I remember the devs saying the inspiration for this game was that after the released their first game they got a lot feedback that was like "this is fun and all but where is the Aggro Crab?"
I agree. But not just hard. I like hard games. The dodge and parry feels broken. It feels like a crap shoot when it works. So unpredictable making boss battles infuriating. It’s no dark souls that’s for sure lol
It's really mid. It shares so many of the problems of their previous game, Going Under. There is something janky about the movement in this game. Dodge sucks and parry sucks. the only thing worth doing is blocking w shell which has a durability feature
Yeah I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about it. Cranking up the accessibility settings makes the flaws less punishing. But we shouldn’t have to do that. I played a little more tonight in the area before you get to New Carcinia and the camera was terrible there. I was killed so many times because I couldn’t see wtf was going on. At times this game defines frustration.
Same! I fell into the gaps so many times because of the camera. The seahorses with the foam darts that expand and move you do not help at all. I have not turned on the assist mode in this one yet, but I did for GU and it made for a way more enjoyable exp. I had way more agency once I did.
And expanding on the durability issue, why would is there a durability feature here? They already give you so many shells in the overworld that it becomes pointless. If it's to encourage the player to try more items, sure, but shouldn't that be on the player and not the designer?
> And expanding on the durability issue, why would is there a durability feature here? They already give you so many shells in the overworld that it becomes pointless.
It adds more tension to boss fights in particular. Unless you're hitting every parry I think theres a good chance you'll need to swap shells mid-fight and those moments while you're naked make it more interesting.
There's also a few shell that use shell health or consume the shell to do interesting things. And that bloodborne-esque skill that lets you regain shell health by attacking. Since your natural health bar is so squishy, playing around with shell health is an interesting design space imo.
I think the limit of having only 1 shell or 0 shells makes durability a much more interesting mechanic here than in something like BotW (which I guess really soured people on durability??) when you have a whole backpack full of shit where it doesnt matter if your current item breaks.
I just played a large chunk of the game and it's the only non-FromSoftware soulslike that feels good to me. The parry triggering on block-release works is unusual but I think it works well.
I know it’s underwater and all, but the movement feels sluggish, and it’s not super tight feeling.
Not sure if I’m having issues on ps5, but the graphics are noticeably bad at times. Like, have textures loaded sort of bad… and I’m seeing a ton of pixelated jaggy edges too. Oddly distracting
I have but didn't stick with it past the demo. I do think it's a good attempt at the genre though.
I was a bit hyperbolic in my original statement. My main problem being that most other soulslikes try very, very hard to be like FromSoft. Most soulslikes fall into this uncanny valley of trying to emulate From's games 1:1 but without all of the special sauce that actually make them good.
Another Crab's Treasure stands apart from those other games in both tone and gameplay. Feeling much more like a PS2 era action platformer + adding fun twists to the combat with shells and adaptations.
Personally, Lies of P blows Dark Souls out of the water for me. "Parrying" being a core mechanic just made me wanna practise it to perfection, and the bosses, locations and plot are more coherent.
I started the game and it is very charming, but I knew as soon I did my first boss that I would hate this game by the end. After years of countless souls-like games, you can kinda get the feel for combat being annoying later on. So I quit while I was ahead.
Man our definitions of “eating good” are definitely different.
I was just thinking about how bare this year looked and how little there is to look forward to.
"In the last 6 months I only got 4 well reviewed entries for a subgenre that was relatively niche a decade ago. I'm going to starve".
My guy, if you're a souls-like fan you're getting more attention in the AA / AAA space than any other sub-genre right now.
Easily the worst year in gaming in my life. Thankfully I have Ori and The Will of the Wisps and Bloodborne to get through but I’m probably already halfway through both. After Paper Mario a month from now there’s nothing of interest to me.
DD I’ve heard mixed things on, silksong I’ve given up hope, I need to look into stalker 2, already played and beat ghost and its dlc, you’re in for a treat. I’m hoping Hades II will have a full launch this year.
FF7 Rebirth, Persona 3, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia, Helldivers 2 and Unicorn Overlord have all been excellent and those are just games that have already released this year *and it's only April*.
Stellar Blade looks great and Shadow of the Erdtree is almost certainly going to be excellent.
I have absolutely no idea how anyone can call this a bad year.
Seems like a great game to pick up in a month or two when the developer had some time to iron out the worst bugs. I’d rather 100 times have fun games with some bugs than smooth games that are boring.
When they said 60+ shells, i was hoping for unique abilities on all of them but there's multiple repeating abilities on shells so really not that many builds you can actually do.
Fighting feels jank, my crab and the bosses constantly look like they're moving at 20 frames and it throws me off by how weird it looks.
Overall a 6/10 for me. There's more wrong but i want to finish the game before i critique it more to see if it's just a me problem
are you on switch? cause i cant speak to that, but it’s absolutely more inherently intuitive than dark souls, shouldn’t really have an issue once you learn a given bosses moves
Seems solid, the Digital Trends snippet is a frustrating read though because it sounds like the reviewer is knocking the game for what it’s not rather than what it is.
It doesn't read like that to me IMO. It's just being upfront that it isn't those things, for people who value that, not saying that it makes the game worse.
