I played YET ANOTHER 7 Souls-Like games you've never heard of (AGAIN)

foreign [Music] that's kind of like Dark Souls maybe that means your character can roll around maybe you have to worry about a stamina bar or maybe big monsters just want to sit on you whatever it might be I like to find Souls legs that you probably haven't seen so that sounds interesting this is episode 21 of steam dumpster diving all right first up we got pseudo regalia this is a retro inspired 3D platformer metroidvania that was originally made as part of a game Jam but was recently expanded into a full game now personally this doesn't really sound like a Souls like to me but it has been near the top of the trending page for the souls like tag all week and I'll take any excuse to show off a cool looking game let's check it out oh my God God damn found something dreambreaker got a weapon now like how the character spins that's fun [Music] bonfire lit Crystal hit oh hold on yo this game has the Mario 64 backflip [Music] slide that's fun I like that oh all right boss fight oh oh he knocks the sword out of your hand that's cool all right got it let's try to heal I healed ow it seems like we got the hollow Knight healing system where you have like a meter on the left you gotta fill up I mean fighting a one-armed big guy with a sword while you slide around to a boy's attacks I guess part is like vaguely soulsy kind of yeah this is pretty cool so far uh check out this little check out this Horn Guy oh you can hit the notes back at him [Music] that's awesome oh new power SunSetter press left trigger well in the air to plunge downwards which can chain into a high jump wait a second wait a second yo oh this feels good [Music] solar wind jump while sliding yo yo yo yo yo yes the long jump oh my God this feels good the long jump feels so good guys I think this game might kick ass if you do the Mario 64 backflip after the long jump you get a super back flip give me Sun grooves after a short delay do an air kick hitting walls and objects with it will cause you to jump away can be dumped to three times until reset okay wait let's check this out one two three okay that's cool oh and you can kick to get some extra distance oh wait let's check this out okay yes [Music] oh it feels good man I wasn't totally sold on this game at first but now that I'm getting all these abilities I think this game might be really good guys alright so check this out I can't make up this wall right but you can do this like backflip midair so I do high jump wall kick back flip and I'm up that's sick oh we got wall running yes oh my God this game rules dude so 3D Platformers are one of my favorite genres and having an excuse to showing off like this I'm so happy oh I get it nice that's cool I'm kind of loving this game so far so I will report back once I'm finished so is this game of souls like whatsoever not really no aside from a couple boss fights the hollow Knight healing mechanic and the overall theming of being in a castle this isn't a Souls like and instead is straightforwardly a 3D platformer metrovania but who cares because my God what a fun game like seriously if you like 3D Platformers even a little bit just go buy it it's six bucks just do it it's a short experience with me clocking in a little over three hours and I think most people will take somewhere in the three to five hour range but it's fantastic this game has some of the best 3D platforming momentum based movement I've seen in a long time figuring out how to get from point A to point B with the occasional sequence break was unbelievably satisfying because of how fluid the movement is and how seamlessly each ability Blends into one another this is the type of game where you can look at a clip of someone platforming for a few seconds and just instantly tell that it's good what lunacid is to kingsfield likes pseudo regalia is to 3D Platformers and if that sentence makes sense to you you're about to have a great time for a few hours double thumbs up this developer should be proud all right next up we have the Penguin game 2 lies of penguin this is a free to play game and it's clearly riffing on lies of P which is another Soul's like that's coming out pretty soon and while it looks like a joke game I don't know I have kind of like a good feeling about it let's check it out lies of penguin 2 is a prequel to Penguin game one it is a story of the past would you like to see the plot of the first part okay I guess no I'm not reading all this all right here we go the one who pulls out the bat will be savior of Antarctic what okay all right cool he got the bat the Penguin game two lies of p and Gwen emperor penguin Emperor You The Chosen One are you ready to save Antarctica I'm ready or of course I'm all right time for my training shifts and then Dutch oh what a sick Dodge press F to eat tuna love that yeah we got a video game right here power talk okay weapon skill Z oh I'm excited to see whatever this is sweet apply for dual finally let's see the game with me oh yeah I'm ready ma'am oh yo you're gonna stop okay oh damn dude I'm still hooked all right I was supposed to lose that right okay what is this [Music] Bon ice lit you get it Bon ice it says bonfire all right let's uh let's play the game hey what's up what are you in my realm oh my God it's an orca meals come by themselves is that a missile launcher on the back of an orca oh my God ocean guard all right I'm buffing I can't see I can't see there's a turret pick up the gun okay oh hell yes that's actually a fun mechanic that's gonna use the gun so he drops what is that what do I do get that was fast I was the groundbreaking oh no oh wait this is actually gonna be hard oh Jesus the ground is breaking this is actually a creative fight okay get him dude he has so much health I fell God damn it okay did I shoot the ball okay okay and I slide off come on I actually really love the idea of the Arena falling apart but when you mix in the ice physics with one shot death Falls it might be a little much okay they're gonna get back oh my god did that work did I actually like deflect it with