Blessed Surface

Only sidescrollers I've played lately are Vagante and Catacomb Kids but I think this game has good potential. In contrast to those two, Blessed Surface seems minimalistic and most of the challenge is in mastering the basic movements and reflexes common to all sidescrollers. However for such a small game there are a lot of unique enemies and environments to explore and learn about and the effort put into this game is evident- there are lots of little details like flowers drifting through the air and Princess Mononoke-esque critters. You start in the tutorial level- don't feel bamboozled, it's supposed to look this boring. Don't waste time trying to figure out the controls on your own like I did, just move through the level and let the signs explain it. Right away I had difficulty equipping things because I didn't know if it was a corpse (outfit/class) or a weapon and I still don't really understand how equipping works + aesthetic- it's creepy, pretty, cute, but mostly just weird. I like it + interesting mechanics with outfits, finishers. (Some enemies can only be killed with a finishing move, you will see their "core" exposed when they are weak enough) + type to talk to NPCs? I haven't met any yet but I haven't seen this since childhood adventure games so I think it's great :) -+ basic attack cooldown - personally I find it frustrating when you're surrounded by enemies and you can't move away or attack. But it does raise skill ceiling because of the combo system: if you spam attack and miss, you have to wait. If you time attacks correctly you can attack continuously. Some enemies are knocked back or into the air by your attacks, and different weapons have different effects. - controls are confusing at first, particularly the equip/wield options and the gunner which is janky as hell to control with the mouse- until you realize you don't actually have to because it autoaims - jumping- high gravity, very short horizontal distance. Again I guess this is a skill thing because there are many places where you have to wait until the last half-second to make the jump, and this reminds me of old school platformers but personally I prefer floaty jumps. It works fine with the way the levels are designed I suppose. - sound design - could use some work IMO - finishers take hp to use - can be frustrating as some of them are hard to aim and get the hang of, so you'll be staring at a wall and waiting for that 1 hp to recharge question: with the Key Thief Corpse I think I used my finisher to phase through locked doors- or is that the point?

The reason I can't recommend this is because we're already a month past the loose deadline they set in the early access info box, which tells me that it's either almost finished and is just behind schedule, or that the development is "falling off the wagon" like your typical kickstarter project. I don't like the current version because of some polish issues that ruined the game for me rather quickly, with controls that feel clunky and restrictive and an overdesigned drag-n-drop equip menu that really should have just used a "highlight box" controlled by the d-pad. but I'll reserve my judgement until release. For now, refunding and following. When the game content is finished and the gameplay is more polished, I'm prepared to do something unprecedented and give it a second chance, because I see potential here. Dev: when you finish the game, you should release a demo. [h1]Update (June 2019)[/h1] Whelp, here I am again. I waited until the game exited EA, there's no demo, I gave the game a second chance, and...it's still not good. Maybe I just don't get it, but the controls, combat and UI are all just confusing as hell. It doesn't feel any more polished than last time, you die for seemingly random reasons with a horrible ticker feed on the bottom of the screen logging what's happening, inventory management is extremely unpleasant, I can't even figure out how to eat food when the game's telling me to do it, I seem to remember the controller working last time and it's not working now, the game doesn't seem to tell you that you switch weapons with shift, but it's also confusing because shift [i]uses[/i] the weapon you're switching to (which means holding it causes a charge-up attack) and it's just...[i]not[/i] a good experience. I'm sorry man, I know you put a lot of passion into this game, but it just isn't good.

