There are humble beginnings, and then there are the origins of soulslike protagonists. The Chosen Undead is an asylum prisoner. The Hunter is a sickbed patient. The Ashen One is a corpse, dragged from their grave. AI Limit, the inaugural soulslike from Chinese developer Sense Games, is no different. We begin face-down in the mud, in that most quintessential videogame location: the sewer.
This time, however, our protagonist is blessed with a name. Arisa is an artificial life form of indeterminate origin, though her function as a Blader is quickly established in AI Limit’s demo. After a soirée through Sewer Town, I caught up with lead designer Yang Ruchen and producer Yangbing to unpick this soulslike game’s seams for a peek at what lies beyond.
Producer Yangbing cites the DeepMind Challenge Match in 2016 as a major inspiration behind AI Limit. This five-game match pitted pro player Lee Sedol against AlphaGo, an AI program developed by Google’s DeepMind. AlphaGo’s landslide victory against a human champion was a landmark moment for AI, but it’s ancient history compared to the AI boom of the last few years.
AI Limit’s prime inspiration is Tsutomu Nihei’s Blame!, a sci-fi manga set in a dystopian megacity controlled by AI. Given AI Limit takes this as its principal theme, I ask if its developers consider this a fiction that could eventually become reality. “Based on the current situation, I don’t see it happening for the foreseeable future,” Ruchen says.
However, Sense Games doesn’t want to focus on the near future. Instead, its vision is an ultra-distant science fiction future that “delves into the relationship between humans and future artificial intelligence.” This trope is as omnipresent in videogames as it is in TV and film, with Portal’s GLaDOS and System Shock’s SHODAN enduring as the greatest villains in the medium.
AI Limit’s antagonist is the Mud, a corruptive substance that infects the remnants of humanity in Havenswell and transforms them into horrific monsters known collectively as the Void. It isn’t a world away from Blame!’s Silicon Life, though its biomechanical horror is translated into the organic. The survivors of this pseudo-plague wrap themselves in tattered robes and huddle on dirty mattresses alongside the dead. Down here, in the dark, their hostility and despair echo the cyberpunk undertones of Bloodborne’s Yharnam.
The synonymity of soulslikes has become a staple of the genre, but AI Limit’s anime-style characters leap out of its brutalist environments. “In the early stage of development, [we] realized that a realistic art direction would require a significantly higher cost,” Yangbing says. He refers to the movie adaptation of Blame! and its blend of 2D and 3D as a key touchstone for AI Limit’s art direction. Bandai Namco’s Code Vein employs a similar technique, but the contrast is nowhere near as stark as in AI Limit’s Sewer Town.
The sewer is a tried-and-tested tutorial location, and for good reason: such an enclosed space is ideal for players to get their bearings without becoming overwhelmed. The first glimpse of daylight comes in the demo’s final moments, when I venture beyond an open manhole cover and emerge on the outskirts of a ramshackle shanty town banking a colossal city wall.
With so much promise packed into a lingering shot behind AI Limit’s title card, I ask if this linearity continues into Havenswell. “Most of the later levels follow a linear progression, but there will be two or three branching levels,” Yangbing clarifies.
I’m curious if that linearity extends to the story and its characters. “They’re not traditional quest-based NPCs,” Ruchen attests. There is no quest log here; Arisa is not Havenswell’s resident errand girl. Even so, questlines aren’t as fragmented as classic soulslikes, where the most innocuous action might break a storyline for the rest of your playthrough.
“The NPCs will reappear in later levels as players progress. There may be relationships between these NPCs that influence each other in the questlines,” Ruchen teases. “There will be one or two major branch points that can cause quest failure,” Yangbing adds, “but for the most part you can go back for those NPCs and continue their quest.”
Yangbing asserts that level design and combat experience lie at the forefront of AI Limit, rather than the high difficulty level often attributed to soulslikes. “Compared to Devil May Cry, the soulslike genre isn’t that hard because exploration and character leveling lessen the difficulty.” It’s a sentiment I can get behind; you can overcome even the toughest bosses in FromSoftware’s arsenal once you’ve raised the currency to spend on more health, stamina, and damage to survive them.
