TL;DR: A strong core, with solid mechanics, and fun gameplay, albeit a bit vague explaining your characters mechanics. Missing some tutorial content & functionality that would benefit such as earlier weapon tutorials (Very important!), a journal / guide book item to re-read learnt mechanics, and Respec - But definitely a game to watch out for.


Score: 6/10
Do I Recommend This? : Yes
Similar to: Death's Gambit, Children of Morta, Hades

Gameplay

This game is amazing. The combat feels solid, Its deliberately less spammy than other similar games, to provide a more tactical battle sense, especially in boss fights. the aesthetic is nice, a dark, pixel game with some souls-like influences and a real sense of danger when taking on foes, especially The actual boss fight, before the arena pops up There are however, a few elements missing or hard to notice. Firstly, the game never really explains in depth how each weapon works, it leaves that up to you to discover until after the first major battle. this may be a design choice, but I feel a small training arc could fit in the game during the timeskip that you get your weapons, on the topic of weapons, the skill passives, and playstyles probably need some rebalancing, or reviewing, I started with the 2 handed swords skills and due to the nature of the weapon, at first I thought i could not detonate my bombs at all until the "end-game" tutorial, also, due to the slow speed and slow rage gain, getting it's special attack of in an actual combat scenario is unlikely since your throw attack also breaks the weapon - I would recommend if you "catch" the blade after a throw, you dont lose it, and gain additional rage, making it a positional mechanic rather than the current "bounce mechanic" or even be able to trigger its special while its out "bouncing" if its meant to be more of a combo weapon. but my review is to focus on the game itself, balance discussion can occur elsewhere Secondly, There is no Respec feature, this may be due to being a demo, but in a game like this, the ability to respec is really quite important. I assume there will be some sort of currency in the main game, perhaps this could be used for respecs as well as other items or buffs - or perhaps respecs can just be free prior to boss fights. Also, I noticed a distinct lack of shops / shop upgrade systems, but also, this may be limited to the free version. Finally, The shield mechanic, while a great idea, doesn't feel good in practice. If anything, I would call this a parry, as it has a tight window, and will stun you / break your weapon if used a second time. personally, players should be rewarded better with correctly timed shields than just a damage boost on your next special and should be able to parry / block more than 1 hit before the next hit breaks you). I didnt seem to notice a durability bar for weapons, but I felt like my weapons broke from normal attacks sometimes as well. I think a couple mechanics need to be explained better during the first aspects of the game, Primarially the combat tutorial, but also one of these being the Karma system (which on the topic of, "potions" should be purchasable or fillable in town if getting them in the wild gives you negative karma), with a nice way to go back and read up on mechanics again. extremely solid demo still, very impressed.

Graphics and Music
The game presents itself in a dark, dystopian world, the musical score is beautiful and haunting, and fits the games premise. The pixel art style is solid, and really fits the world and atmosphere that is being presented to us. Graphically, the game is very pretty, and has enough variation in this brief demo to keep me interested and looking around.

Story
The story is interesting enough to keep you thinking, but it takes a back seat to the combat at least in this 616 version. There's plenty of npcs having conversations, or willing to feed you bits of lore, which is great to see, but also some things seem to be missing like quest npcs, character building dialog, etc, I'm assuming this is due to not being the full game release. at the moment, I think we can give story a pass as good, as there's definitely strong elements of it visible and expect much more to come in time.

Characters
There isn't a lot to say here so far, but the characters that have been shown so far as main characters, have been interesting, and leave me wanting to understand more about the lore and story of the game. the little quirks in the beginning of the game are interesting, but I'd love to see a more drawn out part of the story during that time-skip, even if its mostly cut-scenes, to help understand more about our character, his teacher, and the general people of the world


Final Words

For a free version. the game has enough to keep you wanting more, and I cant wait to see how this game develops and expands in the future. Being a huge fan of multiplayer, I cant see that being a thing here, but you never know. I think if some of the gameplay mechanics, and additional guidance around durability systems, weapon tutorials, and respecs are added. This will be a force to be reckoned with in the 2D battler space

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