Enotria: The Last Song is having quite the moment. Having very publicly bumped its release date back by several months in order to dodge Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, it's now quietly gathering some decent buzz. That's thanks in no small part to an eight-hour demo that's proving popular on Steam, but in an hour-long demo at Summer Game Fest 2024, I found that it's also due to a smart, accessible, versatile soulslike that's continuing the genre's push into new types of narrative.
During the demo, I took on three bosses in a row, jumping directly to their arenas; a shadowy ritual hall; a shattered church with the faces scratched out of the figures in its frescoes; a neo-classical arena surrounded by a dizzying moat of wine. That meant that I had less opportunity to explore Enotria than I would have liked, but it also gave me a close look at how its world pulls from the cultural history and folklore of developer Jyamma Games' native Italy.
