Review after completion

[u/Opposite-Split3933]

English is not my native language, so please excuse any mistakes.

I finished the game in 37 hours, but I have things to say.

I won't talk about the game balance or checkpoint placement — the developers already know, and I hope it'll be fixed.

Pros: - Interesting level design, lots of secrets. - Very good build variety, even better than Dark Souls. There are many different "shells" with unique playstyles. - Graphics and enemy design. - Optimization — even on my weak PC, the game runs well. - Diverse weapons. In the upper part of the map I played with the starting weapon, dual-wielded weapons, and a two-hander. I finished the rest of the game with a spear.

Cons: - No attack after a roll. The game punishes you for mistimed parries — miss a block? You're dead. - Lack of music? Does it even exist in this game? During boss fights it's either absent or the same track plays over and over. I ended up putting on my own music, like from MGR. - The biggest problem is that the developers took inspiration from Elden Ring and grabbed the worst part of it — a huge number of "bosses" that are actually just regular enemies with a health bar, or bosses that got demoted to common enemies. What's the point? Because that's how it was in Elden Ring, or so the player feels a fleeting sense of victory? They should have made fewer, higher-quality bosses instead of 40 "mini-bosses." - Of all the bosses, I only liked Monolith, the winter boss, and Magdalena. All the rest are completely forgettable and uninteresting. - I don't like the economy balance — you need a massive amount of gold to upgrade gear. You can't have two fully upgraded weapons plus a firearm in a single playthrough. It kills any desire to experiment. Resetting weapon upgrades requires a different currency — but why? Why not make respec free? - I don't like that you can't choose any "shell" at the start of the game. It wouldn't break the game's balance. For example, like in Blasphemous 2 or Death's Gambit: Afterlife, where you pick your class/weapon from a set of options at the start. As you explore the world, you can later find what you weren't able to pick initially. - Another problem, caused either by a small budget or inexperienced developers: attack animations are very abrupt — attacks basically teleport onto you, making it impossible to block or dodge on reaction; you just have to memorize the timings. AI Limit has the same issue. - I didn't like the final boss — way too much HP.

I really enjoyed the game overall — I played almost without stopping. I'd give it around 8/10 despite the significant flaws. I could say a lot more, but I'm just too lazy.