that with there's multiple turrets come on man all right there's drones and three turrets on me this is nuts okay all right all right all right here's what's gonna happen Okay for the sake of my own sanity I'm going back to the title scream I'm switching it to easy mode I think we're all gonna have more fun if we do that yeah okay it looks like he just has less health is the main thing no this will this will be more fun this will definitely be more fun almost got him almost come come on let's go yes come on get on my back I'll take you to the human City let's go Zoo yeah that looks like a zoo dude what am I looking at what what is that oh it's the penguin princess she's fighting skeletons in the Coliseum of course she is humans how dare you make me a spectacle I'm the princess of penguins hmm the sound come crashing through the wall yes yeah all right I'm into this game this game has exceeded my expectations already show yourself is it like a ninja or something Domo penguin oh no all right let's fight the Ninja Master you have actually strong power bird what are you yeah no dude I'm I don't feel bad about playing on easy mode this would be so awful normally please God I can't all right end this please thank god let's change to the iron bats which gives me the hero smash skill all right my new skill is this awesome Hello nice to meet you jump at him this move is so bad dude this move is so bad oh my God all right I got him all right game you're losing me a little bit pull me back in with the sick fight [Music] I am cyber Warrior MK2 sweet now what do you got oh he has a gun I'm actually just stunlocked I could not press Dodge there this move is so bad the worst we've ever seen in the game dude I'm afraid I'm afraid all right what do you got okay uh all right okay cool I almost got him there we go okay from now on this the blue flame pengy will test your Force that's awesome can you jump over it okay oh my God what do I do okay what's he doing I dodged it okay okay you sure know how to wield it kid [Music] I've seen enough now it's over oh my gosh uh yeah okay this kicks ass I think I like just jump over this like there we go one two going I'm gonna I'm gonna what is happening to my screen dude oh Jesus no way there's no way did I just die hello all right all right I genuinely don't know if I can beat this guy or rather I don't know if I have the patience to beat this guy right now but there is one dollar DLC that seems like pay to win where you get a super bet so for the sake of contents and for the sake of this video and seeing what this game has I think I'm gonna do it oh my God the main menu changed so for 30 seconds greatly increases movement ability and fires long range projectile oh yeah we got this now oh yes it's over [Music] oh my God I got it thank God Peggy kid he's gonna fall over do I feel bad about using the DLC pay to win bat no defense spells this kicks ass everyone get ready to advance I will open the way let's go defeat the human to protect everyone I got this here we go we just lob some balls at him see this is this is how the game was meant to be played Iron Pang it's dangerous because there are humans here please wait at the back what do you mean I'm here to fight but you're a Craftsman not a warrior foreign look at him go oh he has like a little ice thing that's sick oh my God look at him go I just want to play as that guy enemy detection risk level low hmm definitely a powerful looking machine perfect for performance testing the gang's all here paying Avengers assemble he's gonna say assemble yes oh my God look at that Spin Attack the iron Pang iron Pang is carrying I can just stand here justice has triumphed but how do we get there how about using that yeah guys is this really the best way well we don't have time let's go wait I'm ready for wait is that what I think it is are we doing some Attack on Titan no way hold on oh my God it is how do I do this oh God this is awkward I'm trying though I'm trying this is awkward all right I'm dead so basically the range is really limited you press e to attach press Q to get sucked in but then you gotta press e again to detach it and then yeah man what a fun idea for a climax if only it was playable [Music] hit him once I don't have to do that two more times don't I dude that took me like a dozen tries just get him one time do I have it in me to beat this game [Music] oh no oh it's gonna reset me isn't it oh thank God it doesn't okay he still lost his health here we go oh this is here we go here we go here we go yes perfect [Music] oh my God Dodge it Dodge it watch out [Music] oh it's the guy why is this actually hype as [Music] oh my [Music] God that was incredible the Penguin game too so for what is clearly a joke game that probably didn't take the developer a super long time to make this was actually very entertaining and had some genuinely cool ideas here and there obviously the execution is debatable at certain parts but uh yeah I was thoroughly entertained lies of Pete better watch us back all right next up we have elderborn a metal AF slasher with brutal first person melee combat and souls like RPG character progression so full disclosure I actually already played this game three and a half years ago but it was right when I was starting my Souls like series and I actually did not have the foresight to record it for YouTube because you know I was just playing it for fun but good news my memory is terrible so basically be like me playing it for the first time let's check it out you know I always struggle when games give me difficulty options because I just want to play on whatever the quote-unquote intended way of playing it is for my first time I think it's elderborn since it's highlighted yeah I just Googled it I found a forum post from the developer and it says elderborn is the way it's meant to be played so let's do Elder one all right left click to attack holding left click seems like a Power Attack right click to block we got like a shift to dodge around so the interesting thing about dodging in this game is that you can actually attack wall dodging so I