izigame.me

Very fun game! I played the OG, Overdrive and now this one. I can say the game holds up very well still
and might be having a bigger blast than the previous versions.
Graphics are great, characters feel very alive and fluid. The amount of enemies and drops make this arcade-like experience addicting and if you're into a more complex beat-em'up game play style, this game definitely has all others beat (IMO).
Gameplay-wise the game has no flaws and the physics are really fluid. The system works smoothly and barely feels clunky.
However, I would like to see some additions in terms of quality of life to fix some issues:
I would like the option to adjust the camera (Playing in local co-op shows this is very possible)
You can't level up unless you exit the run (Co-op or online, haven't tried story mode), causing the stage-clear results to feel jarring since seeing your level go up but not being able to power up feels like a tease. I ended up leaving lobbies where I could have a lot of fun just because I wanted to unlock air dashing or supers. I would say Normal mode is intended to be played at lvl 0 from start to finish but I sincerely doubt that. Taking in so many enemies at once without the necessary skills becomes irritating (not having double or triple jumps to deal with enemies in the air for example).
Since most of the mechanics (the rest of your specials, supers, overdrives, phantom breaks, dashes, counters, yadda yadda yadda) are locked behind a skill tree, it WILL feel like a drag going to the next stage if you are running a character from LVL 0. Not only that, it really doesn't take more than 3 or 4 stages in normal mode to have all the necessary skills to really get going so it even feels kinda forced to leave a party to unlock everything in one go. Considering this, I don't know why they even bother with a skill tree, you either play the game in one go or leave halfway to get pretty much everything? This could be immediately remedied by just having a vote to go to the level up screen before resuming at stage result screen. Speaking of voting:
Online communication needs to be added. putting "beginners" in the online lobby screen does nothing, people will just lock in their maxed characters with auras/passives effectively making you just a bystander if you're just trying to play the game honestly. I don't need a chat, but some emotes or choosing phrases to let anyone know what's up would help.
Even with all these caveats, the game is absolutely amazing and fun to play once you hit all your skills with your desired character. You can either mash buttons or fighting game mentality-work your way to some fun moments and visuals.
Dragon punching enemies in the air and performing a Dragon Ball Fighterz-esque air combo with Mikoto ending with a spike will ALWAYS be adrenaline-inducing, specially with the mayhem that can happen in a lot of the cases.
I'm addicted to this game, hope they implement some much needed QoL changes.