The Tarnishing of Juxtia combines dark fantasy visuals and a hauntingly beautiful score with challenging Souls-inspired 2D action RPG gameplay and a sinister narrative. An innovative and rewarding combat system, a staggering variety of equipment and abilities, highly-detailed pixel-based environ...
The Tarnishing of Juxtia combines dark fantasy visuals and a hauntingly beautiful score with challenging Souls-inspired 2D action RPG gameplay and a sinister narrative. An innovative and rewarding combat system, a staggering variety of equipment and abilities, highly-detailed pixel-based environments, and terrifyingly Tarnished bosses work together to make The Tarnishing of Juxtia an unforgettably immersive journey.
A Sinister Adventure Awaits: 15 unique environments, 14 formidable boss battles, and plenty of secrets and sidequests await players in this sprawling 20+ hour action RPG.
Risk Versus Reward Combat: The Tarnishing of Juxtia’s unique Energy Rush system rewards courageous players with a super-charged boost of stamina and mana regeneration after landing consecutive attacks.
Vicious Boss Battles: Face evil head-on! Confront corrupted saints, ancient war machines, Tarnished creatures, and destructive gods in explosive, multi-phase boss battles that push skills and wills to their utmost limits.
Earn Powerful New Abilities: Acquire Relics from fallen bosses that can be charged up to unleash powerful Ultimate offensive and defensive abilities, allowing players to turn the tide of battle in their favor.
Develop Unique Character Builds: Discover unique weapons, armor sets, magic abilities, Relics, and more. Players are encouraged to experiment with any combination of these items to create unique character builds best suited to their playstyle and visual preference.
I played the demo ages ago and liked it a lot, and I was surprised by the mixed reviews, But about 4 hours into the game I see the reason.
I fought the third boss of the "Tower" (The same boss for the third time) and the fight was filled with infinitly respawning enemies with incredibly annoying ranged attacks.
I also happened upon a glitch where I killed a boss but the adds killed me during the long death animation AND the boss died but I did not get the item it drops. I returned to the area and the boss was dead but still no item. Nice work devs.
Maybe you will have better luck with a different build but I'm not restarting the game to try.
This is a pretty decent game and worth playing overall but I just wish the developer didn't lie about the gameplay length. It's been made clear the game is 6-12 hours worth of game time and NOT the 20+ hours they advertise.
Pick it up on a deep sale and you're good.
I bought a handful of Metroidvania/Souls-like games on a GOG sale, and ended up liking The Tarnishing of Juxtia the most. The biggest reason, there's actually a character level / stat component like Dark Souls. (kill enemies, get currency, spend that currency to raise a stat/level, repeat)
The other games I bought of this genre have a more tertiary progress - everything, not just 'soul currency', is lost, and progress is from other skills/effects once a type of checkpoint has been reached. (which is unfortunate when there's a difficulty wall having all skills/effects, and no way to further improve the character)
I really like being in a situation where if there is a difficulty wall, I can take a few minutes to grind more health/damage/levels for the character, and then its not a wall anymore.
The 'combat' seems to be the brunt of online complaints. The Tarnishing of Juxtia is the only game in this genre I've played, where there is no possibility to cancel attacks. (if the attack is pressed, the character is committed to finish that attack no matter what. If the attack button is pressed quickly multiple times, the character commits to a full 4 hit combo, even if the button wasn't quickly pressed 4 times.)
I've had no problem at all with combat or the controls feeling responsive knowing that, and not 'button mashing' unless its to produce a full combo. Single pressing for 1 attack or 1 roll to kite enemies, works as well as any other game in this genre.
The other review on this site (GOG) where they talk about a 3rd 'tower' boss and both dying at the same time and the character not getting the drop - those sub-bosses only have common drops. (killing any other enemies in the area, they'd drop the same items, and the same would happen if the character died to them). Its misleading to make it sound like something unique was missed from a game error, when its really missing something common that would always be missed with dying.
One of the most frustrating aspects of The Tarnishing of Juxtia is its boss fights. Instead of offering exciting challenges, many of the encounters are bogged down by an overwhelming number of relentless adds. You're constantly swarmed, which makes it hard to focus on the actual boss and strategize effectively.
The sluggish weapon speed only makes matters worse. Every swing feels painfully slow, leaving you vulnerable while trying to land hits. On top of that, the stamina bar doesn't work well—it drains too quickly, and the regeneration is far too slow, making it difficult to keep up with both the enemies and the boss.
To make things even more tedious, enemies don't stagger when you hit them, which means you can wail on them without any real impact. This makes it feel like you’re just hitting a brick wall, with no satisfying feedback. The combination of slow combat, unreliable stamina, and unresponsive enemies makes the boss fights less of a challenge and more of a frustrating endurance test.
In the end, The Tarnishing of Juxtia is easily one of the most tedious, low-quality, and low-effort games I’ve ever played—right up there with Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona, which is also on my list of the worst 2D Souls-like games ever.
Gameplay is the most important thing in a game!
Playtime: 9-10 Hours
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