Recent reviews by Malleus

The first time I saw this game was in an animated gif somewhere, and the visuals immediately grabbed my attention. I'm not really into pixel art, but every now and then I come across a game where I have to admit that they really nailed the visual style. This is one one of those games.

We have 2D characters in 3D locations with a fixed side view camera. The third dimension is not just for decoration, in many cases we can move toward or away from the camera, letting us explore quite complex 3D locations. And the locations cannot be praised enough, the environmental design is absolutely outstanding, whether it’s the neon-lit, noisy streets of the city, the grandiose industrial interiors, or the meticulously furnished rooms. The great audio design, ambience and the pleasant synth OST also adds to the atmosphere.

In these 3D locations, especially in the cities, the gameplay is mostly like an adventure game, we talk to NPCs, pick up or use stuff, or solve tasks and side missions. There aren't many of the latter, which is a shame because they are all pleasantly unique with their own little mini-stories. There are also some quite hidden things to discover that aren’t marked on the map or in the database, but enrich the world, so it's worth exploring the maps thoroughly.

In locations where you have to fight, the game turns into a pure side scroller. The combat system is not very deep, but it has enough options. It is primarily melee, with defensive options being the usual block/dodge/parry and jumping. Three types of weapons can be used to attack, a light sword, which can be a single or twinblade, a heavy sword, and a ranged weapon, which is a pistol at the start of the game. Swords have their own moveset, which can be upgraded along with other fighting skills. We can also learn some kung fu moves, which I particularly liked. It's only effective against certain enemies, but kicking the crap out of them was really fun! Overall I think the combat is good, the animations look good, the sound effects are nice, there were memorable bosses, and the enemies have just enough variety to last until the end of the game.

The story takes place in a neon cyberpunk world. Our protagonist is Ann Flores, who works as a mercenary and suffers from a mysterious illness. Her younger brother, Ryan, is trying to find a cure for this, but he disappears during his investigation, so our heroine sets out to find out what happened to him. The story starts out as a thriller, but slowly becomes more and more bizarre as paranormal phenomena, mysterious organizations and a threat to the entire world enter the picture. Anyone who is a bit familiar with the SCP universe will find many familiar things, as obviously this was one of the main inspirations of the writers.

Ultimately, I liked the story, but I think the developers focused a little too much on the SCP stuff. The writing was a bit of a mixed bag, but we have the conversations we overhear in the cities, the NPCs, the many readable notes and emails - the developers did a lot of great worldbuilding and created an interesting setting, which I think had more potential. Not to mention the characters, our protagonist and her relationship with her family was something I think they could’ve focused more on. I still like what we have, and I grew to like Ann and her partner, Ayane, and the rest of the cast. They were cool characters and a fun team, with great voice acting (I played with Chinese voices).

Overall my impression is absolutely positive, the story had its atmosphere, the world was interesting, the combat was fun, and the visual style was fantastic. I think this game is a real indie gem.

This game now has a complete English fan translation available here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/724970/discussions/0/3855581793666247699/?ctp=22#c4040355933295865258

I only got into Chinese RPGs in 2020, but took note of this game right away, however I couldn’t play it, since it didn’t have English language. This changed recently, as a fan translation got finalized a few months ago.

In a world inspired by Chinese mythology, our story follows Feixing, a talented lad living in the mountains near his village. He is not allowed to enter his village, because he is cursed – everywhere he goes things break and strange things happen. Very early in the game, we learn that he is in fact blessed, as all the mountain gods and deities love him and follow him everywhere, causing all his troubles unintentionally, but this realization is overshadowed by a tragic event that befalls his village. This starts him on an epic journey of saving the world, filled with unexpected and sometimes haphazard twists and awkward scenes, but more on that later.

The game takes place in a Chinese fantasy setting, one that is very high fantasy, where magic and sorcery are abundant, and gods and divine beings regularly interact with and are even present in the mortal world. We also have all kinds of races, the equivalent of elves, dwarves, giants, and even a tribe of half-human half-robot beings, which might sound weird for the unitiated, but bronze/wooden machines are actually a Chinese fantasy trope that goes way back.

The presentation of everything is top notch and I think it holds up absolutely well even today. The locations are inspired by Chinese architecture and environments, but dialed up to eleven befitting for the fantasy setting. Later in the game we visit royal palaces and residences, which are just stunning with so much detail and spectacle. I also loved the costumes and clothes, which are a mix of traditional Chinese clothing and over the top fantasy designs. The game also has excellent mocapped animations. I don’t think there are many games that have dance coreographies, but this one even has scenes like that, and I loved them. The only thing that brings the whole visual experience a bit down are the facial animations, which often are very rigid. Even with that, this game would be perfect for virtual photography, but unfortunately it only has a half baked Ansel implementation, where the camera movements are very limited and you can’t even take Steam screenshots while in the Ansel interface.

