F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch Review (SemperFudge)
Looks great, but just dreadfully boring and frequently frustrating. Gave up at the ten-minute underwater boss, not due to difficulty, but because the game just wasn't fun. All the effort went into the art and animation, but not much else. Go play Ghost Song, Astalon, Axiom Verge, Bloodstained, or even Ex Vitro instead of this.
The Good
+Very very detailed environments and animations
+Saves frequently
+Map does a decent job of marking things for you
+World interconnects very well
+A couple of random humorous events
+No contact damage with most enemies
+Lots of fluid movement options
+Not a furry fest
YMMV
~22 GB download
~Couple of typos
~Some difficulty spikes
~Almost all skill upgrades are just combo additions you'll never use
~The charged punch is a dedicated "I win" button in most cases
The Bad
-Unskippable opening splash screens
-Story and dialog are: cliche, monotone, skippable, predictable, forgettable
-Voice acting is just ok. I rarely let NPC's finish speaking.
-Dash has no iframes or ability to pass through enemies
-Almost no other dodge abilities, and one parry eats up a healing item
-Enemies often encountered in tight hallways with no room to jump
-Attacks frequently lock you into animations that leave you open to damage
-A few common enemies are unphased by your attacks and will continue to hit you
-A few enemies can fire through walls
-Camera has trouble keeping up with player and can't be panned
-Can't scroll through some menu items with controller, had to use KB
-Map can't be marked
-Map zoom out doesn't work with controller
-Underwater sections are just a soggy slog
-Master Wu's trials are frustrating - if not nearly impossible - and unrewarding
Played on:
Win11, i7-14700K, RTX4060 Ti 8GB, 32GB DDR5-6000 @ 1920x1080
Using PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S
Easy difficulty