TLDR: Combat has potential, but quickly disappoints. I don't recommend, but the game is to-the-point enough to try out for yourself. There's little point to the game if you don't like the combat, so refund it if you were disappointed like I was.
Very excited by the first few minutes of fighting, very stylish, free form, and fun. The camera and lock-on system could be vastly improved, but it's serviceable for what I played. Plus the Spirit-strike and Spirit-release system was not only fun to use, but it seemed like it could be an actually unique mechanic that grows with the player as they experiment and explore what's possible in the game. The word IF does heavy lifting, because if you're like me, then you'll be quickly dropping the game. Never in my life have I played a game that I so quickly went from falling in love with to utter disappointment, all in the first level. From seeing how much fun it could be, to how much fun it would allow me. (Spoiler: VERY LITTLE).
First came the basic enemies that let me play around. Quite fun to play, and stylish too! Then came the implementation of projectile enemies which was a good thought, but the execution was janky - felt at times like I couldn't get a single combo in without specifically focusing down the ranged enemy. Even a single ranged enemy would sometimes prevent shorter combos, as being stuck in the attack animation would likely mean getting hit. Jumping to dodge the projectile but keeping up the combo against whoever I was currently attacking felt like the most intuitive move, but the projectile enemies would adjust their aim seemingly no matter how late I timed my jump. Thus I HAD to fight the projectile enemies first. Add in multiple ranged enemies that leave no reprieve between projectiles, and it started feeling quite tedious. Tedious, but manageable.
Then came the first boss, the Captain of Tiger Army. Suddenly it felt like I was playing A Rock-Paper-Scissors timing minigame, and not the free-flowing action combat game I was playing just minutes before. If I go on the offensive, I get pitiful damage before being blocked and counter-attacked. If I go on the offensive with a guard-break air attack, the enemy almost never gets staggered and I get counter-attacked anyway. Even If I know when the enemy is going to counter-attack, I'm stuck in my attacking animation, so I don't get to guard him and I get hit. If I try to jump to evade, the enemy perfectly tracks me because the attack he uses can only be guarded.
When my offense does pitiful damage, without any way to avoid the counter-attack, all I can do is wait and beat the boss in his rock-paper-scissors game. Wait for his shield bash, time the perfect guard. But don't ground or air dodge, he'll perfectly track and hit you! Wait for the mace swing, time the perfect dodge. But not the jump-evade, because he perfectly track that! Don't guard either, because you can't!
When I was playing the game at my own pace, being the aggressor and attacking enemies, switching to playing defensively only when necessary, it was very fun - I loved It! But the first boss forces you to play the game in the opposite way because of the boss' super-armor and counter-attacks. This isn't fun. Through exploiting the player's impaired ability to act defensively after engaging offense (because even if the player actively reacts to or correctly predicts what the boss will do, they can't avoid getting hit), this boss becomes a wall of boredom. I call it this because I imagine most players die to this boss because they try to have a fun back-and-forth fight against him. The problem is that to beat this boss you need to play a boring game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, because your own offense gets you killed. The most fun part of the game is the worst way to play it.
But even this, I could manage. This tedium, getting one punch or kick in before being forced to block and dodge. It was the second phase that broke me. After having to seal my offense to deal with this boss and focus on defense, after losing his shield he starts.... randomly flailing around with a red glow, in a way which makes it impossible to know when to dodge. I can't time the dodge because of the randomness of the flailing, so I'll jump... oh, the boss perfectly tracked and hit me in the air again. The constant red aura indicates I can only use the grounded dodge, but the attack are so random I can't possible time my dodges correctly? And because of the red aura, there's no indicator for when to dodge, like there was with the flashes of red aura in the first phase? No thanks, I'm done. First you force me to stop playing offense, the fun part, then you make playing defense a frustrating, random mess. If this first boss is indicative of the how the game will play, then I have no reason not to refund it. I'm not interested in being teased with a good time, only to be constantly denied it.
I'd say fix these issues and I might try it again. I'd say making the jump a low-risk low-reward defensive maneuver to compliment the high-risk high-reward perfect-dodge and perfect-block might even be enough to remedy the largest issues I have, but I have the feeling that the game's core combat is designed around dealing with these rock-paper-scissors like dodge-block or die enemies. So in light of that, I'll just say it has potential but is ultimately disappointing.
If this game was just bad, I'd quietly refund it and do nothing else. But because I see the potential, I can't help but post a review. I just wish it was fun. Everything up to the first boss just quickly starts becoming worse and worse gameplay, leaving me to imagine what could've been. I don't recommend buying, but if you're curious then play through the first boss and either refund it like I did or keep it if you manage to have fun. It's a short enough window to allow you that choice.