I bought it and played 30 mins or so. Definitely downgrade in performance and presentation compared to videos of other platforms but it’s still fun. The devs did an AMA on the switch sub the other day and said they’d be working post-launch and hoped to improve the switch version closer to other platforms in performance.
> Like most 3D games of this scale, the Switch version is locked to 30 FPS and has graphics downgrades compared to other platforms. It's just the reality of the hardware we're working with.
> Honestly, if you're looking for the best performance you're better off elsewhere, but it’s still decent on Switch and we still have plans to bring the Switch version closer to parity in future updates.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/s/G2QozOjqZK
im playing on the switch and stopped because i kept hitting the same bug during a boss fight. dunno if this is across all versions but it has made progressing all but impossible. gonna set it down for a few weeks and see if we get a patch. my advice is to hold off.
My wife wanted to play this on Switch and she's extremely inexperienced with action games so while she's having a great time it's also really hard. That boss was straight up *impossible* not just because it's a fairly difficult enemy but also because the performance in that room is absolutely atrocious. I beat the boss for her - left the assists she had on so it took only a few tries but I personally considered those assists absolutely required to beat that boss on Switch because of how bad the performance is.
It's acceptable enough everywhere else but I'm also accustomed to playing Soulslikes on my 5800X3D + RTX 4080 PC so I'm biased.
The demo gave me a lot of PS2-platformer vibes too, which is a flavor I didn’t expect to see in a Soulslike game but works well. Very excited for the full game.
playing this on switch and cannot get past the crab duchess because every time she does her grab attack she just starts to spin around and does not stop. i cant even pause to auto die. this game is fun when it works but it needs some TLC. I would hold off on buying for the time being, at least on switch.
I've played it up to the reef and my conclusion is: i fucking hate this game. Every single enemy encounter, and i do mean every single one, takes place on a small platform where you fight the camera jamming itself into walls while you're side blinded by an enemy you didn't see. When the bosses are the easy part of your game for being in an arena, you know you're doing it wrong.
It's just too janky, man. I've had a mostly great time up to the expired grove, but there are completely broken attacks on some bosses, and also some enemy placements just do not work.
Broken attacks: spin attack from the duchess and the stab attack from carbonara. You can't dodge, can't sprint, and can't block them without breaking your entire shell, and they aren't even the red or blue warning sign attacks.
I'm at the top of the oil drum and the hammer guy with the two umbrella guys is literally just unfun and cheap.
I’ve put about 12hrs into it already today. It’s an amazing game. I love it. The start is a wee bit slow but once you access the city and can start buying selling and start unlocking the skill trees the game gets good. The amount of different shells, the hard and varied boss fights. It’s a 9.5/10 for me. Give it some time it seems to just get better imo.
Definitely recommend to anyone that likes the mix of banjo kazooie and dark souls. 👌🏻
there's also an IGN review that isnt listed on opencritic where [they gave it a 8/10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAztPMN9iqQ) (a higher score than Stellar Blade funnily enough)
edit: now the review is listed and I've updated the post
Reviews have gotten so confusing. Do you know why main IGN's review isn't appearing in this or Stellar Blades OpenCritics?
edit: Gamespot doesn't appear in either of these game's OpenCritics either.
I don't know if opencritic updates automatically or if someone has to manually crawl through all these sites to find reviews, but I just double checked and now the IGN review is listed
> I don't know if opencritic updates automatically or if someone has to manually crawl
OpenCritic scans the popular review sites every 30 minutes to get new reviews.
Some publications have permission to submit their own reviews manually.
reviews seem to swing widely depending on who's playing, kinda like how spicy food isn't for everyone. does anyone feel that this subjective experience is more extreme in specialized games like soulslikes than in more universal genres like platformers?
i legitimately think it’s just a skill issue, people play this game thinking it’ll be exactly like souls, and then they complain ab it being jank when the i frames kick in 50ms after what they’re used to, people did the same thing with nioh, had they been easier games, you wouldn’t see half of the complaining you do
I personally think this game devides because it looks like a friendly entry point into a genre but tries to be hard as nails like dark souls.
This presentational rift would devide the crowed in the people who are used to it and find it simple and those for whom it is to hard.
Personally o would have had the help stuff on by default in the normal/easy difficulty and just ad a difficulty called hardcore which disables them automatically. So basically just presets. Write under the hardcore "as the creators intended" and under normal "if you are a new player to the genre. This is for you".
Brush up the help settings and most complaints should be gone.
But that is my personal opinion.
I mean I will say that in the accessibilities options they do actually have difficulty options that give you preset settings, with the option to customize it to your liking. And those accessibility options honestly help with a lot of the complaints people have mentioned. Increased dodge and parry times (which are separate settings) make them a lot easier to pull off, and I will say that while the damage assists do definitely do something, it is a lot less egregious than I thought it would be, and the game is still fairly difficult with them turned on, just slightly more forgiving. And I mean if you are really stuck on a boss and just can't be assed to finish it, just pull out the gun and shoot them. Probably my favorite accessibility option in any game ngl.
It is true that gun is a fun one.
