Don't think this one ever got any love on here but it's really impressed me so far at about 60% completion.
The thing I immediately noticed about it was how tight and responsive the controls were. Your character stops when you stop, doesn't slide around, there's no slipperiness to it at all - which I love.
Combat is almost God of War-sian in it's fluidity, it feels really good. The combos are distinct and effective though composed largely of just two buttons, light/heavy essentially and don't require a lot of directional input. But I think it works very well - too much input for combos can cross the line between "intuitive side scroller" and "2D fighter learning curve" which wouldn't suit the game. Some will probably find it repetitive, but I feel much more 'in tune' with my character than I do in some similar games - I actually know what I'm doing instead of button mashing. Maybe I just suck at fighters lol, either way I think it's a good move.
Visuals are solid or better all around. I particularly like the weather effects and and the animations - which fit with the controls and combat very well, they're crisply done. NPC sprites and design are fairly plain but they mostly represent plain people too, so it fits. The backgrounds/foregrounds are well done and blend well with the level, to the point where sometimes I'm wondering if I'm about to run into them.
Audio I can't say is particularly remarkable. The voice acting is, well, a labor of love but not great. It's not Just Cause bad but definitely tries too hard in spots. All the same, I couldn't help but find Fidget endearing and at least chuckle at some of the dopey accents.
Story is pretty typical stuff. Amnesiac finds a magic sword and a cutesy companion and goes on an adventure to find himself and defeat evil plaguing the land. It gets the job done and the world has some amusing characters and nice environments composing it so simply playing through to meet and explore is enjoyable in itself.
I've put about 7 hours in at 60% completion so I would probably expect something like 8-12 hours out of it if you take some time to complete some (of the fairly numerous) side quests and seek out treasure chests and keys. Though I'm playing on "tough" so I die here and there.
Ultimately it's a game that I think is just very fun to play and has a surprising level of polish - having a reasonable story and good presentation surrounding it is all gravy. Creating a DustStorm is fun. Fluidly sweeping through waves of enemies for multiple hundred hit combos is fun. Juggling them in the air and then duststorming them to try for that thousand hit combo is fun. Each time I pick it up I have a hard time putting it down.
The thing I immediately noticed about it was how tight and responsive the controls were. Your character stops when you stop, doesn't slide around, there's no slipperiness to it at all - which I love.
Combat is almost God of War-sian in it's fluidity, it feels really good. The combos are distinct and effective though composed largely of just two buttons, light/heavy essentially and don't require a lot of directional input. But I think it works very well - too much input for combos can cross the line between "intuitive side scroller" and "2D fighter learning curve" which wouldn't suit the game. Some will probably find it repetitive, but I feel much more 'in tune' with my character than I do in some similar games - I actually know what I'm doing instead of button mashing. Maybe I just suck at fighters lol, either way I think it's a good move.
Visuals are solid or better all around. I particularly like the weather effects and and the animations - which fit with the controls and combat very well, they're crisply done. NPC sprites and design are fairly plain but they mostly represent plain people too, so it fits. The backgrounds/foregrounds are well done and blend well with the level, to the point where sometimes I'm wondering if I'm about to run into them.
Audio I can't say is particularly remarkable. The voice acting is, well, a labor of love but not great. It's not Just Cause bad but definitely tries too hard in spots. All the same, I couldn't help but find Fidget endearing and at least chuckle at some of the dopey accents.
Story is pretty typical stuff. Amnesiac finds a magic sword and a cutesy companion and goes on an adventure to find himself and defeat evil plaguing the land. It gets the job done and the world has some amusing characters and nice environments composing it so simply playing through to meet and explore is enjoyable in itself.
I've put about 7 hours in at 60% completion so I would probably expect something like 8-12 hours out of it if you take some time to complete some (of the fairly numerous) side quests and seek out treasure chests and keys. Though I'm playing on "tough" so I die here and there.
Ultimately it's a game that I think is just very fun to play and has a surprising level of polish - having a reasonable story and good presentation surrounding it is all gravy. Creating a DustStorm is fun. Fluidly sweeping through waves of enemies for multiple hundred hit combos is fun. Juggling them in the air and then duststorming them to try for that thousand hit combo is fun. Each time I pick it up I have a hard time putting it down.
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