izigame.me

Well, this is very hard to review, I think I'll have to make a dedicated video about this game.

No, it's not polished, at all., Yes, it has some glaring design issues (on top of execution issues)

BUT... there is just something that keeps me coming back at this, took me 57 hours to reach the end (in part due to a game breaking bug that happened to me when I reached the final third of the game, which forced me to restart the whole game) so I'd say it's about a 30 hour experience.

Main issues:

1. Parry/Deflect hybrid: this is possibly the biggest thing holding the game back, it has a timed block mechanic, which is not like Sekiro's deflect, and it's not like Dark Souls' parry. The timing is not as generous as Sekiro's, but not as tight as Lies of P, the problem, is that in order to land parries, you need to anticipate them. You need to hit the parry button at the end of the enemy's wind-up (like in Dark Souls) instead of when the hit lands (like in Sekiro) now, this works in Dark Souls, because 1 or 2 parries at most, gets you a critical attack... Not in this game. here you're expected to consistently nail parries (as if they were Sekiro deflects) but with half as much benefits. Unlike Lies of P there is no blocking here, also Lies of P's perfect guards are also more like Sekiro's deflects, as in, you have to start when the attack is just about to land. This is a huge difference, because it changes parrying from a reaction (you see an attack, you parry the attack) to an anticipation (you have to have seen the attack first, multiple times to figure out when to hit the parry button) - the issue is that, if parrying is such an integral mechanic, it should be a lot easier to pull off, and it should be more reactionary (i.e. like Sekiro, or even Lies of P) if parry is a tactical choice, a high risk vs high reward move (like in Dark Souls) then it's something you'll not be doing all the time.

1.5. Dodging is awful. There is a weird start-up delay to the iframes or even to the dodge animation itself, you get used to it after like 30 hours in the game, but it never feels great. Compared to like, Black Myth Wukong, the doge here is basically useless. Which on an RPG with such build variety, is a complete shame.

2. Lackluster movesets: probably the main reason why this game is still sitting on "Mixed" instead of even "Mostly Positive", is this. The enemies have so few moves, from mobs to the final boss, you'll be lucky if an enemy has more than 5 attacks, some bosses easily get stuck in a loop of repeating the same 2 moves over and over again (like Giangurgolo or even Spaventa, or the many giant crab bosses that have literally 2 attacks, and sometimes a breath attack they won't do if you stay close to them) There is an absurd amount of re-used animations between enemies and bosses, some enemies straight up use the same animations as the player's, the enemy variety seemed good at fist, that is until you realise so many of them just share the same animations, which effectively just makes them reskins of each other.

3. Lack of polish in animations: this may be less obvious, and most gamers will just say "doesn't feel good" and can't put their fingers on why. The issue is the lack of polish in the animations, you can really tell what is almost raw mocap data, vs what is painfully handkeyed, many animations have overdrawn wind-ups with super long anticipation poses, and extremely fast (like 2-3 frames) swings, yes over time you get adjusted to it but it just doesn't feel good to fight, because enemies will go from moving in molasses to being The Flash in the span of 0.05 seconds. it's hard to describe in writing, this lack of polish and animation that has very obviously just been sped up or slowed down, it really isn't great for a game in a genre that relies so heavily on polished animation.

4. Lack of weapon variety: this may seem weird because the game has a good amount of weapons. but here's the issue. All weapon within the same class, use the same animations. This means the difference between each individual weapon, are the stats, the 3D model/textures, that's it. This makes the weapons into nothing but stats sticks, some weapons become completely useless because there is another weapon in the same class with better scaling, so the other weapon is a better option in 100% of cases. I understand that making animations is expensive, so instead of having "different weapons" with a limited budget of maybe 5 animation sets, then just make the individual weapons cosmetic only, and then allow us to chose what scaling/affinity we want.

5. Camera: this game has possibly the worst camera of any soulslike, it will often stay at the same height of your character's butt and pan up to try and see the enemy, which ends up (in many cases) with your character's silhouette blocking the enemy view, which triggers the mesh to become semi-transparent. I shouldn't even have to explain why this is terrible, but it is, the camera should be translating up, and tilting down, so you have a clear view of yourself and what you have locked on, especially with most of the characters in the game being around the same size as you (or slightly bigger) - yes you get adjusted to it, but it's awful, it makes parrying projectiles even worse because most enemy projectiles (especially magic ones) will track you and become hidden by your character, so you've now any of telling when to press the parry button cause you can't tell how far they are.

6. Various visual glitches, none of this is game breaking, but for example every time you go back to idle from the end of an attack, the character's arm will glitch and swing the sword around like it's completely weightless. Or when you jump, even if are carrying around a column that you use as a weapon, you'll go in the default falling pose and you'll see the colossal weapon move across the screen like it's not there. All of this is just at odds with how LONG the anticipation for your attacks are, I mean, this game has really high commitment and long wind-ups, hyper-armor only activates once the swing goes (so you can very easily get locked out of every attack, regardless of weapon) so when the attack animations are telling me a story, that the guy is wielding around a super heavy object, but then some glitch like that happens, and the object no longer has weight, it just pulls you out of any immersion you may have had, and reminds you that this is a AA game.,

So, why would I recommend this game? It really is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, I can't quite place my finger on it, it's like a really really rough gem, it has some charm to it, besides the absolutely stunning art, unique setting and just everything else, you can tell there is a good game here if you like the genre and you adjust to the jank. The level design is probably the strongest aspect of the game, and yeah it's not perfect, but I can't say I didn't have fun.

Overall, if they fixed a few things, this game would be a solid 8/10, but right now it's more like a 7/10. I'd say it's MUCH better than Lords of the Fallen (the 2nd one) and Steelrising and Mortal Shell. But it's nowhere near Lies of P, Dark Souls 3, Sekiro, and Bloodborne.