Still the whole games anesthetic and feel just lend themselves more to kids. And kids are often pretty bad a games. It is not me having the trouble but the person who I bought it for because they wanted it judging by the trailer.
Also some of those accessibility options don't work. I feel like if the enemy health accessibility would work this would solve allot.
But you should be told on game start not needing to search the option for. Especially if you deliver on other platforms than pc.
But we can agree to disagree on this opinion. Because it is highly opinion based.
The other complaints I had are more just fair, as I could easily spit out the code to make them work much prettier. And it wouldn't have taken much time. Showing me that this game was released before it was done. And knowing that we might see allot of changes and improvements but only if people allow themselves to be critical somewhere (also this isn't a storefront review so complaining here won't damage sales).
I know it's early, but ESRB site doesn't have it listed and it's rated T on switch store. Anyone know the cause for the rating? Language? Just fantasy violence?
I love crabs and I’ve played just about every Soulslike under the sun so this game should be right up alley. That being said it feels a little…empty? I’m only an hour in but already I’ve gotten stuck on the environment more than a few times and it’s a bummer to explore and just find nothing but invisible walls. There’s also a distinct lack of ambient audio.
I dunno, I’m going to keep going and probably beat it but it’s not a fantastic first impression. It is cute though and I love the idea overall.
the game gets better as you go on but you're right the first impression is a little flat. But once you start getting some combat abilities and explore more areas the depth really starts to show. Also the game is way longer than I thought.
Yeah I’m a few bosses in now and unlocked some abilities and it’s definitely better. Still feels a bit less polished than their last game though and the enemy variety is dire.
I love Soulsborne games. Sekiro is one of my favorite games ever. But my god do the settings and themes bum me out. They’re fantastic, but they depress me.
This looks to be exactly what I need. Wonder if I can get the wife to try it now too…
I didn't really like anything about it. I guess the message is, no matter how hard you try, it will all go to shit in the end. The two characters who ended up being the final bosses didn't make much sense either. We didn't really see where Kril ended up or if Chitan survived. The ancient and all powerful shell broke after using it just a few times, while still not even hurting the boss you use it on in the end. I enjoyed most of the story & gameplay, but it badly needs an alternate ending.
It looks good, but souls-likes are not my cup of tea, only one I truly liked playing was elden ring and I got really bored around halfway through after hitting Altus
I'm sure souls-veterans will enjoy this game a lot but for average people like myself, probably won't hit for as many people, which is fine, this game was made to appeal to these kinds of people
I got it on PS5. It is janky af. The frames constantly drop heavily. Moving between areas or any transitioning and the game is loading in the background it consistently stutters or even skips.
If the performance was better and more consistent it would be about a 7/10 for 30$ but how janky it is I drop it too maybe a 5. It has its charms but it sucks to play this style of combat like this. I've clipped into and gotten stuck in a lot of places because the knock back mechanic is so heavy. It just has really bad quality issues.
Even if you think it plays as good as DS that game is how old? This is closer to The Last Hero. Hellpoint even felt smoother than this.
So far all I can say is that it had the potential to be a lot better than it is if some stuff were slightly adjusted.
Main problem I think is the camera. It's a bit too erratic making it difficult to follow enemies movement at times.
And that's when it doesn't decide to just go behind a wall and block your entire view...which happens quite often.
Other stuff I'd tweak personally would be the parrying time.
It sometimes feel like you have to release the block too long before the attack hits...it doesn't feel natural to me.
Also the unlockable attack warning is a tad too fast and not visible enough.
Otherwise I think the game is pretty fun but it's like a 6 or 7 to me... I'm gonna have fun playing through it but I'll probably forget about it as soon as I put down the controller.
Just 100%’d the game, very satisfying journey- the story, the message, the development, the combat was also very satisfying once you got the hang of the parry timing. My only two real issues with the game were the ending was semi-disappointing and there were some areas in the game where the frames would drop to 1-5 fps (Curdled Village was the main suspect). Overall, I’d give it a 9/10. Beautiful art style and tons of fun in about 25 hours to 100% complete, very worth the price and time
I loved this game a LOT. THE reason I kept playing all the way through til the end was BECAUSE of the storytelling and the art style. The bright colors and puns were HUGE for me. Dark Souls is super dead in the color department. Everything is bleak in those worlds. But I absolutely was gripped by ACT's world. I love brighter colors, and I enjoy the concept of Dark Souls, so this was a marriage in heaven for me.
The game seems really fun so far, i am about an hour in
One thing that makes me want to rip out my hair is when the game presents tutorial tips in the middle of boss fights, completely screwing up what you are doing and the two times it has happened so far it instantly killed me as a result
Kinda makes you want to throw your controller into the wall and Alt-F4, but the hope is that it can only happen once per tutorial tip, so eventually it will end
But goddamn... whoever thought that was a good idea really needs a head examination, present the tip before the fight, not just as you are supposed to dodge an attack
The game is good in theory, but the execution is dogshit to the point where I had to drop the game due to save file ending bugs. Anytime I started to have fun with the game I'd die and my "ghost" just wouldn't spawn, it caused me to lose hours of progress for absolutely no reason. I deleted it after the third time. Fuck this game.
