On the surface, the game seems to have it all - beautiful stylized graphics, nice soundtrack, dynamic storyline, and competent narrator. However, the gameplay itself does not match the art assets. You wade through empty corridors with only containers to break (they drop health items - duh), occasionally fighting a group of enemies in a walled arena. The combat system is a clear Batman rip-off, only dumbed down heavily. It lacks depth, and basically consists only of simple button mashing on visual clues. It's a beautiful game to look at, but utterly dull game to play, and since time is expensive and there are so many fantastic game, I cannot rate this game highly.
I have a lot of praise for this game, its strongest area being the overall atmosphere. It does not try to be forcefully funny or cute, with is the trap many modern adventure games fall into. It also does not present dozens of silly puzzles where you have to pick up every plank, nail and shoestring and construct stupid contraptions out of them. Instead, the game focuses on telling the story, on portraying the characters and on dialogue, similar to the excellent Blackwell games. It allows you to act naturally - to pursue leads and to think what to do next, and to piece together the mystery presented in the story. It contains just the right touch of surreal and scary, at times even resembling the Silent Hill style of how fear and suspense is built slowly by carefully divulging information. I subtract one star for the ending which seemed too much cliche to me, and it resulted in an inevitable disappointment. I guess endings are hard, and very few games and movies do them right. However, the first 4/5 of the game are absolutely marvelous. If you like games like the Blackwell series, this one is definitely recommended.
Just to warn you. Terrible for any action game.
Graphics - It's pixel art, and it's okay for the most part, but there is nothing "stunningly beautiful" or "nextgen" on it. Blackwell games are stunningly beautiful, of someone requires a point of reference. The lighting and animations are quite good, but the resolution is really low. 3/5 Atmosphere - Very good indeed, moody music, day and night cycle, overall feeling of sadness, threat emanating from the darkened forest. 5/5 Gameplay - In my opinion, here is where the game falls short, similarly to titles Majesty. You can only ride left and right and pay and collect money. You depend on the intelligence of your subjects to carry out your plans, but they will often fail at very basic things. Builder goes to swamp to build in the middle of the night. Archer that climbs to guard tower stops hunting without any reason. Aim of the archers is really bad, so you depend on luck a lot. You are forced to build constructions you know are inefficient. Plus, similar to "Gods will be watching", the game does not manage to refrain from being unfair - common disease among indie games. Instead of providing meaningful challenge, it relies on the moment "and now your older brother comes and stomps your sand castle". Repetition, luck required to succeed. Quite bad - 2/5 Music - Moody, eerie tunes that complement the game atmosphere very well 4/5 Sound effects - very basic, nothing to write home about.
Warning to potential buyers - this is quite bad and unfinished game, not really in the same league as its two predecessors. First of all, the true 3D movement does not really help, but hurts the gameplay, partly due to the horrendous camera that obscures paths, does not let you accurately measure distances, etc. More often than not, you will die to missed jumps, due to clipping through scenery that looks like solid objects, etc. Moving conjured objects in 3D is awkward and imprecise, and using them to accurately slam the enemies nigh impossible. In contrast to the beautiful, lush graphics of the past iterations, this one features an ugly violet/bright red color scheme that really hurts the eyes. The reason for this is absolutely unknown to me. Moreover, the local coop is totally broken, there is no safeguard against situations where one player falls somewhere where he is totally invisible, some puzzles meant for one person does not work or are trivial for two players, and sometimes the players are separated by a gate without means of rejoining. The game is also fairly buggy in its current state, and is very short.
Just to cool down the usual GOG euphoria, I would like to mention a few problems I have encountered. First of all, the action is not completely smooth, there is an omni-present micro-stutter no matter what setting you choose. I use a 120 Hz monitor and I am used to playing shooters with framerate close to this value. It's not that the framerate in the game is low, but the delivery is uneven. That's something a purely action game like this should have 100 percent sorted out. Second, the variety is not that great, the enemies and the weapons start to repeat fast, and the arenas are not that innovative either, so you will be quite bored after finishing the game. I would welcome some interesting enemy behavior - like some enemies healing or buffing others, or group tactics, or whatever, but you will encounter nothing like that in the game. The enemies either hover in the air, shooting projectiles at you, or in case of melee mobs, they run straight at you. No evasion, no clever pattern, the AI is super simple. So, if mindless, simplistic FPS action is your thing, you won't be disappointed. If not, there are plenty of games that do the same thing much better or in much more interesting way.
The main plot is too obvious, and after seeing through that, there is really very little else to discover.
Bansai! Bonsa! Hajimeeeee! ... also... Pantsu!!! Pros: Main character is hot. Cons: The game is cheap like a pair of Chinese chopsticks. Only one enemy model, differs only with colors, cheap animations (multiple hit enemies move in sync, which looks ridiculous), some depth to the fighting system, but not enough to be interesting. Also, omnidirectional static parry. Also, no story, no level variety, just endless "waves" you fight until you fall asleep. Not recommended. 2 stars because I did not see any bugs.
Did not like it one bit. A game is not funny just because it says so.
