izigame.me

Great start that gets you interested in whats to come, but never manages to deliver on the potential. Character movement is very stiff for being a cyber ninja. Weapons are never interesting, and I got through the main game just using whatever weapon had the biggest damage number. Story has some interesting moments, but ultimately fails to be interesting or deliver on some of it's ideas. There's never any challenge that forces you to try and engage with the games (few) mechanics on a deeper level. It feels like the game is half finished. The devs had a great idea and premise, but they never managed to flesh out and expand on those initial ideas.

The games default gamepad controls assign your three attacks to face buttons (xbox controller:two weapons on A and X + ghost sword on Y, jump on b). You can attack with a primary weapon simutaneously with your "ghost sword" ie. fire a fully automatic rifle and shoot your sword forward. There's an early skill tree ability tp shoot the ghost sword forward, and by holding the button down, it will start stop in place and spin, dealing damage. More importantly, ghost sword attacks/abilities destroys most projectiles. The longer the sword stays out, the more damage it will do when it is returned to you.

This results in one of your only combat options early on for maximizing damage is to shoot the sword forward, hold it in place, and attack with another weapon. Ghost sword damage is also the primary means of healing. Using default controls, you can't easily manage attack with a primary weapon (mashing A or X) while also holding down Y. Its clear the devs intend for you to make use of the ghost sword while also attack with another weapon, but didn't bother to come up with a control scheme that felt intuitive for the player.

Mild spoilers, there is a sequence about 3/4 of the way through where you gain a new power after no other prior significant gameplay changes. This sequence gets your interested and excited again in what might be coming. But the section is very linear, slow, and takes far too long. At the end of the section the power is taken away and you go back to the same gameplay until the end. It makes you question why this section was included at all? It served some narrative purpose, but the gameplay associated ends up as really unenjoyable padding that dampens the overall experience by failing to meet player expectations.

The game is also very light on your "metroidvania" style of gameplay. You acquire very few new abilities throughout the duration of the game. Exploration is always gated by story elements. The combat options don't really develop meaningfully from beginning to end of game. Almost every single combat encounter and boss played out nearly the same. Melee weapon variety is pretty lacking. None of the weapons felt meaningfully different from one another. Gun variety mostly came down to wether or not you could hold down the attack button to empty a clip, or had to press it multiple times to continue firing.

This games general art, and sound design have an incredible "vibe" that is very reminiscent of SMT4. The strange fusion of cyberpunk and fuedalist japan works really well. Unfortunately, Blade Chimera's environments and monsters end up feeling rather bland. There is very little done with the levels and creatures that you fight. The pixel art is technically very well done. There are some very nice and subtle things done with lighting in some very localized areas and I wish there was more done with it. Strangely, the most visually interesting areas in the game are in the in-between areas that connect "major" combat+platforming rooms.

Overall this is a very meh game. I loved the initial promise of the game, but was ultimately left disapointed and underwhelmed. There's a basis for a pretty good game here, but it's missing far too much in it's current state. I hope the devs make a sequel based on this game, and are able to fleshing out the "bones" of Blade Chimera, because it's so close to being great, but ultimately falls short in manys ways.