I enjoyed this game a ton. It's basically Guacamelee with a Robin Hood-like premise and manhua-style cutscenes.

I certainly could have done without the hub world and it's bland side quests, but luckily those are totally optional and the game was doable even on hard. Bosses were quite challenging, but motivating to learn. The final boss in particular was a feast.

Definitely give this a try if you liked Guacamelee or are generally into metroidvania games.

Taiwanese folk hero beat 'em up platformer.
The gameplay loop is extremely solid which impressed me because I don't like beat 'em ups. The theme is distinct and quite charming, the comic book style provides some great artwork between gameplay sections. Most elements of the game are simple but good enough to get the job done which is fine.
The difficulty level is not very hard outside of bosses which are considerably more difficult and frustrating at times, though it is equally satisfying when you learn the openings and go ham on them.

-i adore this game's art style. it is absolutely amazing.

- the gameplay is super fun and simple.

- the story and setting were also really good. definitely worth playing.

Interessting Action-Plattformer with some neat ideas. Liao Tianding isn't just a fictional character but historic persona. I enjoy going back in the time of early 20th century Taiwan/Taipei with all the cultural influences from China and Japan.

The level design is quiet ok, I somehow enjoy this weapon stealing mechanic, which is mostly known by Beat-em-ups. The boss-designs are very good. But by far the best part of the game is the visual presentation. The Art work ist just nice. I also enjoy the quality of the translation (checked german and english), which isn't a given by many games from China or Taiwan.

The one thing I didn't like was running around in the City, speaking with characters I don't really care for. Felt like a waste of time until watching the credits.

It's by far not the best game ever, but a solid plattformer. Got it on lunar-new-year-sale on Steam.

First of all, I love the setting- taiwan during the japanese colonial period. This is something none of my history studies have focused on, and definitely unique among games. I could tell this was a product of a Taiwanese studio excited to export their culture not just a game theme chosen arbitrarily.

I appreciate the novelty, and I find 20th century history particularly interesting so even better.

The city you walk around in between levels is cool (probably more exciting than most of the levels actually). The game sends you on some fetch quests through this area, but I didn't find myself minding too much. {There's good fast travel options, its only a few screens large , and i think it overall works for the pacing}

The random artifact collectibles are neat. These artifacts are actually so close to being very interesting to me, except the majority of the descriptions are quite lacking. I lost count of how many descriptions were just "this is a [X] that existed during the japanese colonial period." I'm an easy person to get interested in random information, you just have to try slightly harder!

The manga framing for key events and story is rad, definetly the highlight of the presentation overall. I also enjoyed the use of Chinese voice-over, i'm glad the developers didn't decide to go for an english dub.

The gameplay is pretty fun. I don't generally play or love beat-em-ups, but i was able to find enough to vibe with here. I like how tianding's move set emphasizes motion. Stealing and cycling through enemy weapons is surprisingly enjoyable.

The boss fights feel noitcably distinct from standard gameplay. They're much harder, and your characters move set is generally more crowd focused. That said, the shadow techniques shine pretty well here, since your focus in now on a singular enemy's moves. When I play games like this I never know if the bosses are unfair or I'm just getting punished for my unreasonable aggression and lack of respect for the enemy. There's definetly moves you can't properly react to the first time here, and they can be fairly punishing

It feels kind of jarring to settle into repeated attempts on a boss when all the other gameplay is pretty easy & free flowing. I do like both halves of the gameplay here though, so overall that's fine. They do both have a sense of repetiveness though- there's only so much normal combat can be different and each boss I had to try quite a few times. Maybe i spent slightly longer trying bosses than I would have preferred, but overall the repetiveness never becomes a noticeable issue due to pacing of the game

I played on wanted outlaw difficulty- my other option was presented an easy/story mode, so i assumed this was the intended difficulty Yet I got an achievement for beating the game on hardcore difficulty, so I wonder if the split was actually normal/hard-with me unknowingly choosing hard.

I'm pretty disappointed in the train level- normally that's a level archtype that I really enjoy but I think the one in this game is actually the worst level :(. It's where the game feels the most repetetive, and its environmental hazards are annoying.

There's not much I valued in the story. Its mostly carried off the setting and likability of the main character. Legend of Tianding is mostly interested in plot, and lightly interested in characters. They didn't explore any particularly interesting ideas, although its not like I was offended or bored either. The story leans a lot into exaggeration- sometimes this works (like with the use of martial arts and special techniques) and sometimes I'm a bit apathetic (like how comically evil the villians are)


Finally shoutout to 4 color cards. I adore its inclusion