can like cue up my attack and then like Dodge before the swing hits you see let's try attacking this guy so left click to attack and then heavy attack nice tap F to kick your enemies okay here we go all right see that's why this game is fun so kick through the shield and then attack all right cool uh tap art to heal yourself all right we've got the Estus flask nice Swiss injector stuff hey what's up yeah I don't really need my sword all right the environmental stuff is a little too easy so far like every single enemy is next to a ledge you know make me work for it to literally every enemy is next to a ledge like come on so because my mites level five now I can unlock the charge ability which lets me charge at enemies Let's test out the charge kills them all right that seems pretty strong oh that looks like something oh nice so let's see if we can stab a Power Attack okay oh it looks like the spear has like a Perry I heard him okay oh here we go hammer let's break the Rocks yep okay interesting just keep them here keep them there and then Dash all the way oh let me grab my blood stain all right so I just know if there's like a healing mechanic where when you take damage there's like orange health and then you attack to get it back see this is the Strat okay you start charging the power attack and then you dash in yeah rip and tear hold e over a fallen foe to rip its head off then throw it all right let's try this rip and tear move so got the head 68 damage okay oh here we go Doom Slayer if he didn't have guns I should have known I mean that was like an obvious trap I guess fair enough oh we got a boss fight here we go hey what's up man you look pretty cool oh he can block me interesting what is the range of an attack all right fair enough Harry good keep keep strafing and pairing kick kick why is this working okay this guy has no answer to me just spamming left click and kicking occasionally go away okay is there a phase two okay wait yeah okay that was not it okay all right now he's like an actual Dark Souls boss period okay this is trickier now this is tricky okay heal oh I got him you know second try not bad wait pick up can I take something can I take your oh I got his sword nice all right here we go finally a new area but the game kind of changes when you just one shot enemies doesn't it I'm enjoying myself so far I'm Gonna Keep playing and I'll report back when I'm done all right so I just finished after a little under two and a half hours of play time you might be wondering how I did it that fast but this is just a short game it's two areas the catacombs in the city with two bosses total I'm totally fine with shorter games and actually preferred in this case since it was already wearing a little thin by the end now I'm about to be fairly critical of this game so I want to preface this by saying elderborn is decently entertaining it's dumb mindless fun in a bite-sized package and I enjoyed my time with it more than a lot of the games I feature in this series first person melee focused games with a kick button are in shorter Supply than I'd like my score would be it's all right out of 10. let's discuss why I walked away feeling dissatisfied though first while this game May Market itself as a Souls like the biggest source of inspiration is clearly something like Doom 2016. so with that in mind why does this game fail where Doom succeeds Doom is a game about fast movement and constantly switching weapons on the fly to use against enemies with different strengths and weaknesses that each require different strategies and tactics conversely with elderborn there's no reason to switch weapons mid combat and more importantly the small pool of enemies don't really require different tactics every fight plays out more or less the same and while ragdolling an enemy with a charge attack is fun at first it becomes monotonous towards the end when there's not much else it's a little too basic Additionally the level design of Doom plays a big role in fights with the arena itself being an important factor in the encounter whereas an elderborn fights play out similarly with the only difference being the occasional ledge to kick enemies off of it's disappointing that environmental interactions begin and end with ledge kicks if you look at similar games you'll see just how much potential there is for fun environmental Shenanigans and how much the layout of a room can impact the fight what this amounts to is a game that doesn't have much variety and doesn't build on its combat mechanics past the first 15 minutes and I realize it's not the most fair to compare elderborn a game made by a small team to Doom so I'd also encourage you to look at Indie movement Shooters like Ultra kill to get a better idea of the type of variety I'm looking for to make a game like this truly great so while I probably would not recommend this game on the basis of me having a list of 40 games in a similar vein to recommend before it it can still be entertaining in a dumb fun kind of way if you go in with temperate expectations and just want to Ragdoll some enemies all right next up we have the demo for cristala this game asks the very important question of what if Dark Souls plus cats let's check it out all right we're in here I am beautiful cat person all right I think this is the bonfire it's a fun animation basically all the Dark Souls stats here including Poise pretty standard stuff so we got light attack heavy attack you can dodge around and we can jump let's get this guy all right use Mana to cast spells cast mistletoe Dart mistletoe Dart go go nice jump over unaware enemy and press right bumper to perform an aerial takedown Ariel takedown oh okay it's been managed to use powerful weapon abilities left trigger right bumper left trigger right trigger all right let's try the Spin Attack okay it's pretty good block right before an attack hits you to perform a deflect the stagger's enemy and lowers their balance okay wait is that what the hold on it's like a posture meter I thought it was stamina yeah okay that's fun see the color was throwing me off this is more Sakura