An interesting follow-up to RE4 for Shinji Mikami. While the RE franchise is known for it's campy and stilted dialogue, and RE 4 has plenty of self aware moments, never has Mikami taken the absurd camp to such heights as in this game. You spank enemies to death, tap them in their balls and punch or kick people into the atmosphere. This game kicks ass!
The game is extremely difficult but fair. If you need proof, watch a no damage speed run. It will not only make you feel like a terrible gamer, but demonstrate it is possible to avoid all damage in this game. I sure as hell wouldn't have the patience to get good enough to accomplish this impressive feat.
It's easy to learn, but has an extremely high skill ceiling. You press square over and over again to use a pre-set combo that you make (a cool level of customization and depth). Then you can lock stagnant moves to triangle and X. If you press down (left stick) and triangle, square or x you will perform another move that you can set. This allows a lot of options. The free moves, which are only explained in the manual, are context sensitive involving the triangle and pushing up on the left or right thumb stick. I wish I knew about these before beating the game! You will need to dodge, counter or guard break enemies. All have well telegraphed moves to indicate what the correct option is for you. There's also God Mode, which has a meter below your health, that you can build up by attacking enemies and a roulette attack system. God Mode makes you invincible, your attacks are unblockable and you do twice the amount of damage but only for limited time via meter. The roulette wheel is a list of attacks you can choose that do high amounts of damage but are limited by charges. Charges can only be gained by an item pick up.
This game is isn't perfect. The difficulty curve I felt was all over the place. Elvis in his demon form was a steep difficulty spike for me. His haymakers were near impossible for me to dodge if I was attacking already due to my move load out. If I had quicker attacks, I could have dodge cancelled. The next major boss is Shannon in her demon form which was a cakewalk for me. The game gets difficult once more than 2 enemies are aggroed to you. It's not as bad as Dark Souls because you are given plenty of AOE options, but I didn't realize I had most of them. Turns out there are several free moves you get that are extremely powerful. The issue is I bought the game electronically and didn't have an instruction manual that explained the inputs for these moves. I avoided all guides while playing this game. Turns out I limited my options by doing so. In addition, the checkpoints also felt pretty inconsistent. Some levels they are extremely generous, other times you have to complete a full substage which can be challenging later in the game. Overall though, very generous with checkpoints.
The most interesting aspect of the games difficulty is it's dynamic difficulty system. You can select Easy, Normal or Hard but in addition, the better you play, the harder the enemies get. They will start using longer combos and different moves. This is the best way to do difficulty. Most games just up the damage and health of enemies, without forcing you to change how you play the game. There's a meter next to your health and TP. As it feels up and you level up, the enemies will be tougher. If you take damage or use a special ability, you can lower your level. It's a shame that this system hasn't been iterated on in a later game. A novel and cool system.
A related issue to difficulty is a lack of a tutorial. It expects you to read the manual to know about VERY important and powerful free moves. I kind of wish they did something like Demon's Souls or Dark Souls with a tutorial. Something you could skip on later playthroughs. Instead it just throws you in. I respect that, but there's very little chance for you to discover the free moves on your own.
Finally, the graphics aren't the best. Environments look pretty blocky and certainly not as good as RE 4 (I believe both games were made on the same engine). I think later levels are a big improvement in this department, but early stages look kind of samey and bland. That said, there is a purpose to the graphics. You never have an obstructed view. The camera will clip through walls, doors and obstacles to guarantee a consistent view which is important given the difficulty and amount of enemies they throw at you. It also has a radar to help you keep track of enemies that you can't see. Even projectiles will show up on the radar to allow you to react to it.
Overall, it's a great time, challenging and made me sweat from the intensity.
