Review Trost 4/5 · Jul 14, 2023
Enemy health bar so big, this felt like a lumberjack simulator. Chop, chop, step aside, chop more.
Buy with a discount. I was able to beat this game in 6 hours while exploring areas for hidden items. But there's new game+ mode that adds new moves for the enemies, so I'd treat the first playthrough as a tutorial and new game+ as a real game.
The good:
- Well telegraphed boss attacks
- Visuals
- Combat feels impactful and satisfing. …
Buy with a discount. I was able to beat this game in 6 hours while exploring areas for hidden items. But there's new game+ mode that adds new moves for the enemies, so I'd treat the first playthrough as a tutorial and new game+ as a real game.
The good:
- Well telegraphed boss attacks
- Visuals
- Combat feels impactful and satisfing.
- Short, doesn't overstay it's welcome.
That being said, I have some issues with this game:
- It's a test of patience, like many games of this genre. You need to attack your enemy 100+ times, only to die and start over if you happen to get hit 2-3 times in a row. Of course, the lifesteal mechanic here makes it more forgiving, but it's still tedious in cases where first 50-80% of the enemy health bar are boring and the final 20% of the health bar, enemy suddenly goes all-out and spams you with new moves. And the parts where there are two bosses in a row without a checkpoint are the worst.
- You could in theory respec at any moment, but I found anything but the right branch of the counter attack tree useless in comparison.
- Counter seems OP. With counter attack + bulwark build, you can just hold attack (X) and counter when it's ready (LT) that seems to be most effective. There's not much sense in using bloodburst attack (B), active shard (RT) or light attack (mashing X). I cheesed through most bosses, taking most of the damage and not bothering to dodge much, because it's just more effective to spam charge attacks and counter.
Overall, I liked the idea of this game, but I wish the combat balance was diffferent. I still enjoyed cheezing through it by holding X, abusing counter and occasional dashing around. I'm actually glad I found this curlpit and didn't have to try that hard. Some days you just want to relax and be a filthy casual :)
