This is a decent sequel but sadly for me it was also kinda disappointing. Kingdom Battle was such an positive surprise and this new one has so many changes that just didn't work for me.

I really liked that the battle arenas were part of the main world in Kingdom Battle and all of them felt handcrafted. Now that battles take you to arena out of the main world, it makes everything feel randomly generated. It's not helping that there are more fights now and around 90% of those fights are stupidly easy and offer no challenge. Eventually I just skipped all fights that were not necessary. The new combat system itself is fine but there is just too much of it. I wish there was more variety with puzzles and stuff. I really enjoyed that aspect of this.

Switch itself is also really struggling with this one to keep even close to 30fps in open areas. This has also lost some of its charm on the visual front now that it needs to render bigger areas everything has less detail and looks somehow duller.

This was just an blast to play. At start I was little apprehensive about the movement as it's really fast and kinda slippery but the more I played the more it just clicked, this fast and manic playing style of sliding everywhere a shooting pretty much anything that moves.

Special mention for the level design and the soundtrack, they really nailed these aspects. This is one of the rare ones where the levels never felt confusing even though they can be vast horizontally and vertically. Also the music is great! There are so many different vibes in different levels. I especially enjoyed the Sunset Synthetica one with its spy movie and rock blend.

Only real gripe I have with the game is that the sliding might be little too overpowered and the guns feel secondary to these chainsaw legs of yours. Also some of the guns are not balanced that well. Especially the upgraded ones as I kinda stuck with my favorites in the latter half of the game instead of using the whole arsenal.

On paper this is such an buggy mess of a game especially in co-op with dreams of grandeur without the budget to back it up. But it somehow still works? Maybe in its so bad its good kind of way as the gameplay itself is solid enough but everything around is just kinda hilariously unfinished. The voice acting especially is something which brought me great joy with its B movie quality voice acting.

This might also have the worst final boss I have ever seen. Being dragged through walls and ceilings by these claws that have no respect for any kind of law of physics. Truly unforgettable fight.

It's rare that singleplayer game that is this long nails the pacing, but somehow they managed to do it. There is just one area ironwood that kinda halts the pacing but outside that this just feels like a grand adventure with immaculate pacing.

At the core it's still the same game as the previous one but it's just bigger and better all around.

There is sadly one con with the game and it is that there is no way to turn your companions quiet while doing puzzles and traversing. So you will run to moments when your companions will solve a puzzle for you or keep repeating where you should go next when you didn't ask for them.

Unique and atmospheric adventure through Nordic environments. It really nails the local folklore vibe. Also I promise you, there really ain't this many spiders on this side of the planet.

One of the strengths of this one is that is very varied and it keeps introducing new gameplay mechanics, environments or something else that changes how you approach the situation. The movement reminds me of older fps games like Half-Life but instead the fast-paced shooting the weapon handling is much slower and methodical which works mostly well enough but some of the bosses feel like you're just running in circles and shoot whenever you have a chance.

I finally got my sequel to Asura's Wrath but this time with narrative that throws some emotional punches as well.

For starters this is visually spectacular and I just gotta praise these character models. There are so many of them and all of the main characters with their Eikons look so stupidly cool and unique. Same goes for the soundtrack which is great especially with its epic battle themes.

Second strong point were the fights against Eikons which were always spectacles and they reminded me of Asura's Wrath which is always a positive in my eyes. The combat itself was enjoyable enough but I did wish it was more challenging. I found most of the enjoyment out of the Eikon system and trying to minimize downtime and maximize damage output. It felt more like a puzzle game at times when you add trying to stagger enemies as quickly as possible.

Now this is the stuff I don't really understand why it is even in this game at all and that is the crafting and shops. There is so much material and gold everywhere that you would think there is something to actually do with those but no, there is absolutely nothing to spend your materials or money. Only thing you can craft is items that increase either your defense or damage by couple percentage and I never felt the impact of any of these items. And shops sell these same items and potions. Now this also has the side-effect of making the sidequests feel almost pointless unless you are there for the lore as none of the rewards really matter. And as these sidequests lack any kind of imagination on their design I wish I had just skipped all of them except the ones with the plus sign.