Windblown

Hard to know where to start on this review. I cannot recommend this game. I have beaten Dead Cells and their Prince of Persia game - Motion Twin is the VERY BEST in this action roguelite/like space; one of my favorite developers. That said, this one is trying to be hades with a top down perspective, albeit the same roguelite progression system with different story and lore. I like it mostly, but the combat can be very repetitive regardless of weapon choices. My two problems speak to how the game can lose it's fun quickly: 1. most everything to a successful battle or run is whether you are good at using the dodge function...a lot. If you get hit, you die; very normal of course. Yet, because there doesn't feel like an evolved weapons variation system (even though the stats as you choose weapons say otherwise) - your success is entirely based on dodging enemy attacks vs. a risk reward the player can develop understanding in of "do I dodge or because of this specific weapon does it make more sense to brawl and melee more even though I may get hit a little." Does that make sense? Too much emphasis is put on dodging and if you get hit you will die quickly or be to unhealthy to take on the end guy. 2. progression is very slow with the game economy. You collect dust and build cogs - the short of it is, it takes a lot of runs to accumulate anything that progresses your character so runs feel the same and do not progress correctly in my experience. No weapon upgrades I have earned by making dust or cogs purchases have changed the game. That is the problem. Dead Cells, for example, has amazing progression systems as you work each color to build a character and runs in the beginning are dropping all sorts of vials and loot. This is not that. I think Roguelites are amazing because of all the trinkets you can discover to build a guy, but if the pacing is wrong they are too difficult - this is THAT, for me. Dying doesn't feel like dying when game economy is balanced in a roguelite - Dead Cells has it and this game doesn't in my experience. I get very little progression in my character run to run - I find the game very punishing; I have played 8 hours and I cannot even get through the boss on the second biome - zero progress and I have a lot of experience in roguelites. On the top down perspective with the animal enemy choices dodging still gets hit for me because the bosses have multiple arms and legs that can hit over a wide area and there are parts of the area that you cannot dodge into. I just think it is mostly unreasonable. In Dead Cells they programmed in an accessibility slider so that you can pick your game difficulties with nuance so that you can really dial it in to your playing style. This also has the ability to change runs in the game over time - ultimate replayability. This game needs that. I know others would say they beat it no problem and that is the very point - game difficulty is subjective as there are games I have no problem with that others may have a problem with. A game like this does need accessible options. Someone would say play another game. I spent $25, I bought it because I want to play it, so saying something like that is insensitive and misses the point. Just a guys opinion.