If you are a fan of action games with in depth combat like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, you owe it to yourself to try this game out.

The fights can be daunting and overwhelming, and they may seem to always be five steps ahead of you. But once you get a hang of the learning curve, you'll be treated to a stellar game with a unique take on the genre as you trade hits with a horde of deamons.

The difficulty curve feels very much in line with Ninja Gaidens frequent difficulty spikes, so if you're not a hardcore action man stan I would recommend starting with one of the easier difficulties, and even if you are experienced, you may still want to consider that option. I would also recommend looking up videos of high level play after the first act since the game drops a kitchen sinks worth of mechanics on you from the start, you'll likely neglect a couple key attacks as a result.

This game might have the best implementation of action platforming I've ever seen thanks to the peculiar ways enemies can body block you. You have to dash or perform certain actions to pass through enemies, which is the safest way to avoid most attacks. But some can be too wide to pass through, so you have to aim for a thinner part of the body or jump around altogether. L shaped enemies require a little height to pass through their heads, and are extremely dangerous to fight on the ground since they cut off your safest evasive direction. Long flat enemies can't be passed through altogether but are easier to get on top of etc. It makes the size and shape of each enemy type an important factor in how to maneuver around them.

The art on display is amazing, presenting a warped hellscape with a varying degrees of clown carnivals smuggled into the theming. The character animation in particular stands out, mixing traditional animation with puppetry without sacrificing clarity and shapes. The music is no slouch either, with tons of kick ass themes that complement everything the art has achieved.

My only major gripe is that I don't jive with the level design, when the fights can be marathons in and of themselves, I don't have the mental energy to deal with non linear levels, DOOM style keycards and rationing limited checkpoints.

This game oozes with a quality and polish I would never expect from a single developer. Please give this game a try, even if you don't jive with the brutal difficulty curve, this talent is well worth supporting.

I never thought I would get a new Ninja Gaiden game/DMC by playing an Owl girl slaying demons in the after life in 2D.

Pretty art, challenging but fair combat, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of enemies, and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of ways to kill them.

Clearly one of 2024's Games of the year