Came into this expecting a mid game with immaculate vibes and that's exactly what I got.
The visuals here are peak PS3 in both an artistic and technical sense. The environmental design is on point with each area in both the real and faery world being an absolute treat to look at. The whole folktale aesthetic they have going is super interesting and they do it great justice. It's one of those games that makes me say "man, PS3 graphics really are all that we need". The game is certainly a feast for the eyes and really hard carry the game.
Unfortunately those vibes are coupled with some real snoozepilled game design choices. Firstly, the game has the DMC4 problem where you gotta go through pretty much all the areas and fight all the bosses twice to kind of pad the game out, and unlike DMC where the stylish combat can kinda mitigate that blatant padding, this games combat isn't nearly as interesting. The combat boils down to essentially collecting the various enemies in the game to use as different attacks for each face button. Each attack has its own elemental attribute and effectiveness so it's all about making a good loadout to suit your playstyle. It's a neat concept that could give a lot of customization and user flexibility with the combat, but I found in my playthrough that it's extremely hard to chain together different attacks on different buttons in a satisfying manner. I played basically as if each button was its own distinct attack for its own distinct scenario rather than having them all be tools for one big combo playstyle. Each attack can also be levelled up by grinding, but like man this game is already padded out as is I wasn't in any mood to do that kind of thing. Lastly, absorbing characters is done by doing goofy sixaxis gyro nonsense, and while I am a huge advocate for that kinda nonsense, it does make encounters with multiple enemies a disaster because you are almost guaranteed to get hit by another enemy while you are shaking the controller like a mfer trying to fill a gauge as fast as you can. The combat just wasn't doin it for me, which combined with the whole two playthrough shenanigans meant the game felt like a drag to play. Maybe there are cool combos you can do with chaining guys effectively though and its just a skill/knowledge issue on my part though.
The plot is interesting though, it's a pretty simple and kinda predictable lil mystery case, though the last 2 chapters definitely lost me a little bit in terms of what was going on and what actually meant what. The characters were certainly fun to see interact with one another, shoutouts to the absolute chad legend that is Keats. Every cutscene that mfer is doing some kinda jojo pose, he has all the charisma in the world inside of him.
overall, yeah. I'm glad that I finally got around to playing this after seeing it pop up on my radar a few years back. If you are like me and enjoy vibes in games this is absolutely worth taking a look at, but the gameplay and length doesn't really do this much favors in my book. Even though it wasn't the most mindblowing I do wish sony would give this a bit more love. I don't even think this game was referenced in playstation all stars battle royale and that game was in the same generation as this. It also seems like a hefty amount of passion and budget went into this as well so it's a waste for sony to drop it like a rock so quickly. The game's not even available on the hellspace that is the PS3 PSN store and it's also not on the PS now streaming platform, and this game definitely deserves better than that. It may be mid, but it's charmingly mid, and that is absolutely my kind of video game.
The visuals here are peak PS3 in both an artistic and technical sense. The environmental design is on point with each area in both the real and faery world being an absolute treat to look at. The whole folktale aesthetic they have going is super interesting and they do it great justice. It's one of those games that makes me say "man, PS3 graphics really are all that we need". The game is certainly a feast for the eyes and really hard carry the game.
Unfortunately those vibes are coupled with some real snoozepilled game design choices. Firstly, the game has the DMC4 problem where you gotta go through pretty much all the areas and fight all the bosses twice to kind of pad the game out, and unlike DMC where the stylish combat can kinda mitigate that blatant padding, this games combat isn't nearly as interesting. The combat boils down to essentially collecting the various enemies in the game to use as different attacks for each face button. Each attack has its own elemental attribute and effectiveness so it's all about making a good loadout to suit your playstyle. It's a neat concept that could give a lot of customization and user flexibility with the combat, but I found in my playthrough that it's extremely hard to chain together different attacks on different buttons in a satisfying manner. I played basically as if each button was its own distinct attack for its own distinct scenario rather than having them all be tools for one big combo playstyle. Each attack can also be levelled up by grinding, but like man this game is already padded out as is I wasn't in any mood to do that kind of thing. Lastly, absorbing characters is done by doing goofy sixaxis gyro nonsense, and while I am a huge advocate for that kinda nonsense, it does make encounters with multiple enemies a disaster because you are almost guaranteed to get hit by another enemy while you are shaking the controller like a mfer trying to fill a gauge as fast as you can. The combat just wasn't doin it for me, which combined with the whole two playthrough shenanigans meant the game felt like a drag to play. Maybe there are cool combos you can do with chaining guys effectively though and its just a skill/knowledge issue on my part though.
The plot is interesting though, it's a pretty simple and kinda predictable lil mystery case, though the last 2 chapters definitely lost me a little bit in terms of what was going on and what actually meant what. The characters were certainly fun to see interact with one another, shoutouts to the absolute chad legend that is Keats. Every cutscene that mfer is doing some kinda jojo pose, he has all the charisma in the world inside of him.
overall, yeah. I'm glad that I finally got around to playing this after seeing it pop up on my radar a few years back. If you are like me and enjoy vibes in games this is absolutely worth taking a look at, but the gameplay and length doesn't really do this much favors in my book. Even though it wasn't the most mindblowing I do wish sony would give this a bit more love. I don't even think this game was referenced in playstation all stars battle royale and that game was in the same generation as this. It also seems like a hefty amount of passion and budget went into this as well so it's a waste for sony to drop it like a rock so quickly. The game's not even available on the hellspace that is the PS3 PSN store and it's also not on the PS now streaming platform, and this game definitely deserves better than that. It may be mid, but it's charmingly mid, and that is absolutely my kind of video game.