Recent reviews by CAN aim but NO brain

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Games really good. Combat, story, environment, bosses, and leveling system are all phenomenal! The combat can seem a little slow or clunky within the first few hours but there is a good reason for that.

Combat: You need to unlock your weapon abilities, disciplines, and other upgrades for it to improve but when it does it becomes pure dopamine rush. I see a lot of negative reviews jabbing at the combat with 1 1/2 hours or less in complaining about it here and on reddit because they didn't have the patience or the brain power to get through that to make it to the good portions of the game, its like this due to the leveling and progression system your weapons level, damage, and skills are all tied to the skill point tree (which is EXPANSIVE) but once you get it going and realize that its actually probably one of the more intuitive and user friendly progression systems in a souls like to date. Leaving you with endless options from encounter to encounter and play style to play style. I was able to force long sword for most of the game with bringing the axe out for specific very tough fights where the overall naturally higher damage just felt necessary. You can equip 2 weapons as well if you please and perform sick as hell combos with them that are empowered by your "feathering". Just note that there is little room for error moving into the later stages of the game. You better be quick to learn what attacks can be parried, blocked, and when the proper time to get off the ground is coming, you cant just eject off the floor after getting knocked down and especially later on in the game you will need to time your roll off the floor perfectly to not get combo'd out and die. sometimes itll involve getting up instantly, sometimes itll involve waiting a little longer for the perfect moment.

Environment: The world is quite large and has a ton of character. Its start out like a quaint quiet country side in china; beautiful and vast with vegetation and life (even with the plague spreading) and just devolves into a spiraling pit of madness drenched in blood. It is mostly linear instead of open world but there is no lack of exploration or things to do and find. If you're actually taking the time to go everywhere, take every path you see to do everything the game has to offer you will find yourself with quite a few hours clocked in. Id highly recommend it for as i said its quite beautiful and the things you find will definitely help in the long run especially later on when things begin to get tougher and tougher.

Bosses: The bosses are for the most part sick as hell. They start off rather easy in the beginning (unless you're me the third boss which is also an optional boss had me sitting there for like an hour trying to beat it) you will probably only need a hand full of times to beat each one and move on to the next but about half way through the game you're going to notice a shift where they become much smarter, hit harder and have much bigger health pools. For any true souls like veteran or long time casual fan you will greatly appreciate this especially if you do well to pick up on the combat system and get dodging, parrying, blocking, and rolling off the floor timings on par.

Leveling: For every enemy you kill you will be rewarded an amount of "red mercury" this is the games equivalent to souls, essence, yada yada from other souls like games. You use these to level and for every level you will get a skill point (and later on there are specific mobs and interactions that will reward you with free skill points ex: tutorial boss bai kru rewards you 5 skill points if you manage to beat it within the first 10 minutes of game play) the skill points can be spent on the skill tree from shrines scattered all across the beautiful environment. The skill tree has 6 different sets of nodes for you to collect. Each set of nodes branches out and are for a specific class of weapon and the stats the weapons need for scaling to do more damage with. In short the tree is HUGE and is covered in not only stat nodes but discipline (weapon skill) nodes as well as magic, feathering, skill upgrade nodes. You will also find nodes on the skill tree to level up your flasks amount of heals per sip and the amount of sips you get to use them for. Along with there being no lack of options you can also respec and change your choices on the skill tree at NO COST TO YOU. Giving you the freedom to try every weapon and combination of weapons to your liking until you find what fits your play style or the bosses criteria, though that is definitely subjective. If you're good enough you can beat any boss with any of the weapons, its just noticeably easier with other weapons if you don't have that kind of luxury (which is ok, games are meant to be fun. especially single player games).

Overall I give the game a 7.5 - 8 / 10 its combat is super sick and the bosses are awesome while also being in a very beautiful word full of mystery with an interestingly decent yet albeit cryptic story that can leave you confused if you're not paying enough attention to the hints or the readables you find along the way. Only real complaint I have is the DS2 like mob behavior in the very late stages of the game (last 2 regions). There are TONS of them and they will just cuck you at every possible opportunity (ex: there is no lack of enemies that wont just shamelessly be hidden so they can push you off a ledge for free and surprised boulders / rocks that either roll down a hill you cant see the top of or falling from the ceiling to crush 90% if not 100% of your health while being surrounded by HUGE and tough mobs. I found that to be in bad taste but it really doesn't diminish the overall experience you'd get from the game as a whole as it is only really in the last 2 regions of the game and even then its like 75% in the very last region.

