Welcome to our review of Sol Divide, a game originally released in 1997 and now getting a second chance on Nintendo Switch.
Vorg heard a rumor that the army of Satan was searching for treasures called Seirei stones which led him to think that the time for revenge has come. In addition, he also knows that one of the Seirei stones was entrusted secretly to King Silverna from Vorg’s homeland, the Kingdom of Miltia.
Vorg, who was a holy knight in Miltia, was in the forest town of Neraphai working for a mission when the king of Satan, Ifter, invaded the Kingdom of Miltia with Dhatilos armies.
Upon hearing the news, Vorg immediately returned to Miltia, but the kingdom has been destroyed.
After 7 years, a dark shadow went into the royal room inside the Silverna castle. That dark shadow was Satan, Ifter. Vorg heads to Silverna castle with his Helos. Satan owns the Sol Divide which is the pair of heilos.
The tale of magic, sword, and vengeance starts now!!
This game is easy to get into, a retro shooter in every meaning of the genre, but it is more than just that. While most retro shooters are very similar and futuristic looking with the majority of them being with planes or spaceships, Sol Divide has a medieval theme and as your character flies through the skies, classic european castles are on the background.
The first thing you do, chose your hero! One of three to pick from, each with slightly different handling. I felt Kashon was the most easy to play with as the others felt less well-rounded in all three attack methods. From shooting projectiles to magic powers and just regular physical attacks, Kashon was most effective in my humble opinion, this might be just my imagination, but he just felt better to play with for me.
After soaring through the skies and facing just a few enemies, you enter the boss fight stage. At first, this is all so easy. A little too easy even. Just for laughs, I tried playing as the female called Tyora and only using the auto shooter. I ended up easily advancing through to the fifth level without any trouble at all.
Once you up the difficulty level, things go all mental though and it stops being a fun game. Instead of getting hit a few dozen times before going down, it comes down to just a few hits. A true bullet hell is born and with the addition of the physical attacks, this game gets a whole new dimension.
So what is wrong with Sol Divide? It is just another pea in the pod, sure the cool retro graphics are a bonus, it has an actual storyline and all, but it is just another shooter. With some already amazing shooters on the Switch, I fear that Sol divide might only really appeal to those that want the old skool feeling rather than those looking for a challenge or a real shmup.
In conclusion, Sol Divide does a nice job of staying true to the genre, but brings nothing impressive to the table and thus finds itself in an Eshop filled with many great alternative titles and just does not do enough to stand out. I am rating it at 60% because I did enjoy my gameplay and never felt like the game was a bore or bad experience. It just did not do enough to make me want more.
My rating is 60%
