Beat on slow motion mode. This game was somewhat weird. 1 button shot shuriken while the other swung a sword. Up was jump and the jump height was massive. There was a little directional control while mid air but not enough to always go where I wanted. Enemies spawned constantly, often jumping over me and seeming like it was completely random if they had a trajectory to potentially hit me. The stages were too big with very little going on, with the goal being to collect power ups before heading to the boss. Enemies dropped orbs that healed and increased max hp but this only applied after losing all current hp. It was a strange way of implementing it. They also dropped keys that opened side rooms with permanent power ups, magic, or a mini boss. There was some incentive to farm regular enemies. The blacks took 1 sword or 2 shuriken to kill, while reds took 2 sword and were not really worth fighting. The mini boss and actual boss were easily killed with shuriken to the ankle. The next stage was a little more advanced and the boss dropped a piece of the demon sword. I really liked how the size of the sword increased on the sprite, with the hitbox and damage also suitably increasing. Red guys now took 1 sword to kill but new more dangerous enemies appeared. Stage 3 confused me because it seemed to be looping endlessly. I looked up the walkthrough but it just said "go through the stage". How? Eventually I figured out there was a bottom so figured I had to go up, which lead to a dumb wizard boss with ridiculously slow reaction time. I could just slip behind him and back stab him for hours. The mini bosses got a little tougher with each new world. After beating the next stage and getting yet another length upgrade the sword began killing every regular enemy in 1 hit. The platforming got more challenging in the next world but there was no instant death. To make up for dying in 1 hit the enemies began throwing their own shuriken, while mine by now went the whole screen. The castle stage required some navigation to find the correct way up, where I finally tried out magic on the boss since he was surrounded by a magic shield. Lightning flashed the entire screen and I used all I had. Fire put balls rotating around me, which was useless for this boss and it would not allow me to cast the 3rd spell while they were still active. So shuriken to the ankle it was. After this was the final stage with the sword getting max size. This was a very confusing stage because the correct path was down from the middle area. I went up and right checking the walls of the stage, so the correct path was the last place I went. My shuriken changed to chakrams with enough damage to 1 shot many enemies. The mini bosses here could only be hurt in the head and I lost a lot of hp killing 1, so I ignored the rest. My hp reserves got pretty low here but I got a half decent amount in time for the final boss, which was another mage like the previous guy. The wave spell shot a projectile about the size of the character, and it absolutely wrecked the boss. I didn't even use my full stock. Then was the final cutscene stabbing the demon with the sword, but it seemed like it would turn into a final epic battle. Missed opportunity there.

This game was ok but I would have preferred more straightforward stages. The combat was pretty nuanced with 2 weapons and 3 spells, but movengnt was so fast and jumps so high that enemies felt more like an after thought.

6.8/10