inspired than I originally thought okay go magic go oh my God what a cool design though you know just like a giant rat or something with two chainsaws strapped to his hands all right let's test out the earthquake spell oh see that's good right there one of the keys to making like fun abilities in a game like this is to have the enemies react appropriately so having that guy fly on his ass a plus hey man uh I'm just gonna run away so if I jump up here can you guys do anything about that it seems like the answer is no wait wait wait okay wait I think I think they lost aggro a little too easy to do that but that's okay this is fun look at this we got this little town I'm tightrope walking there's guys in the rooftops ow one guy saw that so my other point of feedback I want to give is that if you're going for a game like this with all these enemies around a camp and it's like stealth focused I do think at least a few of them have to be patrolling or like something along those lines moving around because of one it adds like a fun Challenge and two it just feels like way too lifeless and video gamey if they're all just like standing in place with their swords drawn you know I think a few of them should be walking around yeah this game is extremely stealth focused like I've definitely gotten more stealth kills than normal kills over that guy yeah see like all these areas are just enemies staring at walls and you know as what appears to be a more stealth focused game it's like not quite doing it for me I need something a bit more than that I know a fog wall for a boss fight when I see one let's go what's up lofi okay he teleports around deflected let's try that earthquake nice earthquake actually works on the boss that's nuts gotcha oh there we go that's fun that's fun I like it looks so good dude there we go and hit him with the earthquake curse cleanse let's go solid little boss fight do you want to finish your journey Rock Soccer let's finish it all right there you go coming soon to Kickstarter so it's like a proof of concept demo I think that actually wasn't that bad has some pretty solid fundamentals and is clearly very sakuro and Dark Souls inspired you know you got the posture stuff you have the magic spells you have all the like light RPG mechanics um it's going for more than I would expect from a game like this I pointed out during the video but I think if they're going to lean into stealth as much as they are they need to do more to make that more fun you know have like the enemies do more like them walk around maybe give the character themselves more stealth options stuff like that my last point of feedback is I hope this game does more to separate itself from its sources of inspiration because at the moment aside from just being like cat Dark Souls or cat sakuro it's not doing quite enough to like set itself apart but other than that I think this is a solid foundation I can tell the devs care I can tell they're passionate and I really hope they stick with it fun demo all right next up we have Crow swarm and no you're not crazy if you've seen me cover this game before I'll get to that in a second crowsworn is a hollow Knight and bloodborne inspired metroidvania with heavy emphasis on the hollow Knight inspired part now last year they released a short demo that just showed off a single boss and I included that in a video and recently they released a new demo that shows off level design enemy designs more bosses and it's just kind of a vertical slice of what the game is actually like to play now I'm deciding to cover this because basically every video I get tons of comments from people wanting me to revisit old games after they've gotten big updates or have been fully released and I want to start with this one to test out the concept I think going forward I would prefer to include these second looks just occasionally within the normal videos as opposed to having a dedicated video of just second looks not 100 sure yet but that's what I'm leaning toward anyway let's check out gross one [Music] all right so I just woke up in Hollow Nest I'm joking kind of very satisfying hit effects interacts I was Cutie why is there a QT to open a chest corvian Scythe all right so we can attack up side and down this feels good I like the way like it kind of thrusts you forward during the combo hello you mind if I uh all right all right can I just bounce with this guy's head that feels good carrion flask uh cool I got the flask all right let's try healing like the animation [Music] hmm oh right trigger roll okay see we got a Dodge roll that means this game is more of a soul is like the hollow Knight already if you ever find yourself open wounds be sure to seek me out is this the checkpoint like does this person just appear as a checkpoint that would be kind of funny this is definitely a boss room isn't it yep okay oh my God the nose on that guy all right charge yep whoa whoa oh all right let's back off oh man jump oh man uh heal oh no the Falling Rocks [Music] no jump oh did I actually get him all right first try that was a fun fight and a fun design time for the qte chest again [Music] I don't get it iron Talons oh we got wall jumping already oh that's definitely a secret and the way they Telegraph secret walls with like that slab of wood okay it's a little uncanny with some of the hollow Knight stuff so I'm guessing I have to like bounce off them with the down hit all right that was neat like the poison preventing you from just staying there oh do you have to bounce off the spikes here interesting okay and we're already getting into the platforming okay so I got a what do I do here I think I could like bounce off the right oh I got it up I go cool oh this looks cool the warned capital okay I guess some enemies are like fighting back now nice this game's whole art style it's just like really doing it for me what if I go above you okay fair enough whoa this guy's a lot of moves okay now the QT thing makes sense collected Carnage and Carnage unlock powerful abilities by augmenting your body with the appendages you discover use the grafting menu