izigame.me

After completing the game, I was left feeling incredibly disappointed. The short of it is that it feels unfinished, with the game basically being combat first and everything else never. For those who care about the long of it, I'll break it down while leaving out spoilers.
Overall, I'd say that the combat is easily the best part, and even then I wouldn't even say it's anything extraordinary. The flow in a fight actually felt rather nice even if I got ganged up on. The animations in combat ranged from serviceable to actually pretty damn good. The strikes felt crunchy and some of the bosses were standouts, especially the first. I wouldn't say it was particularly difficult though. The most I died to a boss was maybe 4 or 5 times and that was to the first and third boss. Beyond that, I died at most twice to the final boss and not at all to any of the others, and when I died outside of bosses it actually felt like it was because I slipped up. The only issue is...the rest of the game.
The upgrade system was tedious and very jarring at times. I had to actively remind myself to reave from enemies because once I got two specific powers, there was no reason to since everything else was far inferior. On top of that, enemies end up dropping skill shards for their power anyway which allowed you to permanently use it whenever, meaning if you really wanted to use it you would just...equip it. On the other hand, when it came to upgrading those powers I had to run the same mission to find the one or two enemies that dropped that power, and traversing the same path over and over again in an already short game gets annoying. In terms of potions, the game says that there are recipes and I never found any. I scoured every single one of the lore and story bits I had, of which were 22/22 and 86/94 respectively, in case there were secrets or maybe a puzzle. I checked the tutorial in case I missed something that was obviously explained. I scoured every corner of every map along my path and didn't find any sort of potion recipe tool. If there are recipes, I don't know how you get them. As for talents and levels, the game attempts to reward experimentation by allowing you to reset talents and even levels for your character on the fly. But, I didn't refund any of my talents or levels because there is very little reason *to* experiment. I either got lucky and found just the right build on my first try, or the upgrade system is just way too overtuned and caused me to have a power spike very early on with little to no decline.
As for the maps, they are passable at best because they are all ruins of some sort. As a veteran of the Soulsborne series, having played Dark Souls 1, 2, & 3 with all of the DLC, Bloodborne plus the DLC, and Sekiro, I have explored my fair share of ruins. With that in mind, these are the most samey ruins I've ever explored. Half the time I got lost because I wanted to find secrets or lore bits, but when I tried to backtrack the levels snaked in on themselves and *everything looks the goddamn same*. So, I got lost, found one or two enemies, and became the most dangerous wandering meatgrinder this side of Hermes Kingdom.
The music is passable. Nothing more to say.
What I do have more to talk about is the story, or should I say the swiss cheese the game calls a story. The best way to describe it is incomplete. I have a general idea of what the world is like, but there are so many questions left unanswered and not in the good way. As a reminder, I have 22/22 of the lore bits and 86/94 of the story bits, according to the game. So if that's the case:
1) Why do I know next to nothing about the main character, Corvus? I have no idea who or what they were before the events of the game. I have no idea how they became what they are now or why they can do what they do. I have no idea what relationship this character has with the rest of the characters. I have a vague idea of when the prologue happens but beyond that, as a good friend of mine would say, I know two things: jack and shit.
2) What even happened to kickstart the game? I have a vague idea based on the prologue and the text based dialogue because *there is no voice acting*, but we aren't even given a year. The dates provided in game are literally X X. The main event is referred to as "the accident". The people that supposedly caused the event show up a total of twice: Once in the prologue, and then the second when you fight them. There no precursor to that showdown at all! Beyond that, there is a machine that is barely explained and exists essentially as a way to end the game, there is a theme of alchemy that asks a lot of interesting questions but provides no answers to any of them, and there are a lot of loose ends and unfulfilled promises by the time the credits roll, which also just happens abruptly.
3) Why do I not care about any of the characters, even the one I'm *playing as*? Usually with games that leave things vague, there are background details that shed light on the context and provide reasoning for not only the character's purpose but also their personality, actions, and history. There is none of that here. Even when one character specifically talks about the bosses, I learn next to nothing beyond the bare minimum. None of the bosses have voice acting, and the bosses that have dialogue are so dry that I forget what they say when the text fades off the screen and it's not just because it happens in the middle of the fight when staying alive is my top priority.

Lastly, there are also so many small things that drag the experience down. As I mentioned, there is no voice acting. Outside of bosses, the dialogue is all in boxes the way it is usually done. However, in boss fights the dialogue is just at the bottom of the screen in a faded color that blends in with the rest of the arena. On top of that, the dialogue shows up as the boss is going. So either you have to pay attention to the fight or you have to read the text. You can't do both effectively. On top of that, when you win the fight there is no fanfare. No "victory achieved" or "prey slaughtered". The fight just ends and the music cuts abruptly, leaving a hollow feeling where there should be pure dopamine. As for bugs, there are quite a few. I've seen enemies slide in place at times, and I got hard stuck on terrain during a fight, which I had to solve by quitting back to main menu and trying again. The most egregious of these small issues for me had to be in the ending, where one ending just...didn't want to be selected. I clicked on it and then the game blacked it out like it was selected, but told me to pick something else. These aren't big things on their own, but cumulatively they take away from the experience in a very noticeable way.

I see a lot of people say that the game is way too short and while I do agree the game is short, that isn't necessarily a flaw in and of itself. There are games that are short, but make great use of their time and deliver something that still has punch. However, there are so many flaws that I can't help but feel like the game should have stayed in development for longer to work out the kinks and make the experience smoother. This is a title that could have been something great if there was a little more care put into its development. I'm sure there are reasons as to why it happened, because nothing in this game screams to me that this is a cash grab. A genuinely honest attempt was made but I feel like, whether it was because of time, money, or burnout, the game falls too short for me to really have any feeling but just sheer disappointment.
Edit: I actually looked a little into the ending and realized I just missed the fact that the ending is based on two choices not just one. So, what happened made sense and was, in fact, not a bug. Still didn't make the ending any less abrupt.