Bleak Sword DX Review (RiceBuckets)
Oh boy I have some things to say about this game.
Frankly put, Bleak Sword is really aesthetic—the random flashes of thunder, the eerie sway of the camera over the hand-crafted diorama below, the 3D/pixel mix, the satisfying kill animations and the music (done by Jim Guthrie!) all add to make an immersive grimdark fantasy setting where the hero must surmount impossible odds to rid the world of the evil which plagues it.
That being said when I finished the game, that immersion I had when playing through the first couple chapters was already long gone. What happened in between? Well, what was a fun fast paced adventure became a grindy loveless chore.
First off, the game needlessly has RPG elements which subtract from the game play. When finishing an encounter you are rewarded with EXP and upon level up you can increase up one of the three core stats; Attack, Defence or HP. This is the first issue: There is no reason to upgrade anything but Attack. Without high enough attack, enemies will pile up upon the screen and overwhelm the player, not to mention even with high defence and HP, you're still getting killed in only a few hits.
That brings me to issue two, after combat you have a chance (15%ish) to receive an item. These items may increase your Attack or Defence, or be a consumable health item. While the items are no offender on their own (except for the items that provide permanent stat increases ), their rarity makes them sorta lame. Especially since how the death mechanic works: You lose all items and EXP upon death. This is the single most grind-encouraging feature in the game and is INFURIATING. It adds such an artificial/chore-like level of difficulty in a game that is supposed to be fast-paced and fun. Almost level up'ed and died? Better grind those easy levels again. Lost your cool +3/+3 ring? You'll probably never see it again.
However, upon dying you are presented with an opportunity, if you can first-try clear the level you died on without the items you had, you can reclaim your lost items and EXP. If you fail they are gone for good. While this feature is innocuous and seems kinda fun, it is actually a game-able mechanic which also promotes grinding: At the end of each level you are not healed to full HP; in between hard levels, the game encourages you to go to an easy level, die, then beat it to heal to full HP. Absolutely nonsensical. This also makes HP by far the worst stat to upgrade because it does not increase the amount healed between levels, just the cap itself.
Besides the RPG elements, how is the combat? Well, its pretty good. The combat consists of attacking (which uses stamina), rolling and parrying (which dont use stamina). Combat is fluid and I-frames often feel generous. The early game really shines, and enemies really offer a fun experience when you learn to time your rolls and parries. Parrying specifically is one of the harder skills to master but it is incredibly rewarding/satisfying because you can stagger your enemy and unleash attacks that deal extra damage (and cost no stamina!). You probably think that learning to parry is the key to success: All boss attacks and most attacks from enemies in the final chapters can not be parried. WHY???? This was the single most ennauseating design choice this game could have. Why have this incredible mechanic and then slowly phase it out in favor of rolling like a hooligan all over a grim dark diorama???
Speaking of, the enemies themselves scale off into the moon. Enemies that return from previous regions are buffed up with so much HP you run out of stamina trying to kill one (even after putting every level up possible into Attack). Their attacks drop you quickly even with good Defence too. Also fights become very repetitious too. The rare Big-Guy-With-A-Big-Sword-That-Cant-Be-Parried too quickly becomes the common Big-Guy-With-A-Big-Sword-That-Cant-Be-Parried.
This is the end of my rant and I wish I could recommend it the game. However, the issues are so non core, that they could disappear from a single patch (Only lose items on death, heal fully after every fight, make consumables more common, tone down enemy HP scaling). One can only dream through the Bleakness.