I love how the 'survival' is condensed into a rather voracious hunger. (Hungry Hungry Kara) I've had a few starvation close calls, but that's one thing that kept me hooked on playing - borderline starving when reaching an island, and then leaving said island with a full belly and a half dozen Flame Roasted Fish. (after slinging hammer crushed rocks at respawning Shoreskippers) My first death in the game showed me what the character keeps (Sea Shards + Blessings) so it was easy to play toward hauling those in, for better Blessings so that all the stages could be completed. (seems like some reviews of this game judge it more for platforming than understanding the roll that replaying stages has - roguelite/like elements and procedurally generated worlds) Very few games keep my attention after beating them, and this is one of them. (Stage 5 is the last stage for the story, and I'm currently on my way to Stage 10 of the endless mode) The game is really fun. Really happy to discover this one.
Unlike other reviews here with gamepad complaints, I thought the controls function great using an Xbox controller. I had no performance issues at all, and love how the game plays. My 'unable to complete' remark has more to do with game design, and the sad hard-limit to character growth. (which wasn't noticed and wasn't a problem, until very late game) I very much enjoyed exploring areas and fighting early, mid and some late game bosses, but once I'd 100% an area finding ALL the tablets (which increase damage, critical, stamina and faith/mana) and finding ALL the forgeable equipment, and killing enough enemies to purchase ALL the skills, that's ALL there is to character growth. (the character literally cannot become any stronger) So being very late game, and 10 attempts to a later game boss I still can't beat, and the character being as maxed as they can be, there's not enough incentive for me to continue trying or playing. I concede, its a skill issue on my part, but in other similar games where there's a difficulty/skill wall, an area can be replayed to purchase increases to stats/levels, and that can be enough to beat the boss. In Dark Devotion, the character is effectively lvl1 the entire game, and only has minor character improvements from discovered tablets, forged/found equipment and skills.
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.