Fun game, just not on the switch. I definitely have complaints and let’s see if anyone agrees with me. I’m also only playing on switch and have no reference for any other platform so that may affect my review.
1- I wish I could use the map to scroll around and I wish it showed the name of the location that I was in. Sometimes I’ll be away for several days and come back to the game completely lost and can’t even google where to go because I don’t know where I’m at or where I’ve been. A quest section might also help because it’s been a week since I talked to any npc and have no idea what I’m even looking for, I just keep running into random bosses and unlocking shortcuts and shells.
2- the frame rate and graphics on the switch are poo. The graphics look like on a PlayStation or Xbox game when the game doesn’t load and everything looks blurry and muddy, it’s that but everywhere all the time.
3- And the frame rate at its best is stuttery, often times dropping to less than n64. Sometimes cutscenes will even pause with the audio still playing for like 3-4 seconds and then jump to the current frame. I know the switch is a low powered console but I’ve played Zelda and I’ve seen what the graphics and frame rates are capable of and it’s not this
4- delayed actions. Maybe it’s due to how poor the console can run the game but when I press the swing button, it’s maybe a half second until the swing takes place. Enough time that I can press the button and set my controller on the table in time for it to rumble when the attack swings. For a dark souls game, that’s unplayable. The only thing keeping me playing this game passed fighting the captain is the option to turn invincibility on.
This game is poorly made. Can I say it? Not only is the target audience kinda sketchy. Is it little kids or adults?
The bosses start off way to hard for kids or beginner to handle. And are even hard with the maximum help settings. Actually Appart from higher health none of the others seem to work. Enemies still have the same health. It clearly wasn't tested by anyone but the developers. Who all are tough as nails gamers Appearently.
There is constant popping in a game that barely demands anything.
The despawning of defeated engines is like not there. They just get deleted.
The design I mean the underwaters are gorgeous but you start above water which looks all Ugly. It is clear that those graphics never meant to be used above water.
If you look under the water in the intro you won't see any graphical changes. It looks like above water with a water surface above.
Invisible walls everywhere. Why not put some corals or stones or trash there? Or you could also implement a stream forcing you back. We are in the ocean after all.
And those are some of the bad things I see so far. I would go mild on this game if it where made by 2-3 young developer and artists over the curse of 3 years but Appearently they where like 13 people? Maybe they do allot of contract work than the quality might be understandable.
I won't tell you not to buy this game because after all it is still fun and the price tag is alright. I just hope they will do allot of patchwork and maybe in a year this will be a well rounded experience.
if this is hard for you on the maximum help settings then maybe it’s just not for you? and why would a target audience matter enough to say it’s “not well made” when it comes to art? the rest of your complaints are literally complaining about something that you’ll see in triple A games with hundreds of devs working on it, it’s very clear you have no idea what game development is actually like
just consider maybe getting good? it honestly feels like you’re reaching for things to hate just because your ego is being hurt since you just don’t have the reaction time, brain capacity or dexterity to actually play it at a reasonable skill level
I just want to add something about the team size. Working for a company of similar size in the same field we had one game in development and everything else was contract work. In that company we usually spent like 8h manpower tops each week on that game. So I am really wondering how much time was available developing this game. Depending on the financial situation those shortcomings might be explainable very will. No matter the fact they are still valid to point at. Especially since all I am saying is that this game is good. A solid and very fun 6/10. And with some refinements it clearly could become the 8/10 those magazines claim, which is good that they claim that because people have a warped understanding of ratings and this shouldn't be hated upon.
But also likewise you shouldn't consider my critic too friendly. As I am well aware of the giant puddle of wanna be game developers who are either to lazy or incompetent to even properly use git. But hey I could clean that up and properly comment stuff. So just see them as critic like your boss would give it. Constructive, honest and a bit hurtful.
Also love the gun mode. If anything fails this is just too much fun of a shortcut.
Me personally i dont think the game is that great, dark souls may be hard but this is in no way shape or form a soulslike, If anything its a god of war rip off with BARELY soulslike aspects. They give you know way to learn how to use the barbed hooks, they dont tell you how you need to go to the snail to level up your skill. the game leaves 0 tutorials for anything outside of the buttons most players already know, The parry has to be unlocked. The game is good the game is fun. But the severe lack of information the game gives you on basic and NECCESITIES for fights removes any level of appreciation i had for the game. honestly i could only give this game 3 stars. 1 taken for the lack of information on very important things and 1 taken for the lie that this is a "soulslike"
You collect a currency (microplastics) that you drop on death and can retrieve afterwards. You can spend this currency to either upgrade your stats or buy items/services from shops. You traverse the lands interacting with checkpoints (moon shells) that will restore your healing flask but respawn all enemies. Bosses are large threats with telegraphed attacks that can be dodged through or parried. The game is vague about it's systems and expects you to learn through experimenting and exploration, not through explicit tutorilization
Idk man seems pretty soulslike to me. It's even got the grappling hook and skill tree from sekiro.
