brain no good.
It's crazy that your life is so empty that this is what you choose to do. I hope you can learn to grow as a person before you SA some minors.
The hell are you talking about? how do get SA'ing minors from that?
Looking forward to this game. Thank you for not bowing to pressure to something that's not in your vision or plan. if you want to add any features like that bigoted troll wanted you to add then great do it, make your vision of a game that you believe your target audience will enjoy. This is why I heard about it and bought your game on steam, I will buy on any and all consoles you bring it to.
Hi, there is mention above of a steamkey? how do i get it, i only have a download button after purchase and i can't find any .txt file in the game folder with the key. Am i missing something?
NVM, It seems to just take a moment for the key button to appear :D
I respect you and am also sticking to my guns. Games are for escapism!
Based developer
Well, I was considering getting this game buuuuut turns out the dev is a bigot
Games are for fun , not activism!
I don't really want to get a game where the main (and possibly sole) developer went off on a tangent against gay people
poop
I would too If they harassed me like that.
I don't think he cares. More people will buy it for standing his ground than the few of you "modern" gamers would anyway. Go worry about games made for you like Dustborn and Concord. Oh... wait.
Thanks for the recommendations! much appreciated.
glbt, or whatever gamers appreciate ....basically the same thing as every other gamer and they were just as disappointed by the artstyle and character design.
They want attractive, vibrant characters with personality and yes, maybe some that are not in straight relationships, but not to the extent that it becomes the game's only selling point.
Overwatch and Apex Legends managed that just fine. -(both had lgbt representation).
One of the cited reasons the game failed: they charged full price in an overly saturated market, when other games were offering free to play, introduced no novel game mechanics, failing to differentiate themselves, had poor map designs, and generic characters.
I personally don't play shooters, unless it's a niche interest. The Last shooter i played, was the Dark Forces series.
Same boat. At least you hadn't already bought it. I'd ask for a refund, but I've owned the game for too long for it to be reasonable to expect to be approved, and I'm not even sure where I would go on Itch to put in the request in the first place.
A shame. I didn't much like the game as it currently was, but thought it had a lot of potential to grow into something cool.
It never hurts to ask, even for credit.
So open minded and caring of you. Such a double standard. Also learn what bigotry means as you clearly don't understand it just like you're clueless about who the dev really is.
So... me saying that I don't want to buy a game because the dev is blatantly homophobic is somehow wrong?
You keep saying he's "blatantly homophobic". That doesn't fit the actual things he said. It was an explanation why same-sex marriages wouldn't fit with his vision of the game i.e. medieval times marriage for the purpose of creating and raising an heir.
If you're gonna keep spouting that claim, maybe be more specific.
no it wasn't that, he followed it up with some very interesting twitter posts
That's ahistorcally not true at all. For the aristocracy, Yes there was a small aspect of 'family line' that was expected of even lgb persons, but they always had a side relationship that wasn't just business, such as concubines, or their same sex lover. It's also a Modernist invention to label same sex activity as "gay" or "out". Men well into the 1700s frequently engaged in same sex liaisons.
Primarily marriages were about:
were two other primary, superseding reasons. For women, especially, it could be a death sentence to not marry. It's partly why Single Female Matriarchs were far more warlike than their male counterparts.
For examples:
James I was known to prefer male courtiers such as Esmé Stewart, Robert Carr and most famously George Villiers . James actually publicly acknowledged his love for George Villiers
"I, James, am neither a god nor an angel, but a man like any other. Therefore I act like a man and confess to loving those dear to me more than other men. You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had John, and I have George."
Al-Amin (787-813) was a caliph of the Abbasid Empire who was almost certainly homosexual. He went as far as to have his female concubines (some Abbasid caliphs did not marry) cut their hair and dress as men in order to lead a more appropriate sex life and beget an heir. The Abbasids usually married, but not always, and were notoriously polygamous
In Rome, being accused of being a bottom in a male/male relationship, was an insult. To a Roman, being the penetrated showed a lack of integrity. Passive Roman homosexuals were called Cinadeus. And to be called that was an insult. of Caesar, it was stated "He was every woman's Man, but every Man's boy"
Edward II of England (r. 1307-1327) was at least bi-sexual. His sexual proclivities seemed to range across gender, but he definitely gave his male favorites much more attention and favor than he ever did women (including his wife). While he doesn't fit your stipulation of publicly avowing homosexuality (in so far as the surviving historical record documents), he seemed to be rather open in his actions, and the historical record indicates that a wide range of people during the time knew that he engaged in homosexual activity.
