I didn't expect much and Restless Soul somehow still managed to let me down. But what did I expect, and what is the game? Well, it's supposed to be an action RPG with a comedic slant. Except it push its attempt at comedy too far at the expense of everything else, then faceplant by trying too hard. In a more detailed manner, it's a "2D sprites in a 3D world" Paper Mario style of esthetics but extremely simplified. As in, the character designs are very limited and start repeating absurdly quickly. The characters and world, as a whole, lack detail. This could work if the game went for a "dreamy void" type of look but what you actually get is simplistic pixel art with none of the usual upsides. The game is only one step removed from a Walking Simulator. It's an action RPG with no RPG elements (not even item-based or simulated) and barely any action outside of a few relatively simple fights (most of which are repeats of the same easy minions). It's essentially purely there to prevent the game from entirely being a walking simulator. But the worst part is the writing, which is an issue when the game itself is so simplified as to be barely there. There is no appreciable narrative, no actual character arcs, no worldbuilding, nothing. It's just an endless string of mostly fourth wall-breaking jokes, with no real attempt at anything coherent. No attempt is made to explore the themes that an afterlife would give, or to build an actually interesting and unique setting. I can't even muster the effort to really hate intensely this game's writing, as that would require putting in more effort than was obviously sunk into this thing. There's just nothing here. Overall? It's not technically a walking simulator but it might as well be one. And it's not one that has anything particularly clever to say. And it's one that definitely think itself funnier than it actually is. I recommend you skip this one.
I had heard extremely high praise of this game and saw it, when it was released, in many top 10s. Given I'm a big Zelda fan and that the actual series abandoned its formula to pursue the open world sandbox cliche, I was eager to see if there were any replacements. Tunic sounded, on paper, interesting. Then I fired it up and found that it has very little Zelda in it and way too much Dark Souls. But nothing could prepare me for how the game lock most of the plot and vital gameplay mechanics (such as the ITEM DESCRIPTIONS) behind not one but many made-up cipher languages. And no, there is nothing in-game that actually decipher them. You're expected to actually bash your head trying to figure out how they work. Needless to say, I was not exactly impressed and rather profoundly disappointed.
Do you like blind jumps? Do you like blind jumps over the same sets of repetitive obstacles? Do you like blind jumps in a game where you die in one hit from everything? Also, make no mistake. "Platformer with Metroidvania mechanics" does not mean a platformer-oriented Metroidvania. It's just a linear platformer with upgrades. And don't expect any of those to ever do anything to alleviate the issue of having to do blind jumps constantly in a game where you die in one hit and where what's foreground and what isn't is not always clear. Don't expect a particularly gripping intro, attempt at setting up the world, or much of anything either. The game is overly concerned with its blind jumps and instant death loop and that's what you'll be doing most of the game.
Kunai is a strange experience. I guess that it does exactly what it set to do, which is offer a fast-paced action game experience with smooth movement. However, given the general lack of polish of the game, it leave me to wonder why the devs opted to make this a Metroidvania-style game instead of a straight action game. Gameplay-wise, movement is fast and fluid, though the automatic aim of the titular kunai take some time getting used to. However, once you get used to it and get into the rhythm, movement become incredibly fast, fluid, and fun. Unfortunately, everything else has drawbacks, both minor and major. The combat start out mildly interesting but suffer from the 2D Metroid effect ; once you have the rocket launcher, every single enemy and boss encounter is resolved simply by shooting a rocket at it with no other thought necessary. This include the boss fights, which while fun, are overly simplistic (even the last one). The level design... oh boy. The action-oriented level design and linear sections are good. But the non-linear exploration suffer from samey rooms, no fast travel or coherent major shortcuts, and arbitrary invisible wall secrets with no telegraphing. Not that there's much use in the secrets (almost all of them are hats and the two health upgrades in the whole game give only a puny extra boost). Graphically, the game does have some very pretty environments. Unfortunately, the limited palette also means that many rooms look samey. Music is best aspect (why is there no final boss theme though?) However, the worldbuilding is non-existent. You never learn anything about anyone, or the world. The villain's motives, or even what it is, is never explained or hinted at. The atmosphere at the start of the game is good but past that, a few jokes from NPCs and pointers at your next objective is all you get. Oh and bugs gallore. Falling through the floor isn't fun. This isn't to say that Kunai is atrocious ; I give it 3 stars, not 1 or 2.
The game has a critical lack of basic options such as, very noticeably, language. In fact, the game has no options menu whatsoever. I sure hope you like the game as it load by default because if any elements of it don't work perfectly or bother you in any way whatsoever, there is no way to adjust that short of hacking the game or playing with system registeries. Your OS's language is not the one you use for gaming? Ha. Wish for some accessibility options? Tough. Want to adjust V-sync settings? Joke's on you. Simply put, this is unnacceptable. This is given the game runs. The game has a series of rather awe-inspiring bugs and is prone to crashing for seemingly arbitrary reasons. For some reason, have my web browser opened would result in the game crashing trying to load its title screen. Which of course, led to the first issue.
There may or may not be a great game here. I will never know because the game fail to detect my XBOX controller, give no input device or key binding options, and in-game button press instructions only match XBOX button layouts making them impenetrable.
