I don't know what I can really say about this game. Another game in my catelog that I've had for years but never got around to completion (which is strange considering how quickly I finished up when I picked it back up in one night; it hasn't even been 2 hours since). The game is dark souls inspired if that wasn't clear but I'd say the game plays a bit different. Stamina regens slower, attacks have weight but i'm often left feeling like i'm too open after an attack, pyromancy seems to be greater in effectiveness here (it's also the only type of magic in the game), and there's no merchants of shops to buy items; most are obtained from enemies or loot.

I'd say the game has a bit of its own identity, but being familiar with dark souls will definitely help with how you play and go about some encounters. Bosses, though hard-hitting, can be cheesed if you're able to pick up on their attack "strategy" especially the next to last and last boss, but I'll get to that . Enemies can be frustrating in groups and some encounters may seem outright unfair given what you may have and what you'll be up against, but I can assure you, most encounters can also be cheesed with relative security, if not without too much damage.

Since I'd been out of the loop for this game in years, I decided to try to watch a walkthrough to remember where I was as one of the game's main concerns for me is that your "quest", which is at the top right of the screen, is very vague. If you're playing continuously or in connected sessions, then you probably won't forget too much about where you are and where you're going, but I legitimately had no idea where I was, how I got there, and which way to go from there as it was at an intersection of possible paths to take. After realizing that the number of walkthroughs for the game that actually seem to beat it were not plentiful, I decided to throw caution to the wind and eventually I kind of stumbled upon where I was supposed to go.

Speaking of those walkthroughs, I noticed something in a number of them, even ones that had managed to get quite far, and it helps go into my next point. People just seem to get frustrated and decide, "I'll just run through this area and all it's enemies." And I don't think that's a bad play, but many of the areas in this game where (at least to me) that becomes your tactic, the enemies are placed in such a way as to negate that and in some cases, you are punished for it. Now far be it from me to tell someone not to ignore some fights; sometimes, you just have to in a game. But in the times I saw these mad dashes, the person is just taking unnecessary damage all to find the next campfire only to realize that they can't rest there because being actively engaged with enemies (who will some times follow you to the ends of the earth). That also means you have to disengage them completely, fight them all at once, or fight some enemies that wouldn't have been together in one setting to begin with.

This is not a smart plan. I get wanting to be done with something, but if you know that you face 3 separate rooms of enemies with 3 different types of fights to plan around, why would you actually want to group them all up so you fight them together? It seems like the enemy placement is setup in a way that you don't do this or you'll be punished. This is on top of the fact that there are NPC "invaders" called hunters who pop up at certain points in the game when you're exploring (you'll get a pop-up warning letting you know). You could potentially flag a bunch of heat on top of a hunter trailing after you, who, by the way, shares you're exact stats and sometimes build and then get swarmed to death with no possible way of succeeding other than extreme luck. My advice? Fight some battles, avoid one's you think you can't handle. if you think you can't go one way because you're not sure how to take the fight ahead, do go until you've leveled up some more or gained some level of fortitude. Not bashing anyone, just saying I tried not to run through most fights because I'd be low on hp by the time I got to some safety and who knows what's behind the next corner?

A bit of a ramble there, but otherwise not much I found wrong with the combat aside for stamina regen being a bit too slow to me. As I said, most fights can be cheesed hard if you're smart about them; I had a good number of pyromancy spells and fireball was upgraded to hell (thanks a lot, past me) so whenever it seemed like I was up against a wall, the flames came out and would end the fight pretty quick. Another cheese is that most enemies, especially the more difficult to handle ones, seem to fold when you stick to them. This means an enemy with a fast lunging attack quickly becomes a joke when you're next to them wailing on them, because the lunge takes a lot of stamina and to dodge you would mean burning more so you stunlock them to death. This also works on you so running too much with eventually bite you in the back. Dodge when needed but be aggressive when you have no reason not to. Some bosses suffer from this "flaw" as well. The corrupted victor fight becomes a joke if you have timed block and a good one-handed sword. circle-strafing next to him while tapping timed block as he attacks means you barely if ever lose stamina and can attack him in his openings without worrying about his charging swipes. The last boss is even worst because you can kill his "help" before he calls them to his side. all three are on the sides of the arena, so run to one (which won't attack because they're not "summoned" yet) and just start hammering them to death before they have a chance to retaliate. When you finish all 3, the necromancer's call does absolutely nothing, so you can just circle-strafe and poke him until he's dead.

Anyway, getting back into the game didn't take me too long, and I guess I must have stopped really far in the last time I play the game because I got the last boss fairly quick and beat him. Though I did die a couple of times here and there, most of the deaths we're me being a bit too brazen while being unaware of other enemies in the room. That's not to say there aren't any cheap deaths in the game, but they're not as often as they are made out to be. Overall, I think I enjoyed the game. If you're someone who plays a lot of Dark Souls or Dark Souls-esque games, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. Anyone else may find their patience tested but I don't think it's that serious.

