Final update: finished the game at 13 hours and was quite thorough but still missed (i think) 3 or so collectibles. Pretty much used the starting pistol the whole way. Quite a few weapon parts throughout to customize how you want to play. There's still some bugs but the dev has been quite active on the forums so I'm confident in him getting them resolved.

I do plan to play harder difficulties and maybe go for speedrun achievements but for a single playthrough this was a fantastic experience well worth the asking price.

Update: Put in about 8 hours and have gotten to chapter 4. It's more of the same. Seems to be 3 weapon types: handgun, shotgun and rifle. There are several of each type throughout the game which have different skills. You eventually unlock the ability to "respec" your guns so if you find something you like it's easy to swap. Enemies get a bit more varied and although there are also some reskins they do get additional or varied moves with different timing. Still enjoying what's on offer.

I put about 12 hours into the (now gone) outdated demo and thoroughly enjoyed it. The full game has more polish but has been largely the same.

This game is very much like the first (and best) Parasite Eve on PS1. You navigate about the environment finding loot and solving puzzles to progress through the levels. Enemies are placed around the map and when you go into their range you engage in turn based combat. You can move around the combat area but actions require stamina to perform (which regenerates on it's own). Enemy attacks are avoided by moving out of the way or blocking them.

You start with a pistol but quickly find an axe and shotgun with several more weapons waiting further in. Weapon stats can be upgraded at a bench and can also be augmented with parts that grant buffs and are found throughout the game.

There are numerous challenges that give in game currency which can be used to unlock a variety of costumes, items and weapon parts.

Currently playing on Steam Deck OLED. Default settings give me 30-45 fps in the early areas.

Absolutely love this kind of game.

A combination of Resident Evil and Parasite Eve with a lot more depth than first appears. Is it perfect? No. Is it fun? Yes.

Ever played Parasite Eve 1? If not, go play it. If yes and you liked it, give this game a try. It's a fun horror-themed Turn-Based Action RPG. Very reasonable price and fair amount of replayability.

I used to spend many hours on this game's (currently unavailable) demo, even attempting to speedrun it without taking damage. Since I was already familiar with many of the combat elements, I picked Hard Mode from the get-go. I spent 9-10 hours to play it through. If you're interested, feel free to pick Hard Mode as well–it's not an unreasonable, masochistic experience. Despair might be a different story.

I wouldn't classify it as Survival Horror, but it's something adjacent to it. The reason why is because it revolves around turn-based battles, has infinite ammo, and you can farm levels as much as you want. However, things like high-powered ammo, grenades and potions are finite–but they can be replaced with Skill-equivalents which are not as finite.

The game does nail the horror atmosphere well though. Just the ambiance, fog and darkness makes the game much creepier. There's definitely influence from games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and I've seen references to the former at least.

There's also no map. You'll have to navigate the areas by sight and signs alone. This is a positive thing to me, as it increases immersion.

The game utilizes a kind of Active Time Battle (ATB) system like Parasite Eve. The protagonist (Ella) generates Stamina over time in combat, and can take action if she can pay the stamina cost. She's free to move around during battle, which is needed to evade enemy attacks and reposition herself for better attacks.

There is no magic system per se. Instead, Ella uses Energy to activate various skills. But a lot of these skills also consume Scraps–which you can think of as this game's currency. So you can either use your hard-earned Scraps to throw a grenade, or kill the enemies the normal way and save Scraps for upgrades. Most of the time, I ignored the Skills–except Triage, which is needed often.

The game also has modifications that you can attach to your weapons and armor. They're not quite the same as PE1's mods, but they still offer bonuses. Although, there are so many of them that I can't use all of them.

But in addition, this game as action mechanics, like block, parry and Brutal Attack. By parrying the enemy's attack at the right time, you can stagger them and finish them off with a devastating attack. (NOTE: These abilities are not available right from the start. They have to be learned by reading manuals you find).

There is a story to be told here, and the premise is quite interesting. As you might guess, there are strange monsters appearing that Ella has to defeat. There's at least one plot element that I can't quite figure out though; did I miss the explanation or did the developer leave it vague on purpose? But I am intrigued by the premise. I'm not 100% if the developer was going for what I think, but my interpretation left me horrified by the potential implications.

The voice acting is done quite well. Ella in particular expresses believable reactions to things we see in the environment. For example, her voice expresses shock when seeing a blood-soaked murder scene. It is definitely a plus.

It took me 9-10 hours to play the game on Hard mode. Speedruns are expected to be completed in under 4 hours. Upon completing the game (on hard mode?), you unlock the Despair difficulty. In this difficulty, enemies are tougher, encounters have been changed and key items have been placed differently. In addition, a great number of Ella's costumes are locked behind Despair mode. So there's definitely incentive to play the game again and try different things and achievements (I might do that later).

Also, there's an option to automatically skip all cutscenes. That's helpful when playing the game a second time around.

I can definitely hear my computer fans coming to life when I boot up the game. That might be why areas have been segmented and separated by loading screens, rather than being open world. I can't list that as a positive thing, but it's tolerable.

There are a multitude of weapons in this game, but I don't know what to do with them all. Initially, I thought it would be advantageous to switch between weapon types in combat. But after halfway point, I realized it just doesn't matter. The best thing to do is to pick a weapon you fancy and upgrade that. There's no way you can upgrade all weapons to max anyway. Good thing is that you will later gain the ability to Disassemble weapons, refunding 100% of the Scraps you spent on the weapon. So feel free to experiment. (Also, there are Achievements for killing X number of enemies with a specific weapon).

While the game might not be pure survival horror, fans of that space will likely appreciate its atmosphere and deliberate pacing. Recommended if you value mood, exploration, methodical combat, and hunting for achievements and collectables.