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Netmarble’s latest mobile action adaptation of hit manhwa and anime Solo Leveling has officially hit the market, and fans are eager to crack into it. After spending countless hours both in the Early Access and full release periods, I got to experience its gameplay and siren song gacha mechanics. As I continued to observe Solo Leveling: ARISE’s latest updates, I recently got to share my thoughts in this review.
Solo Leveling is one of the first manhwa experiences for many readers worldwide, with the anime being an especially great exposure to the franchise. For enthusiasts who enjoyed either or both, there’s plenty of story to enjoy in Solo Leveling: ARISE’s mobile and PC adaptation. In the game, you can follow Sung Jinwoo’s rise to incredible power from his humble beginnings as the world’s weakest E-Rank Hunter. However, the true fun is in how many allies of his you can assemble, both friends and subjugated foes.
Out From the Shadows
For those who recently enjoyed the Solo Leveling anime, ARISE’s latest update includes the climactic events of the first season finale and beyond. This means playable experiences such as the Double Dungeon massacre through multiple perspectives. It also includes fun moments like surviving the Penalty Zone and Jinwoo’s job changes.
Sung Jinwoo, the protagonist, is your main avatar in the game. You can level him up like an RPG protagonist, with his stats reflected in the game’s tight action gameplay. This stays accurate to Jinwoo’s portrayal in the series, giving you the freedom to roleplay as him and make the same choices he does, or min-max as you see fit. Jinwoo starts as a meek burden to other Hunters but quickly becomes fiercely competent and unmatched on the battlefield. As the player, this translates to experiencing the power fantasy firsthand.
The game’s story is told largely through a combination of in-engine cutscenes underscored by superbly extracted panels from the manhwa. It creates a combination of motion comic and cinematic feel. However, the game’s strict focus on action may pull players’ attention to skip these cinematics.
I discourage players from skipping the cutscenes, as it’s interesting to see how the game has fleshed out the world’s lore, but it’s an understandable impulse. After all, the game has only eighteen chapters, with much of the manwha still unadapted. Players won’t get the full story experience for quite some time.
Familiar Faces Make This Gacha Worthwhile
Like many other mobile action games with RPG elements, Solo Leveling: ARISE is a gacha game. The player will inevitably interact with a luck-based pull system where they vie for the Super Rare (SR) or Super Secret Rare (SSR) characters and weapons. This is an addictive feature that reels players in after updates. More importantly, it is a smart way to replenish the Solo Leveling: ARISE pipeline.
Recent additions like Cha Hae-in and Silvermane Baek Yoonho are easy examples of desirable new Hunters to add to your team. Oftentimes, they’re considered among the best Hunters in Solo Leveling: ARISE with their stats directly reflecting their rarity. Since Hunters are playable in their own separate mode, or even as support for Jinwoo, they’re extremely desirable, but this isn’t what sets the game apart from its competitors.
The main draw, in this case, is a combination of beloved Hunters from the original series, along with original characters exclusive to the game. If you’ve always wanted to play as Choi Jong-In, you’ll be delighted to know he’s awesome to use. However, you’ll also be disappointed to learn some Hunters fall short.
Gameplay Falls Short When Playing as Certain Hunters
I was elated to get excellent pulls like Choi Jong-In and Emma Laurent in Solo Leveling: ARISE. These characters feel great to play and are incredibly powerful, but their elements and class configurations often need other strong characters to complement them. Therein lies the rub: certain characters, even though designed to be desirable, are fundamentally flawed in their design, as painfully exemplified by Woo Jinchul.
Woo Jinchul is an especially cool character in the main series who is included as an SSR Hunter in Solo Leveling: ARISE. He is also, crucially, the third SSR character I ever got and his stats quickly dwarf many SR characters. More importantly, I wanted to use him. But when you swap to him in battle, which usually prompts an attack, his AI pathfinding causes him to miss. It’s infuriating, breaks the flow of battle, and I often desperately swirl the camera to find the enemy again.
It’s not a simple matter of just choosing another Hunter. Players should be able to enjoy a Hunter they’ve invested their in-game currency into. In many ways, you quickly find yourself drawn to certain characters by their design, role in the series, or mechanics. But you better hope the System is on your side if you like playing as certain close-combat characters.
The Game Controls Beautifully
It’s appropriate that Solo Leveling: ARISE, adapted from a series so heavily inspired by games, feels good to play. I thoroughly enjoy playing on my PC, with support for my Xbox controllers for hours. The action gameplay doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and if you enjoy combat like Bayonetta, you’ll be at home here. The use of perfect dodges in Solo Leveling: ARISE is nothing new. However, it feels empowering alongside the impressive chain of real-time actions you can take.
That being said, there are drawbacks to using the gamepad, as the many menus of Solo Leveling: ARISE can demonstrate. You can navigate the menu entirely using a gamepad, but it’s slower than a touchscreen, so be warned. It feels like a way to keep players glued to the screen, rather than a couch game to enjoy while relaxing. But I digress. Solo Leveling: ARISE controls beautifully on mobile device touchscreens or with a gamepad.
Fantastic Visuals Ripped From the Pages
Solo Leveling: ARISE makes a good choice with such a strong visual resemblance to the manhwa. It helps in especially exciting moments like the first time you defeat Igris the Red, with spectacular motion comic sequences. Some visuals are locked behind challenging Story mode moments; this turns them into a sight for sore eyes once unlocked.
Each character is reasonably well-animated to use in battle. There are even some design surprises, like Park Beom-Shik’s Ultimate skill, that will be fun treats for fans. However, all the visual treats and cathartic cutscenes after hard-earned victories don’t make up for one last shortcoming.
Hunting is a Full-Time Job in Solo Leveling: ARISE
A persistent issue I have with many live-service games rears its ugly head in Solo Leveling: ARISE. After the fun chapters and re-enactments of favorite scenes, if I want to progress either in Hard Mode or the numerous special modes either present or upcoming, I have to grind. To grind in Solo Leveling: ARISE, I must complete challenges, swap between gameplay modes, and farm for gear. The first true realization players will have about this is likely in Chapter 8 of the Normal Mode playthrough.
It doesn’t matter how much skill you have in the game. If you don’t have high enough stats, you won’t beat story missions involving speedrun challenges or stay above a certain HP threshold. It forces you to play features of the game you may not enjoy as much and turns quests into chores. This turns the novelty of a series I love like Solo Leveling into a barrier of entry to rewatch moments I’ve already read, leaving a poor impression.
The Verdict
I like Solo Leveling: ARISE but can’t overlook its frustrating shortcomings and live-service gacha mechanics. It’s the type of game that should always entice me despite my misgivings about the genres it represents.
From the awkward pathfinding in playable Hunters’ attacks to the obsessive grinding, I’m still not won over. It’s perfectly approachable for newcomers in the genre, is exceptionally stable, visually impressive, and the controls are responsive. But for people who want to enjoy Solo Leveling: ARISE, it’s often more work than play.
It's perfectly approachable for newcomers in the genre, is exceptionally stable, visually impressive, and the controls are responsive. But for people who want to enjoy Solo Leveling: ARISE, it's often more work than play.
Pros
- Enjoyable both on PC and mobile devices.
- Original Hunter additions spice up the Solo Leveling experience for series fans.
- Fast-paced action takes the forefront of the experience.
Cons
- Story segments require progressive and tedious amounts of grinding.
- Beyond the action elements is a challenges and achievements system designed to keep players busy.
- Some Hunters have issues with pathfinding when attacking targets.
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Okay
