I was loving this game the first few hours. The art style is gorgeous, I liked the setting and the first bosses were really fun. Then I reached the boss that's basically a ball that shoots stuff and splits into two smaller balls once you've dealt enough damage to it. There, I felt like the game was a bit too hard. And it wasn't hard in a Dark Souls way. It felt very pushed, which isn't a bad thing per se, but that combined with the way some mechanics work and the fact that the controls didn't feel as responsive as they should've for a game so fast paced and precise as this is, resulted in a very frustrating experience.
My main issue was with what is probably the main mechanic of the game, which is that when you hit a charged attack you fill a bar, and when that bar is full you basically heal with every hit you land, plus some other stuff. This bar depleates overtime or when you use some abilities that can only be used when the bar is full.
It's a great mechanic. The problem is that the bar only fills if it's below 50%, so if you land a charged attack when you're at 51% it will do nothing, and then you have to wait until you get another opening to get another charged attack.
This may not seem like a huge deal, but when you take into accound how fast and unforigiving the combat is, you really don't get to choose when you get those charged attacks into, because the bosses don't give you that many windows. So you're basically at the mercy of the boss giving you the window at the exact time you need it, otherwise you won't be able to heal or use the special abilities. It ends up feeling very unfair.
I'd also like to mention how bad I think that particular boss's design is.
So this boss I'm talking about is basically an entity comprised of two spheres: a red one that has fire attacks, and a blue one that attacks with what would look like sound waves or something, and the way the fight works is by alternating two phases: one in which the spheres are merged into one, and another in which they separate and act on each own.
When the two spheres are together, this one entity attacks fairly slowly and alternates red and blue attacks, one at a time. In this phase, the boss basically has a shield which you deplete by attacking it, and once the shield is done, the two spheres separate and we go into phase 2.
Phase 2 is when you get a chance at actually dealing damage to the boss. The problem is that in this phase, both spheres act as individual enemies that move and attack on their own and at the same time, so it's a lot harder to find an opportunity to attack them than in the previous phase. Also, this phase is time based, and when time's up we go back to phase 1.
You can probably see how this is a pretty flawed design. You can't have a boss with a shield mechanic, and have them be a lot more aggressive and harder to damage when they have their shield off, it's just not fun and makes the fight drag a lot.
Worth mentioning that when the boss is in this second phase the fight basically turns into bullet hell, because both spheres are constantly shooting stuff all around. It's not like that's a bad thing, but I personally don't enjoy these types of designs.
I still think the game's pretty good and would recommend you to try it, and that's why I'm not giving it a bad rating after all, but I just wasn't having fun with this fight after several hours of attempts and gave up.
My main issue was with what is probably the main mechanic of the game, which is that when you hit a charged attack you fill a bar, and when that bar is full you basically heal with every hit you land, plus some other stuff. This bar depleates overtime or when you use some abilities that can only be used when the bar is full.
It's a great mechanic. The problem is that the bar only fills if it's below 50%, so if you land a charged attack when you're at 51% it will do nothing, and then you have to wait until you get another opening to get another charged attack.
This may not seem like a huge deal, but when you take into accound how fast and unforigiving the combat is, you really don't get to choose when you get those charged attacks into, because the bosses don't give you that many windows. So you're basically at the mercy of the boss giving you the window at the exact time you need it, otherwise you won't be able to heal or use the special abilities. It ends up feeling very unfair.
I'd also like to mention how bad I think that particular boss's design is.
So this boss I'm talking about is basically an entity comprised of two spheres: a red one that has fire attacks, and a blue one that attacks with what would look like sound waves or something, and the way the fight works is by alternating two phases: one in which the spheres are merged into one, and another in which they separate and act on each own.
When the two spheres are together, this one entity attacks fairly slowly and alternates red and blue attacks, one at a time. In this phase, the boss basically has a shield which you deplete by attacking it, and once the shield is done, the two spheres separate and we go into phase 2.
Phase 2 is when you get a chance at actually dealing damage to the boss. The problem is that in this phase, both spheres act as individual enemies that move and attack on their own and at the same time, so it's a lot harder to find an opportunity to attack them than in the previous phase. Also, this phase is time based, and when time's up we go back to phase 1.
You can probably see how this is a pretty flawed design. You can't have a boss with a shield mechanic, and have them be a lot more aggressive and harder to damage when they have their shield off, it's just not fun and makes the fight drag a lot.
Worth mentioning that when the boss is in this second phase the fight basically turns into bullet hell, because both spheres are constantly shooting stuff all around. It's not like that's a bad thing, but I personally don't enjoy these types of designs.
I still think the game's pretty good and would recommend you to try it, and that's why I'm not giving it a bad rating after all, but I just wasn't having fun with this fight after several hours of attempts and gave up.