These are my thoughts on the game at around Stage 5 before I ran out of a Game Pass trial and decided not to resub.
Part of this experience was kind of poisoned from having played a lot of DMC games prior to this, but after a while I was able to accept that this game was trying to do different things and really began to enjoy it.
I think systems like the rhythm timings and parrying add a lot of flair to the game, both mechanically and stylistically, and being able to use 'assists' in a quasi-Marvel vs. Capcom way to extend combos and rack up points is really interesting and helps distinguish itself from the DMC sized elephant in the room, but at the end of the day I just don't enjoy this anywhere near as much as other character action-style games.
I think the biggest gripe I have with it isn't the humor being somewhat hit-or-miss at points, but rather that despite each level's distinct visual identity, almost every fight I enter feels the same because of how devoid of nuance or interesting design the combat arenas tend to be. At least Stage 5 has a really annoying room with electrical grids on the floor that will zap you if you stand in them, and there's an earlier stage where volcanoes can interrupt you if you dont get clear of the blast radius of the lava they spew, but really dynamic arenas where the environment plays into how you approach combat are few and far between from what I've seen. Most combat rooms are either flat circles or squares, so you'd better hope that when combat interrupts you, the enemy placements better be REALLy interesting, although they usually aren't.
Part of this experience was kind of poisoned from having played a lot of DMC games prior to this, but after a while I was able to accept that this game was trying to do different things and really began to enjoy it.
I think systems like the rhythm timings and parrying add a lot of flair to the game, both mechanically and stylistically, and being able to use 'assists' in a quasi-Marvel vs. Capcom way to extend combos and rack up points is really interesting and helps distinguish itself from the DMC sized elephant in the room, but at the end of the day I just don't enjoy this anywhere near as much as other character action-style games.
I think the biggest gripe I have with it isn't the humor being somewhat hit-or-miss at points, but rather that despite each level's distinct visual identity, almost every fight I enter feels the same because of how devoid of nuance or interesting design the combat arenas tend to be. At least Stage 5 has a really annoying room with electrical grids on the floor that will zap you if you stand in them, and there's an earlier stage where volcanoes can interrupt you if you dont get clear of the blast radius of the lava they spew, but really dynamic arenas where the environment plays into how you approach combat are few and far between from what I've seen. Most combat rooms are either flat circles or squares, so you'd better hope that when combat interrupts you, the enemy placements better be REALLy interesting, although they usually aren't.