The first young man that he was enamored with was the knight from Gascony, Piers Gaveston. His relationship to the king was a grave embarrassment to the Lords of the realm. Gaveston was unceremoniously killed on a darkened path by hired thugs.
The most important favorite of Edward was Hugh Despenser the Younger. Despenser used his favored status to climb the ranks of the government and become its de facto leader. He used his power to collect land and money. Eventually, after Edward is imprisoned by his wife and her lover Mortimer, Despenser was brutally and publicly executed. People thronged to watch him hung, castrated, disemboweled, and his heart burnt (all while he was still conscious). In fact, the Queen and Mortimer sat on a platform feasting as they watched.
Later, after abdicating the throne and leaving it to his son Edward III, Edward II would die under mysterious circumstances while imprisoned. The most popular story has it that he was killed by having a white hot fire poker shoved up his ass. History is some weird shit
King William II of England never married and was well-known along the court to have had sex with men
The point being acceptance, and prohibitions of same sex m/m activities varied across all times, cultures, and places. Look at the Catholic church for a prime example.
There's a lot of evidence of this. Exhibit number one is the Liber Gomorrhianus of Peter Damian published in the mid 11th century (the Book of Gomorrah). Peter Damian was a very influential member of inner papal circles during the period known now as the 11th century Gregorian Reforms, a period which saw a lot of Papal and clerical energy directed at reforming what was viewed as the lax morals and heresies of clergy including simony, lay investiture and clerical marriage. This was part of the same movement which led to schisms and conflict between papacy and monarchs, particularly with the investiture conflict with the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, starting with Henry IV.
Liber Gomorrhianus is not alone in identifying sex among clergy, it was preceded in the 10th century by Regino of Prüm's De synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis and earlier in the 11th century by Burchard of Worms' massive Decretum. However, where Regio and Burchard identify sex among clergy as sinful and prescribe penance for it, Damian is viewed as an outright obsessive attack. Damian was an advocate of deeply ascetic clerical practice.
The full English translation can be read here:
For background see:
it's funny how wrong you are, but it doesn't surprise me because you are a typical twitter user, I would tell you to be ashamed but you probably don't even have that emotion in your head 😊
I don't really care if the dev adds gay marriage or not but he literally made a tweet comparing gays to nazis
🤦♀️you are still wrong
I don't use twitter though, also you say I'm still wrong but I just see someone saying twitter sucks (which it does) and not giving an explanation to why I'm wrong
Solidarity from one Pole to another! Keep up good work and not bend the knee!
Greetings from 4chan.
Looks a bit like dwarf fortress, I'm definitely interested in getting it
Photos taken moments before disaster.
Is there any plan to provide monthly support from Russian players without any workarounds? I would like to support the developer.
I'm afraid I'm completely unfamiliar with the issue. Do you mean support like through our Patreon, but it's blocked in Russia?
Yes, Patreon is blocked in Russia, but even if it were not so, VISA and MasterCard do not work with us.
Hello dear developers, I would like to see this game on the Android platform, I’m always on the road, but I want to play on the road, don’t throw slippers at me if anything happens. 😅
Maybe consider getting a laptop.
Specs are here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2399160/Soulash_2.
Soulash 2 shouldn't be hard to run.
Honestly, I am not really a big fan of the maximum potential mechanic.
It will essentially limit your combat capabilities if you want to take sidegig like weapon smithing or tailoring.
For example, a 2H macefighter needs Mace (duh), Athletics (escaping bad fights and survuvability), and Leadership (to get an army). As far as I know, you will only be able to max out 4 skills. Add Adventuring, which I think is mandatory for every character, and there is no room anymore for any sidejobs.
