Do you like Hades? Are you bored of Hades and you're waiting on Hades 2? Well, this game has gameplay that's like Hades but it is still different enough to be its own game. I do recommend it and while the lore is nowhere near in-your-face as Hades - especially as the main character is the only one capable of realizing he died -> there is quite a bit of lore going around. Collecting the lore is the gateway to alternative endings and stuff too; there are some non-random specific things you can break -> which drops lore so that's a thing too. Flying Swords are like casting; relics are like ability boons; skill books are like passive boons; Weapons are "Excaliburs" and there are only swords and one attack pattern for the most part; dashing is the same; and "sheathe" is a dedicated skill that varies. And you can fall down for a few seconds in some situations, usually getting hit, and like Monster Hunter fashion, you're invincible until you get up. Also, there are "Sects" which is the closest thing to selecting a weapon in Hades. More on them later. Fun fact: There are BUILDS you can make based on falling down. They're pretty good. lol The biggest problem in this game is the inconsistent translations leading to silly things. For example, there's an achievement that tells you to "get both "Indomitable" and "Hurricane" skills at the same time" - but in-game, the names of the skills are "Immovable" and "Galestorm." You can still get the achievement just fine, but know that this extends to the wiki too. This leads to the next problem about this game: information about it is kinda scarce. The wiki has no info on the second DLC and suffers from the inconsistent translation mentioned. On the topic of the DLCs, the first one is free and introduces new stuff to play through with new mechanics that adds depths while making you monstrously strong. The second DLC, the one you pay for, does the same but adds more. I do recommend them as they also alter the base game too. So, what's good about the game? Well, it plays and handles well and has a decent amount of variety going for it. It's got nice music, a variety of enemies that you can learn to recognize and avoid all their attacks. It's got quite a lot of bosses and minibosses as well as harder difficulties that update boss patterns to make things more interesting - as well as make other things harder in other ways. It's not just number inflation against you. Generally, you have your weapon and your flying swords behind you. "Excaliburs" can completely change up how the run is going to go. Along side them, you get Relics which are similar to boons in Hades but a major difference: you can swap them around as you please, including dropping them and refining them to boost your stats (mainly: max HP and damage). Then there are "Skills" which can serve as minor little buffs (like, +5% Damage) and go all the way to major game-changing skills - which is usually relevant to your sect. Oh yeah, there are a whole bunch of "sects" represented by statues -> and you pick one before you get started. Each sect has two styles and some of these are fairly similar but some are completely different. The first sect you start out with is a basic one where you use both your weapon and flying swords without much in the ways of gimmicks. This might sound basic or weak but it is one of the most powerful sects because the lack of gimmicks means one thing: you get stronger by just doing bigger damage. The two weakest sects, in my opinion, are the thunder and ice sects (the fire sect is a bit stronger than them) because you don't start doing bigger damage but instead you do stuff which eventually results in big damage. The early game is a pain for almost all sects but for these two, even the mid-game is a pain for some sects, unless you get lucky. The thunder sect is more powerful than the ice sect. One style in the thunder sect has end-game where you just dash all the time and killing everything which is crazy fun. On a cooldown, you have the ability to "Sheathe." You can reduce the cooldown as your progress to a maximum of 90% reduction (so, most sects will have around 3 seconds total when you max that out). Sheathing is one of the biggest differences between sects as well as styles between the same sect. For example: the sect with the biggest variation is perhaps my favorite: the Shadow-Walker sect. You lose your flying swords for both styles of this sect but when you sheathe, you summon a flickering shadow that helps you if you pass through it with your ability. One style gives you the ability to parry attacks and upon a successful parry, you get some lovely invincibility times and enter "Sheathed" state - where your next attack will be a powerful dashing attack that deals major damage. If you sheathe, you enter this state without needing to parry - and if you grab a specific skill -> doing this attack through the aforementioned flickering shadow -> puts you right back into "Sheathed" state. Grab yet another skill and this will also respawn the Flickering Shadow -> meaning you can do it infinitely. End-game here is just hilarious invincibility time while you dash around killing all enemies all the while you make sure you go through the flickering shadow. Dropped it? Sheathe again. Here we go again. Meanwhile the other style does not have a Parry. Instead, you have a dash attack that deals large damage to enemies along the path and around the area you stop. You start with just 2 dashes that come back after some time and Sheathing gives you a "greater dash" (that isn't effected by the limit of 2) if you go through the flickering shadow -> and the end game is constantly using "greater dash" through the flickering shadow infinitely, killing all enemies. It is the easier of the two and more flexible, but no invincibility. The closest thing to easy mode are the two sects: "Infinite Arhat" and the (paid) DLC's "Soul Blade Shura." Infinite Arhat one has a style called "Sunburst" replaces your flying swords with just one that you charge and fire. With proper timing, you fire a "Sun Piercer" that travels far, pierces through enemies and deals a lot of damage. This allows you effectively kill all enemies before you see any of them. (note: I use controller so unless I'm manually aiming, my flying swords auto-aim at enemies). The sheathe is 5 seconds of guaranteed Sun Piercers, so you can mash to win and by mid-game, you'll have enough sheathe cooldown to have it permanently. Soul Blade Shura has a style called "Myriad." To simplify it: you sheathe and then you hold down the button for flying swords as you dash through the area. Once you kill all enemies, wait for the cooldown and repeat. Once your sheathe cooldown is low enough, you'll be holding down the buttons for both sheathe and flying sword at the same time as you dash through the game. Forget timing or mashing, just hold them down and keep running. What about an example for Excaliburs? Well, Sunburst has one called "Fallen Sun" that causes an explosion on a successful Sun Piercer. The explosion hits the enemy and the ones around it for 70% of the damage of Sun Piercer itself. If you hit 3 enemies, that's 3 explosions so each enemy gets hit four times. Furthermore, If you have the highest quality (Mythic) Excalibur, then you get a bonus effect. Fallen Sun's bonus effect is to double the damage of the explosion and increase the size of the explosion by 50%. As I said, easy mode. There are sect-specific Excaliburs -> and then there are generic ones. Some generic ones work with specific relics and others work with specific skills. I didn't even touch on a lot of things, such as unlocks as you progress and the lore. Oh well. In conclusion, I do recommend this game and it's DLC. If you think what I typed up here sounded like fun, give it a go. Have fun.
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