Ok. First: Watch the trailer video. Listen to the voiceover. Did you laugh out loud? Good. This game's dialog and writng has that same sense of humor throughout, and it is the game's strongest feature. (sadly, that voice actor does not do Argus' main dialog. I would have rated that delivery at 5 stars, regardless of other game flaws.) The good: sense of humor (see above) story: solid writing. Classic tropes from fantasy and RPGs abound and are deconstructed fairly logically throughout this game. Characterization: The characters tend to be genre-savvy and intelligent. They are capable of making mistakes and dumb decisions, but those are typically in keeping with established character traits and a deep, underlying assumption that other charaters are NOT as genre-savvy and intelligent as they are. The Bad Skills: All of the skills are passives (increase to elemental damage/resistance, an extra hit in your combos, etc...) Worse, you're going to get all of them. The level cap stops you two points short of maxxing out every ability. No replay value, no trying different builds. General UI: The game has a single volume slider for everything, instead of separate music/sfx controls. The music drowns out the sfx at times. The Ugly: Controls: This is a console port, and the controller support needs work. There is at least one puzzle that is almost, but not quite, unplayable, because you can't adjust controller sensitivity. (You need to drop an object in front of a stream of fire to block it, but the object's hitbox is small, and the controller goes from "don't move" to "dive into the fire".) Bugs: -I had to replay the final boss fight because I hit him too hard. -I had to reload during a dungeon, because I stepped off the side of a stone bridge and was trapped on an invisibe platform. I rate this game highly because the story is solid, and the humor is GOOD. Good enough for me to forgive the clunky interface, the hard to aim attacks, and the honestly bad gameplay.