The gameplay is built on the JRPG framework. We wander around with a party, and explore the locations, talking to people, doing tasks, fighting things, and going into people’s houses and pocketing everything that isn’t bolted down, as per classic RPG tradition. This basic gameplay has some awkwardness to it. You have to hold the mouse button to move the camera in 3rd person view, which is tiresome. Movement is janky and you can get stuck on things, or have trouble getting into position to pick up items. This makes the parts where you have to avoid environmental dangers a bit annoying. You also don’t have any minimap or quest markers other than a 3D glyph within the game world for the main quest, which is sometimes hard to find in bigger areas. The game gives you a list of sidequests, but no indication on where you can pick them up, so you just have to talk to everyone in an area. I’m not for games being very handholdy, but a little bit more would’ve been nice here.

Combat is a big part of the game, and it’s actually quite interesting, as it’s a combination of turn based and real time combat. When you get your turn, your party members perform their actions the moment you press the corresponding button. Most attacks apply a debuff on the enemy called Weakness that lasts for a few seconds in real time, and if another attack lands during this time, the damage you deal increases. So you have all the time in the world to think about what you are going to do in your turn, but once you start issuing commands, timing your button presses well results in greatly increased damage. You can build combos with certain attacks and then use specific combo finisher moves for greatly increased damage. Enemies can be in formations that can be broken by taking out the leader, you can trigger divine interventions on your side, your attacks have different timings and properties, etc, resulting in a pleasantly deep combat system. There’s one more mechanic, where you can reposition to the left or right, which is used to avoid enemies’ massive AOE attacks. You trigger this with the [] keys, but there’s a problem: you can’t rebind the controls, and this one just didn’t work for me. I tried setting my keyboard to English or Chinese, nothing worked. I was playing on easy, so I could tank these big attacks, but eventually ran into fights that were unwinnable without this move. The only solution I found was to simply plug in a controller. This might only be an issue with regional keyboards, and I guess this won’t be a problem for most people, since they play with a controller, but it’s a big negative for me, especially in a PC game. Even with all this however, I think the combat is one of the strong points of the game. It has depth, it’s spectacular, it’s fun. I was actually looking forward to fighting things, even if the endgame enemies and bosses were a bit too damage spongy. Actually, the final stretch of the game was quite challenging even on easy difficulty, can’t imagine what you have to do to get through it on harder ones.

I would easily overlook the minor issues with the gameplay if the story was good, but unfortunately it’s a mess. The writing is all over the place and feels haphazard, with introducing plot points and then abandoning them, presenting twists that feel random, or resulting from the main character being an idiot. The game also really tries to be dramatic and tragic with scenes so overdone they almost feel emotionally manipulative. And it does it too often. Sometimes someone dies tragically then brought back to life through some convoluted plot mechanic, only for someone else to die so everyone can be sad again. The writers really wanted to make the characters cry for some reason, but often these scenes were just awkward. By the end of the game I had a hard time taking any of it seriously, which is pretty bad for a game that’s so heavy on story and cutscenes. It’s not all like that though, there are some characters I liked, some interesting story ideas and twists, but for every good scene there’s two that just leaves you scratching your head. It’s a shame, because I think the world had potential, it was pretty interesting even compared to other Chinese fantasy settings.

Kudos to the voice actors though, they did a good job, certainly did what they could with this script. Speaking of the audio, the soundtrack for the game is excellent too, if a bit repetitive. I had no major tech issues, although there was a part where the game consistently crashed. I could only solve this by lowering graphics and setting the CPU priority to high. I have a low end PC, but the game came seven years ago, so I don’t know which is the culprit here. It should also be noted that the game has an always online requirement as its DRM. The fan translation is pretty good, there are some minor issues, but pretty much everything can be followed and understood. It’s actually better than some official translations for Chinese games.

So, do I recommend this game? I guess I do, since in the end, I don’t regret playing this game, I had fun with it for the most part, and I kind of want others to play it, even though I can’t deny its flaws. For every good idea in it, there’s a bad one, for every high, there’s a low somewhere. It’s absolutely a mixed bag. Well, for what it’s worth, it can now be played in English, so people in the West can play it and decide for themselves.