I understand what you were going for in that you wanted to limit the player into a "class" they can build instead of just a master of everything, but in practice it just feels limiting.
I think that's fine. I didn't really like Skyrim in that us could go 100% in everything and be able to reach the highest podiums in all organizations. If in Skyrim something like a calendar were applied and a time account was followed, especially if the world was not to scale and therefore the time of travel from one place to another was relevant, it would not be possible to do everything in the world with the same character. I think there is value and realism in having to put yourself in the shoes of several very different people who lead different lives, if you want to explore everything that a world in a given space of time can offer. It can feel limiting if you're used to chasing completeness in everything, like something mechanical, but if you want something immersive limitations can be a good thing. In addition, obstacles and limitations can invite ingenuity to deal with them and interesting things, instead of always limiting yourself to always making a character "only optimized in practical things".
I honestly think a global time limit for an open world RPG (or really any RPG in general) seems like an absolutely awful idea, unless the game is either completely built around this gimmick like Majoras Mask, or it's something absolutely crucial to the main story like the water running out in Vault 13 in Fallout 1.
Basically, this would mean that you would be forced to speedrun everything in the game as fast as possible. Gone would be the days of roleplaying actions like sitting at the campfire, visiting an inn and getting a drink, hunting some animals in the forest and getting a nice steak or decorating your base with the spoils of your adventure, as you have to constantly rush from quest to quest, trying to beat them as fast as possible, with little to no moments for careful exploration, or you would lose out on them.
A much better way to prevent the player from joining every faction with the same character would be to lock the player out of the enemy factions if they join an faction. For example, if the thiefs guild would have a problem with the fighters guild in universe, joining the thiefs guild would lock you out of the fighters guild and vice versa because they will see you as an enemy. That way you could limit players from joining every faction without having to apply a global time limit. That way, you could also design quests where the different factions interact with each other like for example having you destroy the thiefs guild if you join the fighters guild.
You make a good point about the "racing against time" feeling. I mean, I could answer you that this would be a problem for the player if he is doing a kind of metagaming knowing that certain events/jobs have a time period (probably that player searched the internet for available events and is trying to complete all of those that interested to him). Tracking the passage of time is a technique to try to make the world change over time and thus seem more organic and real. You could still relax and go fishing, explore, or dedicate yourself to making a thousand knives to improve as a blacksmith... and the world you would experience would adapt to those choices the character made, just as it would happen in a tabletop role-playing game campaign (TTRPG) with a Game Master... well, at least it would get closer.
But of course, an incorrect way to apply it would be something like in TES Daggerfall in which one of the first missions of the main story/campaign is that you have 30 days in the game from the moment you receive a letter to go meet a person in a tavern in a city and they tell you that theperson will only wait for you in that tavern for 30 days, and if you do not meet that person before that time is up you will no longer be able to meet her and therefore you will not be able to continue the series of steps to continue with the main story/campaign. But something like this also happened in TES Morrowing in that you could, for example, kill important/relevant characters for certain missions/events of the main story ahead of time... so then you could no longer complete the main story. In both cases the game let you continue at your leisure in the open world but without being able to follow the main story/campaign. Something like this would be valid... but being the main story of the game, it would be a lot of lost content (although, well, I am one of those who always chooses to end the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim even knowing that it has a very good story, interesting characters and good loot). In Skyrim, the immortality of key characters for any plot considered relevant is implemented, I don't know if that was already implemented in Oblivion.
And, also, the application of the world/story changing according to a time meter adds a lot of replayability, especially for those who want to see all the possibilities. But programming something like this can get incredibly hard and time consumer because it's a lot more story and variations to write than a frozen world until the player starts the chain of situations/interactions, which is much simpler and straightforward.
Purchased on steam - is it possible to get access to the itch download, or would I have to buy it here, too?
Unfortunately there's no way to add Itch access on Steam as far as I know.
you can get a refund on steam and rebuy here, i did the exact same as you. 14 days after purchase and less than 2 hours played.
game looks good and updates very often is there a time you think it best to come back and buy when its fully polished?
