Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster Deep Dive: Beast Souls, Arena Duels, and Both Endings

Overview

Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster is a hand-drawn 2D Metroidvania from Dormidin Studio, published by Selecta Play, which hit Steam on September 9, 2026 at $14.99. You play the last of the Beastmasters, a warrior who harvests the souls of defeated beasts and uses them to transform, unlock routes, and carve through the kingdom of Arborea. The story setup is pure sword-and-sorcery: the new king of Imperia and the Sacred Kingdom have declared war on non-humans, with one of the Last Wizards of Arborea, Trece XIII, supplying the sorcery. A prophecy says a chosen one will unite men and beasts. You decide how that prophecy lands, because the game ships with a bad ending and a good ending.

The hook that separates it from the Metroidvania crowd is the arena duel system: certain fights switch to a close camera with fighting-game energy bars, straight out of the classic 1v1 arcade era. Between those duels you have a continuous interconnected map, sword techniques from your old Sensei, curses to collect, and a ritual necklace that customizes your stats with beads.

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Getting Started: The First Three Hours

Early reviews from launch week flag one thing above all: combat feels fluid from minute one, but the game does not hold your hand with tutorials. These habits will carry you through the opening:

1. Dash through everything first, attack second. Collision with enemies damages you when you fail to time the dash. One early reviewer bounced off the game entirely because they missed this; the combat opens up the moment dashing becomes reflex.
2. Kill new beast types twice. Beast souls power your transformations and skills, and some routes only open with specific beast forms. When you meet a new creature, farm a couple of quick respawns before moving on.
3. Spend beads on vitality early. The ritual necklace takes fangs, amulets, and plant roots that change attacks, vitality, or Mana. Vitality upgrades forgive mistakes better than attack upgrades early on.
4. Talk to every NPC twice. Gossip is a purchase-able resource in this game (there is an achievement for buying all of it), and NPC threads feed the anime-style story arcs and mission unlocks.
5. Block intentionally, not reflexively. Excommunicated (block 100 attacks, 6.1% of players) exists because blocking is a deliberate skill. Practice against slow first-area enemies.

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Core Mechanics: The Systems of Arborea

Beast souls and shapeshifting

Defeated beasts surrender their souls, and each soul is a tool: a transformation form with its own movement and attack profile, plus animal skills that permanently expand your traversal kit. Hole in Your Pocket (unlock all animal skills, 1.9%) is the completionist's checklist. Practical use: hold two or three versatile forms, rotate them per zone, and remember that some bosses are dramatically easier in a specific form.

The ritual necklace and beads

Beads are the build system. Fangs skew offense, amulets lean utility, plant roots feed vitality and Mana. Since slots expand as you progress, the necklace is where a strength build becomes a Mana-tank build. Re-speccing is cheap; experimentation is encouraged.

Sword techniques and the Sensei

Sword techniques are discovered through play and through NPC threads tied to your old Sensei's teachings. Cartographer (learn all sword techniques, 1.6%) doubles as the game's skill-completion marker. Techniques change combo finishers more than raw damage, so learning which finisher breaks enemy guards matters more than spamming the longest combo.

Arena duels

Arena fights reframe combat with a close camera and fighting-game energy bars. They reward blocking, spacing, and reading tells over crowd-control combos. You also earn unique items and skill enhancements inside arenas, so treat them as optional-but-lucrative boxing gyms scattered through the story.

Curses, potions, and summons

Your Sensei's path also unlocks magic potions and summon curses. The Student Becomes the Master (collect all curses, 0.9%) is one of the rarest achievements in the game, which tells you curses are hidden well. In practice, curses act as panic buttons and boss-openers: drop a summon, reposition, punish.

Map, fast travel, and NG+

The continuous Metroidvania map unlocks fast travel points as you explore, with I See You, I Hit You (unlock all fast travel, 2.9%) and Enjoy Your Trip (uncover the whole map, 2.2%) marking full exploration. After finishing the story you can start a New Game run with all difficulty settings enabled, which There Can Only Be One (0.3%) demands you finish.

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Progression Strategy: First 10 Hours

Hours 1 to 3: vitality and blocking. Stack vitality beads, learn dash timing on trash mobs, clear the opening zone's arena once for the unique item. Do not chase collectibles yet; movement upgrades come fast and will make backtracking painless.