to configure your Loadout off so you can like replace your body parts interesting so I've currently replaced my head and now damage increases based on hit points lost all right this is actually hard okay God the animation's so cool oh you just lose money oh you can't even recover it I don't know how I feel about that I bet this thing explodes oh oh just a light source okay bounce that works I'll take it look at the schnoz on that guy I love how this whole area is just skulls everywhere I wonder if I can bounce off the tentacles but you can okay cool oh my God I don't like this I don't like this I don't like this oh wait a second there's gotta be some tech involved with that dude I can already see the potential oh oh my God okay corvian slim hold down and press y mid-air to perform the corvian slam let's try the slam that's very cool oh and I'm guessing I can slam down the air vents yep that's neat see something I think some Metro videos Miss is that basically every ability should double in terms of being useful in combat and for traversal so I'm happy that this game seems to be doing that so far all right the map's already filling up check this out midair Perry see that pretty cool man I'm really enjoying this I wish the full game was just out because I know I'm gonna hit the end sometime soon and it's gonna suck this is definitely a boss room okay here we go oh what is that oh sick okay I got it gotta bounce on them the Beyblade boss okay a little bit more than a Beyblade I guess Jesus Christ I'm so dead I'm so dead I'm so dead oh no oh okay that was tough I like that though I like that oh my money dude the money thing and permanently losing a chunk of your money every death oh I feel so bad you're spin yep sure down yep good kind of joking I'm totally joking I'm totally choking yep oh you can hit the Rocks hold on wait that changes things okay well it doesn't change things right now but next time you can you can oh that's sick okay thank God he can kill the little guys himself oh that was a great fight fantastic you've completed the demo no so I was already looking forward to this game but after getting to see more of the bosses and especially the level design I feel a lot more confident in this one being a genuinely great game you know can't say for sure yet but this is looking really good obviously some of the hollow Knight inspired stuff is like uncanny at times but I think it's okay it's still clearly doing its own thing despite the similarities and I know from trailers and from the other demo that the powers you get really do change up the game a lot more as you progress to move it even further away from Hollow Knight I like what it's doing I wish I could play more definitely keep an eye on this one all right next up we have dismantle now if you look at these screenshots and you look at this description this looks like the most generic open world crafting zombie game imaginable but hear me out let's look at the top review dismantle is a Souls like metroidvania and I hear you say already what are you on about it's obviously a survival crafting open world game Ah that's what it looks like on the tin but mechanically it's basically a Souls like metroidvania I'm going to trust this person and just jump in blind and see if this description is accurate let's check it out foreign day one in the morning I'm this guy all right so I got a health bar some other bar at the top right maybe experience X seems to be attack and I got a Dodge roll light the fire all right so I think this might actually function as a bonfire or if I collect metal and wood I can upgrade my crowbar okay oh God objects have health bars I got XP for that okay I'm gonna be honest if I didn't know this was a Souls like I may have tapped out by now like collecting stuff like this does not Inspire um confidence in me like it just isn't my thing um okay and now because I've upgraded my crowbar I am now strong enough to break the dresser okay so maybe that's the metravenia aspect it's that like the world is blocked off by obstacles like that where you have to have the right piece of equipment that's upgraded enough to get by okay zombie ex-human Scrapper hold X to strike a Power Attack all right here we go so a bunch of zombies over there [Music] interesting they heard that also 62 damage what are my inventory is full great oh wait did that did the enemies respawn I guess they really are going for like a Souls like type thing where enemies respawn at checkpoints you leveled up return to the campfire and invent a new recipe oh God we have a skill tree one thing that's kind of neat is that it seems like almost every single object is in fact breakable like if you're strong enough which I guess does fit the name dismantle pretty well okay may this like give me a map or something yep oh my God this is a big game oh no oh no I just want to say real quick if you took a screenshot of this game right now with everything on the screen this looks like like a fake game right this almost looks like a parody game like when they're making fun of tropes in games like I'm not trying to say this be mean because I'm actually enjoying this so far it's just like it looks fake right oh what is this the false gatekeeper what is this music is this actually gonna be like a Dark Souls boss [Music] oh he's a health bar all right let's do it good time to try the throwing knife nice I mean this is like very very basic as far as a boss fight goes but this is kind of neat I did it blue eye orb what this game's kind of fun in like a turn your brain off kind of way where you just kind of go around collecting materials it seems like a great podcast game or something where you only have to give just a little bit of attention at a time while you're listening to something else all right let's go whoa that caught me off guard [Music] oh this kicks ass let's go all right I've reached a new area what's a deer get them yeah let me just chase a deer with my crowbar I see like I can already tell this whole world is just split into little sections where it's all blocked off by if you have a strong enough