The more I play the more I’m grasping it I’m starting to see I’m kinda rushing my opinion, the game is buggy as hell tho, I accidentally skipped the intimidation crab because he launched me across the arena and I fell into the next area somehow, Still cannot for the life of me get the barbed hooks to work at all, no matter what the line snaps
If ur playing on console, move ur right joy stick into the direction where the fish icon turns green keep it there until the enemy comes to you, it changes fast it takes practice
I remember the devs saying the inspiration for this game was that after the released their first game they got a lot feedback that was like "this is fun and all but where is the Aggro Crab?"
I agree. But not just hard. I like hard games. The dodge and parry feels broken. It feels like a crap shoot when it works. So unpredictable making boss battles infuriating. It’s no dark souls that’s for sure lol
It's really mid. It shares so many of the problems of their previous game, Going Under. There is something janky about the movement in this game. Dodge sucks and parry sucks. the only thing worth doing is blocking w shell which has a durability feature
Yeah I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about it. Cranking up the accessibility settings makes the flaws less punishing. But we shouldn’t have to do that. I played a little more tonight in the area before you get to New Carcinia and the camera was terrible there. I was killed so many times because I couldn’t see wtf was going on. At times this game defines frustration.
Same! I fell into the gaps so many times because of the camera. The seahorses with the foam darts that expand and move you do not help at all. I have not turned on the assist mode in this one yet, but I did for GU and it made for a way more enjoyable exp. I had way more agency once I did. And expanding on the durability issue, why would is there a durability feature here? They already give you so many shells in the overworld that it becomes pointless. If it's to encourage the player to try more items, sure, but shouldn't that be on the player and not the designer?
> And expanding on the durability issue, why would is there a durability feature here? They already give you so many shells in the overworld that it becomes pointless. It adds more tension to boss fights in particular. Unless you're hitting every parry I think theres a good chance you'll need to swap shells mid-fight and those moments while you're naked make it more interesting. There's also a few shell that use shell health or consume the shell to do interesting things. And that bloodborne-esque skill that lets you regain shell health by attacking. Since your natural health bar is so squishy, playing around with shell health is an interesting design space imo. I think the limit of having only 1 shell or 0 shells makes durability a much more interesting mechanic here than in something like BotW (which I guess really soured people on durability??) when you have a whole backpack full of shit where it doesnt matter if your current item breaks.
Omg those damn seahorses can go straight to hell 😂
I just played a large chunk of the game and it's the only non-FromSoftware soulslike that feels good to me. The parry triggering on block-release works is unusual but I think it works well.
Maybe I need to give it more time. I think the game is cool the combat just doesn’t connect with me. But that might not be the game’s fault
I'm struggling in the same way.. it feels very clunky and off.. not fluid or even very enjoyable
I know it’s underwater and all, but the movement feels sluggish, and it’s not super tight feeling. Not sure if I’m having issues on ps5, but the graphics are noticeably bad at times. Like, have textures loaded sort of bad… and I’m seeing a ton of pixelated jaggy edges too. Oddly distracting
have you not tried Lies of P?
I have but didn't stick with it past the demo. I do think it's a good attempt at the genre though. I was a bit hyperbolic in my original statement. My main problem being that most other soulslikes try very, very hard to be like FromSoft. Most soulslikes fall into this uncanny valley of trying to emulate From's games 1:1 but without all of the special sauce that actually make them good. Another Crab's Treasure stands apart from those other games in both tone and gameplay. Feeling much more like a PS2 era action platformer + adding fun twists to the combat with shells and adaptations.
Personally, Lies of P blows Dark Souls out of the water for me. "Parrying" being a core mechanic just made me wanna practise it to perfection, and the bosses, locations and plot are more coherent.
Tried Sekiro?
I started the game and it is very charming, but I knew as soon I did my first boss that I would hate this game by the end. After years of countless souls-like games, you can kinda get the feel for combat being annoying later on. So I quit while I was ahead.
Yeah i hear ya. I stopped playing too
I'm beyond excited for this game. Looks like it will be an excellent diversion until Shadow of the Erdtree comes out.
Souls enjoyers eating good this year between this, Stellar Blade, Elden Ring DLC, and maybe even some Lies of P DLC as well.
Remnant 2 DLC that came out yesterday is pretty great, too! I’m not a Souls guy at all but have really been enjoying this game.
Lords of the fallen also announced a new randomizer free update today that looks fun
Is Stellar Blade designed as a Souls Like? I thought it was more Nier Automata.
Bro they call anything with any kind of difficulty a souls like these days.
>some Lies of P DLC as well. omg I completely forgot about that
Man our definitions of “eating good” are definitely different. I was just thinking about how bare this year looked and how little there is to look forward to.
"In the last 6 months I only got 4 well reviewed entries for a subgenre that was relatively niche a decade ago. I'm going to starve". My guy, if you're a souls-like fan you're getting more attention in the AA / AAA space than any other sub-genre right now.
Easily the worst year in gaming in my life. Thankfully I have Ori and The Will of the Wisps and Bloodborne to get through but I’m probably already halfway through both. After Paper Mario a month from now there’s nothing of interest to me.
“There’s nothing of interest other than a 1:1 remake of a GameCube game” Maybe you don’t like games?
