~ Paulvgx ~ の最近のレビュー

Although not necessarily a standout in the genre, I feel like The Knight Witch brings enough to the table to be remembered, and thats already a feat considering how crowded the 2d platformer / metroidvania genre is, and the fact that this game doesn't even feel like neither of the two.

Bullet hell based combat feels very nice to play. The design decisions made to make auto-aim and manual aim work together are outstanding, and that already makes it a good game pretty much, given thats it's main thing.
The card system feels more gimmicky than anything, but still plays out fine. They could've just gone for a skill selector but instead put some time into balancing a card system, and I appreciate that, even if the result is average.

Level design is also average, some rooms play out really nicely, while others feels too crammed or too large. Backtracking is pretty minimal inside each zone, but there's enough of "you clearly don't have the skill/item to get here yet" to be considered a metroidvania; anyone complaining about this, is just too much of a purist imo.

Lastly, the artstyle, characters, and overally vibe of the game is waaaay above average for the genre. Characters are charming and likeable, dialogues are great, and the game just looks nice. Add that to an also pretty great plot, and even if the gameplay and core mechanics are not incredible, I still feel like its a winning combination.

Pretty neat bullet heaven entry.
Comparison to Vampire Survivors is mandatory so there it goes:
+ Gunshot adds a layer to the gameplay making it a bit more deep than VS, plus the idea itself is well implemented, guns are varied and how the gameplay is affected by it adds already enough to be a great game in the genre.
+ Pre game variety is also more interesting than VS just by having the possibility of having two picks (character and weapon).
- In game variety is the most detrimental part of the gameplay. Upgrades are meaningful and combos/synergies are complex enough, you need to actually think about your build in higher Darkness levels. However, having many weapon/character combos, you'd also expect variety in builds, but the truth is the most 'usable' loadouts also rely on specific upgrades and runes, making the gameplay a bit too repetitive. The best way to keep the game fun is to use different loadouts pregame as those will most likely define the upgrades you need in game, and then its more or less the waiting and luck game for you to get those.

Art style is pretty cool, and so is the music, so the overall vibe of the game just adds on top of the gameplay, which is not the case for some games in this genre, often looking rushed in the artsyle department.

Awesome gameplay supported by a very well-rounded world.
Artsyle is simplistic but great considering that, animations, sound effects and environmental details make the game look very polished while still giving gameplay the spotlight. Lore and conversations feel very fitting for the general setting, and for such a "small" game to have this depth in some characters, its the part that most shows this game being a labor of love in my opinion.

The grapple mechanic is very well implemented in general, feels great to play, and blends great with other mechanics such as weapon knockback. Enemies are fair for the most part, with the only exception being puck (not a fan of making the player learn to use the grapple in such a fluid way, but then implement it in a fight which requires a much more "slow" usage of it.

Level design is awesome, having some very interesting challenges, some using the game mechanics while others force you to think a bit outside the box. At some points it feels like those kind of rooms where first thought, then implemented though, not blending that perfectly into the world map, (specially the climb challenges being literally detached from the rest and some hard rooms for pickups being forced into a corner of the map so that its more of a one time only side scroller challenge), but even with that, the world is decently built and it feels like a proper metroidvania.

Personally my only complain is that I find it to be a bit too harsh on backtracking for my liking. Considering you are quite likely gonna skip the hard challenges when you first encounter those, atop some difficult zones you will run into all the sudden, I think teleports should be placed in a way these zones are easier to reach later on, not punishing you for leaving a room unfinished.

That being said, its a great take on a game mechanic that deserves some more love, and altough placed in a genre that is so overused these days, checks all the boxes for being considered a great entry to that genre even without considering its main selling point.

Evan considering mirror 1 to be a joke of a game, mirror 2 is a straight up advertising scam

vanpiro esiten

Before going on with the review, I would like to appreciate the effort put by the team in this title. It really shows, and thats something most games lack, however, thats almost as far as you'd want to read if you expect positive stuff. I don't know if its the team lack of experience in some aspects of game design, lack of time and polishing, or just weird decisions all around, but the game at its core has some big flaws imo.

In today's videogame market, flooded by long-mantained games, early accesses, betas, etc., a full game is supposed to be released in a somewhat bug-free state, however, its not the case. In my playthrough I've had a major bug (making me reset the area as a whole), and multiple minor ones that ended up in me dying in weird situations. Before writing the review, I have directly given some feedback to the devs and I'm sure they will fix some stuff, but still releasing a game like these feels like it was rushed or like no Q&A was carried prior to releasing it.

Aside from the bugs, I was expecting some excellent moments driven by the core mechanics, which are very good ideas all around, however, that did not happen. The senses system plays almost no role outside of the combat part where you match them to weak "elements". Sure, there are specific parts planned for each sense to shine, but to me, even in those parts, they did not shine, the visuals for them don't do it for me, the objective of each sense seems meaningless, and it just seems as a system that should be at best a little extra, not a core mechanic.

Then theres the combat system. You start the game off strong, with multiple options such as dashing, double jumps, parries, stuns, a build-up meter for extra damage, and the senses system working as elements, cool.
Then you progress and you get... nothing. Theres a skill system that seems quite powerful, however as you go on if you dont max it out, most of the enemies are too tanky and ingore most of the skills available (no stun, no parry possibility on many, too many unblockable attacks) so you just stick to good old hackin' and slashin'... or so you would if the stamina system was not as tight as in Dark Souls, so your gameplay gets reduced to getting a couple hits in when you can, falling back, couple hits in, rinse and repeat. If you somehow max it out (it needs repeating levels to get exp for no reason) then the combat becomes a mix of instakilling basic enemies and QTEing your way out of harder ones, resulting in a combat that does not flow at all. This being specially true on minibosses you cant finish or instakill.

