Charming presentation that doesn't quite make up for being a pretty bad soulslike
The art and writing is unequivocally good from start to finish. "Borrowers" style settings made of everyday objects aren't uncommon, but ACT does it particularly well. Each character and environment is super clever - a standout being the boss who uses a pair of disposable chopsticks as a sword. The puns are cute, but used sparingly enough to not get annoying, and even the story was better than expected. I like the ending's lack of resolution, very dark souls-y.
For awhile, that was enough for me to ignore some... rough gameplay issues. Lots of minor bugs; I've never been so often been thrown into the sky from hitbox overlapping. I was constantly getting stuck in weird geometry crevices. And I did encounter two situations that required alt+f4
But even putting aside technical issues, the combat gets very old very fast. The attacks are floaty and lack impact. Parries and stuns send enemies flying backwards out of your range, turning what's supposed to be an advantage into frequent missed opportunities. Enemies can push you by just walking into you, and their attacks frequently send you flying backwards, which leads to a lot of annoying falling off tight platforms.
To top it off, it's very easy if you're at all familiar with souls-likes. There's not much enemy variety, and many of the bosses are just reskins or return as normal enemies, meaning you're not gonna need to "learn the fight". If you can parry, every fight is a cake walk. They made a baffling choice by having a vitality stat that you can level up AND heart container style collectables. So even without investment, your total health will increase. Quickly realized there was no reason to put points there, or in the magic stat. A little RES investment combined with the easily unlockable skill that lets you repair shell damage and you never really need to worry about defense. Just dump every level up in attack.
I definitely hit a point where I was just playing cause I could tell I was near the end. Slogging through the final areas, fighting the same enemies from the first area. Asking "Why is this a souls like?" There's so much platforming, that part of me wonders if it started life as a mascot platformer/collectathon.
Can't help but put a lot of emphasis on how I had the same reaction to Going Under. Both are games trying to be part of an extremely specific (and particularly difficult) action genre, and both fail. I really like Aggro Crab's sensibilities, but I don't think they have the chops to make tight, interesting, good-feeling action games.
It also doesn't help that they keep releasing at the same time as Supergiant, a studio that does everything they do but better :(
The art and writing is unequivocally good from start to finish. "Borrowers" style settings made of everyday objects aren't uncommon, but ACT does it particularly well. Each character and environment is super clever - a standout being the boss who uses a pair of disposable chopsticks as a sword. The puns are cute, but used sparingly enough to not get annoying, and even the story was better than expected. I like the ending's lack of resolution, very dark souls-y.
For awhile, that was enough for me to ignore some... rough gameplay issues. Lots of minor bugs; I've never been so often been thrown into the sky from hitbox overlapping. I was constantly getting stuck in weird geometry crevices. And I did encounter two situations that required alt+f4
But even putting aside technical issues, the combat gets very old very fast. The attacks are floaty and lack impact. Parries and stuns send enemies flying backwards out of your range, turning what's supposed to be an advantage into frequent missed opportunities. Enemies can push you by just walking into you, and their attacks frequently send you flying backwards, which leads to a lot of annoying falling off tight platforms.
To top it off, it's very easy if you're at all familiar with souls-likes. There's not much enemy variety, and many of the bosses are just reskins or return as normal enemies, meaning you're not gonna need to "learn the fight". If you can parry, every fight is a cake walk. They made a baffling choice by having a vitality stat that you can level up AND heart container style collectables. So even without investment, your total health will increase. Quickly realized there was no reason to put points there, or in the magic stat. A little RES investment combined with the easily unlockable skill that lets you repair shell damage and you never really need to worry about defense. Just dump every level up in attack.
I definitely hit a point where I was just playing cause I could tell I was near the end. Slogging through the final areas, fighting the same enemies from the first area. Asking "Why is this a souls like?" There's so much platforming, that part of me wonders if it started life as a mascot platformer/collectathon.
Can't help but put a lot of emphasis on how I had the same reaction to Going Under. Both are games trying to be part of an extremely specific (and particularly difficult) action genre, and both fail. I really like Aggro Crab's sensibilities, but I don't think they have the chops to make tight, interesting, good-feeling action games.
It also doesn't help that they keep releasing at the same time as Supergiant, a studio that does everything they do but better :(