izigame.me

I adore this game

The combat is simple and predictable and not complicated or random like most games.
I also think this game is a cinematic masterpiece, it just looks so good.
I've seen a lot of people say the fighting is very scuffed and obnoxious, I think they're just on hot air because they don't understand how the game works, so they blame it on the game.
People have skill issues, they just don't want to own up to them.
Everyone starts somewhere and there's always a learning curve in everything.
To truly enjoy this game you need to master its base mechanics, that means recognizing attack patterns and timings to outplay your enemies completely. Learning the game is part of the fun and theres simply no fun in games if you just breeze through them without stubbing your toes first.
Now I believe that the intended difficulty for this game is Ronin (hard), as it's generally the hardest difficulty available, Kensei mode is hard to a certain extent but in the end you can just 1 hit your normal enemies which isn't inherently fun or hard gameplay, because I like a challenge and I want to work for my victory.
Ratings:
🎚️ Difficulty
🔲 My cat could play it
🔲 Easy
☑️ Normal
🔲 Significant brain usage
🔲 Darksouls

🗺️ Graphics
🔲 2006 Roblox
🔲 Bad
🔲 Normal
☑️ Unique but Beautiful
🔲 Amazing
🔲 You forget what reality is

📚 Story
🔲 No story
🔲 Lousy
☑️ It's there for people who care
🔲 Well written
🔲 It could replace my life

⌛️ Length
🔲 Short (-1h)
☑️ Average (2-5h)
🔲 Long (+10h)
🔲 To infinity and beyond

🎶 Music
🔲 No music
🔲 Not fitting
☑️ It makes sense
🔲 Would listen outside the game
🔲 Deserves an award

🕹️ Gameplay
🔲 Watch grass grow
🔲 Hard to enjoy
☑️ Gets repetitive after a while
🔲 A good moment
🔲 You'll have a blast

🔁 Replayability
🔲 A one-time experience
☑️ Multiple endings
☑️ For achievements/speedruns only
🔲 Infinitely replayable

🐛 Bugs
🔲 No bugs whatsoever
☑️ Minor bugs
🔲 Can get annoying
🔲 Impacts the game badly
🔲 The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

⚙️ System Requirements
🔲 Check if you can you run paint
🔲 Low-end pc
☑️ Decent pc
🔲 High-end pc
🔲 Ask nasa if they have a spare computer

💰 Price
🔲 Free
🔲 Perfect Price
☑️ Could be cheaper
🔲 Overpriced
🔲 Complete waste of money

🎯 Expectations
🔲 This game is a scam
🔲 Fast food ad vs reality
☑️ Looks similar to the steam page
🔲 Better than expected
🔲 Masterpiece
I have 100% completed this game and gotten every achievement. I don't regret a single second, it was a beautiful experience.
Except Chapter 6 on Ronin/Kensei difficulty,
𝓕 𝓤 𝓒 𝓚
𝓨 𝓞 𝓤 !

Helpful advice to understand the basics of the game:

You should almost never attack first, let your opponent go first so that you can focus on countering them. Attacking first leaves you open to blocking (wasting your stamina), and not being able to block in time.
You are taught how to parry in the tutorial stage, simply a timed block when the opponent raises their sword above their head as they are about to strike.
Parrying attacks are risky but will provide value in the earlier chapters. As these counterattacks will deal additional damage, stun the opponent for a tiny bit, and heal you of 1 hit point.
Preemptive blocks are decent and a good defensive habit if you aren't skilled at parrying, although heavy attacks will put you in hit stun while blocking. If they are charging up a heavy attack you need to quickly unblock and block again to hopefully trigger the parry.
Regular enemies have different types.
The ones with headbands are fast and aggressive, so watch out for that. In most cases they will go for a quick 2-hit attack, but if they see you blocking they can also hit you with a heavy attack first.
These are one of the only enemies who will actively try to dodge your attacks, especially your heavy attacks because of its slowness and high commit.
Usually the best strategy is to preemptively block for their first attacks and then stun combo them. But if you think you're faster just try parry them and then combo right after, if you do you're pretty wicked.
Strawhat enemies I believe are the only normal enemy that will sometimes try to block your attacks. But its fairly easy to deal with. Since stunning combos work through blocks and ignores it completely.
"Sometimes you may find breaking your opponent's stance; is far more effective than searching for an opening. Openings are not to be sought, they are to be created.".
Armored enemies are tricky, but don't be fooled, they don't have a lot of health, just armor. You need to break through their defenses by stunning them and killing them with a finisher attack. Unless you plan on hitting them 15 times before they go down, thats also a strategy, just not a very good one...
Armored enemies will always try to hit you with a heavy attack first, making it easy to parry if you time it right, but if you fail you will take a lot of damage.
Spear wielder's weakness is a well timed parry that puts them in recoil, then follow with a combo and finisher. (The chapter 2 boss will often try to kick you, if you see they try to do that, block and roll away, as they will try to slam their spear on you after. This is why you always need to make sure you have space behind you during this bossfight.)
Zombies do not care about hit-stun (getting their attacks canceled), combos will be hard to pull off and needs to be done preemptively.
For the armored zombies I suggest Heavy>Heavy>Parry>Counterattack (after 2 heavies they will try to quickly counterattack you, so you just have to quickly parry it.)
You can unlock a Heavy Stunning combo hidden in this chapter if you explore a bit.
The input is Backward>Heavy, making you take a step back and give the enemy a good whack that immediately stuns them. It's going to make all future chapters a breeze.
For teleportation ghosts I don't really have a good solution, just make use of different combos you unlock or find.
For archers & canons, I would dodge roll right as they shoot and then slice them up in close range, you can also interrupt their ranged attack with a bo-shuriken.

Some neat tips for Ronin (Hard) mode:

Parry>Light>Light>Heavy>Finisher combo is your best friend for regular enemies; they can effectively be killed in potentially 3 hits, just make sure to use the finisher button as this will also heal you by a good amount. Just keep the this rhythm in your head, swing, swing, swong, to yomi with you. (Keep in mind that you can only unlock this combo by progressing past the river in chapter 2).
So before this point I would suggest using the Light>Heavy option. So for context, if a Light Attack is 1 damage. Heavy attack is about 2.5 Light attacks in damage, and a parrying attack is about 1.5 Light attack damage. Normal enemies theoretically dies after 3.5 light attacks. Enemies will inevitably die after 4 uninterrupted Light Attacks or 2 uninterrupted Heavy Attacks.
2 Heavy attacks is about your highest damage output during boss fights, you should almost never use light attacks due to its low damage.
At the start or end of each boss, to increase your damage output, you can always try to use all of your ammunition to chip away a good amount of health without needing to risk yourself in close combat.