izigame.me

I'd been searching for a parry-based swordfighting game for a while. This might not be exactly what I'm searching for, but it's a dang good game in that style. Jokes about it being VR Infinity Blade are accurate - as a fan of that series, I can see the resemblance.

Combat primarily focuses on 1v1 fights. The enemy will wind up an attack and you'll see blue lines appear around your vision. Line up either of your blades with these lines to block the attack. Eventually, you'll lower the enemy's guard to 0 and "guard break" them, opening them up to a combo. Hit them in the indicated direction for best damage as many times as your combo limit allows. You can also swing at the enemy to deal guard damage in addition to parrying, which can help break their guard faster. Just make sure you're still blocking their attacks ;)

Of course, there's more than one enemy on the field, so others will jump in. However, the game's kind enough to avoid making you fight 3+ different enemies at once. Instead, they'll trade off as each other's guard becomes low. You need to keep track of them to press the attack, breaking through guard and getting off your combo while another enemy applies pressure. That's not to say being surrounded isn't a death sentence, so keep your back clear.

I'm a big fan of the combat system. I played on the highest difficulty you can choose without beating the game first (relentless), and it's fast enough that only the slowest enemies make me feel like I'm just waiting for the attack to come through. Luckily, you can kill them pretty quickly with late-game gear.

The game itself is a roguelite. You collect aether during your runs, which you can use to upgrade your weapons. Getting further in runs unlocks new weapons, which you can upgrade separately. Experiment with different ones to see what you like - they all have different powerup abilities (a damage boost, a ranged attack, a damage shield, etc). Heavier weapons tend to deal more damage (with two-handed ones doing the most), but they're heavy so they don't move as fast. That makes them difficult to block with, so there's a decent trade off. I used a fast sword in my right hand for parrying and an axe in my left for damage after guard breaks. My runs lasted about 35 minutes when I was getting near the end (honestly a great length of time for a VR session).

On the negatives: I didn't find two-handed weapons particularly usable. They were a bit awkward to use and the damage bonus wasn't worth giving up simultaneous defense from the other hand. Also, the second tier of captain is a bit annoying to deal with - he'll hide behind enemies and charge up a massive AOE attack that's quite difficult to avoid (since you need to approach him to stop it, or run really far away which might not be possible). Honestly, neither of these are truly gamebreaking: I just avoided the two-handed weapons and focused empowered captains whenever I saw them.

I recommend this game to those who are looking for a VR swordfighting game and aren't afraid to flail your arms quickly. That's me. Good game here.