crowbar or not the metroidvania description does honestly kind of fit craft a seed bag plant a seed Harvest crops what I don't know if I'm the target audience for this game all right unfortunately I'm not a high enough level to craft a seed bag I think it's just starting to hit me just how much you have to collect materials in this game I was like kind of into it at first but now it's starting to feel like a genuine grind better not explode oh my god well this is delayed oh that did damage to things I usually can't hurt here we go fishing time I did its snowstarty Valley there's my body loot okay okay so if I had anything in my inventory I probably would have recovered it there another vaguely soulsy connection I think the path finding is so basic I can get them to run into this hole all right all right I can finally make that seed bag let's do it all right X to plant seed y to Slick seed type so right now I can plant carrots tomatoes potatoes and corn if I have to wait real in game time like I have to wait 50 minutes and check in on this all right I think I'm just gonna keep playing on my own for now um I don't think I'm gonna finish this game but I'll get back to when I'm done all right so I tapped out after about nine hours of playing and giving what I feel is a really fair shot but for contacts on how much the game that represents I could easily see this being a 30 to 50 hour long experience depending on how much side stuff you do this is a very strange game at a glance it looks like the most generic open world zombie crafting game imaginable but underneath that surface is a surprisingly thoughtful game that does some interesting things and somehow genuinely fits the description of kind of a Souls like and kind of a metroidvania for it being a Souls like you got your bonfires enemies that respawn and set locations and Estes flask corpse runs and even the occasional boss fight where you dodge around with rolls that have iframes and for it being a metroidvania the entire map is split up and blocked by various barriers where you need the necessary equipment to get by maybe those barriers come in the form of a wall that you need a strong enough tool to break or maybe it's low temperatures where you need warm clothing or maybe it's a gap that requires you to build a bridge to cross it the idea of weaving together this type of level design and progression with a seemingly generic crafting game was the most interesting part of all this to me however this is where we run into my biggest issue with the whole experience it can be so so grindy you need to be gathering hundreds and later thousands of materials to craft what you need to progress but that's not all because even if you have all the materials you need you still need to be a high enough level to craft it and leveling is a slow process that happens passively while Gathering materials and killing enemies I was sometimes able to tap into a meditative State while breaking apart houses piece by piece it was satisfying seeing a house go from completely full to completely Barren and looted but that feeling didn't last and it was quickly replaced by boredom due to the sheer amount of resource Gathering I was doing what you're seeing right here represents 80 of the gameplay the part where I officially tapped out was when I found an underground bunker that wanted me to collect and deposit hundreds of every crafting material in the game well I think this was just a side quest it was enough to deflate me and make me reflect on just how much grinding this game truly had the combat is also disappointingly Bare Bones where enemies will just run in a straight line and usually have a single attack this simply wasn't engaging for me and made what otherwise could have been fun threats into another mindless chore for experience points however I did appreciate how despite this the game kept introducing new elements and upping the ante going from breaking crates to the Crowbar to battling a Mech was a cool progression and I'm sure there's a fair bit more I never got to ultimately I think this game isn't for me but I mean that in a very real sense here because I think this is still a solid game that has some worthwhile stuff in it if you like crafting and have a higher tolerance for grinding and simple combat than me I can easily see you having a fun time with this it's a game that consistently gives you those little dopamine hits as you level up unlock stuff and see XP numbers pop up from every action you take so yeah not for me but this is still a neat little game that I think the right type of person can maybe have a nice time with alright next up we have stray blade this game looks really colorful and cool from the screenshots but it's somehow sitting at mixed reviews so I'm not really sure what to expect let's check it out I thought that this would be my biggest adventure but how big it would be I could have never known [Music] ah feel horrible oh where am I didn't know it did I die all right so this is my guy I'm liking all the uh the belt buckles on the gloves all the little pouches the Rope okay so light attack strong attack jump Dodge uh not everyone is dead oh above her um hey hola uh Salve don't want to disturb you in your uh business but do you know uh the way out of here oh Dodge attacks are indicated by the enemy flashing red as well as red trails in the attack they must be dodged important react to the actual movement of the attack not the flashing color all right attack me you gonna attack me what do you what is he doing why did he just go back to his Idol animation what I okay all right die stop crouching how you know for a first encounter that was a little rough but I'm gonna keep it open mind still okay okay cool so if you time a Dodge perfectly you get some stamina back I like that oh nice okay so we have like a stance system where to like break their stance and then you get a crit off and he kills them see that makes more sense because I was like these guys have so much health I wonder if I can sneak up on them and get like a backstab oh oh there is whoa dude the animation's