When you begin the game, your first choice is selecting a hero. Initially, three characters are available by default, each with unique playstyles and attributes. For those who want more variety, an additional set of three characters can be unlocked through DLC purchases. Every hero is defined by four primary statistics, including attack power and speed. Alongside these, a fifth attribute, hero difficulty, provides a sense of how challenging it will be to progress through the game.

Once you’ve made your selection, the story unfolds through that hero’s perspective. Although the overarching narrative is the same for everyone, centered around the ongoing battle against Nightmares, a group of deadly bosses, the details shift depending on who you play.

Dialogue, descriptions, and subtle bits of lore may differ from character to character, giving you incentive to replay with different heroes if you want to uncover every hidden detail. However, switching mid-game isn’t seamless. While you can start a new run with another hero, progress is not shared, meaning you’ll have to begin their journey from scratch if you want to see things through their eyes.

The core gameplay firmly belongs to the beat ’em up genre. Traditionally, games in this category rely heavily on button-mashing, but this one takes a more streamlined approach. Instead of hammering buttons endlessly, you can unleash fluid combos by simply holding down the main attack button. The type of basic attack varies depending on your chosen hero. A melee fighter, for example, demands that you close the distance before striking, while a ranged hero can pick off enemies from afar, making positioning less dangerous.

Your character is also equipped with a dodge move, useful for quickly getting out of harm’s way, but you need to wait a few seconds before using it again. Still, the heart of combat lies in skill usage. Special abilities are tied to different buttons, each consuming energy when performed. These skills vary from precise single-target strikes to devastating area-of-effect attacks.

Since targeting isn’t automatic, you’ll need to carefully position yourself before using them, poor timing or bad placement can result in wasted energy. While you can’t spam these abilities due to short cooldown timers, they reset quickly, usually within a few seconds. Fortunately, energy replenishes on its own, so you never run completely dry, though this mechanic does risk making combat feel somewhat repetitive. You quickly learn that lining enemies up and blasting them with skills is far more efficient than relying solely on basic attacks.

Progression is straightforward and linear. The story is divided into eight chapters, each containing nine stages. Individual stages are designed to be quick, often taking just a few minutes to complete. Structurally, they all follow the same pattern: you face waves of enemies, push forward when prompted by a big “Go” sign, and repeat until you encounter the final boss. The bosses themselves are essentially enhanced versions of standard enemies. They might have a few unique attacks, usually telegraphed by red warning markers on the ground, and they’re accompanied by an endless stream of weaker foes, but you can deal with them easily by spamming all skills you have.

Visually, the game has its highs and lows. The character and enemy models are detailed and polished, with smooth animations and eye-catching designs. Female characters take top place here because of obvious reasons. However, the backgrounds and environments appear less refined, as if they were created at a lower resolution. It can be quite distracting to see high-quality characters moving across blurry scenes.

Beyond the core campaign, the game layers in several additional systems that extend replay value. Stages can be revisited not only for experience but also for loot and currency. Before selecting a stage, you can preview potential rewards as well as the enemies you’ll face. That said, drops are randomized, so it may take several runs before you obtain the thing you’re after. All the resources you gather funnel back into the town, which serves as the hub for upgrades and customization.

The first priority in town is equipping your hero with the best available gear. Thankfully, there’s an auto-equip option that instantly assigns the highest-rated items, saving you from having to comb through every detail manually. Gear often comes with random bonus perks, but managing them in depth isn’t really necessary. Equipment can also be purchased in shops, though stock is tied to your story progression.

Any unwanted items can be sold or dismantled for materials, but the blacksmith offers far more rewarding options. Here, you can fuse duplicates to craft stronger versions, forge rare gear with special resources, or enhance your current equipment by sacrificing pieces you don’t need. Enchantment orbs, frequently obtained from stage reward, speed up this process. However, there’s always fear of wasting resources because you might get a better gear in your next stage that makes the one you just upgraded redundant.

The skill system forms another crucial part of growth. As you level up, you unlock new abilities. Each hero has access to eight standard skills plus two powerful ultimate ones, but you can only equip four plus one ultimate. Swapping skills to fit your preferred playstyle adds some depth, but all of them are capable of taking out tens of enemies per use.

A less impactful but still notable town feature is fashion customization. Costumes don’t influence stats or gameplay but instead alter your character’s appearance. The designs lean heavily on flashy and sometimes revealing aesthetics. Unlocking most of these cosmetic options requires either progressing deeper into the story or replaying stages on hard mode, which only becomes available after completing a chapter once.

To help with collection, the game includes an Encyclopedia that tracks where unique items and gear can be found. Some of the most powerful equipment, however, is locked behind a special mode. This mode unlocks only after you’ve cleared all stages within a chapter with an S rank, determined by how fast you finish and how little damage you take. In these missions, you can fight alongside another hero, but the enemies are far more dangerous.