Alisa

Both Alisa's art style and gameplay have been lifted straight from Resident Evil 1 on the PS1, but while the art is on point, the gameplay has too many rough edges to be enjoyable. The aiming system is incredibly ambigious about what you're aiming at and extremely picky about what counts as a hit. Certain enemies also move really fast and require both horizontal and vertical aiming, neither of which the controls are set up to handle well (even with the auto-aim item). The enemy difficulty is all over the place, some are so slow and weak as to be useless, and others will be fast and incredibly dangerous, with no way to tell which is which until you've lost most of your health. The game is also fond of introducing new enemies in groups and by surprise, so you don't get to learn how to handle them gracefully (one pair I died to because after killing the first, its corpses hitbox blocked my shots while letting his buddy attack through it). On top of that, the game also loves putting you in deadly situations with little warning. It adds a randomly spawning unkillable ghost in narrow hallways, it surprises you with a timed puzzle where the failure means instant death and I managed to stumble into a boss fight only to learn I didn't bring enough ammo and there's no way to get more. All these things wouldn't be too terrible, but since saving can only be done in specific rooms and costs you currency (that you also use to get upgrades), you find yourself saving too little and too far away, meaning lots of running and repeating of steps until you figure out a solution. Also pray that you don't die after a cutscene, as they're unskippable. Lastly, I played the game using a Series X controller and found it would miss inputs a lot and sometimes even fail to release an input (usually a direction, making you walk without touching anything).

Alisa is a survival horror which both in style and presentation calls back to the PS1 classic such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, while adding a pinch of its own flair. Visually, it feels on point in recapturing the atmosphere of PS1-era games (the fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds truly feel like a contemporary competitor to the RE series), and the music/sound also feel well made and close to the goal. Sadly, the gameplay is both frustrating and lacklustre. VA is terrible, but YMMV. First, the game wants you to pay for each save, and you can't use multiple save slots. The UI is also bad (no shortcut to map or inventory, requiring an extra input from your equipment menu, and keys require you to manually select them from the inventory). Occasionally, the game also misses inputs (at least when using a controller). Money (in the form of clock gears) are dropped by every enemy you kill, and I believe it's used to unlock all weapons and outfits (which have gameplay effect) outside of the starting equipment. You are thus incentivized to engage in combat, but the experience is dreadful. Several enemies can stunlock you or at least chain 2-3 attacks if they get to you. If multiple enemies are present, this can turn into a death sentence. At least, money drops in decent quantities, however... ...There is no auto aim (unless you take a penalty at the start or buy it later on in the game). You get an indicator if your aim is lined up with an enemy, but you don't know which enemy, and the line of aim is EXTREMELY narrow. A good chunk of the enemies are fast and/or demand you also aim low/high, making it all annoying and hard to master without rote memorization or heavy manipulation of the pathfinding. Enemies will swarm you in certain sections, amplifying the frustration. Bonus point for inconsistent reactions to your shots. I'll refund the game. I love old survival horrors, but these controls are inadequate for what the game asks to its players.

Alisa is a Game that is very hard to rate. On one side you got one of the best Art Styles of the last decade. On the other side you got clunky Gameplay and heavy difficulty spikes. I'd still give it a 3 out of 5, cause the positive things are really well excecuted. The Music and Sound Effects are also on Point.

Good depth, great atmosphere, old school vibe, original.