Great combat and gameplay, without any of the overwhelming min max crap and abundantly useless items you encounter in other RPGs and games similar to Dark Souls.

For people who don't have time to waste on frills, this game is a perfect 3-8 hour playthrough on normal. Every enemy is someone to learn from. Strategies for dealing with enemies are naturally formed as they obey the same rules and use largely the same moves the player does.

Nightmare mode tests the skills you learned on normal, and gives the player additional lore that those engrossed in the story and setting will appreciate (the story is ignorable, but for those who enjoy it, the good ending is discoverable with sufficient gumption).

You can build physical and/or magic damage characters. For players who are less mechanically skilled, grinding up a build that can stomp the hardest of bosses will only take a few hours - but defeating the final boss with zero upgrades is a plausible, albiet difficult task.

All in all, the gameplay is compact and concise - the experience does not require tens or hundreds of hours to fully appreciate, which is a positive for players like me. The combat system manages to maintain simplicity throughout the game while simultaneously leaving multiple styles of combat open for the player - players can tackle a majority of the enemies through any mix of dodging, blocking, and dash stunning (bosses may require more than one, naturally). Magic damage can be used to supplement physical combat, or downright replace it with sufficient levels (no mechanical skill necessary to beat any boss and enemy if you just nuke it to death).

To those who find frustration or boredom out of a need to build up their character, this is likely your own fault. Beating the game in a timely manner does not require mechanical skill - the least mechanically inclined players can beat it in less than 10 hours by being careful with spending their experience at safe intervals - the only thing this game punishes is recklessness and thoughtless actions. If physical combat is too difficult, magic can make the game a breeze by removing much (but not all) of the need to read and anticipate your enemies actions.

tl;dr: get gud, or nut up - this game is fun.

Great combat and gameplay, without any of the overwhelming min max crap and abundantly useless items you encounter in other RPGs and games similar to Dark Souls. For people who don't have time to waste on frills, this game is a perfect 3-8 hour playthrough on normal. Every enemy is someone to learn from. Strategies for dealing with enemies are naturally formed as they obey the same rules and use largely the same moves the player does. Nightmare mode tests the skills you learned on normal, and gives the player additional lore that those engrossed in the story and setting will appreciate (the story is ignorable, but for those who enjoy it, the good ending is discoverable with sufficient gumption). You can build physical and/or magic damage characters. For players who are less mechanically skilled, grinding up a build that can stomp the hardest of bosses will only take a few hours - but defeating the final boss with zero upgrades is a plausible, albiet difficult task. All in all, the gameplay is compact and concise - the experience does not require tens or hundreds of hours to fully appreciate, which is a positive for players like me. The combat system manages to maintain simplicity throughout the game while simultaneously leaving multiple styles of combat open for the player - players can tackle a majority of the enemies through any mix of dodging, blocking, and dash stunning (bosses may require more than one, naturally). Magic damage can be used to supplement physical combat, or downright replace it with sufficient levels (no mechanical skill necessary to beat any boss and enemy if you just nuke it to death). To those who find frustration or boredom out of a need to build up their character, this is likely your own fault. Beating the game in a timely manner does not require mechanical skill - the least mechanically inclined players can beat it in less than 10 hours by being careful with spending their experience at safe intervals - the only thing this game punishes is recklessness and thoughtless actions. If physical combat is too difficult, magic can make the game a breeze by removing much (but not all) of the need to read and anticipate your enemies actions. tl;dr: get gud, or nut up - this game is fun.