I just finished up my second playthrough of Umbral Soul, and the game is just as good as I remember it being. The game is refreshing from other games in that you play the story from the perspective of the villains of the story, and the author did a fantastic job in making the story engaging while simultaneously making the gameplay fun.

Story
The story open's up with a evil god being beaten by a heroic party. The main character, Lianna, is then introduced as a innocent child who is condemned by her village for being born as a dark mage. A witch hunt goes down due to fear mongering. Lianna escapes the situation with the aid of a evil god, but at the cost of her family. Lianna then changes her name to Pandora, fully embracing the darkness in her heart and becomes the servant of a twisted, evil god called Ragnarok. The game finally opens up with the main character going on missions serving Ragnarok to amass power, gain an army and, ultimately, put an end to the oppressions that dark mages face in the world by taking down the governerning force in the world and recreating the world in a image they see fit. The story does an excellent job in portraying how dark mages are despised in the story. Dark mages are regularly hunted by guards in witch hunts on the command of the king. This makes us, the audience, sympathetic to the main character's party as they all have faced suffering and hardships in the world they live in. We have seen them ridiculed and exiled for studying dark magic, one party member's dark mage mother saves a child, and the child's mother only expresses hate for her. They are despised, living in secrecy and fear. The antagonists of this story are sympathetic as well in that we see them mourn for their fallen comrades. They believe what they are doing is just in that Lumielle, their god of light, would want these xenophobic witch hunts to eradicate darkness and bring the world closer to the light. Ultimately, this is a story of a war between light and darkness.

Characters
Pandora is a summoner who is capable of unleashing monsters on the battlefield. She is shown in scenario's to be a innocent kid no different then any other, but past trauma as warped her heart into dismissive, cold-hearted woman who is hellbent on vengeance.
Damien is a String magic user. He is portrayed as sociopathic dark mage who abandoned his village to join the party in a quest to free dark mages from their oppressions. He is also another victim of the hate dark mages receive in which resulted in the death of a loved one.
Azrielle is the demon lord who joins the party. He is the lord of the abyss, which is the demon realm. He is portrayed as being a extremely cold hearted and self centered individual who believes in the strong live, and the weak die. He develops into a interesting character. He acts the way he does to instill courage in his subjects and to follow his example because individual strength is necessary to survive in their monster infested realm.
Marcus is the storm mage in the party who wants to broaden the scope of knowledge that is researched in the world, including dark magic. His father was exiled due to researching dark magic as it is forbidden. He ends up following in his father's footsteps and joins the party. His character was interesting in this cast of character's in that he had doubts constantly about the evil actions the party was committing. His presence in the party is interested in that he throws in the dynamic that he could possibly betray you and turn to the light.
Lanith is the succubus of the group who is seductive and a heartless killer. She essentially raises the main character during her childhood and watches her grow up. She lives a life of greed, taking men's lives, obtaining life force and having no interest in the main character to playing a bigger sister role to the main character and developing a friendship with a human, which is preposterous for demons.
Samson was the least interesting party member available. He is essentially just the brute who is fixated on obtaining power and obtaining the moniker of strongest man in the world. A bit underdeveloped, but I didn't use him much.

Reginald, Odin, Perseus, and Athena are the four main antagonist for this story. Reginald being the king who gives the commands, the other three being the royal knight that carries out his commands. Perseus is a generally a womanizer, Athena is described as the most powerful light mage, and Odin plays the mentor mentor role for the former two.
Serene is a priestess on the side of light who wants to try to understand Pandora and believes she has good in her and reverse her alignment from evil to good. She comes across as a extremely optimistic character and the dynamics between her and Pandora were interesting.

Gameplay and Mechanics
Like all RPG's, fighting monsters and leveling up plays a focal point. The difficulty felt just right through the story if a little easy. On my second playthrough, I never wiped out once, only nearly losing one battle in which I randomly explored and encountered a rafflesia monster that cast widespread stun, poison, and sleep. This could be due to me having some expectation as to what I should expect. One difference here that you would commonly expect in RPG's is that their is no equipment to buy or upgrade. character come with their own default equipment that cannot be removed. Some exceptions are present in which completing side quests can upgrade said equipment. The game shows a interesting summoning system in that you get to summon one monster along with your choice of two party members. Some of the summons even get dialogs in combat against bosses. Explore the world and you get to unlock more summons with different elements or playstyles to help you progress the game. An interesting feature this game has is that you get to evolve your summons once you hit a level cap with DP points. It was addictive and exciting to level this monster to see how they end up looking like. A lot of the summons end up not being used due sheer amount of them. Some way to to level the unused summons would of been nice to see their skills, it might also encourage different party members being utilized to accommodate the summon. Another feature scenario's that can be unlocked which showcases the lore of the game or character's background history. These scenario's were extremely well done, and it never felt like a slog to watch these cutscenes. It constantly made me more immersed in the game world and it's characters.

Art and Music
The music in the game was assets from other mediums. I quite liked their inclusion. The music always fit the atmosphere during the story and made the scenes more enthralling. You could get a one on one battle scene and the music starts up and makes the scene seem much more badass. The artwork was fine by my standards, nothing crazy, but nothing I would nitpick about. The mapping for the game could use a little work, but nothing I would deem bad.

Closing thoughts
All in all, this was a extremely enjoyable game to sink twenty hours on and a game I will cherish. I was extremely impressed by the story and the characters were very engaging. The only nitpicks I have is the mapping and difficulty to level all the summons. The good far outweighs any of the criticisms I have for this game. This game will be a classic for me. No other score than 5/5 seems appropriate for me. Great job on developing this game WheelmanZero.