The unexpected has happened: a classic Chinese RPG has received a remastered release, and with it English subtitles.

The game was originally released in 1999, and it is one of the most highly regarded installments in the franchise. Like most other games in the series, it’s historical fantasy, although this time, it is not just about Chinese history, as our protagonist, Septem, is a knight from the Frankish Kingdom. He is given an important mission by Pepin III: to travel to the distant East and obtain the secret method that can win all wars. On his adventurous journey, Septem travels to Venice, the Middle East, Central Asia, and finally to the Tang Empire.

In terms of gameplay, it's basically a JRPG. You move around in isometric view with chibi style characters in the locations or on the world map, while the battles are team based and use Active Time Battle system. A wide variety of different items, equipment and character abilities add depth to the combat. One of the mechanics unique to the series is the Spirit Fusion Pot, which allows you to both capture enemies during combat (which you can then summon to help you) and to fuse not only items but also captured enemies too. Basically anything can be fused with anything. The game also shows what the outcome of the fusions will be, so there’s no trial and error, thankfully.

This sort of crafting system is interesting, though you can do without it on a casual playthrough, since the game is not very difficult. The basic enemies and random encounters can be easily beaten using auto attack, it's only the bosses where you really have to pay attention to what you're doing. This also makes capturing enemies a bit more difficult, as you need them to be at low health, but they often die from a single hit. All things considered, I didn't mind that the game wasn't hard, and I also appreciated that there was no need for grinding or farming to finish it. It was only at the last boss where I had to turn back to stock up on healing items. By the way, apparently, this was not the case with the original game. That was harder than this release, which is based on an expanded mobile port.

The visuals of the game are great, there was no need for a remaster here. The locations are beautiful and spectacular, and the backgrounds of the battles are done in the style of Chinese paintings. For most of the game we are looking at chibi style characters, but in combat we have nicely drawn and detailed sprites, not just for our teammates but the enemies as well. One thing that didn’t end up great are the cutscenes. It seems they tried to AI upscale them, but they just ended up being ugly. It would have been better to leave them pixelated. The audio is allright, there are some very nice music pieces, but the sound effects are mostly just doing their job.

For me, the story was the most interesting part of the game. Septem's adventure begins in the 750’s and during his journey, which takes him through almost the whole known world, he meets many interesting and memorable characters, including of course historical figures (e.g. Pipin III, Emperor Xuanzong), and gets involved in political intrigues and historical events (Abbasid Revolution, Battle of Talas, etc.). Of course, it is a fantasy game too and this aspect is more pronounced. The story, rich in twists and turns, involves fantastical and mythological events, with the main antagonist being Lord Satan himself.

I really liked this mixing of different cultural inspirations. I never thought I'd see a game world combine Christian lore with Chinese folklore, but this one did it. This was also good for the enemy variety, as we have everything from creatures inspired by European mythology to various genies and monsters of the Chinese fantasy genre. Interestingly, our hero is not even a believer at first, but a down-to-earth pragmatist who is as surprised as we are by the encounters with the divine and supernatural, but after what he experiences and learns about himself during his journey, he has to come to realize that 'there are more things in heaven and earth', if I may say so.

The game is not short on dialogue. Not only do we talk a lot with our team members and the NPCs that join us, but almost every minor character and NPC has something to say about the situation. This adds a lot to the lore and the world, but talking to everyone is also ho we find side missions. Apart from the usual fetch quests these include, interestingly enough, math problems, which basically require you to put the game aside and start counting. There are also some NPCs who ask historical or religious questions, giving you a reward if you answer correctly. These also require some googling, but at least you can learn something from them.

The remastered release isn’t flawless though. The biggest issue here, as with most Chinese games, is the English subtitles. It's noticeably machine translated, and you often come across odd phrases, typos or various stylistic errors that break immersion. This would be less of a problem in a game with dubbing, since the voice actors can establish the mood of the scene and present the characters, but here we only have the text, so sometimes it's hard to figure out what the original writer was thinking. Overall it's not that bad, you can follow the story and most of the stronger, dramatic moments come through, but it could have been a lot better. I also encountered a few cases of text disappearing from the screen too quickly and some crashes, which could be avoided by setting the game to Windows 7 compatibility. Apart from these, it was fine.

Despite the translation problems, I had a lot of fun with the game, it was an amazing adventure. I would recommend it to those who are interested in Chinese fantasy games but also to those who have a passion for retro JRPGs, because in that category this game is a real gem, which was not available until now for those who don't speak Chinese. I hope to see more remasters of classic Chinese games in the future.