As for performance? I have a ryzen 7 7800x, 3090 FE, 32GB of ram, and only m.2 SSD storage. It ran perfectly find for me with global illumination, ambient occlusion, volumetric fog, vegetation, shadow, and reflection quality set to low. Everything else is on high with sharpening on 3, TSR, 67 oversampling, and TSR mode. Vsync off and FPS unlimited I got around 100 FPS the whole time except in the final region but that's more than likely because there are ♥♥♥♥ TONS of enemies there, like more than DS2. With how fast they have been updating im 100% sure this wont even be an issue in the near future. Definitely ignore the bad reviews, they're probably using a 1060 or 2060 and have a virus or 2 from watching too much cornhub or something. This game is worth every penny, jsut make sure you come correct if you're not the best at souls likes. It might seem easy at first but it gets hard and i know that can make it infinitely more frustrating for some.

I originally wrote this game off as furry nonsense but its actually p good, could've been a little bit more challenging tho. It starts off fairly difficult but once you figure out how to upgrade your health/flasks with a mixture of unlocking the skills it becomes rather trivial other than boss fights (both mini and main but at least half of the mini bosses are just gimmicky and easy once you figure em out).

Story is fairly solid as well I just wish they didn't give some of the characters skimpy outfits, a big reason i wrote this off as furry nonesense to begin with. Not into animals trying to be sexy like they're humans even if they're humanoid but I digress thats a ME issue and people with similar mindsets, not worth missing out on this game though. It doesn't really take away from the story either thankfully and you get to kill them anyways (they're bosses) and they're 2 of the fairly difficult boss fights at that too. But i found enjoyment in the story of revenge and it ends in a well manor too. Definitely worth checking out if you love sekiro like gameplay even in a 2D space. Don't make my mistake this game isnt just furry nonesense BUT it is short so don't blow through it if you want your moneys worth.

since this game came out i avoided trying it simply because its a platformer. the age of platformers, now feels like a lifetime ago and thought to be deceased but this game makes me wonder why there arent more. its more difficult than i assumed it would be and quite a bit of fun from its movement to its environment, npcs, and lore everything that makes a good game is there and kinda kills it. with many options for completing it with a lot of things not actually being necessary to reach the ending giving you a lot of personalization of your playthrough but if you do wanna get everything and 100% it itll definitely kill a good amount of time and give you a decent amount of gratification in doing so. give it a try before silksong comes out! (♥♥♥♥ path of pain whoever thought of it is pure evil and bitchless)

Locations you visit are beautiful, creepy, whatever depending where you go but the vibe is always on point for the locale. Combat is definitely difficult as youd expect from anything made by fromsoftware but never impossible so long as you have the patience itll drag you in and make you wanna master it. The story was decent and interactive so it really can go wherever you wanna go! Weather it be the way of a hero or a demon...Its a decently fun time. Only issues I saw were: 1.) This is not a soulslike, yes its made by the soul creators of the soulslike genre but this is just an overly difficult action RPG. DO NOT try this if youre going to come into it thinking it is darksouls, elden ring, bloodborne, yada yada. 2.) Weird input lag, not sure if its my rig (32gb DDR4, 4TB of m.2 SSD storage NO HDDs, 5800x processor, and 3090 GPU) but PLENTY of times id be spamming jump when getting near a ledge because singular presses would not go through and I'd fall to my death which i found to be SUPER annoying and even then it would still come through late at times (not to be confused with it coming in after beginning to run, whenever you begin to run you dash first which will put your jump input in AFTER the initial dash) and no amount of lower graphics, closing other programs would help the issue so be warned if you have a lower end rig or if you already preemptively know this will drive you insane. It possibly also affects blocking for parrys but ngl i didnt notice an issue with that and i 100%'d (shoutout cynic 0055 for the baller guide that helped me efficiently get all achievements in a minimal amount of time, if i did it all my own with how much stuff you gotta do for each ending i wouldve easily doubled my play time and play throughs go check it out if you want to efficiently 100 the game) it so even if it does you can still complete the game with that issue persisting if you just spam the block button. Overall I personally think this games a 7/10 because its 6 years old so the input lag being the way it is just shouldnt be an issue, esp for the price theyre asking you pay to play it still in 2025. So that knocks it down from the 9/10 i would have given it for the story and combat being as good as they are.

