Gregory Horror Show: Soul of Roses

I'd give it a recommend but nearly a year of silence, overshooting their release date and too many bugs for it's current state I can't recommend it. Even to Gregory Horror Show diehards. This feels like a kickstarter scam at this point.

Gregory Horror Show is special to me in general and this game does not disappoint me! So far I am loving the combat and characters! A huge thing for Gregory Horror Show has always been the characters and their personalities. The TV Show and the PS2 game were phenomenal and inspirational to me so being able to take place in the future of this series has me excited going forward! This game is an Action Roguelike. So once you die you go back to the start as expected. You grow in power and gain new transformation / abilities that change up how you play the game. The game is still in Early Access of course and I look forward to the new content and improvements! The art style I was not a huge fan of at first but it has grown on me already. I really hope more people check out this gem and give it a try! Plus hey who knows maybe one day we can get the PS2 game on here. I doubt it but it would be the best day in history if it was possible. ((Will do a full review / update this as I progress and when the game is fully released. I know for sure though this game is a huge positive and I will always recommend people try out and enjoy the world of Gregory Horror Show!))

I love gregory horror show and I like roguelites. This is a great game.

As soneone who has loved Gregory horror show for since as long as i can remember, alongside being such a sucker for roguelikes, this is a product that feels hand crafted for my tastes. Genuinely enjoyable game in the style of greats such as hades and dead cells, but with all the charm of Iwatas funky cast, a super fun game from what i've played and i'm overjoyed to have GHS back in some form, highly recommended!

Genuinely a really fun early access game! Been a fan for around 6 or 7 years now.. So its really nice to see another game!!! The game play is easy to understand, and the combat and mechanics is kind of reminiscent of Hades if you can believe it... Love it and the new character designs!!!

Love that I can cosplay as Neko Zombie though it suck they change his origin story. I wish we could also play as the guest too; also they release the soundtrack to buy, preferably in a lossless format.

If it's not clear by my icon, I love Gregory Horror Show. But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about the game itself and how it stands up. For the record, I have more hours in it than my profile says I will at the time of posting, I tend to play it on my Steam Deck while at work, so I've been playing entirely offline. First and foremost, the tl;dr is that I would suggest this game, even in it's current state. The shortest way to play it is that this game is a lesser version of Hades. Calling it lesser is not an insult. Hades is a fully developed game that had time to grow and become what it is. This game is still pretty new and has plenty of room to grow. So, as to why I call it a lesser version of Hades. It borrows a *lot* from Hades. Which isn't a bad thing. For a few comparisons... 1. The hub that you return to operates similarly. Every time you die, you are brought into a safe zone with the characters who switch with every death. You can give them a rare item (Nectar and Ambrosia in Hades, Instant Ramen in SoR) to increase your relationship level with the denizens of the hub. 2. Your upgrades you get with your runs act very similarly, if not identical in some cases. 3: The game has a similar assist mode as Hades, in which you start with 50% damage reduction and with each death, you get a small percent more added to it, allowing future runs to be slightly easier and easier, as long as Assist mode is turned on. Similarly, there is no punishment for Assist Mode, the game lets you use it just to enjoy the story. Now, for the game play itself. The game plays in 2D. You have your basic attacks of light, heavy, and skill. The game does not have any form of "base" attacks. Through the game play, you will fight characters from the show and some that were added with this game. Whenever you kill an enemy, they will drop their soul and you can pick it up to switch what you're currently playing as. It's very Kirby like in execution, switching move sets on the fly, each coming with a new outfit for your character. A bit oddly for a rogue-like, you move through rooms in a set order. Every time you clear a room, you are given a door to choose. Whichever door you walk into however only determines your rewards for clearing the room, which are displayed before you enter. You do the rooms in the same order with each run. This might not be entirely true however, as I have not fully cleared the game yet. The game may add more randomization with each successful run, I however cannot say for certain whether they do or not. The game is surprisingly tough. The game encourages you to try all of the different souls, at least for a short time each. In the hub, you can upgrade your base stats, however the menu is fairly limited at first. You expand it by getting a certain amount of Soul Resonances. You achieve Soul Resonance by defeating 30 enemies with a single soul. This gives you the chance to see how well each soul fares and what fighting style suits you. At this moment, I have 27 souls unlocked and I don't think I've completed even half of a fully successful run, so you have plenty of options to work with. The majority of the souls so far all have a unique style of play, though they break down into three classes. Speed, Strength, and Balanced. As the names imply, Speed is a number of rapid attacks in a short span but don't deal much damage. Strength is slow but deals heavy damage in one swing. Balanced is a mix of both, dealing average damage at an average output. Personally, I'm more of a Speed guy. From what I have experienced, the game doesn't have any massive flaws. I have not encountered any bugs so far or anything that just didn't feel right besides a single one. When I made my first save file, as a temporary name, I just keymashed random letters and played for about 15 minutes before a friend wanted to watch. I deleted the save and started a new one, giving a proper name on the file select screen. After inputting it, Gregory referred to my character as the keymash name the first time your name is used. After that, in all instances, your proper inputted name is used. This held true when I made a second save on slot 2, where the first time Gregory said the name, it was the same keymash before properly using the right name from then out. Overall, an incredibly small and inconsequential bug. Otherwise, there are a few very minor typos. I think I have encountered roughly three in the ~10 hours I've played so far. Nothing egregious, just small things. There has been no instances of Engrish or anything losing meaning to a poor translation. Things that will be ironed out with future updates. Overall, I'd say the game is a great time killer, especially if you've got a Steam Deck and want to kill some time. It feels great to be able to see more Gregory Horror Show content and I hope this game has a long and healthy life. I'd recommend it.

Love the game!! There's a great amount of diversity with the character abilities and enemies, and the controls feel smooth and the combat never feels clunky. The game is BLEEDING with charm and personality with the many fun characters and backgrounds, which I'm sure would please any fan of Gregory Horror Show. Hope to see it updated more in the future!!

Game is currently in Early Access so stuff is subject to change! What is here though is a fun lil sidescrolling roguelite with the characters of Gregory Horror Show returning with all their wild personalities and honestly it's so damn good seeing them again. I don't play many roguelite action games like this but I thoroughly enjoyed my time, and I can recommend this game to anyone who was a fan of the GHS ps2 game or anime. Can't wait to see more in later updates.

Its very good, i love dungeon crawlers, more GREGORY FOR THE WINNNNN!!