CITY CONNECTIONJul 20, 2020View on Steam ↗

SOL DIVIDE -SWORD OF DARKNESS-

Also onPlayStation

Enter the world of sword and sorcery. This is the spell and slash action shooter. With online rankings!

Estimated lifetime revenueLow confidence

—

Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →

Est. copies sold

713

mid estimate

Reviews

Review score

82%

8.2/10

Playing now

live

Media

Screenshots & trailer

About

About the game

Prevent the resurrection of the ancient evil gods.
Enter the world of sword and sorcery....

SOL DIVIDE is a horizontal-scrolling shooter game that first appeared in arcades in 1997.

You can use a normal shot,
a direct attack that can be slashed up and down,
and 11 different types of magic attacks!

You can set the difficulty level, life, number of continues, controls, and more.

In addition, now we have online rankings!
Be the world's best warrior mage!

Characters:

Dark Knight "Vorg"
Unique command: Slash > Slash > Slash upward > Slash
Unique spell: Nightmare
Wing Lancer "Kashon"
Unique command: Slash > Slash > Slash downward > Slash
Unique spell: Phoenix
Great Mage "Tyora"
Unique command: Slash > Slash > Slash to right > Slash
Unique spell: Sammon

Options:

Select the screen filter from the normal +2 version.
You can set the length of life gauge, from 1 to 9 and the number of continues from 0 to unlimited.
Assign "Shot", "Auto Shot", "Slash" and "Magic" in the key configuration.

Score Attack:

This is a new feature that has a very severe mode with a fixed difficulty level and number of lives.
Compete in high scores and score attacks against players from all over the world!
Online rankings can be viewed from the options menu.

Player reviews (33)

Not recommended1h played4 found helpfulAug 2023

Sol Divide -Sword of Darkness- is easily my least favorite Psikyo game I've played. It carries many of the elements I didn't care for in their other horizontal scrolling character shooters (Samurai Aces) and added several mechanics I'm not convinced work very well, or at very least over-complicate and jumble up the game. Sol Divide -Sword of Darkness- adds a melee attack to the STG formula. Which I'm the kind of player that generally loves getting stuck in. However, the melee feels stiff, slow and far too much of a risk for what the player gets out of it. It seems like the game wants it used only when the enemies charge the player character to push them back. Perhaps more important than the melee attack Sol Divide also offers a robust magic system. I think perhaps too robust with nearly a dozen different spells. Many of which the player will only get to cast once or twice during an entire game. I'm not even sure the player can cast every one of the spells their character has access to in a single game without careful planning of their use. Added on top of this is a sort of rock, paper, scissors elements where enemies are more vulnerable to certain kinds of magic. Which is neat in idea, but given the vast number of spells, the overall short game and lack of enjoyment of said game, I seriously doubt I'm going to ever figure out without checking a FAQ/walkthrough of the game. And I'd be fine with the large number of spells if I could cast them more often. But other than the first few, these spells require the player's magic meter to be practically full for the more powerful ones. And that's assuming they still have access to those powerful spells. And all of this is done while still playing a standard shmup. Overall, while I find use of the magic system necessary to the player's success in the game, it's too distracting and cumbersome to be of much enjoyment. The stages to Sol Divide feel incredible short. The player faces a few enemies, most on the more powerful side of shmups, and then are upon the boss. The game has a half-hearted attempt as paths but doesn't really seems follow through. The game also allows the players to up the number of continues, but using a continue put the player back at the beginning of the stage. The shooting feels underwhelming as there are few popcorn enemies with the rest being fairly spongy outside of using magic attacks. Because of the player character is a humanoid, I found it tough to dodge enemy attacks. Doubly so due to the melee system where if the enemy engages the player they have limited space, and if the player engages the enemy their movement is limited. Conversely, I found the boss fights actually pretty fast. The graphics are not very impressive to me. I player characters are overly pixelated and blocky. While most of the enemies are pretty uninspiring. The backgrounds are okayish in places. But overall, I do not find the game to pleasing to the eye. The sound and music are functional. It's very possible I'm missing something on how to play this game. But there isn't much of anything that grabs me to want to figure out what that might be. At some point, I want to beat this game, but I see trying to do that as slog. However, I want to praise the game for adding some uncommon elements and trying something uncommon in STGs. Even if I found the execution lacking. Ultimately, I cannot recommend Sol Divide -Sword of Darkness-. There are so many more enjoyable Psikyo games, not to mention other shoot 'em ups.

SOL DIVIDE -SWORD OF DARKNESS-

Screenshots & trailer

About the game

Characters:

Options:

Select the screen filter from the normal +2 version.
You can set the length of life gauge, from 1 to 9 and the number of continues from 0 to unlimited.
Assign "Shot", "Auto Shot", "Slash" and "Magic" in the key configuration.

Score Attack:

This is a new feature that has a very severe mode with a fixed difficulty level and number of lives.
Compete in high scores and score attacks against players from all over the world!
Online rankings can be viewed from the options menu.

Genres & tags

Details

Playtime distribution

Player reviews (33)

Same revenue league

Similar games

Historical charts

Selling now

Players by region

SOL DIVIDE -SWORD OF DARKNESS-

Screenshots & trailer

About the game

Characters:

Options:

Select the screen filter from the normal +2 version.You can set the length of life gauge, from 1 to 9 and the number of continues from 0 to unlimited.Assign "Shot", "Auto Shot", "Slash" and "Magic" in the key configuration.

Score Attack:

This is a new feature that has a very severe mode with a fixed difficulty level and number of lives.Compete in high scores and score attacks against players from all over the world!Online rankings can be viewed from the options menu.

Genres & tags

Details

Playtime distribution

Player reviews (33)

Same revenue league

Similar games

Historical charts

Selling now

Players by region

Select the screen filter from the normal +2 version.
You can set the length of life gauge, from 1 to 9 and the number of continues from 0 to unlimited.
Assign "Shot", "Auto Shot", "Slash" and "Magic" in the key configuration.

This is a new feature that has a very severe mode with a fixed difficulty level and number of lives.
Compete in high scores and score attacks against players from all over the world!
Online rankings can be viewed from the options menu.