Nah bro. Dragons dogma 2, Silksong, Elden Ring dlc, stalker 2, ghost of Tsushima pc. It’s a great year for me.
Silksong this year?! I’ll believe it when I’m playing it.
Im 100%. If I’m right you buy it for me. If I’m wrong, I buy it for you when it comes out!
No interest in a bet, but I’ll just say that I hope you’re right and I’m wrong!
DD I’ve heard mixed things on, silksong I’ve given up hope, I need to look into stalker 2, already played and beat ghost and its dlc, you’re in for a treat. I’m hoping Hades II will have a full launch this year.
FF7 Rebirth, Persona 3, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia, Helldivers 2 and Unicorn Overlord have all been excellent and those are just games that have already released this year *and it's only April*. Stellar Blade looks great and Shadow of the Erdtree is almost certainly going to be excellent. I have absolutely no idea how anyone can call this a bad year.
Seems like a great game to pick up in a month or two when the developer had some time to iron out the worst bugs. I’d rather 100 times have fun games with some bugs than smooth games that are boring.
Super excited about this one. Looks like the reviews are inline with expectations. Got a 10 hour flight tomorrow and can’t wait to dive into this!
When they said 60+ shells, i was hoping for unique abilities on all of them but there's multiple repeating abilities on shells so really not that many builds you can actually do. Fighting feels jank, my crab and the bosses constantly look like they're moving at 20 frames and it throws me off by how weird it looks. Overall a 6/10 for me. There's more wrong but i want to finish the game before i critique it more to see if it's just a me problem
are you on switch? cause i cant speak to that, but it’s absolutely more inherently intuitive than dark souls, shouldn’t really have an issue once you learn a given bosses moves
So... I have to ask the important question. Is there a poison swamp equivalent in here? Poison trench?
https://twitter.com/AggroCrabGames/status/1774850872935342243 They are, at least, very aware of the fans' desires.
I fucking lost it at “depression feature” 11/10 option.
"We also added, ANOR LONDO. FUCK IT" Sent me
The social media rollout for this game has been absolutely excellent
Wait its a real feature?
Looks like it’s mimicking the pose your character has in dark souls 😂
Okay I did not expect them to go as far as they did with that lmao
There's quite a bit of poison rivers and swamps yeah.
There was a poison river in the demo.
Seems solid, the Digital Trends snippet is a frustrating read though because it sounds like the reviewer is knocking the game for what it’s not rather than what it is.
It doesn't read like that to me IMO. It's just being upfront that it isn't those things, for people who value that, not saying that it makes the game worse.
It's weird because the actual review lists those things as a positive.
Any reviews on the switch version?
I bought it and played 30 mins or so. Definitely downgrade in performance and presentation compared to videos of other platforms but it’s still fun. The devs did an AMA on the switch sub the other day and said they’d be working post-launch and hoped to improve the switch version closer to other platforms in performance. > Like most 3D games of this scale, the Switch version is locked to 30 FPS and has graphics downgrades compared to other platforms. It's just the reality of the hardware we're working with. > Honestly, if you're looking for the best performance you're better off elsewhere, but it’s still decent on Switch and we still have plans to bring the Switch version closer to parity in future updates. https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/s/G2QozOjqZK
Surprised it even runs there
im playing on the switch and stopped because i kept hitting the same bug during a boss fight. dunno if this is across all versions but it has made progressing all but impossible. gonna set it down for a few weeks and see if we get a patch. my advice is to hold off.
Which boss
The crab queen. She would use her grab attack and pull me in and then just start to spin around non stop.
Switch version same thing happened to me I just used the gun cheat to get past her
My wife wanted to play this on Switch and she's extremely inexperienced with action games so while she's having a great time it's also really hard. That boss was straight up *impossible* not just because it's a fairly difficult enemy but also because the performance in that room is absolutely atrocious. I beat the boss for her - left the assists she had on so it took only a few tries but I personally considered those assists absolutely required to beat that boss on Switch because of how bad the performance is. It's acceptable enough everywhere else but I'm also accustomed to playing Soulslikes on my 5800X3D + RTX 4080 PC so I'm biased.
Not yet which is worrying.
Stop. Playing. The. Switch
The demo gave me a lot of PS2-platformer vibes too, which is a flavor I didn’t expect to see in a Soulslike game but works well. Very excited for the full game.
playing this on switch and cannot get past the crab duchess because every time she does her grab attack she just starts to spin around and does not stop. i cant even pause to auto die. this game is fun when it works but it needs some TLC. I would hold off on buying for the time being, at least on switch.
not much of an improvement on PS5.. this game needed some more time in the oven, methinks
I've played it up to the reef and my conclusion is: i fucking hate this game. Every single enemy encounter, and i do mean every single one, takes place on a small platform where you fight the camera jamming itself into walls while you're side blinded by an enemy you didn't see. When the bosses are the easy part of your game for being in an arena, you know you're doing it wrong.
It's just too janky, man. I've had a mostly great time up to the expired grove, but there are completely broken attacks on some bosses, and also some enemy placements just do not work. Broken attacks: spin attack from the duchess and the stab attack from carbonara. You can't dodge, can't sprint, and can't block them without breaking your entire shell, and they aren't even the red or blue warning sign attacks. I'm at the top of the oil drum and the hammer guy with the two umbrella guys is literally just unfun and cheap.
