The story and the design of the main character remind me of an anime called Claymore, from maybe 10-15 years ago. Was not bad, in case anybody is interested.
Anyone interested, watch the Claymore anime EXCEPT the last 2 or 3 episodes. Then READ the manga, as the anime only covers about 30% of the story. Both are exceptional and they deserve more recognition
Without a doubt, you are my most trusted reviewer. Noone breaks a game down better than you. I was on the fence with this one. Your review took me off the fence. I hope your channel grows, because you deserve it. Thanks!
I've been playing it on Knight and combat does become a bit of a slog at times, takes too long to kill some enemies, I will probably take your advice and switch to a lower difficulty until I get more weapons and stuff. Great review, cheers!
Mortismal, you've become my favorite youtuber recently. I had a few that I watched for a few years that I kind of fell off of. The beauty of RU-vid is that you can find someone that is tailor made for your taste and I'm happy to say that is you. I really enjoy the way you go about your reviews and the structure you have to them. Plus we just have extremely similar taste. glad to be here regularly :)
I believe this is the first video I've seen from you. You don't have a weather announcer or radio announcer or ecaster voice. Which is nice as there are no gimmicks. Just a pure review. I appreciate it. It is very well done, thank you.
I completely agree on the review and would like to add just a couple of things: 1) Another thing I found annoying in the combat mechanics is that many hits are not "felt" from the character. I ended up dying to a single hit many times because I thought I had full hp but many little enemies that does little damage shooted me from afar while Lute wasn't looking I think and ended up eating good part of my hp bar without a single stun or anything from Briar. I don't say stop the combo and get stunned on EVERY SINGLE DAMAGE like in the DMC series but a little help on that would be useful. 2) I completely agree on the pricing and the idea of buying it on sale. But I'd like to pinpoint that this is the first game from an Italian house, and I did like to give italian games more than they usually deserve. I do think as well though that this time I got more than my money's worth :D
The problem with the "parry" system is that it doesn't let you parry all attacks, and that can sometimes be lost as you end up relying on it, making you forget about the non-parriable ones. Also a lot of enemies have some bullshit anti-flanking mechanics (some attacks that are telegraphed through a yellow effect, but only briefly) that are pretty bullshit until you start anticipating them. I think a lot of this game's problems are down to it being geared towards an experience that is only really fun for people who have played it for a long time or are die-hard DMC experts. Newbies will get frustrated more often than not and the mechanics really make it difficult to do anything cool if you're not playing perfectly.
You had me at like DMC, remember playing the original back in 2001. May check this one out at some point, it’s a genre I have criminally underplayed. Thanks for the great review Mort, informative as always.
It is totally demil cry. With the frustration of fixed camera angles. Time trials can be super annoying. I am struggling on the exorcist time trial with the road runner enemies zipping around and not able to lock down that easy to hit.He covered eveything that brings down the game. Other than that the game has a beautiful art style that to me is darksouls mixed with anime berserk. Combat right away reminded me of DMC so felt right at home. I raged alot like he said you would on knight difficulty, but I persevered cause ofvthe type of personality I have. Players that don't mind dark souls level of challenge at times will like it.
There is a reason we don't see this type of camera in games anymore lol give us free cam for this game and boom, it becomes one of my favorite games of this year. Still a great game to me. I'm liking it so far.
Such a perfect review in my opinion.. I've been wanting this game (if only I have PS5 coz I don't want to play this on my PC) and now I'm wanting it more especially when you said the game could potentially have a sequel. That alone could mean to me it is having a good story which is usually my cup of tea upon choosing the next game to play
This has been a great new channel find, thank you for putting in the effort to finish these games so we don't have to. You can get a lot more trust out of your audience if you do this
I'm very interested in this game, considering I hear it plays like DMC and is inspired by Berserk and Claymore. Once I get a better laptop I'll definitely give it a try
I picked this one up for free through Prime games and had fun with it. The camera and jumping puzzles were the most annoying parts. I found the combat to be very easy but that's not a bad thing; it was a good break after playing three soulslike games in a row.
