Eastern Exorcist (2021)

I’m genuinely confused about the lack of information out there regarding this game. Every time I looked into it to decide whether I should play it or not I came across the same very few posts and threads. Not entirely sure why Eastern Exorcist isn’t more popular. At the heart of it lies a very competent side-scroller hack n’ slash action game, one that successfully blends light elements of action RPGs, soulslikes and metroidvanias, two of which I’m not usually very keen on but nevertheless appreciated how they were handled here.

The main aspect in these types of games is of course the combat, and Eastern Exorcist doesn’t shy way from digging into it, giving us a flashy, satisfying moveset with deceptively deep mechanics. In line with the game’s thematic tone - you’re an exorcist whose job is to handle restless spirits who develop strong resentments that turn them into ghosts and demons -, there’s a cool and fitting dispel mechanic that you need to use to fully dispatch enemies. The whole combat side feels fluid and rewarding to engage with, especially as you unlock more abilities throughout your playthrough. You also gain access to skill challenges outside combat that grant you new abilities, although here, even though they’re cool to use, both their learning process and their use in general feel unnecessarily convoluted. On the whole I’d have preferred combat felt a tad tighter, particularly in how it positions the player after a dash or a jump, but it’s still a very engrossing affair that never got boring. It did, however, get pretty difficult at times, and I’m not really talking about difficulty in general so much as spikes: some bosses have insane checks that will throw you off, making the enemies you’ve bumped into just before feel like a cakewalk in comparison.

Alongside all this comes a very solid presentation, with a beautifully stylised art style, great environments and an awesome soundtrack. Everything combines into an impressive audiovisual landscape way to offer a surprisingly enjoyable playthrough, one that’s actually longer than I had thought. This is because the game features two different protagonists with different fighting styles and story beats, making it quite tempting to go through it again. In fact that’s exactly what I did, which says something about this title considering I very rarely replay games these days, even ones that are designed like this. There’s a - forgivable - lack of polish in some respects, namely regarding some minor translation and texture issues, and I also don’t like the fact that you can’t return to previous chapters to clean up side quests. But overall, though it clearly doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way, Eastern Exorcist is an easy-to-recommend game for anyone who enjoys the hack and slash genre, and one I wish had at least a few more folks talking about it. 7.5/10