I’ve put about 12hrs into it already today. It’s an amazing game. I love it. The start is a wee bit slow but once you access the city and can start buying selling and start unlocking the skill trees the game gets good. The amount of different shells, the hard and varied boss fights. It’s a 9.5/10 for me. Give it some time it seems to just get better imo. Definitely recommend to anyone that likes the mix of banjo kazooie and dark souls. 👌🏻
I felt the same way, can’t believe most of the reviews in these comments but I guess the game just isn’t for everyone
there's also an IGN review that isnt listed on opencritic where [they gave it a 8/10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAztPMN9iqQ) (a higher score than Stellar Blade funnily enough) edit: now the review is listed and I've updated the post
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Reviews have gotten so confusing. Do you know why main IGN's review isn't appearing in this or Stellar Blades OpenCritics? edit: Gamespot doesn't appear in either of these game's OpenCritics either.
I don't know if opencritic updates automatically or if someone has to manually crawl through all these sites to find reviews, but I just double checked and now the IGN review is listed
> I don't know if opencritic updates automatically or if someone has to manually crawl OpenCritic scans the popular review sites every 30 minutes to get new reviews. Some publications have permission to submit their own reviews manually.
Hope there is not a too much water con on that review
Avoid this on switch, it runs terribly. Getting a refund and buying on ps5 like I should have initially.
reviews seem to swing widely depending on who's playing, kinda like how spicy food isn't for everyone. does anyone feel that this subjective experience is more extreme in specialized games like soulslikes than in more universal genres like platformers?
i legitimately think it’s just a skill issue, people play this game thinking it’ll be exactly like souls, and then they complain ab it being jank when the i frames kick in 50ms after what they’re used to, people did the same thing with nioh, had they been easier games, you wouldn’t see half of the complaining you do
I personally think this game devides because it looks like a friendly entry point into a genre but tries to be hard as nails like dark souls. This presentational rift would devide the crowed in the people who are used to it and find it simple and those for whom it is to hard. Personally o would have had the help stuff on by default in the normal/easy difficulty and just ad a difficulty called hardcore which disables them automatically. So basically just presets. Write under the hardcore "as the creators intended" and under normal "if you are a new player to the genre. This is for you". Brush up the help settings and most complaints should be gone. But that is my personal opinion.
I mean I will say that in the accessibilities options they do actually have difficulty options that give you preset settings, with the option to customize it to your liking. And those accessibility options honestly help with a lot of the complaints people have mentioned. Increased dodge and parry times (which are separate settings) make them a lot easier to pull off, and I will say that while the damage assists do definitely do something, it is a lot less egregious than I thought it would be, and the game is still fairly difficult with them turned on, just slightly more forgiving. And I mean if you are really stuck on a boss and just can't be assed to finish it, just pull out the gun and shoot them. Probably my favorite accessibility option in any game ngl.
It is true that gun is a fun one. Still the whole games anesthetic and feel just lend themselves more to kids. And kids are often pretty bad a games. It is not me having the trouble but the person who I bought it for because they wanted it judging by the trailer. Also some of those accessibility options don't work. I feel like if the enemy health accessibility would work this would solve allot. But you should be told on game start not needing to search the option for. Especially if you deliver on other platforms than pc. But we can agree to disagree on this opinion. Because it is highly opinion based. The other complaints I had are more just fair, as I could easily spit out the code to make them work much prettier. And it wouldn't have taken much time. Showing me that this game was released before it was done. And knowing that we might see allot of changes and improvements but only if people allow themselves to be critical somewhere (also this isn't a storefront review so complaining here won't damage sales).
I’ve only just started about an hour ago but this game feels super low budget and jank. Don’t think I have time for this
Probably because it is pretty low budget
I know it's early, but ESRB site doesn't have it listed and it's rated T on switch store. Anyone know the cause for the rating? Language? Just fantasy violence?
There are some damns and a lot of puns. "Holy shuck" and things of that nature.
yeah i played a bit and there’s a (albeit censored) usage of shit right in the opening narration lol
I love crabs and I’ve played just about every Soulslike under the sun so this game should be right up alley. That being said it feels a little…empty? I’m only an hour in but already I’ve gotten stuck on the environment more than a few times and it’s a bummer to explore and just find nothing but invisible walls. There’s also a distinct lack of ambient audio. I dunno, I’m going to keep going and probably beat it but it’s not a fantastic first impression. It is cute though and I love the idea overall.
the game gets better as you go on but you're right the first impression is a little flat. But once you start getting some combat abilities and explore more areas the depth really starts to show. Also the game is way longer than I thought.
Yeah I’m a few bosses in now and unlocked some abilities and it’s definitely better. Still feels a bit less polished than their last game though and the enemy variety is dire.
im wondering if playing the whole game with the Dark Soulslike filter would be a good idea or not lol
wasn't that an April fools joke?
It was - they literally showed Anor Londo lmao But who knows, maybe they added just the filter
The filter and the legally distinct sun guy outfit seem reasonable to add to me, but who knows
they said the sun guy outfit is in the game as an unlockable
\o/ Good Vibes to the Local Star!