Playing/doing a one-time run through on Knight difficulty, and what you said was spot on. Initially I was having a lot of fun, was feeling like an 8-9/10, now that I'm in the middle part of the game it's feeling like 5-6/10, because there's so much stuff flying at me and I don't have the tools to deal with it. I also feel they added needless complexity and difficulty to the game (different Rapture states based on your Lute skills you unlock), while limiting combos options/expression and weapon loadouts in the game. Great review.
We can always use some more stylish action games in the vein of Devil May Cry Character action games are finally coming back, i'm all up for the hack n slash renaissance
Watching this vid in late Sept. 2023. Just got this game for free, from one of Epic's weekly giveaways. Eager to try it out. Thank you for this review.
What's really making me want to put this game down is how the environments have not changed at all and I'm almost 7 hours in. The hallways and rooms I'm in now could have been at the very start of the game. There's almost no environmental variety. I miss when games took you on an adventure and varied the levels and colors and biomes. This being set in a single city is really killing it for me. Love the combat and don't even mind the camera very much, but its all blends together and is kinda fatiguing after staring at the same dark rooms the whole time.
I see yah I'm about a few hours in and it's kind of boring me. I get what you mean about the settings never changing. Before I would of just played it through but nowadays I just don't wanna waste time on a game that doesn't hook me...just too many games to play and not enough time
From what you said, I'm half way through the game already, it's quite fun and I'm eager to know what makes the sisters "special" o: I agree that the camera kills the game experience, specially during combat, if an enemy gets between Briar and the camera the game makes them transparent.
I agree with each and every single one of your points, this was a very great video and I'm glad that you made it because most of the reviews that I have seen make me feel as though they actually haven't even played the game. If I can add on to what I don't necessarily like about the game or a gripe of mine is that it relies heavily on the chance for the player to be extensively aware of the manga called Claymore. If I wasn't a huge fan of that series, I wouldn't be as happy with the story nor would I have understood a lot of lore points that are missing without such prior knowledge. Such as how a Chimera fundamentally and biologically works. The game should have been longer IMO and it should've taken more opportunities to build the world throughout. But I didn't really expect it to because "hack and slash" games normally don't explore the story like a story-intensive RPG would. Nevertheless, it was a decent game but suffers from using it's source inspirations and expanded on them in a way to make them stand out on it's own and be unique
I actually started on knight difficulty and didn't have too much trouble through out until the last 3 or 4 levels where encounters require you to focus down on one certain enemy cause if not they'll pummel the the shit out of you off camera.
I really wanted to buy this day 1 but after hearing about the camera and progression criticism ill wait for a price drop. It seems like a mirror image of xblades a old game in the PS3 generation
i dont know if its just me liking a more difficult game, but i thought knight difficulty as a first time for me was great, i lived the challenge and the difficulty it provided
Is there any cosmetic options? Like Can ya change the outfit look even slightly? I'm a massive DMC/GOW/Bayonetta fan I love these types of games with DMC in particular being my fav series so I have interest in it, Just curious on what options I have via custimaztion, DMC5 is my fav Game but I dislike how they don't have diff outfits like past games
@@MortismalGaming lame, I really like the outfit she has on in the intro tutorial, she end up wearing that outside of the tutorial? Everything I see is of her in guts armour lol
@@MortismalGaming ah :( lame lol. Oh well, I nabbed it cause I'm a huge DMC fan I'm on mission 4 and I really like the gameplay alot, I just am disappointed with the fixed camera stuff it's such an old meh design, but even DMC3&4 with there fixed camera angles had the set Camera... In better spots? Hard to describe. I feel like Soulstice is like a 7.5 rn so far might change for better or worse as I do subsequent playthroughs, is it like DMC where all your upgrades and Skills transfer over to the next new game
Of all the things to incorporate into your character action game, why would they go for the DmC-style colour coded enemies? The one aspect of that game so universally disliked that it was even removed from its director's cut rerelease. Weird as hell choice. Aside from that, I'm thrilled whenever I see any attempt at a character action game at all, so I'll definitely give this a shot!
