Hack-and-slash with cool gameplay that rewards blocking, but sadly the boss fights are unbalanced mess.
The controls are designed to be simple and easy to use with a gamepad. Aside from basic movement, your most frequently utilized button will be attack. The more you press it, the more combinations you can execute. Although foes have a stance or block bar that may encourage smart combat and counterattacking, the majority of enemies can be destroyed with button mashing.
While combat has very little in common with souls games, blocking at the appropriate time is still rewarded. Each parry reduces the enemy's block bar, and when it is fully empty, an enemy can be instantly slain.
During combat, you should keep an eye on your stamina. Most of it is used on dodge, which works really well. It teleports you a few steps away from the enemy, eliminating the possibility of cheap shots or damage caused by wonky hit detection. What is intriguing is that dodge can also be used as an offensive maneuver. You accomplish this by pushing towards the enemy and pressing dodge when the enemy is going to use a special attack. This either takes a significant portion of their health or block bar.
Parry or guard is available, but rarely used. Because attacks are difficult to detect from an isometric view, they are marked with a circle around the enemy. Additionally, special strikes are announced with a brief message. White assaults can be countered or blocked, however red attacks pass through everything and can only be avoided.
Defeated enemies provide experience, which is used to improve your character. When you accumulate enough experience, you can use it to unlock four upgrades. Each upgrade has three levels and provides a few benefits, such as higher damage or better block. Unfortunately, it's hard to figure out what you actually get. While extra point is obvious, you have no idea what the two other perks do due to lack of information.
Other moves include kung-fu, which you can find in special chests. Because they require stamina, they can be performed without restriction. The one you find in the first area is extremely valuable because it knocks an adversary back and removes a significant portion of its block bar.
You can also purchase special moves from Liuyin, a mysterious female who appears throughout the game and is situated in her domain. However, these necessitate a few additional unique items. The first are energy bits found in chests, while the second is a special item discovered on dead bosses.
The catch is that the boss' item can be utilized for two different powers, but you can only purchase one. You must choose which one is more valuable because the other will be lost forever. On the other hand, they typically do the same thing in a somewhat different manner. For example, a spider egg can poison your sword or cause fire damage. To utilize them, you must first collect perception points, which you can do by beating enemies.
Healing occurs with potions or by resting at shrines, which also replaces all used potions. Shrines are rather common, and they allow you to save and travel to other unlocked shrines. However, unlike most modern games, resting does not respawn enemies. Their respawn is timed, so they only come back to life after a few minutes. This also means that grinding is slow.
Exploring the world is linear. Although certain roads lead to a nice chest with rewards or a unique boss, it is difficult to get lost. When you interact with a circle-marked place, you will immediately do all special activities such as jumping or climbing. This circle appears only when you get close, and it also marks other objects in the world, such levers and notes.
English translation is fine with minor grammar mistakes. Certain text is not translated, such as special attack messages and upgrades menu, but that’s part of the game and doesn’t feel like you’re missing on anything. The biggest issue is that you don't see the entire boss arena, which means you will get projectiles thrown at you without even seeing them. This makes it impossible to predict boss' attack or even dodge them. Bosses are very unbalanced. Some can be cheesed with exploding daggers, while others, such as final broken boss, spam unguardable attacks.
Speaking of the final boss; when you defeat it, the game automatically starts a new game and rewrites your last save. Although you keep all skills, experience and money, you lose the chance to find all secrets, achievements, and boss artifacts. This is the most crucial thing because if you don't use artifacts to buy powers, they will be gone in the next game.
