As far as late 90s beat-em-ups go, this really is a pretty miserable experience. The graphics are about old-school Runescape levels of CGI and the gameplay is rigged to be as much of a monotonous quarter-muncher as humanly possible.

In fact about as much as it reinvents the wheel actually is its worst detriment: the block system. Late-game bosses block to the point that in some cases it genuinely feels like the only way you can hit them is dying, giving them a ludicrous amount of "continue" damage and doing a meagre amount of excess with the level 1 magic stocks a new life gives you, only for them to block everything once again and take you out in three hits. It's about as fun as it sounds.