-TL;DR- This game is one of the most unpolished THINGS I have ever played. It's buggy, it's bare bones, counter intuitive, and above all else, it's weird, weird, WEIRD. There are a lot of problems, but this is also a really creatively designed game with a lot of likable aspects to it. I'm a sucker for experimental games like this, so I still recommend it if you're someone like me. Besides, it's Early Access, and the developer seems to be set on finishing it. Things can only go up from here. ______________________________ -THE REVIEW- This game is.... weird.... like REALLY weird. This game has this zen like quality to it where you can just look around and explore... except when you can't, and the enemies all want you dead. The combat is very simple, and straight to the point... except when it's not, and you end up taking hits more often because you ended up dashing into an enemy, or you pulled it towards you and you can't dodge. The exploration can be really fun and rewarding, with a LOT of interesting places to explore.... EXCEPT WHEN IT'S NOT, and you find yourself in platforming sections on par with a f***ing Mario Kaizo Rom Hack! Which by the way, if you find yourself making it to where you have to platform UPWARD from platforms directly above you with only one square to fit in, and your character is just small enough to fit in there if you have no downward momentum, no Corpse King. That is legitimately bad level design. Go back and try again, that is s*** design, just don't do that. I bought this game after the Combat Overhaul, so I have no idea what combat was like compared to now, but considering how counter intuitive the combat is NOW, and judging by reading the change logs, I can only imagine just how truly bad it used to be. I guess being kinda sh***y isn't as bad as being totally sh***y. Also, I realized that I ragged on exploration twice in this review, but that's for a good reason. One of the big selling points in this game, is that this dungeon is supposed to be a living, breathing ecosystem. There are a lot of games that pull this off very well. Monster Hunter World, for example, allows you to just explore its environments and take in the world around you, and you don't even need to hunt the monsters. You can just watch them in their natural environment. They eat, they wander around, they sleep in their nests, you know, just that kinda stuff. Now, you're probably saying that it's totally not fair to compare this low budget indie title to a big budget AAA game, but I made the comparison, because Monster Hunter World doesn't tell you that you're allowed to do that. Its main selling point is the boss rush gameplay loop that the franchise is famous for. The ecosystem is an unadvertised bonus. If you're going to tell me that the world is an actual ecosystem, make it a MAIN SELLING POINT of your game, and then, say that, for example, you can wipe out an entire area by killing the mother and getting rid of all the babies, then I don't wanna see the game randomly respawn them after I've only been gone for 2 minutes! Let me feel like I'm making an impact on this world, damn it!! Maybe I'm missing something here, I don't know. Now you may be wondering why this game is still recommended in spite of me constantly harping on it. Well chill, I'm getting to the good parts now. Simple put, this is one of the most creative games I have ever seen so far. Like I said at the beginning of this review, this game is WEIRD. Like, your character is just some silhouette, and his entire personality is dictated by what armor he's wearing. The weapons themselves are ALL unique, and none of them are conventional. You have a typical sword, but it looks anything BUT typical. It looks more like some kind of shadow demon monster blood sword. You get this little piranha plant looking claw weapon that you can actually fly forward short distances while using, A sword attached to some... kinda... tentacle looking thing, A pickaxe that makes spikes where you slam it, a Magic staff that does a short range lightning blast (well okay, that is admittedly pretty generic). I appreciate that the developers has committed himself to not just making a weird game, but going ALL THE WAY with it. The enemies range from weird looking bug birds, or walking spike pine cone looking things, or giant mew mew cats, or even just bouncing red balls! Did I mention this game is weird? Cause this game is f***ing weird!!! This is one of those games where you have to just sit back, and realize what you're playing. Even the combat is kind unique in that regard! Like I said, the combat is super rough, but I can totally see it working once you've adapted to it! Switching between weapons, shooting from a distance with your weird helicopter cursor thingy, eating hearts of your enemies to gain new abilities, WAIT WUT!? Experimental games like this are my jam. I don't care how unpolished it is. You offered me a game like this for only 6 dollars. I'd say this was more than worth that price point. I look forward to revisiting this game from time to time to see how polished Corpse King can make this idea, and how far they can run with it. Also, take a shot for every time I said weird. ;)

One hit kills, lack of checkpoints and the game becoming progressively more difficult each time you died and respawned made this game too difficult to be enjoyable Also; either attack causes your character to lunge forward and often times one enemy will just bait you into rushing into a pack waiting behind them I didn't feel that I was making enough progress for the time / effort involved, and I was playing on a lower difficulty, so I got a refund.

The description was enticing! Game started with a vertical red glowing wall and no clear way or instruction to get past. It seems you can equip differnt weapons in different hands but those weapon attacks are locked to the direction, effectively you left hand weapon can only attack left. attacks seem to have a stamina cost of some sort as well wouldn't fire regularly. I absolutely get that this is in development but Im afrad im not going past the fist 15 min while I sat and scratched my head and looked at the menu trying to figure out the bizzare setup, controls and 'puzzle(?)' that I was dropped into. Requesting refund.

It's reeeeally early access and it shows. There's no music, the ui is clunky, the item distribution is weird and a bit too scarce, many things don't really work like I'm certain they're intended to (certain items that you can pick up, specifically), the gameplay is slower feeling than it should be I feel. I'll spend more time with it and update this review accordingly, for now though I have to say, go ahead and give it a try, honestly (especially if it goes on sale) if you're interested in it.

It's kinda like if the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was a sort of a metroidvania. Expect a lot of trial and error. There's still some very rough edges. I'd recommend using the mouse and keyboard to start because the controls aren't immediately obvious (SEE BELOW). But, once you get the hang of the specific kind of gameplay, it works pretty well. If you're like me, the odd (sci-fi/fantasy?) dream-like environments are the biggest draw. You are thrown into a world that seems to have a history, ecology, and (maybe dead) society. The enemies interact and fight amongst themselves. You can explore, or dive quickly. Remember that your different weapons' attacks are as much a way to move about as they are defence. Left click = attack left Right click = attack right E = equip/invt Scroll up = restore armor Scroll down = finishing blow (when the enemy has a red dot) A,D = movement SPACE = jump SHIFT = weapon switch (also a special attack) Q = swap weilding CTRL = gunz

There is little to nothing in the way of explanation. You just sort of try to figure things out as you go along. The Inventory is clunky and cumbersome to use. The character lunges slightly when attacking which is annoying. Plus, attacks do very little damage. And, the character attacks in the direction you're facing, not the direction the cursor is pointed, which begs the question of why even have the cursor in the first place? All in all, this is a very lackluster and confusing game. Stack on top of it a terrible U.I. and you have a hard pass from me. I bought it on sale for $0.50, but I really don't think it's worth it even at that price.