COGEN: Sword of Rewind can be summed up in two words: "skill issue". It's an absolute blast once you learn how to exploit the Ouroboros System, which lets you rewind whenever you'd like, but getting there isn't easy! The tutorial covers only basic concepts; later stages are mercilessly difficult, even if you're doing everything right. The most frustrating aspect is its difficulty curve - while there's a gradual increase in challenge as the game goes on, you'll still get thrown straight into extremely difficult segments without any prior warning.
That said, COGEN's combat feels fast and fluid enough that even a beginner could grasp the basics within minutes, provided they have patience for experimentation (and lots of free time). Unfortunately, it doesn't take long until things start feeling unfair after you master the core mechanics, thanks to some unintuitive design decisions. There's just not much variety when it comes to enemy types, meaning your skills aren't really being tested beyond learning how to deal damage efficiently. Most enemies die easily, which is "solved" by forcing the player to deal with a shitton of them at once, the optimal way to deal with these encounters simply being camping one side of the screen and using their own attacks against themselves. Boss fights don't pose much of a threat unless you screw up repeatedly - though the few difficult bosses present absolutely require memorizing attack patterns. This might seem nitpicky, but I couldn't help but feel that this game had the potential for something special, especially given its beautiful graphics and interesting concept, but falls short because of poor pacing with an excuse plot and forgettable enemies.
It has all the trappings of a classic retro-style action game: good music, cute sprite artwork, catchy stage themes. But while those aspects do add to the fun factor, the experience is marred by uneven difficulty spikes and other frustrating design choices, making it hard to recommend.
If you've got nothing else on your plate and enjoy 2D action with slashin' and dashin', give COGEN a try.
...Also the DLC is stupidly overpriced. 3 character DLCs, each at $7.99. At the very least, they massively differ in playstyle from Kohaku with some interesting mechanics.
That said, COGEN's combat feels fast and fluid enough that even a beginner could grasp the basics within minutes, provided they have patience for experimentation (and lots of free time). Unfortunately, it doesn't take long until things start feeling unfair after you master the core mechanics, thanks to some unintuitive design decisions. There's just not much variety when it comes to enemy types, meaning your skills aren't really being tested beyond learning how to deal damage efficiently. Most enemies die easily, which is "solved" by forcing the player to deal with a shitton of them at once, the optimal way to deal with these encounters simply being camping one side of the screen and using their own attacks against themselves. Boss fights don't pose much of a threat unless you screw up repeatedly - though the few difficult bosses present absolutely require memorizing attack patterns. This might seem nitpicky, but I couldn't help but feel that this game had the potential for something special, especially given its beautiful graphics and interesting concept, but falls short because of poor pacing with an excuse plot and forgettable enemies.
It has all the trappings of a classic retro-style action game: good music, cute sprite artwork, catchy stage themes. But while those aspects do add to the fun factor, the experience is marred by uneven difficulty spikes and other frustrating design choices, making it hard to recommend.
If you've got nothing else on your plate and enjoy 2D action with slashin' and dashin', give COGEN a try.
...Also the DLC is stupidly overpriced. 3 character DLCs, each at $7.99. At the very least, they massively differ in playstyle from Kohaku with some interesting mechanics.
4 Comments
i love when people put everything into writing a review for a game only 5 people have played
I sometimes put quite a bit in mine...but this is a whole new level and for something I have barely heard of lol
It's quite a good review tho :^)
KyuuMetis
1 year ago