Valor Mortis puts Napoleon in a first-person soulslike

Valor Mortis is live. One More Level's first-person soulslike, published by Lyrical Games, unlocked today on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam for $39.99, and it is a day-one Xbox Game Pass title. The Lyrical Games launch release puts the unlock at 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET, which is noon CT, and it pairs the launch trailer with interviews from Vincent Cassel (Napoleon Bonaparte) and Jennifer English (The Shrike). That is a lot of star power for a studio best known for making you sprint along neon walls in Ghostrunner.

The pitch is a Napoleonic nightmare. You play William Dowsett, a Grande Armee soldier brought back from a battlefield grave into a Europe twisted by plague. Napoleon's disembodied voice guides you while his Eternal Guard, now something worse than soldiers, fills the map. The One More Level page calls it a first-person action soulslike with melee, flintlocks, and Transmutations, the left-hand powers that tear through enemies and scenery. The Xbox store listing repeats the resurrection hook in one line I like: you served Napoleon, you died for Napoleon, you have risen for Napoleon.

A soulslike with Cassel as Napoleon and Jennifer English as The Shrike is not a quiet midweek dump. It is a statement about who this game thinks it is for.

What you actually unlock today

Beebom's release-time package matches the simultaneous unlock and adds practical storefront facts: no early access, no pre-orders, no preload, so the download starts when the clock flips. Approximate install sizes land around 60 GB on PC, 50 GB on PS5, and 43 GB on Xbox. PS Plus Premium gets a 90-minute trial. Game Pass Ultimate players can start without buying the base game. The Deluxe Edition is $59.99 and bundles a major story DLC planned for next year plus cosmetic packs that arrive earlier.

That table is my reading of the launch release, not a storefront screenshot. The Steam bundle line is the quiet Ghostrunner handshake: if you already own the parkour games, Lyrical is discounting the leap into a slower, heavier combat fantasy.

Why the cast list matters more than the genre label

Soulslike is a crowded word in 2026. What made me sit up is the casting against that word. Cassel playing Napoleon as a cousin-of-the-family story in the interview package is campy and serious at once. English, coming off roles that already train audiences to listen for menace in a calm voice, as a resistance figure named The Shrike, sets a tone closer to prestige horror than loot grind. James Alexander voices William. The launch trailer leans on theatrical lighting and plague imagery rather than a feature checklist. If you bounced off first-person soulslikes that felt like checklist combat, this is the version that is selling a conspiracy and a war crime aesthetic first.

On this site the Tuesday board already has neighbors in the same launch-week energy. Our Squadron 42 Steam wishlist brief is still about a single-player space epic that will not unlock for months. Our Gears of War E-Day Premium early access note was a different kind of day-one access story. Valor Mortis is the one you can download this afternoon if Game Pass or $40 is already in the budget.

What I would check before you hit install

• Storage first. Forty to sixty gigabytes with no preload means plan the download window, especially on console bandwidth caps.
• Game Pass vs buy. If you are already on Ultimate, the decision is time, not money. If you are on PlayStation, the 90-minute trial is the honest sampler.
• Deluxe only if you want the DLC bet. Paying twenty dollars extra for a story pack that is not out yet is a trust purchase in the studio, not a feature you can play tonight.
• Expect a demanding combat loop. The release language is parries, dashes, finishers, and stamina. This is not a Ghostrunner auto-runner with a French coat of paint.
• New Game+ is promised for later this year. If you hate finishing a soulslike once and shelving it, that roadmap line is the retention pitch.

My take, tied to the noon CT unlock on the press release: this is One More Level trying to prove it can own a tone, not just a movement verb. Ghostrunner made them famous for speed. Valor Mortis asks whether the same studio can make you afraid of a corridor. Cassel and English are the insurance policy that the trailer is not lying about tone. Whether the combat holds for twenty hours is the part only players can answer after the download finishes.

How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance. Sources are linked in the piece.