The Eastern Exorcist is a stunning 2D side-scrolling action RPG set in a fictitious oriental world with the infestation of vicious demon monsters. Play as a skilled exorcist against chaotic evil to fight your way through the brutal world, and experience unforeseen entanglements of complex beings.
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Nioh/Wolong 2D
Artstyle and Combat are really good but the bosses are trash
Where it Shines:
Story - 7/10
Combat - 8.5/10
Setpieces - 7/10
The Good:
Eastern Exorcist surprised me. I expected a pretty unpolished rushed game, but it's actually really well thought out and has a lot of depth. The key takeaways for me are:
- The combat system is quite complex, with lots of combos, counters, special abilities, and upgrades
- The bosses are really fun
- The story is far better than it needs to be for this type of game
- The backdrops and locales are all highly memorable with very well thought out shots and sequences.
- There's not enough games out there that branch out of the typical medieval high fantasy backdrop, so it's extremely refreshing to see chinese lore and history represented, which is far more interesting to experience and look at anyway.
- Lots of challenges and trials and other extra content.
The Bad:
It's not without it's flaws.
- The ending is very...ubrupt? You spend the whole game trying to accomplish a particular task, and then you beat the last boss and there's a very brief cutscene that basically just says "And then you did the thing you were trying to do, the end."
- The cutscenes are very bland. Think early 2000's flash animations
- In that vein, the character models also reek of that flash animation style, where it looks like their appendages are pinned to their joints and just bobbing around like a bad paper cutout art project
- the music is pretty nonexistent. This game could have had some amazing classical Chinese influences inspiring it's score, but it feels very placeholder and lazy. It's not bad, just completely unmemorable.
- the difficulty curve is sort of all over the place. Playing on story mode felt challenging even at the beginning, and I died a few times. But as you progress, it gets laughably easy. I think the game suffers from an inverse difficulty curve like Breath of the Wild did - too hard at the beginning, too easy at the end. It's probably best enjoyed on normal difficulty or higher, but be prepared for the beginning to be annoying. It does have a NG+ mode though, if you felt like replaying it and notching up the difficulty each time.
Summary:
This game surprised me. It always peaked my interest, and I managed to squeeze it in this year seeing how short the playthrough time was. I'm glad I did. It's not one of my all time favourites or anything, but if you want a short, fun, combat heavy game, set in a more interesting world and with a decent story, this is definitely a great choice. I hope the studio makes more games and comes out with more polished products in the future.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
Story - 7/10
Combat - 8.5/10
Setpieces - 7/10
The Good:
Eastern Exorcist surprised me. I expected a pretty unpolished rushed game, but it's actually really well thought out and has a lot of depth. The key takeaways for me are:
- The combat system is quite complex, with lots of combos, counters, special abilities, and upgrades
- The bosses are really fun
- The story is far better than it needs to be for this type of game
- The backdrops and locales are all highly memorable with very well thought out shots and sequences.
- There's not enough games out there that branch out of the typical medieval high fantasy backdrop, so it's extremely refreshing to see chinese lore and history represented, which is far more interesting to experience and look at anyway.
- Lots of challenges and trials and other extra content.
The Bad:
It's not without it's flaws.
- The ending is very...ubrupt? You spend the whole game trying to accomplish a particular task, and then you beat the last boss and there's a very brief cutscene that basically just says "And then you did the thing you were trying to do, the end."
- The cutscenes are very bland. Think early 2000's flash animations
- In that vein, the character models also reek of that flash animation style, where it looks like their appendages are pinned to their joints and just bobbing around like a bad paper cutout art project
- the music is pretty nonexistent. This game could have had some amazing classical Chinese influences inspiring it's score, but it feels very placeholder and lazy. It's not bad, just completely unmemorable.
- the difficulty curve is sort of all over the place. Playing on story mode felt challenging even at the beginning, and I died a few times. But as you progress, it gets laughably easy. I think the game suffers from an inverse difficulty curve like Breath of the Wild did - too hard at the beginning, too easy at the end. It's probably best enjoyed on normal difficulty or higher, but be prepared for the beginning to be annoying. It does have a NG+ mode though, if you felt like replaying it and notching up the difficulty each time.
Summary:
This game surprised me. It always peaked my interest, and I managed to squeeze it in this year seeing how short the playthrough time was. I'm glad I did. It's not one of my all time favourites or anything, but if you want a short, fun, combat heavy game, set in a more interesting world and with a decent story, this is definitely a great choice. I hope the studio makes more games and comes out with more polished products in the future.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
giera taka 40/40 niekture osiagniecia gupie bylo troche ale no zycie, gra z healowaniem mniej niz 60 razy nie za fajna bo nie healowalem sie prawie wcale bo balem sie ze bede musial sie leczyc na ostatnich bosach. gra baba jest trudniejsza troche. bosy takie z pizdy wziete nic specjalnego nie maja w sobie poza tymi wielkimi na koniec chaptera a i tak maja po 3 ataki. wiekszosc przeciwnikow ma 2 ataki i w sumie dupa bo trzeba sie z nimi bic zawsze bo blokuje przejscie gra.
muitoooo bom jogo, dificil e um boss a cada segundo, pretendo fazer 100% depois, só não dou nota max pq eh muito curto e por isso nao se aprofunda muito no tema q eh mt interessante (mitologia chinesa)
A really mechanically sound game with some weird difficulty peaks and valleys. I wouldn't be surprised if the unevenness of the game in that sense was of my own doing. Art and animation is quite good, really like the set up of two playable unique stories in the same setting with shared mechanics. Boss battles are the highlight here as well, so if you don't like boss rush style games, I wouldn't recommend this.