A beautiful game that has many flaws that I simply cannot look past.
For disclaimer, I am, in fact, used to other rogue like games, and games that are just challenging in general, I've played all Dark Souls games and completed every single one of them aside from maybe the second one.
What sets this game apart from other games that are just challenging is that this one does it in one of the most unfair ways possible, the combat mechanics are frustrating, there is no clear tell when or where the enemies are going to attack, and worst of all, the art-style, while beautiful, makes everything blend into the decor, in a way that makes it incredibly hard to focus on the enemies, they just blend into the background. You try and fight your way through groups of enemies chucking bombs at you, and you just don't notice them because you were just trying to pay attention to everything else happening around you.
Everything punishes you in this game, which wouldn't be all that bad, if it weren't for the fact that the character is so sluggish, keep in mind, there is a dodging mechanic, and it does feel somewhat good, but the game clearly wants you to pay attention to every little thing, while also hiding them behind things like trees and tall grass, which you could cut to get rid of, but attacking makes your character stop dead in his tracks, meaning you cannot be dynamic while you're trying to play offensively. One may think that it's simply the game trying to teach you to be more defensive and play more reactively, but the stamina regen is so slow that any fight that would drag on for too long would turn to your disadvantage. All in all, it can be mitigated with the passives that you gain as you explore the levels or with gear that can sometimes boost stamina recovery. But if you consider that you're already pretty clunky as a character, and add that to the fact that there are explosive barrels littered around the levels that you're meant to use to your advantage, you simply cannot move around and navigate the levels in a way that feels satisfying, you either end up stuck against a barrel that you cannot hit at melee range without taking damage, or just pushing them away, setting half the f*cking screen on fire, sometimes pinning you to a corner of the map. Everything hurts you, you can miscalculate a dash and fall into a pond, which deals damage to you, step into a fire you created yourself because the maps are filled with flammable objects and that also deals damage to you.
I don't mind a bit of challenge in a rogue like, that's what makes them good and replayable, but I don't like when I feel like every single mechanic of the game is designed to trick me and punish me. There are secrets in this game, which are accessible in a number of ways, and that, on its own, is interesting, it encourages the player to explore and try different interactions that they would otherwise have missed, and they usually are rewarded for it. Except almost nothing in this game is explicitly told to the player, besides the basic functions of your weapons.
There is a number of mechanics that are poorly implemented, as well, the keyboard and mouse gameplay is awful, the game is clearly letting you know you're not meant to play with anything other than a controller, there is no way to remap the buttons to a different keyboard and will always be stuck using a QWERTY keyboard (sucks to be french, I guess). There is supposed to be a parrying system with two handed weapons, that only works with melee enemies, while most enemies will just use ranged attacks on you, and those that do come at you with melee attacks don't really have a clear tell to let you time your own attacks in a way that would let you parry them, you usually find yourself just spamming the attack button, in hopes that the timing lines up with that of the opponent. All in all, there are three skill trees to unlock, and that is supposed to be the rogue aspect of the game, where each time you delve into the dungeons, you collect crystal statues that you then spend in order to unlock perks and skils for specific weapons... And they all suck. Dual wielding is a thing, and it's clearly a mistake to go for it, since you cannot use any of the skills you've unlock for one-handed weapons, despite it being in the one-handed skill tree. You can also use a hand-to-hand skill tree, which lets you use weapons like gloves and shoes more effectively, and that skill tree also sucks, as it forces you to play weapons that are frustrating in concept, since they have such a short range, the game compensates by giving you a dash every time you attack, that homes in on the nearest enemy. The problem being that you can't really choose which enemy you're dashing towards, and that you often find yourself dashing too far, meaning that, more often than not, you'll try to dodge an attack, only to dash back into it as you try and counter attack. All in all, there is nothing redeeming any of the skill trees, making exploration and grinding a complete waste of time.
And I haven't even TACKLED the first bossfight of the game yet, which is simply the culmination of all the problems I've mentioned above, and attached on a boss that doesn't have two, but THREE freaking health bars. For the FIRST bossfight. The boss has mostly ranged attacks, moves as fast as you do, dodges as far as you do, has no stamina, of course, has AOEs, does more damage to you than you'll ever hope to deal to him. It's just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
All in all, it's a good looking game, that feels alright at first glance. But once you look into it, it's jsut a game that thinks its good, wants to be good, but just falls flat on everything it tries to deliver. Run away from it, go play Dark Souls or Dead Cells.
