I just want to add a couple points now that the game is finally out of Early Access.
-- Having all the assigned button presses in your UI demonstrating what your weapons or skills are is great...it's kind of a Souls Standard. But listing healing as a button press and then not letting the player know that it's a button HOLD is kind of a big deal...especially when it's 1. also tied to ammo reload as a button press and 2. has to be HELD THE ENTIRE TIME YOU'RE HEALING OR IT AUTOMATICALLY STOPS.
-- 3D one-hit-kill traps in a 2D environment are stupid if you don't make it easily definable for the player to know WHEN the trap is lethal. In the case of swinging pendulums that are supposed to be cutting from the back of the screen and past it to the front, the answer is WHILE THEY'RE IN THE BACKGROUND. Which is a really weird answer, considering where they are, but I may also be salty from losing a boatload of currency to jumping at a time that seemed reasonable, only to die. Add in the fact that you're jumping between ledges over one-hit-kill pits and it doesn't make the platforming concept better, especially when it's not a platforming game as much as a combat game. Go figure.
I might come back to this again at some point but it's definitely going in the backlog. It's one of those soulslike games that tries to be intentionally vague and mysterious, but just comes off as unintuitive and frustrating. When it's fun, it's fun, and when it's not, it's the other 50% of the time and it's not hard to see why adding up the global achievements for all eight endings equates to runs being finished only 2.3% of the time.
Original review follows.
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Things I like:
-- You have a double jump and in conjunction with your sword swing upward or forward, you can basically get a triple jump or an air dash, so mobility is awesome in some respects.
-- That's really it. Everything else is serviceable.
I think the worst thing going for this game (it's still in Early Access, I believe, but coming out of it soon?) is that there's a random health and ammo drop system in play. You can spend your currency on ammo, but you can also just shoot a bunch and hope some ammo drops. You can attack carefully and play a very slow game, but you can also just be aggressive and hope some health drops.
There's a lot of inconsistency in getting these drops to happen, so you're sometimes taking risks you shouldn't be taking under the notion that you might get the drops you need and then finding yourself sorely disappointed. There are health checkpoints along the way through areas, as well as bonfire-like travel locations that you can rest at, so making these mini-health drops just seems to encourage unnecessary recklessness (at least with me, as I didn't start taking hits until I started seeing plentiful health drops, only to suddenly find myself getting NONE when I actually needed them).
Maybe that's a me problem, but it strikes me as odd when the game seems to encourage being careful the rest of the time.
Also, lots of ways to accidentally kill yourself (pits included) in a 2D game that encourages exploration, so fun times there.
Leveling up is basically spending currency you get in the actual exploration areas and leveling up your health or your energy. Your energy just gives you more uses of your powers and your health is...your health. Actual damage is only upgraded via weapon drops you find, as far as I can tell. In all my exploring early on, I got a boatload of the same guns as drops and one actually better gun from about a hundred or more enemies.
It's not a bad game. It's just not overly exciting and I feel like it could tweak a few things to make it more enjoyable. Also, the music makes me want to take a nap, so maybe not the best thing for a game where I need to stay alert so I don't die.
-- Having all the assigned button presses in your UI demonstrating what your weapons or skills are is great...it's kind of a Souls Standard. But listing healing as a button press and then not letting the player know that it's a button HOLD is kind of a big deal...especially when it's 1. also tied to ammo reload as a button press and 2. has to be HELD THE ENTIRE TIME YOU'RE HEALING OR IT AUTOMATICALLY STOPS.
-- 3D one-hit-kill traps in a 2D environment are stupid if you don't make it easily definable for the player to know WHEN the trap is lethal. In the case of swinging pendulums that are supposed to be cutting from the back of the screen and past it to the front, the answer is WHILE THEY'RE IN THE BACKGROUND. Which is a really weird answer, considering where they are, but I may also be salty from losing a boatload of currency to jumping at a time that seemed reasonable, only to die. Add in the fact that you're jumping between ledges over one-hit-kill pits and it doesn't make the platforming concept better, especially when it's not a platforming game as much as a combat game. Go figure.
I might come back to this again at some point but it's definitely going in the backlog. It's one of those soulslike games that tries to be intentionally vague and mysterious, but just comes off as unintuitive and frustrating. When it's fun, it's fun, and when it's not, it's the other 50% of the time and it's not hard to see why adding up the global achievements for all eight endings equates to runs being finished only 2.3% of the time.
Original review follows.
-----------------------------
Things I like:
-- You have a double jump and in conjunction with your sword swing upward or forward, you can basically get a triple jump or an air dash, so mobility is awesome in some respects.
-- That's really it. Everything else is serviceable.
I think the worst thing going for this game (it's still in Early Access, I believe, but coming out of it soon?) is that there's a random health and ammo drop system in play. You can spend your currency on ammo, but you can also just shoot a bunch and hope some ammo drops. You can attack carefully and play a very slow game, but you can also just be aggressive and hope some health drops.
There's a lot of inconsistency in getting these drops to happen, so you're sometimes taking risks you shouldn't be taking under the notion that you might get the drops you need and then finding yourself sorely disappointed. There are health checkpoints along the way through areas, as well as bonfire-like travel locations that you can rest at, so making these mini-health drops just seems to encourage unnecessary recklessness (at least with me, as I didn't start taking hits until I started seeing plentiful health drops, only to suddenly find myself getting NONE when I actually needed them).
Maybe that's a me problem, but it strikes me as odd when the game seems to encourage being careful the rest of the time.
Also, lots of ways to accidentally kill yourself (pits included) in a 2D game that encourages exploration, so fun times there.
Leveling up is basically spending currency you get in the actual exploration areas and leveling up your health or your energy. Your energy just gives you more uses of your powers and your health is...your health. Actual damage is only upgraded via weapon drops you find, as far as I can tell. In all my exploring early on, I got a boatload of the same guns as drops and one actually better gun from about a hundred or more enemies.
It's not a bad game. It's just not overly exciting and I feel like it could tweak a few things to make it more enjoyable. Also, the music makes me want to take a nap, so maybe not the best thing for a game where I need to stay alert so I don't die.