Hours 3 to 6: souls and routes. Farm the beasts that gate routes, unlock your first two animal skills, and buy gossip from every NPC you meet. The story arcs open on NPC trust as much as on map progress.

Hours 6 to 10: techniques and curses. This is when sword techniques start dropping from bosses and Sensei encounters. Respec the necklace around your favorite technique's element. Clear every arena you pass; the unique items compound.

The ending decision: the bad ending (Dethroned, 2.9%) and good ending (A Trip to the Hair Salon, 1.6%) split on late-game choices tied to the prophecy and how you handle Thirteen (What Lies Beneath, 0.6%). Save before the point of no return. If you plan to 100% the game, you need both endings anyway.

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Boss Guide: The Confirmed Boss Ladder

Achievement data names four major bosses and one secret-tier threat:

Die, Monster, Die! (die 200 times, 10.6%) is the game's most honest achievement: it statistically acknowledges that you will die, a lot, and the game is designed around pattern learning rather than stat walls.

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Collectibles and Completion Checklist

The 100% route touches nine collectible systems. Completion rates show which are realistically attainable:

• Evospheres (Hunting the Hunters, 0.6%): hidden creature captures scattered across zones.
• Soul fragments (Malevolent Shrine, 0.6%): endgame fragments tied to the deepest lore.
• Miss Death's lost souls (Uzumaki, 1.9%): a side-thread NPC trades gossip for soul-hunting missions.
• Key objects (Early Retirement, 0.6%): quest items that gate the true route.
• "18" books (The Last Supper, 0.6%): lore documents numbered across the world.
• Potion and ring slots (Ding-a-ling, 0.3%): expansion pickups that permanently widen your loadout.
• S-Tier hunts (Lionheart, 1.2%): optional superboss-class enemies that drop the best gear materials.
• Gold, 200,000 (Shinigami, 1.2%): grind-friendly if you replay arenas late.
• All gossip (Dance, Ren, Dance, 1.9%): buy every rumor, cheap and early.

Full completion plus NG+ with all difficulty settings (There Can Only Be One, 0.3%) puts the true 100% around 40 to 60 hours. The critical path with one ending is closer to 15 to 20.

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Advanced Tips From Launch-Week Players

• Dash i-frames are more generous than they look. Dash into attacks, not away, and collision damage stops being a problem.
• Arena duels reward blocking over dodging. The fighting-game energy bars mean chip damage exists; blocking preserves your health economy.
• Beast forms have hidden utility beyond combat. Several movement upgrades only function in specific forms, so rotate forms when a ledge looks impossible.
• One launch reviewer criticized the dead-stop on attacks and the collision damage system; the dash-first mindset fixes both complaints.
• Buy potions before boss gates, not after dying to one. Ren's Revenge (use 200 consumables, 2.2%) confirms consumables are meant to be spent, not hoarded.

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System Requirements and Performance

Hand-drawn art at 1080p is the technical burden here, and the GTX 970 minimum reflects that. Full controller support covers DualShock 4 and DualSense. Text localization ships in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese-Brazil. Steam Deck verification is pending as of launch week.

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FAQ

Is Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster good? Launch-week consensus: fluid, dash-driven combat and gorgeous hand-drawn art, carried down slightly by a punishing onboarding curve. The Technetbook review frames it as a solid sword-and-sorcery Metroidvania.

How long is the game? 15 to 20 hours for one ending. 100% completion with both endings and NG+ runs 40 to 60.

How do you get the good ending? Late-game choices around the prophecy and Thirteen decide it. Keep a save before the final act; the achievement data shows the good ending is rarer than the bad one, which means many players are locking themselves out without knowing.

Is it like Castlevania or Blasphemous? Structurally yes, Metroidvania with ability-gated routes. The arena duels and shapeshifting are its own flavor, closer to classic fighting games than to either comparison.

Does it have New Game+? Yes. NG+ runs with all difficulty settings enabled are required for There Can Only Be One, the rarest story achievement (0.3%).

What is the best early bead build? Vitality roots and one offense bead. Survivability first; damage scaling comes free with techniques.

One tip for the first boss? Belamorte's delayed slash is the entire fight. Block it, punish the recovery, and do not get greedy with combo finishers.