izigame.me

A very decent PS2 era DMC type action game. I enjoyed this game despite its faults. The combat feel is actually good. The main character can switch between a heavy Berserk-like claymore and a more Dante-eseque broadsword and it's conveyed well enough in the weighty feel of the attacks. There are of course other weapons each with their own unique uses, but my point is the action feels right and good. So many action games never achieve that. Hitting enemies has appropriate feedback.
But also in general the game looks solid. The environments can kind of be a drag, as they are samey. Yet when the game wants to have a visual set-piece it can muster up the energy. The character's berserk transformation sequence is a beautifully rendered manga-inspired infusion that looks to capture the Berserk manga's pencil shading during intense moments, and it does it well. It may be AA but in general, the presentation and production values put some major studios to shame. Cutscenes look good, monster design is interesting, the final bosses especially look great.
But it sits at decent to me because:
The core gameplay is good, but the camera and lock on truly do remind me of the PS2 era. Static camera angels I can deal with, but a camera and lock on that feel like they have no idea what they are doing during battle is a harder pill. It just kind of leads to some headaches as there is a lot going in combat.
It throws a lot of enemies at you, but also your astral sister kind of plays crowd control. So during combat enemy attacks will put up a qte essentially that you press the button that corresponds to your sister where she blocks, counters, and stops the attack. Which adds a neat lawyer as it helps fans of these games that complain about attacks not being visible. Well, here you stop them and then have a clear amount of time to position and dodge. It puts emphasis on that and it's smart because it never feels like your stopping the attack.
But your sister is also shooting astral laser attacks that you upgrade for her to even more, so lots of light show shit towards the end of the game.
But a less smart choice is color coded enemies, but see it's not even like you switch to red or blue weapons, you turn a blue or red area of effect where enemies have to be in that area to fight them. For example, if the blue enemy is out of the field, your ranged attack won't damage them until they are in your blue aoe stance. So thats annoying.
What's really annoying is the possessed enemies. Red enemies are possessed and when you defeat them the blue ghost comes out and you need to take them out before they "repossess" the red enemy and bring them back. This is for most enemies later in the game and sometimes multiple ghosts. But that means you have to switch stance(hoping your gauge is not empty) and quickly kill them. That's made hard by the shit lock on though. So there were plenty of annoying moments.
The story was ok.....like it does come off as a story the writer came up with when they were 16 and thought fantasy shit where the religion is evil is still edgy..
But they are very invested in their world and characters which is admirable, but I don't know if ending on a huge big "the adventure is not over" type ending is a bit silly.
Good game though. I enjoyed it. I like PS2 era action games and this is of that ilk.