Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive since I first stumbled over it a few months ago. The story of Jinwoo’s battles against the demonic forces beyond the gate have gone from strength to strength since beginning as a Manwha in 2016. Since then it’s become a hit anime from A-1 Pictures and a live-action adaptation is underway. Given how Korean culture is currently on the rise, this seems likely to be a massive hit.

So what is a "Solo Leveling" anyway?

Jinwoo is a “Hunter”, a breed of human that has supernatural powers and, once awakened, can be used to defend humanity against demonic forces. However, his power level is notoriously low, causing the other Hunters to regularly mock him. The power of a Hunter is set once they awaken, but following an incident in a double-dungeon that nearly wipes out his entire party, Jinwoo is granted the ability to level up his powers, making him unique amongst the Hunters. Driven to become ever more powerful, the young man begins to ascend the demonic tower, level by level, to achieve ultimate power of the Shadow Monarch and fight as “King of the Dead”, the only force among the Rulers fighting to save humanity.

Playing as the Shadow Monarch is very empowering, even if it doesn't last

“Playing the anime” is certainly not a new idea - earlier this year we had the excellent Eden’s Zero which expanded the world of the show by allowing you to explore it more thoroughly. There's less of the open world here, but Solo Leveling is a story built for a video game anyway given that it uses the idea of levelling up a character to a literal degree.

This is the third game I've played this year that’s begun with the protagonist at the peak of their powers before the game sends you back to the beginning of the journey to begin leveling up to the game’s opening state (the other two being Majogami and Atelier Yumia in case you were wondering). I’m not a prolific gamer, but it feel like a trope to me!

However, in this case I really enjoyed it - clad in armour and able to cut-down terrifying demons is a great start to the game, showing Jinwoo betrayed by his allies and cast into the fight of his life. It’s a fantastic opening that really grabbed my attention - the direction, with its dynamic camera angles and rocking soundtrack really sets a tone, allowing you to dive into danger and cause some major damage. You're introduced to the weapon switching mechanic and specials (press the two top R buttons together) and charged attacks.

While the sequence ends with you sent back to the beginning of the story, it’s a terrific showcase of the battles you’ll be taking on, and I was hooked from the start, especially as this version of Jinwoo has yet to be seen in the anime!

No doubt the game engine renders some very impressive visuals

From humble(r) beginnings

The game has been inciting some controversy due to the fact that this is a port of a free mobile gacha game. This is usually a recipe for disaster, but having researched the original somewhat, it’s clear that this is an upgrade in every sense. It looks better, there’s no micro-transactions and generally before I found out this was originally a mobile game, there would be little to clue me in to the fact based on what I had in front of me. The fact that it’s running on top of a mobile engine would however explain why the Steam Deck does so well with it. 

As ever, I’m playing the game on the OLED Steam Deck and it works wonderfully - graphics are sharp, smooth and detailed off the bat, the character models looking anime-accurate and expressive. It always amazes me when we get games that are graphically proficient enough to feel like “playing an anime” so it was a welcome feast for the eyes. The story is told through manga panels which seems like a pragmatic stylistic choice, but I could see some people finding it less impressive than a fully rendered experience. 

So how "Solo Leveling" is it?

The game follows the anime very closely - by the time you beat your first dungeon and help out your fellow hunters by taking out an escaped monster (which takes place in episode 4 of the anime), you're given the option of selecting a job class, ranging from Ruler to Elemental - helpfully the choices come with a difficulty rating, so you can pick a style of play and understand the effect on the game's difficulty level, which is much appreciated.  There are eight classes to choose from and skill trees for each. These are built to work with the new Overdrive system that grants Jinwoo and your Hunters a powerful signature move or ability that suits their specialty - Seorin for example has ice-based powers , with her Ultimate attack (Frost Chaser) launching a barrage of ice-missiles, launching herself into the air and firing behind her to create a massive shockwave. It's all very satisfying. The graphhical effects during combat look and feel terrific, lots of crunchy sound effects and suitably epic music are accompanied by explosions aplenty as you deliver the damage. My daughter was mesmerised, sitting on my knee while I was playing and directing me to "kill another doggy!" I'm going to have to keep an eye on her..