It's not as bad as in DmC because it's not tied to the weapons. The only egregious problem is when there's different colored enemies one next to each other, since glancing one of them with your sword will make it bounce off and render you incapable of combo-ing either of them. That said, I hope next time they make it more of a buy-in option than a binary. You should still be able to combo enemies around even without a field active, and there should be overall bonuses (like lifesteal or increased meter) tied to using one field or the other. They have a lot to improve if they make a sequel.
@@poiumty Or maybe you just do heavily reduced damage but don't bounce. Something like doing 50% less damage but still being able to stagger and juggle would be fine imo
I understand the concept of the color coded enemies, its a good idea on paper but why does this game have a damned meter for the banishment field? Like it’s already overwhelming fighting multiple colored enemies but having to manage a meter that has limited use is beyond annoying. It feels like a dmc esque game that wants to be played slowly, which isnt the funnest thing to do
My 3 takes: Its DmC (the non DMC one), but less obnoxious story wise, somehow slightly worse on the control side (fixed room camera has a decades long precedent of being dogshit outside of puzzle games, and pointless pause combos, the point of pause combos is when you have locked attack chains OR want to have a on demand finisher execution, NOT for any cross-weapon system that allows pseudo-infinite loops and jump/dash/_insert_alt_attack cancels, DMC4 and 5 almost fully learned that, idk why the genre as a whole does) and all base weapon options should be there from at least chapter 4 if not from the start.
If it's alright to ask, could you clarify more on the pause combos statement? My only experience with those types of combos is in Darksiders 1 and 2, but they seemed to work very well for their respective combat systems. I'm afraid i'd be unable to explain why that is, though.
@@jurtheorc8117 So, the reason for pause combos (other than limited keys of arcades) in older fighting games was to let you end a attack sequence with different final moves and/or to let you feint a opening but with a weaker attack. In spectacle fighters, unless you give a pause combo at every step in a attack chain of a weapon that has something like hyperarmor but locks you in/the usual animation cancels of dodges, jumps, blocks, trigger/super/ultimate/whatever meter thing, etc wouldnt interrupt it, are entirely pointless. In gameplay its no different than holding a modifier if its only in one or two steps of a attack chain. Its not like 99% pause combos let you string another weapons move to fill the pause or that the "balance" of a stronger move couldnt equally be made with a movement or block/dodge/jump canceled longer windup (as is the case with the hammer and the charge moves). All you are doing is adding weakness to the design of 99% of modern game engines (key down vs key up recognition+tick timing calculation) and cheap vs expensive keyboards (nkro/key rollover count and potential OS based key input que options). Even controllers have at least 12 base keybind options using trigger modifiers (well 16, but 4 should be reserved for ui and/or camera just as the thumbsticks are). Its not that pause combos on their own are bad (no design option is inherently bad), just that 99% of how they are used gain no benefits design nor gameloop side. Even motion key inputs (another holdover of 2-4 button+stick control limitations) at least have the argument that in some games, the motion inputs are actual motions that set the character sprite into position and have a smooth animation startup to perform the move.
@@ANDELE3025 sorry I know this is 4 months old, but are you saying you dislike when games make a distinction between key-up vs key-down and would prefer (if possible) that those were two separate keys/buttons?
My issue with this game is the limited variety of enemies. There's like only 6 different types of enemies. Feels like you're just battle the same enemies throughout the whole games.
I am starting at knight and for me it feels ok in terms of difficulty. But problem is, it doesn't make sense getting the bow for flying enemies whereas I already encountered them 2/3 chapters (not Acts) before. Game is ok-ish but very boring and i am thinking of just giving up playing it. I got to village area just after the sewers.