The Talos Principle stood out to me with combining good puzzle gameplay with an interesting story and philosophical themes. The moment I heard there was going to be a sequel, I knew I had to play it.

The beginning is similar to the first game, but it soon becomes clear that this is a very different kind of experience. The story takes place a millennium after the first game, and the humanoid robots (who consistently call themselves human) have their own city, their own little society, of which we, newly created, have become the 1000th member. But due to an unexpected event, they have to launch an expedition to a nearby, previously undiscovered island, and what happens could change the future of the entire robot civilization.

In contrast to the lonely, melancholic atmosphere of the first game, here we are plunged into a world full of characters, dialogue, events and an intriguing story. It's a big change, but I think it works very well. I was quickly immersed into the world and grew to like the members of our expedition. They’re not the only ones we get to talk to, as we also interact with the rest of the city via ’robot social media’, so there's a lot to read and listen to, but that's not a problem at all, because the game is really well written. It’s interesting and thought-provoking, with characters who are likeable and human. Credit to the excellent voice actors who breathed life into our companions and the world. Even though it is basically a post-apocalyptic story, it has a positive atmosphere and I often found it uplifting. It makes you want to believe in humanity, which I really needed.

You have choices during the dialogues, and these, along with other in-game choices, shape the story and determine the ending, as different opinions of different characters clash with each other. I think all of this is presented really well. The game doesn't try to lecture, it just raises points and then leaves it up to us to decide what to think and say. The endings, even though they are very different, are also all presented positively.

So the story and the storytelling is quite different, but the gameplay basics are exactly the same as in the first game, at least as far as the puzzles are concerned. We have the usual boxes, lasers, switches, fans and force fields, along with some completely new mechanics to test our wits. What's different is that the locations are larger now, with other (story-related) things to explore in addition to the puzzles. These locations are spectacular and enjoyable to explore, partly because of the atmospheric and beautiful background music. However they kind of overstay their welcome, since many of them are quite large and not always easy to navigate, which means that we spend too much time running around them. Overall, I liked the gameplay, despite the fact that I thought most of the puzzles were quite easy. There were only a few of the mandatory ones that I had to put effort into. Maybe it's because I had practice from the first game, but apart from these and the endgame puzzles, there wasn't much of a challenge.

The visuals of the first game were already great, and this game didn’t disappoint either. Whereas TP1 was inspired by historical architecture (Egypt, Middle Ages, etc.), the sequel jumped straight into the future. I don't know what to call this style, futuristic, alternative, avant-garde...? It's certainly unique and spectacular, I can’t really compare it to anything. The contrast between nature and artificial is particularly striking, and so is the way the scale of things is depicted. We often find ourselves working among enormous buildings and objects, making us feel very small. It's an amazing visual experience.

Overall, Talos Principle 2 is a great game, a worthy sequel, not only in gameplay, but even more so in narrative and story. Interesting and thought-provoking, I can't think of many games quite like it. Highly recommended.

I'm not really into metroidvanias, or pixel art, but I ended up loving the first Blasphemous for its unique world and great atmosphere, so there was no question that I would play the sequel.

Blasphemous 2 delivers in this area too, the visuals, inspired by Spanish Catholicism, renaissance and counter reformation art, with a fantasy twist, are amazing, the locations are spectacular and atmospheric, and the animations are fantastic, and not just for the main character. The cutscenes are the only thing that was weird. They are not in pixel art style this time, and while they are not bad on their own, they clash with the art style of the rest of the game. The story and the lore also add a lot to the atmosphere, and, like in Blasphemous, it is rather cryptic. It seems that the game takes place 1000 years after the events of first game, and the Miracle has disappeared in the meantime, only recently manifesting again. The world is not as affected as it was in B1, so the overall mood is a bit different, less dark, but that's not a bad thing, and understandable too, as we’re in a different era.

The audio is great too, with many memorable music pieces, and the sound effects, especially the combat-related ones, are very good. I was also happy that there was a Spanish dub this time (there wasn't one in B1 when I played it). It makes the atmosphere more authentic, I loved it.

The first game was called a 'punishing action platformer', and I think it fits the description, but I would confidently call the sequel a Metroidvania, because the developers have definitely gone in that direction with the gameplay. There are many movement abilities, which open up newer and newer locations, and there's a lot more emphasis on backtracking. Traversal is supported by fast travel, of which we also get newer and more efficient types as we progress, so the world becomes easier to navigate as we unlock more and more areas. The whole game has a very good flow to it, and the backtracking feels very natural. I also like how we can put icons on the map to make it easier to remember where we need to go back to.