Finally, Its worth mentioning some other minor design choices of the game:
- Level design is very flat, many corridors are too long, puzzles are too basic, transitions are too slow to play and furthermore slow down the pace. The overall game feels too long and too slow.
- There are secondary combat systems, being mainly quick-time events, that feel repetitive (same three presses for finishing every enemy), too hard for no reason ( Kirin ) or meaningless ( Tunnel thingies that grab you on the forge ). Also boss fights try to bring new ideas to the table but end up not working ( Kirin is very slow even playing it properly, Tatsu's ledges are very clunky to grab, and also if he goes up you can't do anything, and the final boss feels very representative of the whole combat, some hard QTEs, some waiting in between attacks with nothing to do and a very not engaging pace overall).
- The character movement feels clunky for a 2022 game. Almost no aerial control, a weird delay on jumping/landing, very weird hitboxes on some enemies attacks (yes hammer guys im looking at you), and a few more oddities.
- Checkpoints and progression feels wrong. There are levels (to call them somehow) which are made up of different locations, each location having some combats and some puzzles. If you feel like going back to the dojo at any point in the level, then you have to repeat it whole, even if locations are often times totally detached from one another. Also if you do this you lose all exp earned in the whole level you were in, which makes going to the dojo a total waste of time. Theres checkpoints that seem put at random (sometimes you die you just have to repeat that fight, other times you have to repeat multiple packs of enemies in the location). Some packs in each location are just a couple of enemies while others are multiple waves. If you die in those, you have to repeat all the waves. And to top it off, levels are too long.

If you've read this far, i thank you, and would not like you to leave in such a negative note, so there's some pros:
- The style is cool. The setting is appealling and the characters are for the most part likeable.
- Cutscenes and dialogues are enjoyable and the story and lore are deep enough to be interesing and complex enough to keep you going, without being too obscure or overwhelming.
- Art design is on point, animations are fluid, visuals are fitting for the game style, menus, dialogues and such are well presented; the game looks good overall.

To me it feels like a game that had some very good ideas and planned them out properly, but then could not manage to wrap them with the basics accordingly.

Disclaimer: I gave the original game a negative review, not meaning I disliked the game but meaning (for me) it was far from the masterpiece some people think it is. As of today, if I had to give the original a rating, it would be around a 7 (perfect 10 on aesthetics, music, and the game art as a whole, and a 5 or a 6 in a good day on level and boss design).

I approached this DLC with the only hope of finding better bossfights that would make a great experience when put together with the amazing artistic design of the game, but oh boy did that not happen.

Lets make this clear, the DLC character (Chalice) is straight up unplayable.
The game has a pretty simple control scheme, and out of all different keymaps you could give her, there is a dash (same as usual) and another dash on top of that, that requires a down input? Its really baffling that in 3 years of development no one ever thought that a downwards input (which is already kinda weird to use on a platforming game, except for falling down) that translates to a sideways move of your character (based on the way you are looking) is a terrible idea. On top of that add the fact that theres a weapon that requires you to look backwards, and you get the most counter-intuitive movement i have seen in a long time.

After i gave her some tries, went back to Cuphead, and things went smoothly from there... until i fought Moonshine Mob.
The fight is designed to be played as chalice, and I don't mean its easier as chalice, i mean it is completely terrible for cuphead. First, the platforms are placed at a height that trying to parry makes you reconsider your life decisions, so thats one tech out of the fight. Then, the second phase welcomes you with as many unpredictable and unavoidable hits as you want, as the "policeman" mobs will come out of the side of the screen at a pace and speed that if you ever think of dodging the rays vertically, you are guaranteed to get hit by a mob coming into the fight as you jump up or down a level.

These two things alone have been enough for me considering i didn't really have the original game in my prefered list already. Sure, the animations are again top notch, the game looks and feels great, but the gameplay is still not there.

I'm more than looking forwards a MDHR game that is not a 2D platformer, hopefully they can manage to put together some good gameplay in some other genre, but considering it will take them even longer to develop than this DLC did, the bar may be set too high by then.

I was hoping for Blasphemous to be a game changer in the metroidvania industry, i trully was. From the first day on Kickstarter, the art of the game was amazing, and so I expected the whole game to be that way. Well, it was not.

This art however, kept me going through the whole game, which constantly tried to make me quit with a mix of average to bad platforming, weak level design, and a polished yet utterly simple combat and progression system.

Unlike some other metroidvanias, such a good visual design makes the game much more appealing, which, along with the low difficulty (in most parts, with the exception to some bosses) creates a good game for someone that has not played that many times the same thing. If you are used to metroidvanias however, this is just one more to forget.

what

Pues aquí esta básicamente la mejor segunda parte de un juego narrativo que se ha hecho en mucho tiempo en la industria.
Obligado haber jugado Distraint original para saber de lo que va la cosa.
Mejoras en el apartado gráfico, sobretodo las animaciones, algunas muy buenas en este segundo juego, sobretodo un par de cinemáticas. Los puzzles se siguen quedando algo cortos, porque son muy fáciles, pero están suficientemente bien distribuidos como para dar la sensación de que el juego es algo mas que un walking simulator.
Obviamente como narrativo que es, los diálogos son igual de buenos o mejores que en el anterior, y la traducción al español esta muy lograda.