awesome all right let's craft military long sword hell yeah okay interesting so blue attacks can be parried and red attacks can be dodged but the interesting thing is that they can only be dodged and they can only be buried so you have to pay attention to the color got it there we go much further well you didn't so my initial Impressions so far are that this like color-coded combat system is maybe like a little too rigid where like you have to pair it you have to dodge and end up turning to like just a straight up rhythm game we'll see can you not break the barrels in this game oh that's a bad sign I'm getting some pretty strong Kingdoms of Amalur Vibes for those of you that played that like I I like settings like this all right backs up what [Music] what oh combo attack okay out ow I think I was oh no oh no hit me with the for Honor execution yeah I might have just messed that up but I felt like I was stunned after I got hit by the first attack oh it's night time now is there like a day night system s damn all right big guy bring it on buddy what do you got oh can he not handle changes in elevation oh okay dude get my ass kicked I don't know I'm trying to figure out how much of this is just like legit skill issue and how much of this is um these attacks being a little wonky I feel like it's a mix honestly you know I'm willing to admit that [Music] all right and so the mysterious guide finally reveals himself it is I boji Apprentice to the greatest Sage of akriya but don't confuse me for just anyone no you stand before the first and only disciple of Airy the Great Sage very same stone that curses you to stay is the one that blesses you with infinite lives and for me it's the tool that makes it possible to revive you again and again why why why what the hell are you even talking about not being able to leave the valley and that part about you Reviving me do you mean to say I died exactly so now that all questions are out of the way you don't make any sense why should I believe you a talking wolf Monster all right so I'm being revived by that little guy because the stone in my chests and I have to find a way to open that gate and I guess I just kind of explore here oh that's a hazard okay oh my God four enemies at once no this is not happening this game is hard enough with two enemies how do I do this gotcha you know I think group fights are actually more manageable than I thought given how passive the non-attacking ones can be oh okay that is awesome you know I appreciate all these enemies that are just having their back facing toward me so I can just like stare at wheels back at the back some [Music] is he inside the wagon yeah come on I feel like range doesn't really matter for the way this combat works so yeah let's go put your knife oh that's fun okay quench it quench it that's fun we have a shield now press left trigger while holding a shield to block wait do I automatically get a shield if I equip this weapon oh okay oh me what all right brood mother let's go ow ow all right all right all right what if I use my shield okay yeah budget can you revive me so lucky to have me [Music] oh okay now they explain how I get revived got it they just were leaving that part out earlier all right come on nice oh cool so for beating that guy my healing now heals me more follow me I would love to man but I gotta fight so many spiders in here [Music] doctor oh nice nice all right this combat's growing on me it's it's super simple but like you know it works it feels good enough [Music] foreign if you really want to know yes you are inside the cage I finally have a new ability left bumper plus b press when targeting an enemy to use Arcane blast Arcane blast will directly damage enemies Poise okay so boji's actually gonna help me in combat now finally all right bogey we're gonna work together in this one all right hit him boji hit him nice oh no that's fine I wish they would have introduced that mechanic earlier where he can help you in combat because I felt like something was missing from just the flow of combat and that does help a little bit all right this is It's So Many the same enemies I just don't care I just don't want to fight them I fought so many of these guys already I'm several hours in like I think over four hours in and I think I'm finally at the first proper boss all right it looks pretty cool all right he's running around what do you got all right come here is he gonna come toward me or I guess I gotta get next to you okay man they were really hyping this fight up I was um I was expecting a little more [Music] all right he's dead [Music] intium flash with the Indian flash ability you can teleport to any selected Target oh that's neat so I can teleport onto this please all right all right that's that's pretty cool so we are getting a bit of like this metroidvania-esque design where I'm backtracking now but I got this teleport ability all right uh I think I'm just gonna keep playing on my own and I'll get back to you when I'm done oh man games like this are so difficult for me to talk about there's clearly so much passion and hard work that went into this and I even really like certain parts of it but my overall feelings toward the game are middling like gun to my head I'd probably give this game a four or a 5 out of 10 and wouldn't recommend it but I wish I didn't feel like that and it's tough to pin down too because at a glance this game seems nice let's take it step by step though first I beat this game after about 12 hours looking at other people's play times though you might be able to expect something closer to 20. it's pretty long visually stray blade is like the little brother to Kingdoms of Amalur and I mean that in the best possible way it's a gorgeous and lovingly crafted World sure the setting is pretty generic fantasy but I have a soft spot for Souls likes with a lighthearted tone and bright colorful visuals the story is fairly forgettable and generic too but it's actually kind of carried by the voice acting of the two main characters faren and boji it's essentially a buddy cop Narrative of two guys learning to work