I’ve never written any long game review but after 500 hours of gameplay, I feel like this game really deserves one before its full release.
It might feel “cutesy” at the beginning because hey they are a bunch of smol bunnies and you play as one of them, but what makes it addictive is that it offers a massive varieties of weapons and builds that you can come up with your creativeness. From tanky guardian with an unbreakable shield, swift fighter with a massive greatsword, evasive artillery that fires bombs from afar, to frostsmith that wields icy weapons, flashy lightning shinobi and powerful mage that summons meteors to bombard the field- the only thing that limits you is your imagination, and each run is unique because of RNG, which allows you to invent builds that are fun to play.
The progression and learning curve of this game are also pretty well designed, it introduces different weapons and artifacts progressively, and you get to unlock more weapon types and powerful artifacts as you progress. You could always try new things that you are interested in a new run, yet not be overwhelmed by everything all at once. Later when you’re tired of being a bunny, you get to unlock different playable costumes with unique stats- you could be an evasive cat, fox with big inventory, white wolf that dashes in insane speed, a lizard scholar that holds plenty potentials, and many more.
This game also offers different levels of difficulties for all kind of players- it is challenging enough for casual gameplay, you can build high defense or evasion in your run to improve survivability if you wanna play comfortably or when you feel the game is too hard for you (just like what I did in my first 100 hours of gameplay), then as you progress and looking for more challenges, you can tune up hard mode modifiers to increase difficulty.
Playing it solo and exploring the vast amount of builds by yourself is fun, but the most fun part is that you can play it in multiplayer! Co-op modifier gives mobs and bosses more HP and damage thus slightly increases the difficulty, but sometimes things could be easier with the help from other players. The feeling of having friends or even strangers from around the world to fight alongside is GREAT, nothing is impossible with the power of friendship.
Gameplay aside, it’s a game with story and lore despite the writing isn’t the main selling point of it. The plot is interesting enough to get you trying to progress further, although you might get “stuck” in chapter 1 for a while since you’re still learning the game, but you’d eventually overcome it by more upgrades after every failed attempts. For solo, It took me about 30 hours to finish the chapters (in early access, and there’s a final chapter that is coming soon in full release), then 20 hours more to clear all the hard modes before I started to play with randoms and made friends in the process.
Lastly I wanna praise its manmade pixel art and music- they are amazing! Every visual and sound effects feels very well done, satisfying even, it makes every moment in this game enjoyable and fantastic. Sephiria certainly worth every pennies, it’s so good, I wish it has a successful full release and gets popular as it deserves.