Combat has also improved, we now have three weapons, and we can upgrade all of them, which also gives us new moves and attacks. We can also customize our character's abilities with rosary beads, and we have various spells at our disposal. I wouldn't call this system a rpg, but there is more depth to the combat and abilities than in the first game, which is an improvement IMO.

The game isn't easy, although in some ways it's more forgiving than the first one. In B1, the instakill falls into spikes coupled with checkpoints were very rough. Now that's no longer the case: any fall, whether into spikes or into bottomless pits, just deals a certain amount of damage (which can be reduced with equipment) and the game puts you back to the last platform. I really appreciated that! The bosses, on the other hand, got harder. In B1 only the last boss was really annoying, here most of them pissed me off before I could beat them. Maybe I’m getting too old for this. There are also challenge rooms where you are locked into a room and have enemies spawn on you in waves. Those were rough too. Still, I managed to get through the game, so all’s well that ends well. One more little thing that bothered me about the gameplay is that the up button (W) is assigned for interaction. Maybe it's just me, but in 2D games I always press the up button when I jump, which messed with me a lot here.

Overall, I don’t have any major complaints. From an audiovisual, artistic point of view, the game is a masterpiece, with a unique world and atmosphere, and a rock solid metroidvania gameplay. For those who like the genre and don’t mind the difficulty, I recommend it.

The Battle Royale genre doesn't need to be introduced to anyone, and many people are probably already tired of these games. But I think Naraka shows that there is still something fresh to be had in the genre.

According to the description, it's a melee-based battle royale. Although there are ranged weapons, their use is very limited. So how can you create melee situations in a genre where players are running around on large maps? The game's answer is the grappling hook, which is the main tool of mobility. I think the implementation is very impressive, it allows you to aim almost freely, you can shoot at anything while jumping or running, pull yourself towards it, and your character will dynamically grab onto any object or building element, and then you can continue climbing, jumping or attacking. The locations also support this kind of verticality. Of course, we can also hook our opponents if someone wants to run away from us. For beginners, this is probably the biggest difficulty, learning how to escape, because you need to know that you cannot hook players who are in Focus.

This is an element of the combat system, which is based on a rock-paper-scissors system. There are basic attacks that don't hurt much, but you can combo with them. You can attack in Focus by holding down the attack button or as part of the moveset of certain weapons. These are highlighted in blue, they do more damage than the basic attacks, which bounce off of them. So if a basic attack and a Focus attack clash, the latter wins. The third element is the Parry, which can only be used to counter Focus attacks, but the latter can be cancelled, for example, by jumping or crouching, and if you manage to bait out your opponent's empty Parry, you can punish it with basic attacks.

These are just the basics, the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to the uniqueness of the different weapons, the variety of different movement and attack techniques and character skills (not to mention the macro play of BR) the skill ceiling of the game is sky high and can only be learned with a lot of experience and watching youtube videos, as unfortunately the in-game tutorials are not very detailed. This has been improved recently, but it can't replace experience. This may sound scary, but I can say that learning the most basic combos and movement tech is enough to have fun and, speaking from personal experience, sometimes even to win.

The gameplay is also influenced by your choice of character. Since anyone can use any weapon, the main difference between characters is their abilities. Everyone has three standard abilities that can be used relatively often, and three ultimate abilities. You can only bring one of each in a loadout. Of course, this is not the only difference between our heroes, as each of them is a unique character, with their own story, attitude and looks. Most of them are a collection of Chinese fantasy tropes, with a few Japanese-inspired characters (onmyo mage, samurai) thrown in. Their design is almost like from a gacha game, with everyone being extremely sexy and (optionally) underdressed, but they can also be made unique with a variety of costumes. I think these look very cool and spectacular, clearly the main attractions when it comes to cosmetics. There are also additional ways to customize your heroes, such as belt, head, and back ornaments, you can change the look of weapons, the lobby backgrounds and poses, and the faces can also be customised in great detail, so everyone can create their dream waifu or husbando, or some horrible freak, whichever is your thing.

Cosmetics, and with them the microtransactions are the game’s primary source of revenue, and the devs went all in on this. There are multiple currencies, premium battlepasses, time-limited events, multiple kinds of lootboxes, daily, weekly and seasonal tasks, FOMO at its maximum. Whatever monetization tricks you can think of, this game has it. The menus are also very complicated and resemble gacha games, with lots of sub-screens and notifications everywhere. While the game was sold for money, I would have easily chalked this up as a complaint, but now that it's free, I don’t really care, but I can understand this being annoying to people. You can pick up a lot of cosmetics just by playing for free and casually though, so you won’t stay Deault for long.

