izigame.me

Short version:
An art gallery that comes bundled with one of the worst combat systems I've had an experience with.
I don't recommend unless you want this game for the sake of visuals.
2/10 for combat.
10/10 for visuals.
Add in some form of NG+ at least or level select option, for the love of god.
Overall a 4/10 game that's worth of looking at but not buying, even if I don't regret the money I chose to spend on it.
Free-form version aka "I rant about whatever gripe I have in no particular order so it's going to be long" version.
It's finally out. I've been waiting for the game, and I can't help but feel disappointed.
Visuals - The game lulls you in with the artstyle, and let me be clear, every minute of this game is screenshot-worthy. I think this game holds a record on how many screenshots I took in a game. It looks gorgeous, and I saw at least one review that called it eye-straining, but I personally never found my eyes to be tired from looking at the game. Now, the visuals are where pros of this game end, because even though I didn't expect side-scrolling Ghost of Tsushima in terms of combat fidelity, I didn't even get a good game in it's own right when it comes to fighting enemies.
Combat - It's cool when you're fighting just average bandits, but falls apart as soon as archers show up, or let's be fair, any other enemy variety for this matter. You have some pretty basic combos at your disposal, and at times combat can be split directionally because enemies surround you, plus you do get new moves via collectables and story progression. But worry not, you have a lottery roll with no i-frames, which sometimes CAN actually make you dodge an enemy attack. I love it when sometimes you get hit by an arrow which logically you roll under, but hitbox says otherwise. Don't even get me started on spearmen. It would be fine if only you'd know how the damn parry operates. When your timing is right, it enters this weird slow motion as to add to the cinematic flair, but the question is WHEN EXACTLY timing would be right? Sometimes you block way before an enemy even swings a sword and it parries the attack. Other times an enemy just skips a frame because you didn't block 3 years prior to enemy attempting to swing at you, so now you're getting undeservedly dusted. You cannot block projectiles nor dodge them, by the way. So it's always nice to see when your solution to a projectile enemy is to dash towards them, prioritizing targets, only to get a scripted kick which knocks you back, because you entered their hitbox range and they get a free projectile in because you just can't recover in time to do anything about it. And it's by design, so it's supposed to be fair. Solution? Strike before entering a projectile enemy hitbox so they enter their pain state/stagger. Sometimes you can get unlucky even by doing that, but most of the time it works. Sometimes there's also enemies with spears. You'd think that blocking and closing in occasionally would work, right? Wrong. You spam block so that you can parry every attack that spearman dishes out and kill them. You'll thank me later. Actually spamming block is viable tactic against almost every enemy in the game, because the game doesn't know any better, so it'll just begrudgingly snap you towards the attacking enemy at times, which is just an addition towards how bad the combat system is in this game.
Boss fights - an actual JOKE. Laughably bad. You can beat final boss by spamming block and "parrying".
Replay value - none. It has a system of choices, and there's 3 paths from what I've seen in total. Got the worst ending personally, and I'm not replaying this game. Those 5 hours are more than likely will be what I'll spend in total with this game. Which is fine, I didn't expect a long game, but I did expect some basic options like level selection or NG+ maybe, where you keep every collectable health points and stamina from your initial playthrough. But no, once you beat the game, no level selection, no NG+ option. Just a new difficulty. I played the game through on "Bushido" or "Normal", and at times I hated this game for how stupid some of the combat arenas were. So I'm not even going to pretend like I'm that one guy who wants a challenge. I just want a fair game to begin with. And in this game, new game means your collectables reset.
Collectables - are in name only. When really those are upgrades. They're absolutely essential to your playthrough, and the game "encourages" you to look for the upgrades. You upgrade your health points and stamina meter in that manner. There are actual lore collectables, and I love that it's all about Japanese deities. As for upgrades, you can miss them by design, because often you will find yourself at a crossroads with two ways. Left and right. If you're lucky, one of the directions will end up having an upgrade. If not, you trigger a story event that will either bar you from backtracking (like rolling down the hill which you can't get back up on), or just end the level overall. Awesome, love it. If you will not look for upgrades, you're absolutely screwed even on Normal. Didn't find all of them because of cutscene or level end? Too bad, can't come back, there is no level select, as previously mentioned, so you can only deal with it.
Wanna replay to see other endings/choose other options to see how narrative shifts? Play through the game again with having to look for collectables yet again. No thanks.
Conclusion - I have utmost respect for indie devs looking to bring their creation to fruition. It's a real shame that this game is brought down by design. Artistically it's impeccable, and I think I'd rather get a story-driven walking simulator with these visuals rather than the fill-in abomination called "combat". Overall, unfortunately I can't recommend this game, and the issue isn't a price, it's mostly combat, honestly. I'd like to see this game being supported just for the sake of having a better sequel where maybe devs will collect feedback and iron out the issues of the first game. But supporting a subpar game isn't justifiable in itself just for the sake of "maybe" having some other iteration that would be better.
If you like the aesthetic as much as I did, then I can't blame you. Nor would that be a really bad/regrettable investment. But in it's current state, I can't in good faith recommend it, so I'll mirror the sentiment from the start of this "review".
Great game to look at, bad game to play.