This, too, is where AI Limit departs from the convention of FromSoftware’s flagship series. “It’s not a good experience to go and pick up your souls,” Ruchen determines. “It can be a little grating.” Instead, Sense Games takes a leaf out of Sekiro’s book. Upon death, I only lose a quarter of AI Limit’s currency, which Ruchen divulges “serves as an economic foundation driven by the church.” Lore aside, this decision breaks the failure loop of constant backtracking and grinding to keep the forward momentum going.
AI Limit’s world may be hostile, but its battle-ready protagonist is quite literally built to endure. That brings me to stamina management, another traditional soulslike convention that AI Limit foregoes. It’s an omission that’s becoming more common in action soulslikes such as Sekiro, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, which replace the slow and careful cadence of Dark Souls with a fast-paced combat style. However, this decision is as thematic as it is mechanical. “We want to showcase [Arisa’s] power by removing her stamina bar,” Yangbing explains.
This nod to character expression is a clever twist on lifting a constraint otherwise typical of the genre. In soulslikes, we are often forced to feel the weight of our character’s physical limitations, as an extension of human fragility. But Arisa is not human – and unlike stamina management, AI Limit’s Sync system empowers her instead. “It’s essentially a form of energy accumulation that encourages players to be more aggressive,” Ruchen explains. “It’s divided into several levels. The higher levels grant a stronger attack power.”
It’s pretty much the opposite of a stamina system but comes with its own risk. ‘Don’t get greedy’ is a familiar refrain for any Souls fan, and this Sync system remains a constant temptation to overextend and risk premature death. Even if you do manage to avoid taking damage, exhausting your Sync Rate can undercut your attack power and put you in a weakened state. “Players need to find a balance,” Ruchen affirms.
Yangbing says there are “more than ten bosses” with “several elite enemies that can provide a challenge.” I’ve encountered one such boss in AI Limit’s demo: Lore, the Lost Lancer. This tutorial boss is cut from the same cloth as Dark Souls 3’s Iudex Gundyr; a gentle skill check whose sweep attacks and overhead leaps are an exercise in well-timed attacks and dodges.
Lore’s a bit of a pushover for a soulslike vet, but Hunter of Bladers, the pink-haired nightmare lurking in the demo’s boss challenge mode, shows that Sense Games is unafraid to put the player through their paces. She doesn’t quite reach the deadly pinnacle of Elden Ring’s Malenia, but she could certainly pass as a distant relation to Bloodborne’s Lady Maria. Hunter of Bladers cuts me to ribbons with a chilling revelation: enemies can utilize the Sync system, too.
“A boss challenge mode is now under consideration,” Yangbing tells me, which strikes me as an astute decision. AI Limit will take approximately 20 hours to complete, which is a little on the shorter side for the average soulslike; a boss challenge mode would eke out a playthrough for at least a few more hours. I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit duking it out with Hunter of Bladers – most often while wearing bunny ears and sporting missile launchers for hands.
No upcoming PC game is ever released in a vacuum – over 18,000 were released on Steam in 2024 alone – but Elden Ring’s mainstream acclaim has resulted in a crowded release calendar for soulslike fans. Sense Games has managed to avoid Elden Ring: Nightreign and Lies of P: Overture, but AI Limit still shares a release date with Nexon’s The First Berserker: Khazan.
“On the business side, sharing the same release window with Khazan is not what we wish to happen,” Yangbing admits. However, he remains confident that AI Limit’s setting, gameplay, and female protagonist separate it from its genre competitor. “We think players will choose both games to play; that’s what we hope to happen,” he adds with a smile.
After taking Khazan’s demo for a spin, that hope isn’t as faint as their shared aesthetics may suggest. Khazan’s influence lies in Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, and its blood-soaked revenge fantasy bears little resemblance to the cerebral overtures of AI Limit. There is a peaceful co-existence to be found here, and the price point disparity might well tip the scales in AI Limit’s favor. Only time will tell; either way, I plan to put a few more hours into the AI Limit demo before the full version arrives on March 27.