The game is fun, interactive, sexy, stylish, fast, responsive even if its not perfect. I had a blast the whole time with the combat, esp after finishing the lies of p dlc before hand. The parrys and perfect dodges are so cinematic and sick and once you parry enough to hit a retribution OML its so cool. Really adds to the souls-lite experience, because i didnt think the game was exactly free but not hard on normal and doing NG+ on hard mode after getting used to parry timing wasnt easy at all either so if youre into beating your head against the wall this game can definitely do that for you depending on your skill level later on down the road (ive played and beaten most fromsoftware games so im not exactly bad but im definitely not good let alone great at these games so take my opinion as you will). Then there was the DLC missions for NIKKE, those were actually pretty damn fun imo (not fun enough to play a gacha tho ill pass) and the nano suits you got from it are hella cute even tho eve is cute in any of the nanosuits so definitely not necessary for fan service if thats what you want. The story though lacking some back story to make the relationship between you and Tachy more real and some of the scenes more emotional or important i thought was really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool and had a fun little twist on it by the end. My only complaint would be the movement in the game, thats where you can really tell its a playstation port. IDK about yall but i dont need 3 - 5 feet to spin around in a circle like eve does which made some of the platforming ANNOYING but no where near impossible, its a lil learning curve but realistically it shouldnt be a thing to begin with IMO considering the games been out for a year already as is. That does not take away from the enjoyment you will get out of the game though i can tell yah that much. 8/10 overall definitely worth the money and DLC definitely not necessary if you dont want a fun lil mini game to eat up a microscopic bit of your time with the game

id still like to see:

1.) better servers, theyre super laggy and my irl cant even queue half the time for no real reason that we can see hes never left a match or anything to receive a ban and since we dont have a third he cant play ( he refuses to get the seemless coop duo mod so thats on him but the game should just work this issue shouldnt be a thing he can connect and play on every other game cs, valo, marvel, overwatch, rust, league, call of duty, destiny 2, yada yada )

2.) smaller boss health pools OR change the spawn rate of higher tier bosses to lvl up bc in trios it still feels like there is 0 room for mistakes and idk about yall but my IRLs are SLOWWW we dont have time to farm enough bosses bc theyre taking the scenic route or taking forever deciding who takes what items in given situations

3.) higher FPS mods have proven you can maintain the gameplay with higher than 60 FPS theyre coping saying it has to remain 60 FPS but it feels so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ better with that mod and still runs perfectly i feel no difference in iframes, they still cant touch me so lets just update the game already even armored core 2 had 120 FPS


Other than those tho the update so far was good enough for me to change my review from not recommended to recommended. Its fun with your friends and when your one friend isnt on or cannot queue, solos at least doesnt feel hopeless, maybe trios does now but meh id rather solo if im not playing with my online or irl friends

only about 3 hours deep into the game when making this review. THIS GAME IS PEAKKKKK. its so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. straight off the bat will give you persona and xenoblade chronicle vibes from the combat system. very in depth and fun, always keeps you on your toes but with the added bonus of the option of making the combat system easier if you want ease of access on skill checks and etc to maximize damage whenever applicable. the world its set in is mystical and cool, with bad ass and even frightening seeming enemies. 10/10 for a single player game so far holy hell, cannot wait to see where the story goes and what else i will find. definitely pick this one up if you even slightly like turn based combat RPGs this one will definitely have you pleased.

UPDATE after 80 hours total of gameplay and I am utterly in love with this game. there are a few issues though id like people to know about: 1) the cursor doesnt lock to the game window so if you wanna play mnk you must be aware that sometimes when you click itll be on your second monitor unless you stay on top of that. 2) ive seen multiple posts about this so im not afraid to say it but the game has weird input delay (most likely from it being on UE5 which is full of bloat and unnecessary temporal anti aliasing in base engine that causes performance issues without actually adding too much if any at all to the quality to the picture being displayed) that will make you miss your parry or dodge or sometimes just ignore your input entirely so be ready to spam in case of this event. if you have a high end computer tho this may not apply to you (ive seen some friends of mine with newer rigs be just fine) but i have a 5800x and 3090 and only SSD storage and i run into this issue a lot. 3) if you plan to 100% this game you better come correct to those gestral beaches. the volley ball one is straight up evil and even tho i love this game and id french kiss every dev on that team for making this MASTERPIECE, i believe theyre made of pure evil after enduring the suffering of those LOL either way at the end of the day this game is GAME OF THE YEAR idc what anyone says its the freshest breathe of air we have gotten in YEARS. Im usually an FPS grinder so the fact i have to say that about a single player game bc FPS in most recent years are just glorified wallet suckers YIPPIE! but I digress, this game is amazing and totally original in the best possible ways if youre curious and wanna try this game i recommend you do...for those who come after FeelsStrongMan

constant disconnects causing losses. doesnt happen on any other game. 2.5GB fiber internet.

Light weapon = Easy mode
Balance weapon = Normal mode
Heavy weapon = Hard mode
Only time light weapon isn't completely free win in boss fights are black rabbit encounter 2, Laxasia, Simon manus, AND the final boss of the new DLC mfer was trying to patience! LMAO. Fun game tho, i can see why its basically the unanimously agreed best soulslike that isnt by fromsoftware.