The main attraction of the game is the Battle Royale mode, which can be played solo, or as duos or trios, but there are also other game modes, such as Bloodbath, which is a kind of deathmatch, or Capture the Spirit Well, which is a 12v12 objective capturing game. What's also interesting is the Campaign, or story mode, which can be played solo or co-op. Here you have separate missions, each with its own little story, cutscenes, with different tasks, and bossfights. Of course, this is also designed for multiple replays, each mission must be completed on different difficulties with different characters to get all the rewards and reach the endgame. This game mode is currently only active on weekends, but it is expanded seasonally by the devs. I really liked it, both in gameplay and story. While the narrative is pretty basic, but it was nice to learn more about the lore and characters. Unfortunately, in my experience, matchmaking in this mode on lower difficulties takes a lot of time, as most of the players are already grinding in the endgame.

The number of players has long been a problem. The game is big in China, with lots of players and million dollar tournaments, but it hasn't really taken off here in the West. Because of the small number of players, most lobbies are filled with bots, so you only encoutner human players in the last few circles. Players with very different skill levels can also end up in the same lobby too, which is also not a great experience. This didn't really bother me as a casual player, but for someone who takes competitive gaming seriously, it was a big negative. This situation is likely to improve now thanks to the game being free, but it’s hard to predict how much. It's not easy to get into the game and therefore not beginner friendly, but it also has to overcome certain prejudices. For example, many people write it off just because it's Chinese and F2P, and I've also seen the Kernel-level anticheat branded as "spyware", and it has received its own review bombing on Steam. Still, I see many positive reviews too and I hope the game expands.

I'm not a Battle Royale fan, and I'm not into competitive multiplayer games either, but I did put 100+ hours into Naraka. The great movement and combat system, cool characters and spectacular fights in an interesting eastern fantasy world, and a little bit of FOMO of course, always drew me back to the game, and I don't regret the time I spent with it. If you have an affinity for BR, or multiplayer games in general, I think you should give it a try, there aren't many games like it.

I became interested in this game for two reasons, one that it was a Bioware-esque action RPG, and the other was the setting, which looked interesting. It didn't disappoint in either aspect.

The game's world is perhaps what stands out the most. The colonial-era inspired fantasy setting is a very unique idea, and it’s very well executed. There are multiple different factions, each with their goals and beliefs, and the dynamics between them form the backbone of the game’s world. The game starts off a bit slow in this respect, at the beginning the factions felt a bit two-dimensional, but as you progress through the story and get to know them, it gets more and more interesting. I particularly liked the fact that they created a unique language for the natives – it really feels like you are meeting another civilization.

The visual design is also very well done, I loved the 16th-17th century inspired setting, both in terms of architecture and clothing. The clothes and armor are especially cool looking, though I particularly love the fashion of that era. This is in stark contrast to the indigenous villages, their clothes and face paintings, but these were also great looking, and gave them their own identity. The rocky, forested wilderness, which we often visit, was beautiful too. It’s really a joy just to walk around the locations. So much so that I feel it is a cardinal sin that there is no photo mode in the game. Well, at least you can turn off the hud. There’s one weak aspect though, the interiors. They are nice aesthetically, but there are only a few variations and these are often reused. At least the main faction town halls could have been unique. I should add that I did install a mod that turned off film grain and depth of field. I can’t stand these effects.

The other main aspect of the game is the talking to NPCs, running around for quests, and combat RPG gameplay reminiscent of Bioware’s games, with our companions and the decisions we make throughout the story being core parts of the game. The latter is important, as our choices shape our relationship with the factions and with our companions, and affect the main story, which can have several different endings. I think the story has been interesting and engaging, with some nice surprises along the way. It touches some heavy themes, and it fits the world very well. Our companions are a very colorful bunch, I think they are interesting and well written characters, who are integral to the events of the story. I liked them. This is also partly down to the voice actors, who did a great job. Of course there is also the possibility of romance, which I liked, although I think this part could have been better developed. However, considering the limited budget of the developers, I feel it's not bad.