I don't know what I can really say about this game. Another game in my catelog that I've had for years but never got around to completion (which is strange considering how quickly I finished up when I picked it back up in one night; it hasn't even been 2 hours since). The game is dark souls inspired if that wasn't clear but I'd say the game plays a bit different. Stamina regens slower, attacks have weight but i'm often left feeling like i'm too open after an attack, pyromancy seems to be greater in effectiveness here (it's also the only type of magic in the game), and there's no merchants of shops to buy items; most are obtained from enemies or loot. I'd say the game has a bit of its own identity, but being familiar with dark souls will definitely help with how you play and go about some encounters. Bosses, though hard-hitting, can be cheesed if you're able to pick up on their attack "strategy" [spoiler] especially the next to last and last boss, but I'll get to that [/spoiler]. Enemies can be frustrating in groups and some encounters may seem outright unfair given what you may have and what you'll be up against, but I can assure you, most encounters can also be cheesed with relative security, if not without too much damage. Since I'd been out of the loop for this game in years, I decided to try to watch a walkthrough to remember where I was as one of the game's main concerns for me is that your "quest", which is at the top right of the screen, is very vague. If you're playing continuously or in connected sessions, then you probably won't forget too much about where you are and where you're going, but I legitimately had no idea where I was, how I got there, and which way to go from there as it was at an intersection of possible paths to take. After realizing that the number of walkthroughs for the game that actually seem to beat it were not plentiful, I decided to throw caution to the wind and eventually I kind of stumbled upon where I was supposed to go. Speaking of those walkthroughs, I noticed something in a number of them, even ones that had managed to get quite far, and it helps go into my next point. People just seem to get frustrated and decide, "I'll just run through this area and all it's enemies." And I don't think that's a bad play, but many of the areas in this game where (at least to me) that becomes your tactic, the enemies are placed in such a way as to negate that and in some cases, you are punished for it. Now far be it from me to tell someone not to ignore some fights; sometimes, you just have to in a game. But in the times I saw these mad dashes, the person is just taking unnecessary damage all to find the next campfire only to realize that they can't rest there because being actively engaged with enemies (who will some times follow you to the ends of the earth). That also means you have to disengage them completely, fight them all at once, or fight some enemies that wouldn't have been together in one setting to begin with. This is not a smart plan. I get wanting to be done with something, but if you know that you face 3 separate rooms of enemies with 3 different types of fights to plan around, why would you actually want to group them all up so you fight them together? It seems like the enemy placement is setup in a way that you don't do this or you'll be punished. This is on top of the fact that there are NPC "invaders" called hunters who pop up at certain points in the game when you're exploring (you'll get a pop-up warning letting you know). You could potentially flag a bunch of heat on top of a hunter trailing after you, [spoiler] who, by the way, shares you're exact stats and sometimes build [/spoiler] and then get swarmed to death with no possible way of succeeding other than extreme luck. My advice? Fight some battles, avoid one's you think you can't handle. if you think you can't go one way because you're not sure how to take the fight ahead, do go until you've leveled up some more or gained some level of fortitude. Not bashing anyone, just saying I tried not to run through most fights because I'd be low on hp by the time I got to some safety and who knows what's behind the next corner? A bit of a ramble there, but otherwise not much I found wrong with the combat aside for stamina regen being a bit too slow to me. As I said, most fights can be cheesed hard if you're smart about them; I had a good number of pyromancy spells and fireball was upgraded to hell (thanks a lot, past me) so whenever it seemed like I was up against a wall, the flames came out and would end the fight pretty quick. Another cheese is that most enemies, especially the more difficult to handle ones, seem to fold when you stick to them. This means an enemy with a fast lunging attack quickly becomes a joke when you're next to them wailing on them, because the lunge takes a lot of stamina and to dodge you would mean burning more so you stunlock them to death. This also works on you so running too much with eventually bite you in the back. Dodge when needed but be aggressive when you have no reason not to. Some bosses suffer from this "flaw" as well. [spoiler] The corrupted victor fight becomes a joke if you have timed block and a good one-handed sword. circle-strafing next to him while tapping timed block as he attacks means you barely if ever lose stamina and can attack him in his openings without worrying about his charging swipes. The last boss is even worst because you can kill his "help" before he calls them to his side. all three are on the sides of the arena, so run to one (which won't attack because they're not "summoned" yet) and just start hammering them to death before they have a chance to retaliate. When you finish all 3, the necromancer's call does absolutely nothing, so you can just circle-strafe and poke him until he's dead. [/spoiler] Anyway, getting back into the game didn't take me too long, and I guess I must have stopped really far in the last time I play the game because I got the last boss fairly quick and beat him. Though I did die a couple of times here and there, most of the deaths we're me being a bit too brazen while being unaware of other enemies in the room. That's not to say there aren't any cheap deaths in the game, but they're not as often as they are made out to be. Overall, I think I enjoyed the game. If you're someone who plays a lot of Dark Souls or Dark Souls-esque games, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. Anyone else may find their patience tested but I don't think it's that serious.