I feel like taking the annoying red/blue enemy thing from Dmc: Devil May Cry is an odd choice. Not the gameplay mechanic I expected to see brought back in another project lol
One of Ninja Theory's first games which likely inspired that mechanic was Heavenly Sword, which had a Stance system that also worked based on colors: Blue is Balanced, Orange is Heavy/Power and Yellow is Light/Range. Both the main character's attacks and the enemies' attacks were codified by some lasting movement swirls from a move, except for Blue. But enemies could also perform unblockable Red attacks. The main character automatically defended if she stayed still, if i recall correctly, but different stances would have to be used for the different color attacks to counter them and immediately perform a counterattack afterwards. And yet, aside from that, enemies could be hurt by *all* forms of attacks. Seems like a less restrictive way of using color coding in a hack-and-slash type game. If i'm not mistaken, the later rerelease of Dmc: Devil May Cry did away with how enemies can only be damaged by specific weapon types, and instead simply gave them damage resistance. But i'm not certain about it.
So far I’m 4! Levels in and enjoying it quite a bit. I will say though, combat heavy games should just stick with combat, cut out the platforming. Why dmc really just did away with it for the most part and kept it to the minimum, and what was there were kind of the lamest parts
I’m barely getting to the end , in knight mode and already 100 percent ! Wow 😯 😮. Not from this world achievement? Any unlocks for going into higher difficulty after knight ?
I got to Chapter 10 but dropped the game due to the camera; it's bad enough while fighting but the plataform sections are unbearable. The game has potential but for me, the camera hold it back.
This game is free on Epic right now, and I was curious...But the whole two color thing is annoying. As is the two character thing. I don't like game combat that does such gimmicks. Just let me smack things with one overpowered protagonist.
Hi, i really loved the game and want to 100% it but i'm not sure how to interpret the "finish game in (difficulty) with a score of platine or above" is it an average of all chapter or do you need at least platine on every level or even doing a complete playthrough getting only platine or above scoring?
I hate it when devs make platforming and DONT have a shadow beneath your character to indicate where you are going to land when youre jumping. its fkn basic stuff and so many devs dont even put it in. you cant judge jumps without it
my biggest issue with the game is when they throw two elite enemies at you of different colours. why is this an issue? well when you have the big boi who AoE and a flying boi who loves nothing moe than to just slowly float/straight up warp away from you and your static melee ass, it becomes real annoying real fast. focus big boi? floaty will shoot you. focus floaty, they float away from you constantly and big boi sends AoE’s covering the entire battle field. so take care of big boi. k, he’s red. fine… but then the ghosts that come out of him is blue…. and he’s still attacking you.. and as seen here, trying to target them is it’s own pain in the ass. so you need to rush to murder the ghosts or they go back into big boi and heal him, while big boi and floaty are trying to murder you. it’s just really annoying. i actually really like the system they have here but some fights feel poorly designed with the enemy composition, and dear god, GET THE SKILLS THAT LAUNCH YOU AT THE ENEMIES. fcking essential for some enemies. overall i really like this game, the sisters are great, other characters are pretty damn solid, combat is fun for the most part and it does look gorgeous. really looking forward to a sequel if they do make one.
I noticed there's a male character on the cover that uses the same armor as the protagonist. Is he playable? What's the deal with him? He reminds me of Gutts, so anyone please give me some spoilers
He's not playable, he's one of the primary characters though. Maybe they'll add him as playable at a later date like DMC did with Vergil (since he's very much that style of character) but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I went up one by one from initiate, so I'm not sure, but I'd guess no, the platinums from when I started on knight didn't transfer to the lower difficulties so I would assume just from that probably not
The fixed camera , those Lute memories and the colored coded enemies made this game not to be a masterpiece. The fixed camera during platforming made me rage quit 3 or 4 times, with the last one being half and hour ago. I was excited for this game but now I am a bit dissapointed. I dont think I am going to touch the game soon. Maybe somewhere in the future I will give it another chance. But right now I am gonna replay some DMC 5 where is no fixed camera and certainly no colored coded enemies.
I really liked the story and character design, but that fixed camera was absolutely horrible, the color coding wasnt fun just teidious, and too many gimmick bosses. Also many enemies just takes tooo much time to eliminate.
I subscribed before I ever looked for your “what 100% means” video explanation. Now I can’t find it. :/ Edit: nvm, just unsubscribed, watched, resubscribed.
@@MortismalGaming are they early on into the game? or later on? i think i can stream it, then edit it out?? also "full frontal"? as in from the head to the toes?
