devan singh

Pros: Strong opening. Decent combat. Stunning graphical fidelity. Reasonably compelling narrative. Cons: Inconsistent writing quality Surface level rpg mechanics Not as thematically dark both in art style and events. Conclusion: If you’re here for a fun fantasy action game with stunning visuals, good combat, and light rpg mechanics this is a good time. With the right expectations, this is a fun experience for what it is.

In summation, too much happens too quickly resulting in vague setups which lead to underwhelming payoffs and rushed character arcs. While there are some thrilling action sequences, the formula feels too cookie-cutter/ generic & predictable. A more distinctive plot, better pacing and a smaller scope was needed.

Intriguing storyline and sufficiently distinctive but character arcs are woeful, disgraceful and embarrassing. Characters making mind numbingly stupid decisions throughout its immersion shattering. It tries too hard to conclude profoundly with a monologue that feels tangibly forced.

Impressions on ps5: The good: It generally looks good from an art style, color scheme and animation design standpoint. The combat system is interesting. Deaths aren’t as punishing as soulsborne games and it’s quite different than a soulsborne game in many regards. The bad: No mode offers a capped frame rate leading to inconsistencies in the way it runs. Digital foundry review shows just how many concessions were made from a technical standpoint. Camera angles and fov isn’t great. Invisible walls are prevalent and immersion-breaking. Hitting an enemy isn’t satisfying like it is in other top games in and out of the souls genre - it’s light and feeble feeling. The pacing is off, levels are narrow, overly linear, feature sparse and few regular enemies while chaining boss encounters in close succession. The difficulty is oppressive - not in a way that’s insurmountable but rather in a manner that’s tedious via boring repetition. There isn’t a good variety of gear. Bosses have no buildup, narrative or otherwise, their frequently cheapens the experience of beating one because there’s another 2 mins away. Overall, shockingly disapppinting. Regretfully I purchased on ps store so refunding isn’t an option. Await more diverse reviews and look at digital foundry review, they hid ps5 variant for a reason.

I was only able to play about 1.5 hours of this and I have no interest in continuing. On Ps5, performance is choppy, graphical fidelity is weak, narrative is vague and poorly delivered in the opening scenes, facial animations are embarrassing yet spotlighted exemplifying the overarching dissonance is the rest of this package. The combat is somewhat of a saving grace but insufficient to offset the myriad other woes. In combination, the frame rate, animations and pop-in on console is really immersion breaking and I usually have a decent tolerance for this. Maybe the narrative and combat further improves, but I’m unwilling to invest the time to find out.

Their games have always been difficult and have gotten good reviews regardless. If this is an exception then it must be telling in some regard. Rather than simp for these developers like you have a sub fetish, maybe hear the users out 🤷‍♂️. Game-making is about balancing fun with challenge and if the core part of the buying community isn’t willing to play it, it’s not a good idea to cater exclusively to the hardcore few.

Does not deserve to continue. Nothing here that isn’t generic, forced and cliche.

Unpopular review: great potential weighed down by unintuitive environmental design, bad platforming, bad controls and sub-par lighting. The art style, concept, graphics are all quite good and the story was serviceable. However, just as I’d begin having fun the game halts you with yet another annoying puzzle that just wastes your time. Your character feels weightless and responds too radically to gentle inputs even after adjusting settings making it really difficult to face and jump where you want to go. This is made more annoying by time-gated platforms that kill you once they fall. The lighting is odd where dark parts of the environment appear completely blacked out where you miss paths simply because they’re not visible. The environmental design will have you believe blue glowing items and assets are intractable but the developers include it everywhere arbitrarily leading to a lot of wasted time retreading ground. There’s something fun somewhere here but it’s completely diminished by uneven pacing through mistimed puzzle inclusions, unintuitive environmental design, bad platforming, bad controlling character and odd lighting that actively inhibits your ability to explore and find paths.

Intriguing, well-acted but ultimately hollow in its quest for profoundness. Instead, it culminates is a cliche romance narrative. Had the production team held more conviction and certainty in writing, this could have been an immaculate blend of sci-fi metaphysics & character development. Instead, the plot and conclusion serves only one end, leaving the other with the overused lazy “down to interpretation” excuse.