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.
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.