The RPG system is not very complicated. Our equipment are weapons, armor and various accessories, which can be upgraded, and our character have different abilities that can be leveled up. Most of these are combat related, but some of these affect other parts of the game, which I thought was nice. Aside from the obvious things, like Charisma's effect on dialogue, Science can help with detective work, or Intuition can help with finding hidden paths, for example. These can also allow us to solve certain quests in alternative ways, or even without fighting.

I didn't have high expectations of the gameplay itself, but I have no complaints. There are a lot of dialogue and a lot of walking around for quests. Maybe a bit too much walking around, but I didn't mind it, because the environments are so beautiful that I just enjoyed looking around. One or two extra fast travel points would’ve been nice, but that's it. The quests were mostly interesting, with multiple solutions, I didn't feel like I was running around for nothing. The only problem I had is that there are times when you have to wait for certain events, but the game doesn't allow you to wait for a specific time interval, only until a specific time of day, like sunset or sunrise. In such cases, I had to wait for the quest event in real time, which often took minutes.

The combat was really fun though. I already like the sword and musket era, but the game throws magic into the mix, which makes it even more interesting. There’s a certain charm in running out of mana, and then just being able to grab your single shot pistol to fend off a charging enemy. Towards the endgame, I could even put an entire enemy group into stasis and just shoot them one by one, which was brutal. I enjoyed it, though there's not much enemy variety, the combat was fun, and I really liked the boss fights.

I'm really glad I found this game. Its interesting, unique setting and story, and beautiful locations really captivated me. Highly recomended.

I came across the demo of this game at one of the Steam Next Fests, and I was struck by the visuals and the atmosphere.

The game is a side scroller, with a focus on combat. There's not much exploration, or navigation, just demons in your way that you have to defeat. You can't even move to the next location until you finish the fights. Fortunately, the combat is very well done, both visually and mechanically.

There are a number of offensive and defensive moves available, as well as various special abilities that, when activated, either give you new moves or give you an extra effect to existing ones. Timing plays an important role in the combat, you can't really win here by mashing buttons. There’s also a light rpg system, where you can improve both your character's vitality and stamina, as well as upgrade basic moves and spells. There are plenty of variations in combat, you can't really explore all of it in one playthrough. The game explains everything thoroughly, and perhaps even goes overboard with the tutorial pop-ups. It's fine on the first playthrough, but a bit tiresome on subsequent ones.

The visual design is fantastic, with beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds. Screenshots don’t do these justice, since they're thoroughly animated and very layered, so they look fantastic in motion. The animations of our characters are also excellent, and the design of the enemies (most of which are inspired by Far Eastern folklore), especially the bosses, are great too. The sound design is also good, with meaty combat sound effects, and moody ambience and music. Unfortunately, there are only a few music tracks, so while they’re nice, they get a bit repetitive after a while. I also have to mention the Chinese opera style narrator in certain cutscenes. I loved it.

The game is set in a Chinese fantasy world. We have two protagonists, an exorcist who makes a fatal mistake that costs the lives of his companions, and a half-demon who is trying to find a healer for his poisoned brother. The two stories are not directly connected, but take place partly in the same locations. It would’ve been nice to have more world lore, but I liked the stories anyway, they had interesting characters, enemies and twists.

The game is not a long one, it took me about 12 hours to finish, but I had a lot of fun with it. I don’t often play 2D games like this, but I really enjoyed this one.

This game is basically a Chinese martial arts story inspired by Wuxia novels and movies, featuring spectacular swordplay, atmospheric locations and an interesting world to dive into.

It's an action rpg, though the rpg elements aren’t that pronounced. Your character levels up with martial arts guides and consumable items, and I liked that the guides often give you actual new moves and abilities, expanding your combat repertoire as you progress through the game. The main focus is the combat, but there are some parts where you’re doing other usual rpg activities, like talking to npcs, doing side quests or puzzles. These can be quite cryptic though, as some puzzles just don’t have any ingame hints, and there’s no gui for the side quests either. Each location has a list of them, but it doesn’t tell you who to talk to, and you have to figure out what you have to do and where you have to go just from the dialogue. They are not complicated though, I could do most of them, but there were some that I just couldn’t find. However, I liked that many of them had some story consequences.

During combat, you can choose from a variety of fighting styles both for the sword and for fists, each having multiple moves with their own properties and strengths. These can be combined in almost any order, and that's basically the meat of the combat, to keep comboing and not let your enemies hit back. If you do need to defend, you have the usual dodge/block/parry trio at your disposal. Even though our enemies are almost all human, they fight in different ways, and they can't all be beaten with the same technique. Overall, the combat is perhaps not as polished as in bigger budget games, but the mechanics are fine, it has variety and depth, and the animations are really cool. Fights can be very spectacular, at least when you’re not being pounded to the ground.

