izigame.me

I was doing some reading on this game and apparently the original Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds was already made for Xbox back in 2013 or something. So that makes this a port, but the implementation really sucks. I think I'm going to ask for my money back.
I bought this to play with my kids. The 30 page explainer tucked away in the menu helps but so much is unexplained. We can't figure out how to spend our skill points. I read on Steam community that it is in between games..which are 40 minutes and no saving in between. The thing is I did beat the whole game once with my kids and we didn't see how to upgrade.
Secondly, there is no story in coop mode. It just runs you through all the single player maps with up to four players. I only understood this after trying out single player where they actually explained what was happening.
We beat the game in about an hour which was short. But the problem is we had fun. It is just the port implementation sucks--it feels half done. They shouldn't have released it in this state. I feel a bit bad asking for a refund because we did have fun and we beat the game, but we don't want to replay it. We can't even figure out how to level up our characters, who are level 45.
Plus we paid $22.49 for it--it feels like it is only worth 5 dollars because it is a bad port of a 20 year old game. Its not even a remaster and I can't tell they've done any work other than maybe adding Maybe Steam won't let me refund it but if it doesn't I'd feel ripped off knowing what I know now. We had a fun hour but we would've wanted to replay it more if it weren't such a mess.
edit: I've decided to not refund the game because I feel bad asking for a refund of a game we beat. Still it is expensive for what they're asking for and I can't recommend it to anyone in this state. If they are able to patch it I'd be happy to change my review. I think that is why I'm so upset about this, there is SO much potential here. I'm just disappointed.
Also it looks like I have 16 hours of play on this because we started when it was close to my kid's bedtime. There is NO saving in between so I left the game running overnight for us to continue playing. But this is a really really short game, which means you need other things for replayability. I can see level up skills as doing this but we can't figure out how to use our skill points.
edit: I just read that it was built from the ground up from their website. In Unreal Engine 5 no less. Some say there are added/refined features; I never played the original so I can't speak to this.
I'm stunned that this isn't a direct port. Why is it so clunky? Why does it seem unfinished in certain parts? Why does it say not to turn off your console? Why does everything not related to the combat seem half done?
Why is there no story in co-op mode? I'm just really stunned that this was built from the ground up in UE5, but I'll fix my review. I don't mean to mislead but I can't change how I feel about the game which despite its issues is fun to play with my kids with some mindless button mashing. Fortunately hard mode is making us be less lazy and learn the game more which is redeeming for replay value, which is essential for such a short game. But why is there no story in co-op mode?
The thing is this game is great button mashing fun especially with my two young kids. So we've come back to play this two or three times now. I guess the price point for this game made me expect more and the glaring user interface issues misled me to thinking this was a port.
I hope they fix the issues because I do think it will be worth full price then, at least from the player's perspective. I do appreciate that they probably did spend a bunch of money remaking the whole game from scratch, even though there seem to be stuff left over. Like why does it say not to turn off your console? That kind of thing makes me think this is a port. I'll be happy to recommend it if/when they fix things, because I would be upset if someone recommended this game to me without telling me the caveats.
Oh last thing, someone had to tell me where to spend character skill points. It is in the from menu under Setup. I thought I went through everything and I think I confused Setup with Options so my brain skipped over it. I mean I read through all 29 pages of the Reference. Maybe they should add a note there that it is under Setup.