Around version 1.0, you can find the roadmap here: https://wizardsofthecode.itch.io/soulash-2/devlog/671152/soulash-2-roadmap-to-v1...
The game is supposed to come with the Steam key? I can't find mine
Hey, check this guide: https://itch.io/t/67604/how-to-get-a-steam-key-from-your-itchio-purchase
Let me know if it works. :)
I don't have the "Get Steam Key" button in my download. I bought the game with a discount, was that without the steam key?
"Purchased for $14.39 6 days ago (20% off)"
Discount shouldn't affect the Steam key availability, could you contact the Itch support so they verify on their end?
I now have the Steam key button, without contacting the support. Don't know what changed, but did read that they had problems with keys in the past.
I think itch.io’s server need to contact Steam to get a Steam key.
The banner art is far more interesting than the game art. For that reason I'm out, dawg.
Could do with any kind of tutorial or introduction to the game. My first experience with Soulash:
-Make a dwarf
-Join a family with a mine
-Go into the family's mine, mine a gemstone
-Get murdered by family head for the crime of working in the family mine
Second experience:
-New dwarf, explore aimlessly looking for anything to do
-Find "Easy" quest marked on the overworld
-Get mobbed by a dozen wolves and die
What do you expect from me as a player? The in-game tutorial states the game is 'best played without hand-holding' and suggests taking the steps I just have.
The new player experience is awful, you're given next to no direction on what to do or how to play, and the small direction you are given leads you to an encounter that a fresh character is woefully unprepared for.
I was actually excited by the concept of this game, but actually playing it killed that pretty quickly.
The game basically forces you to pick adventring and choose the knife and waterskin which is pretty lame game design.
If the dev reads this, my suggestions: 1. Add back the makeshift stone knife from Soulash 1 so you can get meat early on and 2. make the waterskin an early recipee like Adventuring LV 3 so you can get one fairly early. You could then maybe add a more weight efficient water storage in bottles that require higher adventuring so it's still worth leveling.
I find that if you start near a lot of rivers, you can get by until you hit adventuring 6.
Great game, my friends seem to be obsessed with it, they play every day, you took my friends away from me, dear developer :)
Join them and join us all on Discord. :)
Hi, just want to give small input. Rather than use Panther as one of your Rasimi subspecies you can use Jaguar. Because Panther is a blanket term for all big cats (i.e lion is panthera leo, tiger is panthera tigris, etc). You can still use the artworks because many jaguars are born with melanism that makes their coat all black. So you still can differentiate between leopard and jaguar but have a more accurate subspecies of Rasimis. And maybe you can add snow leopard too as the last member of panthera. Thanks. Great game, I will watching your proggression.
Thanks so much for such a detailed explanation, I see you know your cats! I'll read up on it and adjust. :)
After an hour or two of the demo, this is a nice improvement from Soulash 1. The non-murderhobo mechanics so far are enough to feel like you're in something of a world rather than a mindless death land, while not being turnoff complicated like I kinda expected them to be. I also like that you actually have to get money through trading rather than having enemies just drop it when you kill them. Not enough of a connoisseur to pinpoint what changed, but even the basic combat feels nicer than in the first game. Probably helps that you can start with multiple skills, and the new leveling system is a lot smoother than the original one. I did like the feeling in Soulash 1 when you're wandering the world one step at a time, eating rations and finding random caves to sleep in, and you don't really get that feeling of traveling here given the world map, but this game seems more focused on worldly affairs than exploration anyway.
Thanks for sharing your impressions! The Soulash 1 harshness of the world definitely had a different feel to it than the sequel. As things are more contained in their regions in S2 it's also much easier to avoid danger or run away. It's much safer, but areas are now a mix of procedural and handcrafted, so there are fun things to explore, and there's higher replay value for our adventures. I still plan to add some more depth to the world and, especially in Dark Fantasy mode, recreate some of that same feeling from the first game. :)
Wow I'm impressed with the pixel art quality :D
I bought the game on Steam and specially registered here to thank you for such an interesting game! I really hope that you will develop the game for a long time and actively.
Thank you!
Hey! This game is dope! I write a blog about indie games and would love to interview you!
