Another game that started out high for me and quickly dropped and dropped in my opinion. Man, they make games too long.
First off, I think this is really good for what it is. I also don't think I personally like this style of action game, more on that below. I mostly don't get why people complain about it. There's a couple silly obtuse things like buying the guard and dodge, but it's still a fairly straightforward button masher (on normal).
I don't think the overhead combat is as fun as a Bayonetta style. I also don't think the color indicator style of combat is good at all. It lacks expressivity. When using the guard you have to learn what sortve colors and moves (I think?) will actually be guardable. And then certain enemies can only be attacked with certain of your weapon types. That's not good gameplay imo. It's still cookie cutter, the designers are still telling you the only action you can take, there's no creativity.
Leading into my next point and why I gradually just couldn't bare to load this game up anymore. There is A LOT of combat. I literally would see the combat initiate and start exhaling in frustration, until I realized that's the whole game of course and decided to abandon the thing. But it's almost comical, there starts to be two guys to take down of every guy youve already seen, the same combat arena has multiple spawns. I mean it's just too much combat. Your attacks never get stronger so you never go through health bars quicker. Why did they make the bosses health bars so long? It's almost funny, maybe the jokes on me? You see so many different colors. And losing battery makes things slower, but not more interesting.
Overall, besides combats, I really like the vibes! The shiny character portraits, the bombastic set pieces (end of chapter 1 was a highlight of everything I played), the music is silly and so is the dialogue. People are being rubes to complain about any of that stuff. Level theming is good (It does devolve a little into ice and fire generic levels it would seem - another complaint tied into length). If this was half the length I would've happily beaten it and awarded a whole star or 1.5 higher honestly!
First off, I think this is really good for what it is. I also don't think I personally like this style of action game, more on that below. I mostly don't get why people complain about it. There's a couple silly obtuse things like buying the guard and dodge, but it's still a fairly straightforward button masher (on normal).
I don't think the overhead combat is as fun as a Bayonetta style. I also don't think the color indicator style of combat is good at all. It lacks expressivity. When using the guard you have to learn what sortve colors and moves (I think?) will actually be guardable. And then certain enemies can only be attacked with certain of your weapon types. That's not good gameplay imo. It's still cookie cutter, the designers are still telling you the only action you can take, there's no creativity.
Leading into my next point and why I gradually just couldn't bare to load this game up anymore. There is A LOT of combat. I literally would see the combat initiate and start exhaling in frustration, until I realized that's the whole game of course and decided to abandon the thing. But it's almost comical, there starts to be two guys to take down of every guy youve already seen, the same combat arena has multiple spawns. I mean it's just too much combat. Your attacks never get stronger so you never go through health bars quicker. Why did they make the bosses health bars so long? It's almost funny, maybe the jokes on me? You see so many different colors. And losing battery makes things slower, but not more interesting.
Overall, besides combats, I really like the vibes! The shiny character portraits, the bombastic set pieces (end of chapter 1 was a highlight of everything I played), the music is silly and so is the dialogue. People are being rubes to complain about any of that stuff. Level theming is good (It does devolve a little into ice and fire generic levels it would seem - another complaint tied into length). If this was half the length I would've happily beaten it and awarded a whole star or 1.5 higher honestly!
4 Comments
@sadurrasti
Sure, I think you are correct. No arguments. Maybe I could've been better about saying this is only my opinion, and ultimately the game isn't for me. And I see how that inherently makes reviewing kinda stupid. Oh well!
(Also: I do think you missed my point about the health bars, which I am assuming is what you mean when you say you thought I was "complaining that it gets more difficult as you progress". No, I explicitly did not think it got more difficult, which would've been fun! I thought it got more tedious.)
Thanks for reading.
Sure, I think you are correct. No arguments. Maybe I could've been better about saying this is only my opinion, and ultimately the game isn't for me. And I see how that inherently makes reviewing kinda stupid. Oh well!
(Also: I do think you missed my point about the health bars, which I am assuming is what you mean when you say you thought I was "complaining that it gets more difficult as you progress". No, I explicitly did not think it got more difficult, which would've been fun! I thought it got more tedious.)
Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your response. I definitely did misinterpret what you were saying here about tedium vs. difficulty, which is a valid distinction of course and fair criticism. Kind of a side note, but one of the nice things W101 does to encourage faster play is the mission ranking system. If you weren't getting many platinum tokens on time, that indicates that you could be moving much faster (likely bc you're not yet grasping one or more mechanics/techniques).
Yeah, re-reading your review, I probably should have focused on what you already were saying regarding not wanting a game with tons of combat. The game is a dedicated action game, there's obviously going to be tons of combat so it's a weird thing to complain about. It seems like you made the right choice to abandon, but I'm still left a bit puzzled by what you were expecting.
Don't want to rant, but a lot of people come on here and complain about amazing games bc their expectations were just completely unfair or they just wanted to play a completely different game. I prefer reviews that engage fairly with what the game was trying to accomplish.
Yeah, re-reading your review, I probably should have focused on what you already were saying regarding not wanting a game with tons of combat. The game is a dedicated action game, there's obviously going to be tons of combat so it's a weird thing to complain about. It seems like you made the right choice to abandon, but I'm still left a bit puzzled by what you were expecting.
Don't want to rant, but a lot of people come on here and complain about amazing games bc their expectations were just completely unfair or they just wanted to play a completely different game. I prefer reviews that engage fairly with what the game was trying to accomplish.
this is very accurate
sadurrasti
23 days ago
The vibe of your review (complaining about how long the game is and complaining that it gets more difficult as you progress) leads me to believe you didn't really want to give this game a fair shot. It seems like you expected the game to get easier without any improvement of your part. Did that happen for you in Bayo? No, of course not--its a dedicated action game. If you improved at the game, the enemy health bars would vanish faster, I assure you. Your expectations are/were wack imo. If you wanted a easygoing experience where your character just gets stronger, why not play an action rpg? Why play W101 and then blame it for not being what you wanted when it was never trying to be that?