together and become friends and like I bought it these guys can be charismatic you you really suck at this foreign thank you unfortunately most of the dialogue isn't always that fun and is instead often just boji giving you paragraphs of exposition about the world and this would be somewhat forgivable if it wasn't for how the game handles it you will consistently be stopped in your tracks to watch Faron and boji stand still and chat for one to two minutes at a time this might not sound terrible but when it's happening constantly it totally breaks the flow of the game it's honestly confusing why they didn't have these characters talk to each other while you're exploring instead if it was up to me I would have taken some inspiration from Banjo-Kazooie and stuck boji in a backpack so he's always on screen and able to talk freely I feel like it would have also helped sell the idea that the two are Partners rather than fair and mostly being by himself ignoring Combat gameplay consists of following Quest markers through zones that range from linear to semi-open with side paths here and there for Collectibles like crafting materials there's also some light metroidvania aspects in the form of returning to Old areas with the powers you unlock to reach stuff you couldn't before every zone is interconnected with paths and shortcuts and how everything fits together on the macro scale is actually pretty well done one one really cool thing that this game does is it will remix and alter old areas after major story events with environmental changes and new enemy layouts this type of detail added to backtracking is rare and fun to see I only wish the exploration itself was handled a bit differently the room to room level design is fine but nothing to write home about over the course of the game you get three abilities to help with traversal a lock-on Teleport move a ground slam that raises rocks and creates Bridges and a Time slow bubble that also reveals hidden platforms these abilities could have been a fun way to introduce some interesting platforming or light puzzle solving and that would have gone a long way to help with the pacing due to all the combat but there's literally none of that you see an obstacle you use the Ability and boom you did it just feels like a missed opportunity when you look at other metroidvanias the real meat of this game however is the combat so let's get into it every enemy's attack is color coded to be red or blue you gotta Dodge red attacks and Perry blue attacks while this is very simple the game can still be challenging because the colors don't show when to dodge or Parry so it's still up to you to figure out the exact timing and the windows for these Dodgers and periods are sometimes weirdly precise in addition to a health bar all enemies have a stagger bar that you can lower through hits and parries for an execution move kind of like sakuro also every enemy has hyper armor for each attack with the exception of when you cross a break point marked by a little arrow on the Stagger bar when this happens they'll do a mini stagger and you can get an extra hidden as a whole this combat system feels not great the animations can be super fun but the combat itself is stiff and repetitive and I was feeling fatigued by the end this is a long game for this type of combat I kept struggling to figure out why exactly I wasn't feeling it because combat looks decent enough at a glance but I think I know why it feels off first there's way too much enemy repetition especially with the human enemies like seriously it's wild how much you have to fight some of these guys second and the bigger reason the combat doesn't work for me most of the time you have no agency during combat what do I mean by that basically combat feels like an extended QuickTime event where you're just waiting and reacting to what color-coded attack is thrown at you rather than creating your own openings or making decisions and what that means is once too fun enemy ones the next time will be almost exactly the same and that just doesn't work for how long this game is side note I do think the devs realize this to some extent and came up with a clever Band-Aid fix you can only level up by mastering different weapons which you do by simply using them therefore you're essentially forced to switch up your weapons on regular intervals and this bit of force variety on the players and helps change up combat encounters just enough it doesn't fix the core issues but it helps shout out to the green sword that gets longer with each swing during a combo it goes from a dagger to a katana I think that's pretty cool also the boji Arcane blast stagger move plus the three main powers you unlock do help a bit in terms of adding variety of combat but again they don't address the core issues here the teleport and ground slam are underwhelming and will usually get you hits the freeze time ability has the opposite issue and it's completely busted to the point of trivializing combat on most enemies none of this feels very good despite everything I've said believe it or not I still think this is an okay game like it's certainly not terrible and dare I say I had fun sometimes there is stuff to like here it's just that the package as a whole can be frustrating and not super engaging and in a world with so many Souls legs competing for your attention I unfortunately have too many Hang-Ups with this one to have any stronger feelings about it thank you very very much for watching we have not run out of games yet believe it or not there are still games out there and I'm still having fun with it so it you know as always I really appreciate any recommendations you have this video specifically had several games that were purely from recommendations and yeah more videos pretty soon actually thanks again and take it easy [Music]

Channel: Iron Pineapple

Views: 2,897,792

Keywords: soulslike, souls like, iron pineapple, dark souls, elden ring, gameplay, funny, co-op, review, guide, commentary

Id: PsT8SpRff80

Length: 65min 10sec (3910 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2023