Nippon Ichi Software is best known for their Disgaea series of comedic strategy games, but they are by no means the only turn-based tactics titles under their belt. Back in the PlayStation 2 days, the company built something of a multiverse of darkly quirky RPGs, and Soul Nomad & the World Eaters might be the darkest of them all. Originally released in 2007, Soul Nomad was never the company's most popular property, but it did carve out something of a cult following thanks to its apocalyptic setting, strong soundtrack and a surprisingly great dub.
Set on the continent of Prodesto, a land once terrorized by the titular World Eaters, Soul Nomad follows the story of the young hero Revya in their quest to destroy the titans and save their home. To this end, Revya fights with a mysterious Onyx Blade that houses the soul of Gig, the World Eaters' destructive former leader who constantly schemes to take over his host's body and continue his campaign of devastation. It's a story fans of the genre will be familiar with, but it tells it differently enough to be worth looking at when it re-releases later this month.
Soul Nomad's gameplay doesn't exactly redefine the strategy genre. While its campaign has plenty of challenging battles and gameplay quirks thanks to innovations like the squad system, it's hardly revolutionary. What does set the game apart from its competitors, however, is its bizarrely chaotic tone. While the silent Revya has little personality beyond what the player chooses for them, everyone from the cheerful yet slightly-unhinged Danette to the troubled and over-protective Juno has an enjoyably anarchic energy. As such, the game's tone walks a fine line between cartoonish violence and introspective character drama. It's ultimately a strange time capsule of all the anime writing tropes popular in the 2000s, complete with an edgy supervillain.
Speaking of which, for better or worse, Gig is the star of this show. Being a genocidal maniac who finds slaughter hilarious, curses with every other sentence and constantly encourages the most destructive course of action, it's fair to say he'd be the villain in any other game. Yet, for all his vices, Soul Nomad has so many even viler characters that he looks positively cartoonish by comparison. From the genre's usual corrupt lords and despotic gods to child slavers and abusive predators, this game's antagonists are so utterly heinous that it's all too easy to give into Gig's temptation and decimate them with his demonic power.
However, the darkest villain in Soul Nomad has the potential to be the player themselves. In the game's infamous Demon Path, Revya can reject their heroic destiny and embark upon a campaign of conquest and destruction across the entire world. Unlike other games with an evil route, however, this is an entirely separate campaign, and it's a particularly nasty one. While it allows the player to recruit many of the game's minor antagonists, giving them some much-needed development, it also sees them enslave many heroic ones. Being forced to participate in wanton slaughter results in these hapless victims going mad with fear, embracing a violent form of nihilism or just ending their own lives to escape the constant suffering.
The Demon Path is an incredibly depressing tale, but it's also strangely ahead of its time in some respects. Long before games like Undertale and Fallout: New Vegas were popularizing the idea of having there be drastic consequences for making evil choices, Soul Nomad was allowing players to become a fully-fledged dark lord, complete with their own evil headquarters and opposing band of heroes. While some may regard it as tastelessly edgy (and not without good reason), it's hard not to respect the effort that went into crafting an evil storyline that really does make the player feel like a monster.
Soul Nomad is by no means a hidden masterpiece, and its oppressive aesthetics are certain to turn away many players. However, it's still a competently-made strategy RPG with some good map design, as well as a killer soundtrack that helps make up for its aged visuals. For Nippon Ichi fans who've beaten the latest Disgaea and want to see what else the company has done, or just those looking for a tactics game with a more punkish attitude, one could do far worse than sinking their teeth into the World Eaters' story.
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters will be re-released on Steam on August 31st. A Switch version will also be available as part of the Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1, bundled with Phantom Brave.