Good

[ArcaneMaverick]

If you have the proper experience, sometimes you just know when a game will be good.

It's the little things like the robust options menu and much tied-together presentation. It looks and feels very good, especially the things people generally don't pay attention to. Communication is also very clear. It's a game that I would honestly label Pristine.

But I do wish we could get away from the generic Genshin Impact/Cyberconnect Naruto game fonts. Ugh.


This is more like Nioh than Souls and that's fantastic. A much better inspiration.
He even looks like William.

I know nothing of the background or setting, but it looks cool like that moon in the sky and the ice blocks had a very pretty texture to them. Details matter.

Kinda funny "they" beat this Berserk Dragon thing at level 10 or whatever.


Combat is slow though, almost too slow, and that's thanks to the Sekiro parry influence so any braindead soulsfan can't hope to screw it up. Hopefully that gets better because it feels stilted rather than with a rhythm which is absolutely essential for that mechanic to work. You need a ton of skill points to starting doing anything significant whereas Nioh has a lot of depth even with the basic stances and Flux. It might be too dependent on the parries and Potent attacks which worries me as Wo Long had a similar problem. All the bells and whistles didn't matter when the minimal core was by far the fastest, safest, strongest, most efficient way to play.

Super awesome you can respec skill points at any time. Brilliant idea!

So far I have no idea what stats really help with. The bonuses are way too small. Without a ki recovery mechanic like Nioh, the only thing that matters is stamina size and agility. Hopefully some of the later weapon skills can cover that.

I do see this getting much better so that paragraph was probably nitpicking. I only nitpick with good games though. The kind that honestly deserve that level of scrutiny because they are so good. That's a legit achievement.

Some bugs and performance problems but no deal-breakers yet.

Some hitbox issues need to be addressed. Playing around the issue doesn't solve the issue.

Ultimately too soon to tell, but it looks and feels good so it's probably one to watch.

[ArcaneMaverick]

Ugh, the complaints I see are embarrassing. Gamers are truly unfit to judge the things they play. Almost none of them are qualified or possess an analytical bone in their body.

People think this is too hard. Well, stop mashing. It really isn't. It's so incredibly slow and enemies have huge windows to hit with a fully charged potent attack without doing anything else.
No jump button? What are you twelve? Have you never played this genre before?

A lot of children don't understand that less is more. And tons of refinement and goodness come from restriction. That's where the magic is and you don't even know it.

The game ran fine with very minor issues for me so I have to assume most players just made their computer wrong.

Bland? You have no taste and are rushing through the level. You don't have enough experience to know how to observe things or how difficult some of that design and art actually is. If you did, you wouldn't be saying that. It's definitely on par with Nioh and Strangers of Paradise which were good or serviceable.

[ArcaneMaverick]

omg it's like people wanted the full game and all skills unlocked OUT OF A DEMO'S TUTORIAL.

Do people not get how these games work? The 1st playthrough is ALWAYS about enjoying the story and unlocking all the stuff, getting used to it. THEN the real game starts once you have all the tools for the next difficulty level. Again, like a Nioh or Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden.

This is why the industry has degenerated post-PS2 era. All the criers needing their hand held about everything.

The only legit complaint I've seen so far about Blade Phantom is how he's too short and kinda hard to see what he's doing when Khazan obscures him. Yeah, they needed to prioritize visibility. But it's still better indicated than most Elden Ring attacks.