Sounds cool, find me on Discord https://discord.gg/Y2dwG4c and let's talk details. :)
Would a linux native port be possible? Thanks. :)
I've been thinking about it ever since the first game and even attempted it twice, but I'm afraid I'll have to pass on porting to Linux. I don't have the capability to support it even if I find the time to build it.
No worries dude, I can probably get it working through Proton or Wine (hopefully). Or I can just stop being a bum and set up a virtual machine. Either way, this game looks really cool dude!
I can vouch for Soulash 1 working on Linux via Proton in Steam.
Rhymes with "goulash."
Yum!
Game looks nice! I will give it a try. Any plans to replace the portraits circles with character models? Thanks!
It will at least be supported through modding. Otherwise, we'll see. It's a common request, but graphics are very costly to do either way.
Looks like an awesome game! I'll definitely pick it up on Steam when I get home.
I noticed from streamers playing that you can choose to be an orphan or a part of a family, as well as aging mechanics. Are there any plans to implement marriage/inheritance mechanics as well?
Extending family functionality is a common request, so hopefully I'll manage to fit it into the game. :)
The 4 core functionalities that are planned are inviting NPCs to party, managing settlements, including inviting NPCs, battle and conquest systems, and story & events in 1.0. The families could fit into the settlement system update potentially, but we'll have to see.
It would be really neat to have an archery skill in the game, are you planning to add it later to the game? More magic maybe on top of the pyromancy one?
edit: there are bows in the game it seems, i just cannot choose any relevant skills when creating my character it seems, my bad :)
Edit 2: maybe carpentry is the skill i was looking for.
Great game so far!
Hunting skill is planned that will be a combat skill for bows, and at least Necromancy will come once we have the army mechanics. We'll see what else, but it's also worth noting that modding tools will come in a few weeks, and there are already some interested players on our Discord server who are eager to introduce more magic skills. :)
I like it but the ecconomy is all out of wack... a town that has 20000 ruby's on one side of the contenent should not be buying them at the same price that a town all the way on the other side of the map that has no gems of any kind
It needs some more work, for sure. Gems specifically have very little use by the settlements right now. They may only be used in crafting some recipes so the price is rather stable, as there's very little demand.
Will def buy. Great work! <3
I tried out the demo, VERY fun!
too much fun in fact, I played it late into the night ^^"
First of all, it ran stable, so no problems there.
Things I noticed:
Some skills are really hard to get into(reach level1). As soon as you reach it however then you can more effectively level it, and that is very satisfying.
The weaponsmith tree looked a bit underwhelming iirc. Maybe there could be several unlocks with levels, because even further in it didn't seem too great, but I could be wrong.
Same goes for tailoring which I haven't tried out much. I guess I will with the next playthrough. but unlocking those crafting skills is rly difficult since you can only gain xp by salvaging^^".
Mining = $$$ :D
the ordering system is great! you can order stuff that you cannot make yourself, which is vital for tools and such for example!!
I am hesitant to say this, but I wonder if crafting the same item should have diminishing turns in terms of xp/ or the higher level you are in crafting the less you profit from low level crafts = you are level 1 you gain 100% xp from crafting for example firewood, if you are level 5 in carpenting you only gain 40% from that, and on level 8 you only get 5% or smth like that. It feels weird to become a master carpenter by only making firewood xD
But I guess that is different for craft trees, for example for armor smithing it is more difficult to get enough ore to produce bars to enable crafting.
I really like the current gameplay loop, since at the start you have almost nothing, and eventually you get more money, order tools to enable skinning or chopping wood etc, and then eventually becoming really strong :D
Looking forward to more updates and when the game releases, great work!
btw SplatterCat mentioned your game in
:)Thank you for the great feedback, I'll keep tweaking the skills. The crafting skills have the extra benefit of allowing upgrades to items (replacing of materials on the fly), and that's way more powerful than actually making the item because you don't have to track down NPC crafters to improve your gear. All the skills will go up to level 50 when EA releases in a month, so there will be some more powerful items reach later, some of which may not be accessible through NPCs.
This is looking great. I'm definitely going to be buying this when the Soulash 1 owner discount drops.