SANABI

The game kinda LARPs as Katana ZERO way too hard The plot is fine, but way too intrusive. The early-to-mid-game pacing is awful ( 5 minutes of gameplay followed by 10 minutes of cutscenes ). The ending also gets a bit too soap-opera-ish personally the gameplay is fire. The grappling hook mechanic is neat, moving through the levels feels really fast and satisfying, and i genuinely loved the platforming parts of the game

I love this game, but the final boss in the DLC is pure garbage. Creating a boss with a virtually unavoidable attack and introducing an achievement for beating it on the hardest difficulty, where I die in one hit, is just idiotic. The entire fight is pure RNG: whether this bastard decides to kill me with his stupid attack or not. And those platforms that randomly emerge from the ground and block my path, so I can't dodge attacks—that's just perfect game design. But otherwise, the main game was very good, although there were moments where I could only avoid damage by chance, like that moment in the factory where I had to jump onto a moving platform I couldn't see at the perfect moment, otherwise I'd get hit by a laser. LOVE THIS ♥♥♥♥.

the movement, soundtrack and art are all incredible. the actual combat mechanics and dialogue are some of the most horrendous things ive ever bared witness to in gaming. the rest of the review has spoilers for the game itself; the combat in and of it self is not that bad, feels rewarding at times, the Justice bossfight is a fair and satisfying bossfight. i cannot say the same for the others. you can call it a skill issue if you want but that can be said for any game ever, i don't consider pantheon 5 in hollow knight unfair because its difficult, thats understandably an issue of skill (except zote). in this game, so many things feel unfair, inconsistent, or outright horrid. i dont have that much of a problem with the Worm bossfight, but the main issue is the descending platforms, based on the fact that the only way to consistently live in 2/3 attacks is to get above the ground, it just feels atrocious to have them descend slowly the microsecond you interact with them, typically having them too low or non-existent for the tornado manouevre it pulls, especially in the second phase. granted it would be too simple if they stayed put, but surely there's a fair middle ground. the Firebird bossfight is awful, i dont there's a single actually good mechanic in it. the freight trains seem to made out of cardboard, half the attacks just do not make sense as to how to consistently dodge, and the way to attack it is just obnoxious, why do i have to grab onto a theft box that i cant go up with and launch it at the flying guy who isnt even on me half the time, seems like they just thought of the theft box, and then realized they had to use it somehow. and you have to hit the ship 4 times, 4 times, why. why not even introduce a new concept or attack or any actual difference between the 4 phases, you just do the same bossfight 4 times, fantastic, riveting. the major song bossfight is likely partially due to a lack of skill, but why make your only way to attack the really fast moving, teleporting boss, have a half a second wind-up, wherein the boss can also just randomly switch the telegraph it's doing to the exclamation mark as you let go to attack, killing you. "but just time it", how can i time something when ive already let go, youre telling me major song was halfway through charging up their sword, and then randomly decided to prepare to counter my only attack, because thats just fantastic. just no telegraphing at all for that really fun and great action. and you have to hit the boss 9 times in a row without taking any damage (in legend). it's just incredible annoying to put up with. and the random fiery-beyblade fire-pillars are incredibly difficult to dodge, why is that even a move, was the beyblade coming at you at mach-speeds just not riveting enough, that attack you just have to hope happens on the edge of the map. if you like this bossfight, fair enough, understandable, but like cmon, it just isnt good. atleast the platforms don't move. To be clear, I have not beaten this game in legendary mode, I plan to in the future, but it seems just like such an incredibly mentally agonizing experience that I plan to do it in a time during the darkest winter of our generation, so that there is minimal joy for the game to sap from my soul anyway. most of this is explainable via skill issue, but nightmare king grimm is a hard boss and yet it's very fair and consistent once you get a fundamental understanding of the telegraphs. the dialogue is also just bad. how can dialogue be so incredibly stiff and repetitive, "wow im so cool and incredible mister! mister hey look!" "i dont care mari blah blah", that's like half their conversations, add in some spice, mari has the conversational skills of a baked potato. it just gets so annoying after a while, it's also just weirdly put, which i guess happens in translation, but surely they could hire someone to make it somewhat more bearable. ost and art is still incredible though, and the movement on its own is great. it's a 5/10 but the 5 on its own is a 5/5, as in, those three aspects are incredible. in essence, if you're going into this with a perfectly non-competitive non-completionist mindset and are playing specifically the bossfights while in a call, essentially playing absent-mindedly without looking into the minutia of each death, or you have the willpower and mental fortitude to dismiss them, then it's a fantastic game. beating pogostuck, getting over it, chapter 3 A-side golden, all were mentally more enjoyable than major song.

im like 80% into the game and it just doesnt seem to get any better, dont really like dissing indie games either but it is just very off. First of all, the dialogue is very childish? Could be a mistranslation from korean to english, but man, the characters are just very grating to read through. Also, if you are gonna be putting dialogue while there is action happening, it NEEDS voice acting or just dont bother (cant look at subtitles and the action at the same time, way too hectic). Levels can get repetitive and are paced too slowly. Usually they'd introduce like 3/4 enemy/ platform variables, but they spread it across way too many levels. if the level length was cut by half maybe it couldve worked, especially cuz some of the levels are way too easy. The main mechanic of the game is the grappling hook, but sometimes it does feel a bit janky. I dont really know how to describe the problem with it, cuz sometimes it feels like it misfires? the easiest way of controlling it is the slow down mechanic when you use the right stick to aim, but that seems like a band aid fix. It doesnt help the fact that there is not much player progression. i think you receive like 3 character movement upgrades and THATS IT. The whole game is just very sluggish and padded for time, especially since the story is moving at a crawl most of the time, i feel like there shouldve been a big reveal at the half way mark, but it seems like they are going to reveal everything waaaaay too late in the game.