Recent reviews by sacrafish

This is a neat little demo, with a nice graphical direction, two well fleshed out characters for how little of the game exists so far, and some fun combat. The art style is pretty without being overbearing, the effects look nice even if it's hard for me to tell what kind of attack the enemy is trying to use. The environment is needlessly large, and the very indistinguishable environmental objects make it easy to get turned around from a camera reset after battle. The main character is given enough dialogue to make a very "ragna the bloodedge" kind of character, at least from the initial look at her, and the slime friend cements their role as a silent companion foil to the talkative protagonist. The voice acting is well done, though the battle voice lines are a bit too frequent with how basic attack heavy the game seems to be. On the topic of combat, it feels really good when you're on the offensive. There's very little feedback when you hit something making the combat feel floaty, but the basic attack chain is satisfying. Being able to reposition as needed during it or interrupt with special attacks gives the feeling that you should always be basic attacking, using specials and charge attacks when you feel it would help when you need to stunlock something. Being able to dodge mid combo without interrupting but also dodge at the end of a combo to remove end lag feels really good, partially because it feels rewarding to learn when to dodge to maximize that sweet sweet DPS, but it doesn't feel excessively punishing to miss the window. Defensive combat gets a lot more rough, unfortunately. If you get knocked up at all, there's not really anything you can do, no dodging out of laying on your butt and no invulnerability frames when you're waiting to stand up. For slower line AoEs, this can lead to you getting juggled across the battle arena from full to dead, which would be less of an issue if it wasn't for the needlessly complex warning system. As of right now, enemies flash one of four colors to indicate what they're going to do, and keeping track of this while maintaining your attacks is certainly a system that's learnable, but the colors can be very difficult to see amidst all the particles from your own attacks. While this may encourage a more reaction based playstyle, every other aspect of combat promotes extreme aggression.

Overall, I'm excited to see how this project turns out.

The only game breaking bug I found was an issue where I paused the game and it wouldn't accept any other inputs, just after the tutorial fight but before being told our little slime friend had joined the party

This is very much a game where you will either enjoy the vibes or you won't enjoy the game. For the best experience, play it while sleepy or afflicted with something similar.

Neat

Silly game made for
Silly people to have a
Silly time for now

It's flashy without being blinding, heavy without being slow, and respects the skill of the player without gatekeeping. Fantastic game.

Run as administrator to solve the stuttering issue.

I wish I could say this game is better than remnant 1, but there's just too many issues that pile up to make a very unfinished experience, with the problem being that they were issues that remnant 1 did not have.


Instant death mechanics are common instead of a one off gimmick for a single boss, this is extended further in the end game where single attacks that are not marked at instant death can drop you from full to dead even with max damage reduction

the list of attacks that one tap you only expands when playing with friends, discouraging late game multiplayer (even after the multiplayer damage multiplier nerf)

Enemies no longer make any noise when approaching to attack, causing hits from normal enemies (and the subsequent stun locks) to feel unfair, unlike remnant 1 where this was not an issue

Enemies spawn from areas that have already been cleared out instead of spawning every enemy when the map loads, compared to remnant 1 where you always could see enemies before they saw you

These random mob spawns are not consistent or predictable, making some dungeons a long slog regardless of difficulty

Every single hit against the player regardless of the hit's strength or the player's defenses will stagger, making normal enemy encounters feel like rng on if the attacks will sync up to stunlock you or not

Stun locks from full hp to dead are common due to the above issues

There are no accessibility options, making the game unplayable in several sections for color blind individuals

Many game mechanics just don't function sometimes, such as healing and damage reduction

Frequent disconnects from online lobbies


I like this game, I want to recommend it, but the dev's response to many issues with the core functionality of the game is just "skill issue" and that doesn't look good for the continued development of this game or the success of the company

"It's like vampire survivors with bigger tits"

In all seriousness, Kagura survivors manages to differentiate itself quite a bit from its progenitor. The focus on a movement based skill as both a highly offensive and defensive tool, adding a bit more to the gameplay loop than walking around and watching numbers go up. The map design is fantastic, clearly learning from previous survivors games and improving upon them. The exploration emphasis gives plenty of stuff to do after getting your bearings in each stage. The weapons are clearly inspired by other games in the genre, but often have a twist on how they function.

There are a few issues at the time of writing this, as all early access games have. The balancing is extremely wonky, oftentimes leaving it up to RNG if you get enough damage to beat the first boss of a stage. Leveling up weapons within a run can be either a sequence of small, meaningless stat increases that get you killed, or a powerful mess of stats that trivialize the game. By putting a level cap on a weapon and needing to buy level cap increases in the shop, it creates a less than satisfying experience when you don't get a single level tier upgrade to weapons for several character levels. Some rebalancing of the appearance weight would help all of these issues quite a bit. Additionally, as the game seems to be designed around the Dash skill (and potentially future movement skills), and leans heavily on it for the identity of the game, it may be a good idea to make it appear more frequently or otherwise make the lowest tier of dash available as a skill from the start. The shop feels unnecessary in its current form, as the only use is to increase the level cap of abilities, which serves to unbalance the growth rate of each item in game.

Overall, this game is a great start, with an engaging spin on the genre and some very common early access issues.

10/10 Cosmic horror at its finest. If anyone recommended this to you, either they know you very well or they hate you.

The movement is a bit floaty during the action stages, but the gameplay still feels smooth once you get used to it. The story is a fantastic return to having standards. There's enough minigames and optional content scattered around to make the yakuza fanbase jealous. Best game since SA2.

Imagine Dark Souls but open world and with even more poison swamps. Exploring the overworld gives a very sekiro/breath of the wild feel by allowing you to start combat off with stealth/ranged attacks/rushing in. The dungeons are interesting and enjoyable, and while the minor dungeons can use similar enemies or visuals, they differentiate themselves greatly in the encounters and puzzles they provide. The damage numbers are a bit more condensed, so you don't need to worry quite as much about being underleveled for an area, with most of your damage coming from upgrading and exploration rather than character stats.


TLDR: The Legend of Sekiro: Bloodborne Edition featuring shields that actually help