Visually, the game is good, as long as you don't look too close. Our protagonist and the main characters are detailed enough, but the npcs aren’t really. They often don't even have facial animations. The locations look nice though, although since we are on the Silk Road we don't get the grandiose Chinese architecture you probably imagine, but it still has the oriental atmosphere. The devs were clearly inspired by specific Wuxia films too (the opening chapter, for example, very reminiscent of the 1992 film New Dragon Gate Inn), but we also visit real locations, like the Mogao Caves, very nicely recreated for the game.

Our protagonist, Meng Jing, arrives at the aforementioned inn, to meet a monk whom he must escort to the Mogao caves and then to the city. However, he quickly gets involved in a murder case, clashes with the local criminal underworld and gets a glimpse of the so-called Insanity Sutra, which can be a source of strength but, as its name suggests, can drive the reader mad. Our hero may need this power during his adventure, as he will have to face not only the various factions trying to get their hands on the sacred text, but also his own conscience. I liked the story, it had a bit of a road movie feel, as our team got into bigger and bigger trouble at each location. By the end, I grew to like the characters and the intricate world the devs created. The ending was a bit abrupt though, it felt more like the end of an episode, with a lot of loose ends.

Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out every little detail of the game world, even though I wanted to, as the translation is incomplete. Not much is missing, mostly some lore texts, but it's annoying. The detailed combat tutorial and puzzle explaining videos also don’t have subtitles in English, so I had to figure out a lot of things by trial and error. Some of the item descriptions were also left in Chinese, and there are also instances of English text not fitting into boxes as the UI was obviously designed for Chinese texts, and similar errors. The game is fully playable, and the story is enjoyable, but this is still a big issue.

The devs are working on the game however, and since its release they added a free DLC, in which they spiced up the gameplay by making it a first person brawler, and showing us the events from one of the antagonist’s point of view. I thought it was pretty cool. The menu also shows two other DLCs with 'coming soon' tags, and the developers also said that the game will get a new UI this year (it needs it) and new story chapters, so it looks like they're planning for the long term.

Overall, it seems to me that the developers maybe bit off a bit more than they can chew, as the game has some technical and design issues, and the translation could have been better, but I feel that they put their heart and soul into it, it has a great atmosphere, good combat, interesting world and characters, and it just really feels like stepping into a Wuxia movie.

In the last year and a half I've gone through every major Chinese rpg that was available in English. I didn't care for this game back then, but now that I'm into the wuxia/xianxia genre, I decided to play it.

The game can't deny that it's a Bioware game, it hits you over the head right from the start with the 'you are the chosen one' trope, but after the clichéd beginning it turns into quite an interesting and entertaining story. The game world is inspired by Chinese culture, architecture and art, and it’s very atmospheric and spectacular. It also has a lot of fantasy elements, from acrobatic martial arts, magic and golems, to even flying machines. Despite being a Chinese fantasy at heart, it feels like a unique experience compared to similar Chinese games.

The storytelling is done through dialogue, although our protagonist is not voiced, which I'm not a fan of. I often felt like I was just listening to monologues, and many times the characters felt too verbose. It didn’t help that in most cases you can only choose between friendly or rude responses, so I rarely felt like I was witnessing actual dialogues. The game also has a morality system, though I can’t say it’s a good thing. They try to make it seem like there are two opposing philosophies, but when it comes to actual choices, most of the time we can only choose between being overly helpful or ridiculously evil. I couldn’t really take it seriously.

That said, the writing isn't bad, the world and lore are well developed, the companions are a colorful bunch, there are interesting and well written characters, and I really enjoyed most of the side quests, some of which were quite dramatic and some quite funny.

The combat system is real-time, with the usual light attack, heavy attack, dodge, block elements. There are several martial arts and spells to choose from, each with unique animations and strengths. I liked the combat, it was spectacular and fun, apart from some annoying enemy types. It's a shame that the rpg system doesn't really allow you to experiment with the martial arts, as you can only upgrade a few in a single playthrough.

I can't say anything bad about the audio, the voice acting is great, and the soundtrack adds a lot to the atmosphere. Despite being an old game, I didn't have any technical problems with it, just had to copy the steam.dll to the game folder and trick the game into launching the main exe instead of the config.

An interesting piece of gaming history, perhaps underrated compared to other Bioware games. I definitely liked it, it’s a real gem and I think it still holds up.