Beat during free trial on xbox gold. Nice of them to offer a free trial of longer duration than the game. I put my first skill into power attack and found that useful for the slow enemies carrying statues, and killed others with timed parries. I proceeded underground to kill the first boss, which took a few tries to figure out. Then rather than continue on into the cistern I decided to go up into the snowy mountains. That place was a pain and I died a lot due to platforming fails. Most of my deaths in the game were from falls. I struggled severely with the boss and his bullet hell attacks. I really felt I should have gone the other way to find more upgrades and considered giving up to do just that, but the idea of climbing up again.... no. After maybe a dozen or more attempts I finally beat the bastard. Then I went back underground and onward to the 3 witches boss, who I owned with a single try despite messing up and getting hit often. Yes, definitely should have done them in the other order. By this point I was using defense trinkets for physical, toxic, fire, magic, and lightning damage, depending on what the enemy was doing. I would also micromanage the health boost trinket at rest and take it off when I lost that hp. My sword heart was the one that boosted damage at low hp because it was the only one without a penalty. For magic I used the rotating orb shield, because it said it can block projectiles, or the attack speed increase.
Next the boss with the great mace, who was tough and took several tries. It was about knowing when to dodge or jump, and attacking from behind. Got through the next areas and bosses without too much trouble, though of course there were some frustrating platforming bits. The worm boss took 2 tries because I did not realize getting grabbed by the giant baby was instant death. Otherwise it felt like all my defense, resists and healing allowed me to not worry about taking hits. The undead bishop only took 1 try and I got good use out of the attack speed magic. The fire boss took 3 or 4 tries, but the 1st try didn't really count because I was unprepared with only 1 healing potion. He was not too difficult once his pattern was learned, and this was the only boss where I found use for the ranged attack. Then off to the end of the game. Sword missy took quite a few tries. I got her by equipping the trinket that reduces dodge cooldown; attack from front to break her guard then quickly dodge behind to hit once, then quickly dodge again to hit her after she turned. Keep up aggressive attacks and frequent dodges. The main trouble was her specials. Then I attempted the final boss without trying too hard because I knew there was a ton of stuff I missed. Just from observing the places I could not reach I knew there were powerups for jumping in water, falling from height, those swirly intangible platforms, and maybe a grappling hook or something for those knobby things. But where are all these things? Checked a walkthrough. Ok there was a background door in the very beginning for that key I purchased. Then I completed the sidequests to unlock all of these powers and methodically returned to each area to look for missed stuff. I used a walkthrough to find most of the stuff I missed, did all but 1 confessor arena, beat the final boss for the bad ending then again for the good ending. The life steal on kill sword ability was amazing for normal enemies, but obviously useless for bosses. For my 1st real attempt on the final boss I used the berserker sword ability, reasoning that the lowered defense only applied to physical; it did not, so back to the attack boost at low hp. I did not bother to use any magic or fancy moves; just jumping around and quick attacks. For trinkets I used: move speed, attack, and 6 of the best defense items for each type of damage. I did not see the need to micromanage trinkets to optimize for particular spells or for faster/invulnerable use of the healing potions.
By the end I had about 90% complete. I had all the healing potions upgraded 3 times. I had another quicksilver to upgrade them again but did not think losing another potion was worth it. I had all the trinket slots and maxed hp, but missed 1 mana upgrade. I did not have all trinkets, relics, sword hearts or prayers, but saw no need to track them down. I upgraded my sword for every move except the 2 alternate 4th hit combos. I still mostly used regular quick attacks, but the dodge lunge, heavy charge attack with range, and area drop down into the ground, were great abilities for certain situations. I found 2 of the stained glass flower areas, but they were timed platforming crap. I see no point to buy the game now, nor any need to get the stuff I missed. But I might play more and try new game+ and the boss gauntlet mode if the game ever goes free on xbox gold or has another free trial.
I enjoyed the game, mostly for scratching that metroidvania itch. Loved the nostalgic map style and obvious secrets to come back for after getting the correct new ability. Being able to customize the map with my own pins was awesome, but I did not realize it until late game and thus missed a lot of the potential. That should have been in a tutorial. The combat was great; felt tight, impactful and skill based. Loved the brutal gore executions. I even learned new tricks while backtracking and fighting old enemies again. The Dark Souls bonfire system worked really well. I liked how they and the many shortcuts broke the game up into bite sized challenges, and the enemies not respawning just from changing screen. Some bosses were brutal and definitely designed to be failed repeatedly until mastering their moves. But what caused me the most swearing was the instant death platforming. While far from the most difficult platforming out there, there were some truly frustrating sequences that combined enemies and instant death platforming. I really felt there needed to be a relic that caused you to only lose hp from spikes and pits, rather than die. The heavy dark Christian themes and setting of the world were fascinating but the actual narrative was weak. While I understood more or less what was going on, the dialogue felt like it was trying too hard to tick off interesting words in the thesaurus rather than being an engaging story.
7.8/10
