McDondo says: The game greets you by making you realize that the intro has just finished playing and you need to swim up to avoid tentacular murky death. Somewhat forgiving in the fact that you only go a few screens back when you die.

McDondo says: "I'll just kill this kobold here so I can loot h.---" *death rattle* Stay far away from something vaguely humanoid till you get the combat system worked out! The unforgiving element of the game is the possibility to sell or misplace key story items.

McDondo says: All it takes is a single twitch in your wrist to send your sword flying. Hitboxes are so messed up that you can end beheading someone with a failed block. The same can happen to you when an enemy trips or falls!

McDondo says: Realizing that you can't finish the game because you failed to do something important 5 screens before is the very definition of unforgiving.

McDondo says: So you thought ion weapons was the way to go? You get no refunds on your research points, nor they carry over to your next mission. It's a bit of trial an error until you find your favorite combination.

McDondo says: Going forward just a square or two more than you should can turn a perfectly healthy party in vulture chow faster than you can say "1000 gold to save your game"

McDondo says: Good luck playing this like a pacifist. There's a fourth "X" in there for a reason! Sometimes it seems as the AI was cheating too.

McDondo says: One of the game's main plot mission turns every single reticulan into a heavy weapon's expert. This means that before you can move a step in any direction you'll have 6 or 7 rockets coming straight at you.

McDondo says: The game is meant to be this way, because it assumes you bought it for its death screens. Since unforgivingness is a factor of gameplay I'll just score this one a bit lower than I should