Played up thru the current update (ends after the castle boss).
It's a very well done modernization of the King's Field/Shadow Tower style of FROM Software games. As Shadow Tower Abyss proved, dual analog goes a hell of a long way to making them more palatable.
My quibbles currently involve some of the levels being a bit hard to parse. The temple, sewers, and catacombs are the main culprits here. My smooth brain contains marbles and they clatter around and make it hard for me to figure out where to go sometimes. The temple is pitch-black, the sewers all look the same, and the catacombs are also dark and samey so the marbles roll around alot.
I will say those are the only areas I have issues with. The temple and catacombs are cool aside from me getting lost.
There are some holes in teh game's balancing. The spell to place a ball of fire down is ridiculously strong (it lasts 45 seconds??????? even 20 seconds would be OP) as is the ice trap spell (a boss I fought melted because I hit him three times with it). I know I missed gear but I only ever found 1 ice and 1 poison element weapons and both were pretty underwhelming. Other elements get better representation but hopefully later updates will rectify that.
I found the secret challenge tower, and found it overall easy. It has some cool unique enemies that I'd love to see in main areas in later updates, and the reward is well-worth the ascent.
The music is great as well, ranging from some early game tracks that I can't imagine not being King's Field 4 inspired to uncomfortable ambiance ala Silent Hill to catchy triphop. Some of the tracks were composed by certified Good Youtube Boy Thorhighheels so hells yea. (I also saw on Youtube an earlier update had a track straight-up using KF4 and Evergrace samples and while nice....yea better not use it to be safe)
I think the one thing I'm most looking forward to is seeing what zones end up being mandatory and what ends up 100% optional. I'll probably wait for the final update and write a new review based off that
It's a very well done modernization of the King's Field/Shadow Tower style of FROM Software games. As Shadow Tower Abyss proved, dual analog goes a hell of a long way to making them more palatable.
My quibbles currently involve some of the levels being a bit hard to parse. The temple, sewers, and catacombs are the main culprits here. My smooth brain contains marbles and they clatter around and make it hard for me to figure out where to go sometimes. The temple is pitch-black, the sewers all look the same, and the catacombs are also dark and samey so the marbles roll around alot.
I will say those are the only areas I have issues with. The temple and catacombs are cool aside from me getting lost.
There are some holes in teh game's balancing. The spell to place a ball of fire down is ridiculously strong (it lasts 45 seconds??????? even 20 seconds would be OP) as is the ice trap spell (a boss I fought melted because I hit him three times with it). I know I missed gear but I only ever found 1 ice and 1 poison element weapons and both were pretty underwhelming. Other elements get better representation but hopefully later updates will rectify that.
I found the secret challenge tower, and found it overall easy. It has some cool unique enemies that I'd love to see in main areas in later updates, and the reward is well-worth the ascent.
The music is great as well, ranging from some early game tracks that I can't imagine not being King's Field 4 inspired to uncomfortable ambiance ala Silent Hill to catchy triphop. Some of the tracks were composed by certified Good Youtube Boy Thorhighheels so hells yea. (I also saw on Youtube an earlier update had a track straight-up using KF4 and Evergrace samples and while nice....yea better not use it to be safe)
I think the one thing I'm most looking forward to is seeing what zones end up being mandatory and what ends up 100% optional. I'll probably wait for the final update and write a new review based off that