I'm torn on this. This game has countless flaws all over it. The localization work isn't the best. You can clearly see the idle animations of characters not looping properly. Some UI elements are not properly aligned. Most of the time you're listening to the same 2 songs (there are more for some bosses and areas, all of it it's good at least). There's a little too much talking for a game of this kind. Some tutorials are shown multiple times, and they're usually very simple. Menus aren't necessarily bad but they feel like a first draft. Some ideas are thrown into the mix but never expanded. The game doesn't clearly state that each character has its own, separate campaign.
So I first started playing with Xiahou Xue, the girl, not knowing this was the harder of both stories. I struggled but persevered, until I hit a spike in the difficulty in the form of the boss called Tang Ming and his stupid bombs. After that? Yeah, I kind of broke the whole meta game with an ability that I can't recall its name. Demon slayer, maybe? Haha. Anyway, after landing some hits, I was able to activate it, then it powered me up for twenty-something seconds and from that point I was able to breeze my way up 'til the end of this campaign. Like, barely needing to parry or strategize anymore, as long as I kept leveling up the ability and myself.
There are some shared elements across both campaigns. For the most part, though, they're completely unrelated, which was kind of shocking for me when I started my playthrough with Lu Yunchuan. I was expecting to play as the brother of Xiahou, and see the events play from his perspective or be an alternate take of the story. That was not at all the case, as I've stated. Yeah, I didn't pay much attention to the artwork to realize the brother and Lu look nothing alike.
When playing with Lu, I got an equivalent (or maybe even it's called the same) ability through an optional challange, however the power-up would only last 13 seconds or so. So I was never ridiculously overpowered, but almost. For this reason, I felt I struggled this campaign the most. I also think it helped me understand the game a little better.
There are some mechanics that are introduced in Lu's campaign but completely, or mostly, absent in Xiahou's, such as talking to NPCs or explosive elements throughout the levels. This obviously points that the main focus of the developers was the Lu's campaign, even naming the game after his story. It was interesting for me, however, rediscovering new intentions in a game I had finished and thought I wouldn't find anything new anymore.
This is, surprisingly, not a metroidvania. It's some sort of boss-rush beat 'em up. There is plenty of combat outside of the boss fights, anyway, and some light exploration to do. Checkpoints are generous and I only struggled in few points with them. If it isn't clear yet though, this is very much a hard game, that can be cheesed but still.
I shouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did. Objectively, though, it's very much not great. I still loved my time with it.
Played through Xbox Game Pass for... what? A total of 28 hours and 8 minutes?! I idled a lot, but this is ridiculous. I did all of the achievements except for one, and most of the challanges available, so that may be it.
So I first started playing with Xiahou Xue, the girl, not knowing this was the harder of both stories. I struggled but persevered, until I hit a spike in the difficulty in the form of the boss called Tang Ming and his stupid bombs. After that? Yeah, I kind of broke the whole meta game with an ability that I can't recall its name. Demon slayer, maybe? Haha. Anyway, after landing some hits, I was able to activate it, then it powered me up for twenty-something seconds and from that point I was able to breeze my way up 'til the end of this campaign. Like, barely needing to parry or strategize anymore, as long as I kept leveling up the ability and myself.
There are some shared elements across both campaigns. For the most part, though, they're completely unrelated, which was kind of shocking for me when I started my playthrough with Lu Yunchuan. I was expecting to play as the brother of Xiahou, and see the events play from his perspective or be an alternate take of the story. That was not at all the case, as I've stated. Yeah, I didn't pay much attention to the artwork to realize the brother and Lu look nothing alike.
When playing with Lu, I got an equivalent (or maybe even it's called the same) ability through an optional challange, however the power-up would only last 13 seconds or so. So I was never ridiculously overpowered, but almost. For this reason, I felt I struggled this campaign the most. I also think it helped me understand the game a little better.
There are some mechanics that are introduced in Lu's campaign but completely, or mostly, absent in Xiahou's, such as talking to NPCs or explosive elements throughout the levels. This obviously points that the main focus of the developers was the Lu's campaign, even naming the game after his story. It was interesting for me, however, rediscovering new intentions in a game I had finished and thought I wouldn't find anything new anymore.
This is, surprisingly, not a metroidvania. It's some sort of boss-rush beat 'em up. There is plenty of combat outside of the boss fights, anyway, and some light exploration to do. Checkpoints are generous and I only struggled in few points with them. If it isn't clear yet though, this is very much a hard game, that can be cheesed but still.
I shouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did. Objectively, though, it's very much not great. I still loved my time with it.
Played through Xbox Game Pass for... what? A total of 28 hours and 8 minutes?! I idled a lot, but this is ridiculous. I did all of the achievements except for one, and most of the challanges available, so that may be it.