As you roam the abandoned buildings and eerie waterways of AI Limit, the first thing that catches your eye is just how stylish and crisp everything looks, and as it turns out, that stunning presentation goes a long way. Sure, it’s another Souls-like, with the same old bonfire checkpoint system, brutal combat encounters, and ultra-grotesque bosses that really require you to calm down, but the anime-esque, polished, cartoon-inspired art style really appeals to me, and I can see this being my next sweat-inducing obsession – which means it might just make a good chaser to play in between sessions of Shadow of the Erdtree.
Like other games in the genre, AI Limit makes no compromises on its inspirations. It’s a Souls-like through and through. Collect materials from defeated enemies to use for stat upgrades, find weapons and gear in monster-infested corridors to customize your fighting style and abilities, and of course die over and over again as tough bosses with serious anger management issues use your face as a doormat. A quintessential Souls-like!
And at least in the hour-long demo I played, AI Limit seems content to stick closely to that blueprint, offering very little in the way of new twists on the formula and little reason to play it among a sea of similar games, with one notable exception: the endlessly striking and compelling art style.
This may not seem like a compelling differentiator, but for me it was the main reason I desperately wanted to crash through each danger zone to see what awesome thing awaited in the next area. Just as the Persona series stays very faithful to the traditional JRPG playbook while setting itself apart with an exuberant style and unparalleled panache, AI Limit stood out to me in many ways. Whether it was the sleek and interesting UI or the combat animations that made me feel like the protagonist of an action-packed anime while effortlessly taking down enemies, I found myself nodding in appreciation even when every other aspect was pretty mundane.
But for all the good style in AI Limit, it’s a bit surprising that the main character, at least in the demo, is so expressionless. She has no lines, is always expressionless, and there’s not much to see besides a cool outfit and some nice combat animations. She doesn’t make any noise when she’s damaged or dies, which just feels weird. I mean, we can tell this woman is a robot, but why give her a human appearance if we’re not going to give her a human-like quality? Let’s hope these details aren’t in this early build of the game.
In the demo, I was locked into an early area that was apparently intended as an introductory tutorial zone, but I still managed to find new weapons to try out and outfits to try on. I also got to play around with one of AI Limit’s precious few unique mechanics: the sync rate meter. The sync rate meter charges up by attacking things, and loses power when you get hit or use a special ability that consumes it, like firing an electric railgun, which I discovered. Most importantly, the sync rate meter also determines how much damage your weapon does, creating a pretty interesting trade-off where keeping the meter full rewards you and running out of meter punishes you.
AI Limit may not look groundbreaking at first glance, but we were definitely enthralled by its stunning presentation and have added it to our list of Souls-like games we’re excited to play. With a release date scheduled for later this year, it looks like we won’t have to wait too long.