Speaking of other Hunters...

It helps that I have all the characters from the anime to look forward to - Solo Leveling has a great cast and playing through the game, fighting alongside the other Hunters is a fun way to spend your time. During the game you'll base yourself in the Guild lobby, where you can go on raids with up to 4 players, take on optional quests, mini-games and recruit hunters. As there's no gacha mechanic, everything is unlocked by playing the game, so while there's a lot to open up, you'll have to grind to get it - fitting for the material. 

Having removed the gacha element, you're forced to negotiate to gain allies - your chances depend on their mood, their rank and how much you're willing to pay them. This last bit can be a bit of a nightmare, as you have to farm coin and the amount you get from raiding a dungeon isn't all that much compared to what you need, so again, expect to grind. A lot.

Hiring is genuinely stressful

Once you've sweated the requisite amount of bullets for to get some additional firepower for your excursions, your allies will activate their own attacks only when specific conditions are met - it may be as simple as your HP dropping below a certain level, but you'll need to learn these triggers so that you aren't randomly allowing attacks at inopportune times. Once you have the hang of it, it's actually a lot of fun to get everything popping off when you need it, it's just a pain to get there.

Every battle you undertake will see you ranked, with more rewards awarded for better performance. The artifact system provides you with stat boosts and you'll find a plethora of weapons as you progress. It's certainly not shy with content. 

The Gameplay Loop

So, it looks good, plays well and requires a lot of grinding. That, as they say, is pretty much the whole story. You'll need to grind to level up in order to have a chance of progressing, so you'll play some story, level up a few times, return to story. Rinse and repeat. Yes, there are mini-games which are very cute, but what the game lacks is a soul. NPC conversations (a step up from mobile) are still flat and lifeless. Unlocking new hunters is a total lottery, you have a low chance of success and this can get very frustrating, especially if you've been farming for ages and then have to go back to farming on the back of yet another recruitment failure. It's no longer gacha, but it's not an improvement either. This is all the more frustrating when you discover how punishing the game is without backup. It's not really optional, you're trapped in recruitment sim that has no budget and difficult customers.

Add again to this the lack of meaningful interaction and you find there's a lot of character missing - something that can't be said of the anime - so you don't end up feeling any emotional attachment other than relief that you got them to join you at all. The game could have used some Persona-style team interaction to build a rapport, but I get the feeling that the game didn't want to contradict the defined relationships and so keeps this aspect to an absolute minimum.

Fine Tuning

As a newly minted fan of the anime (see review here) I did enjoy myself with Arise Overdrive. My enjoyment of the series is at its peak so I'm more invested than I might be otherwise. It's great to take on battles I've just this weekend witnessed and wield the same abilities in a little bit of a power fantasy. It looks, sounds and plays the part. I'm playing on mobile hardware so I can absolutely see me popping in to grind every now and then, though I can absolutely see it getting repetitive if you're looking to spend a night in front of the TV. 

It could be improved - some tutorials here and there, the ability to pause and power off without risking a server disconnect and being sent back to the beginning of the dungeon. That sort of thing. It feels a bit unfinished at times, but only in areas outside the combat. That they have nailed.

I've not finished the game at time of writing - the grind is just something you can't skip and it is time consuming, however I have more than enough of a feel after a weekend of watching the show and playing the game to give a pretty accurate impression of how it plays. Building your best Jinwoo is long-form process, but I've not gotten bored of the game yet. I keep getting the "just one more dungeon" itch, possibly because I'm pacing myself.

Should you buy it? If you're a fan of the series and want to live some of the battles, don't mind grinding like Jinwoo and can overlook the rather one-dimensional depictions of characters that are more fleshed out in the source material then yes, it's a fun time with some frustration. It's a lot easier to digest in lots of smaller raids so it could have a lot of longevity as well, but I can't pretend that there aren't other dungeon crawlers that just do it better. If you're not a fan of the series, it's an easier skip.