FLASH OF THE BLADE X

so very very brief that not enough for cumm1ng me, but i approve it same! ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)

This is a cool ninja themed FPS/Hack & Slash game. The closest thing we got to a ninja themed FPS was Shadow Warrior and you mostly just shoot guns in that one. So this is kind of the first "pure" feudal japanese/ninja themed fps. I enjoy the sprites and the theme, and the melee combat is simple but fun. I enjoyed the little easter eggs as well. The various ninja weapons are cool as well and do feel different. I also liked the speed of the player not only because its a boomer shooter but also because of the ninja theme. Its a bit short but I dont mind that, since the game is dirt cheap. I dont like the head-bobbing (this is a taste thing I know some people like it others dont), I wish there was an a option to turn it off. It also gets a bit repetitive but the short playtime does negate that. A game like that would be fun for multiplayer Im not sure if the Easy FPS engine the dev used allowed for that. Also if there is a sequel maybe some new enemies like samurais or yokais etc would be fun or stealth missions. Oh and achievements and/or trading cards would be cool, to see for examples if you found all the hidden easer eggs ("You found me!" is one that would be great) If its possible to intigrate those. Overall I would still recommend this for boomer shooter and ninja fans out there who have an hour to kill.

[b]Extremely[/b] short, at just under 1h, and super easy, but somehow satisfying and relaxing to play. Take the length into account compared with the purchase/sale price though. Resolution can be changed via the Config.ini file in the installation folder, but it messes with the mouse sensitivity so be aware of that.

I played the game only after it got a big overhaul so I can't comment on how it was before that (though that should not bother new players anyway) So far I've played through the first five DOSman games on Steam and Flash of the Blade X was the best of the bunch. This is not a polished or innovative game, Dosman Games is upfront about that and the price should set appropriate expectations. Treat this game like a hamburger: cheap and not that great but satiates you until the next proper meal and you crave exatly that every once in a while. Some quick points to consider: [list] [*]few settings, no key rebinding [*]unexpectedly tough at first but pretty easy once you get the hang of it [*]it's short (my time was 2 playthroughs and finding every secret + a couple minutes being stuck by my own fault) [/list] In short: Get it if you want the gaming equivalent of a fast food snack or if you're a connoisseur of honest amateur games. Leave it be if you expect anything beyond that.

I loved it. Pros +Short n sweet levels +Great weapons and melee actually feels satisfying +Played a 'secret level' with some great developer commentary +Secret level has a cursed DOSMan. Can you find him? +Secrets galore. (Ya found me!) +Music is high effort and seems like a different song for each level. All traditional Japanese +Short game. but bargain price Cons - A few options are missing that you'd find on later EFPS releases from DOSMan - No achievements (see above) Recommended

For 2 dollars its pretty solid. If you have 2 dollars and want a game you could beat in an hour it's a fun time.

Not quite the quality of shadow warrior, but for $3 this is a decent little game. Finished it in maybe 3-4 hours, played in offline mode so my playtime is not accurately reflected here. Decent minibosses and nice tunes.

FLASH OF THE BLADE X is another "boomer shooter", this one with a "ninja" theme, making this, effectively, a ripoff of Daikatana that is somehow so much worse than Daikatana was. It seems to be a hallmark of the developer to make boomer shooters without much shooting, preferring instead to rely on melee weapons, punishingly bad difficulty, with very few, poorly placed pickups, and otherwise somewhat sloppy level design to make a frustrating and repetitive experience, as opposed to the fun and interesting experiences you'd get from games like Hexen or Duke Nuke'm 3D. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The game features lazy low-polygon "retro" assets with crap 2D retro pixel "art" textures on them, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the early 1990s. I know in this case it's deliberate, but at the same time, making games look bad on purpose is a disservice to gamers and the gaming industry. This very poor quality visual style is a method that lazy devs often use to disguise their lack of talent/interest in doing the graphics properly and trying to disguise it under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the game. It looks bad as a result of their decisions, worse, it doesn't authentically recreate the 1990's vibe the developer is hoping people will accept instead of doing their job properly, and that's just another reason to avoid it. These flaws make this game fall far short of the professional standards we expect from a modern PC release. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was [b]only 3 players[/b], which is a clear indication nobody was interested in the game at all, for obvious reasons. This costs $3, which is how much the developer should be paying people to play this and for compensation. [quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b] Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.[/quote]

I'm in the process of playing through all DOSman games. This is my 3rd one. Of the 3 I've played so far, this seemed to be the shortest. After starting a couple of times, I finished the game within an afternoon. Though it took a minute for me to get into it, so far, this is my favorite DOSman game. I think the level design is interesting and obviously involved some thought. There's a lot of use of hidden enemies to evoke the idea of the "invisible ninja" (in long bamboo, around corners in nooks, in darkened levels). Surprisingly, none of the hidden enemies feel cheap and you can still definitely avoid or kill them without just memorization of their spots. Unlike some of their other games, this does not appear to be a direct homage to any specific old FPS game. The slicing, dicing, and pixel gore is a bit like the original Shadow Warrior, but it has such a different overall feel, I wouldn't call it an homage. I thought the mixture of melee and shooting was more balanced than in prior games and it felt like the level design was more interesting (particularly better than later levels of "Reaper"). It is very short, but it's also inexpensive, so I would definitely recommend it.

Another fine addition to the Dosman Collection; FOTBX takes everything we enjoy in bite sized boomer shooters, and gives it to us in a fun, easy to access, simple package. Run, slice and dice and get out. Sure it's short, but that's perfect for the hard working middle aged gamer with bills to pay.