I love Symphony of the Night and finally pulled the trigger when I saw the crossover DLC. I should have played sooner. Humor is great, references to other metroidvanias are great, my only complaint is they have so many tools that many are disappointing to use. There are clear winners and losers in equipment, but that game knowledge (what works best for me) is the skill aspect that keeps me going back, even on harder difficulties.
Like so many of its ilk, Dead Cells can be punishingly difficult. The learning curve between the various stages of the game ramps up rapidly, tutorials are limited mostly to button prompts and text boxes, and the difference between victory and brutal defeat often comes down to a razor-thin margin.
UNLIKE others, Dead Cells recognizes that not everyone who might be interested is a diehard tryhard. Numerous accessibility options open up the game to a more casual audience without sacrificing the clean, precise gameplay.
And beyond the difficulty curve, the game is stellar. Tongue-in-cheek humor, a surprisingly deep story woven seamlessly into a minimalist approach to storytelling, magnificent level design and Metroidvania progression, and buttery-smooth gameplay & animation that will leave your jaw dropping and draw you in.
Best of all - the DLC is woven throughout the game rather than chunked off into its own separate mess, to the point that it feels like it's always been there.
I, myself, don't have the reflexes or skill for a Souls-difficulty roguelike - but that doesn't have to matter with Dead Cells, and I've enjoyed it IMMENSELY. Hopefully this eventually gets some sort of Ultimate Edition with everything bundled together - but it's worth purchasing a la carte, either way.
My only regret is that I didn't play this sooner.
On the short list for GOAT contenders.
Equal parts fun and challenging, only thing that determines how much you'll experience of each aspect is your own ego - like the devs themselves have said, the game's not hard, your greed is what gets you killed and damn did they make sure to make gambling so incredibly enticing.
The game could be perfect, but dodging isn't precise and not as rewarding as it should be. Either i get hit at the end of my dodge or i don't get hit eventhough i dodged to late. Worst part is that sometimes if you're surrounded and try to dodge, the dodge input doesn't register, so you take 1 or 2 hits before the animation plays out. It's really weird. You also jump high enough to dodge arrows, yet they hit.
Some of the weapons are straight useless compared to others. In the 10+ hours of playtime i probably used shields for less than 3 minutes total.