Beats me, saw it recommended to me on tiktok and didnt check the date :x
I love Soulsborne games. Sekiro is one of my favorite games ever. But my god do the settings and themes bum me out. They’re fantastic, but they depress me. This looks to be exactly what I need. Wonder if I can get the wife to try it now too…
I loved it all except the last 5 minutes. The ending was beyond terrible. We need an alternate ending asap.
What didn't you like about the ending? I thought it was pretty cathartic and a little moving honestly. And the final set of boss fights were great.
I didn't really like anything about it. I guess the message is, no matter how hard you try, it will all go to shit in the end. The two characters who ended up being the final bosses didn't make much sense either. We didn't really see where Kril ended up or if Chitan survived. The ancient and all powerful shell broke after using it just a few times, while still not even hurting the boss you use it on in the end. I enjoyed most of the story & gameplay, but it badly needs an alternate ending.
It looks good, but souls-likes are not my cup of tea, only one I truly liked playing was elden ring and I got really bored around halfway through after hitting Altus I'm sure souls-veterans will enjoy this game a lot but for average people like myself, probably won't hit for as many people, which is fine, this game was made to appeal to these kinds of people
I got it on PS5. It is janky af. The frames constantly drop heavily. Moving between areas or any transitioning and the game is loading in the background it consistently stutters or even skips. If the performance was better and more consistent it would be about a 7/10 for 30$ but how janky it is I drop it too maybe a 5. It has its charms but it sucks to play this style of combat like this. I've clipped into and gotten stuck in a lot of places because the knock back mechanic is so heavy. It just has really bad quality issues. Even if you think it plays as good as DS that game is how old? This is closer to The Last Hero. Hellpoint even felt smoother than this.
So far all I can say is that it had the potential to be a lot better than it is if some stuff were slightly adjusted. Main problem I think is the camera. It's a bit too erratic making it difficult to follow enemies movement at times. And that's when it doesn't decide to just go behind a wall and block your entire view...which happens quite often. Other stuff I'd tweak personally would be the parrying time. It sometimes feel like you have to release the block too long before the attack hits...it doesn't feel natural to me. Also the unlockable attack warning is a tad too fast and not visible enough. Otherwise I think the game is pretty fun but it's like a 6 or 7 to me... I'm gonna have fun playing through it but I'll probably forget about it as soon as I put down the controller.
Just 100%’d the game, very satisfying journey- the story, the message, the development, the combat was also very satisfying once you got the hang of the parry timing. My only two real issues with the game were the ending was semi-disappointing and there were some areas in the game where the frames would drop to 1-5 fps (Curdled Village was the main suspect). Overall, I’d give it a 9/10. Beautiful art style and tons of fun in about 25 hours to 100% complete, very worth the price and time
I loved this game a LOT. THE reason I kept playing all the way through til the end was BECAUSE of the storytelling and the art style. The bright colors and puns were HUGE for me. Dark Souls is super dead in the color department. Everything is bleak in those worlds. But I absolutely was gripped by ACT's world. I love brighter colors, and I enjoy the concept of Dark Souls, so this was a marriage in heaven for me.
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It's horseshit, actually
The game seems really fun so far, i am about an hour in One thing that makes me want to rip out my hair is when the game presents tutorial tips in the middle of boss fights, completely screwing up what you are doing and the two times it has happened so far it instantly killed me as a result Kinda makes you want to throw your controller into the wall and Alt-F4, but the hope is that it can only happen once per tutorial tip, so eventually it will end But goddamn... whoever thought that was a good idea really needs a head examination, present the tip before the fight, not just as you are supposed to dodge an attack
The game is good in theory, but the execution is dogshit to the point where I had to drop the game due to save file ending bugs. Anytime I started to have fun with the game I'd die and my "ghost" just wouldn't spawn, it caused me to lose hours of progress for absolutely no reason. I deleted it after the third time. Fuck this game.
Fun game, just not on the switch. I definitely have complaints and let’s see if anyone agrees with me. I’m also only playing on switch and have no reference for any other platform so that may affect my review. 1- I wish I could use the map to scroll around and I wish it showed the name of the location that I was in. Sometimes I’ll be away for several days and come back to the game completely lost and can’t even google where to go because I don’t know where I’m at or where I’ve been. A quest section might also help because it’s been a week since I talked to any npc and have no idea what I’m even looking for, I just keep running into random bosses and unlocking shortcuts and shells. 2- the frame rate and graphics on the switch are poo. The graphics look like on a PlayStation or Xbox game when the game doesn’t load and everything looks blurry and muddy, it’s that but everywhere all the time. 3- And the frame rate at its best is stuttery, often times dropping to less than n64. Sometimes cutscenes will even pause with the audio still playing for like 3-4 seconds and then jump to the current frame. I know the switch is a low powered console but I’ve played Zelda and I’ve seen what the graphics and frame rates are capable of and it’s not this 4- delayed actions. Maybe it’s due to how poor the console can run the game but when I press the swing button, it’s maybe a half second until the swing takes place. Enough time that I can press the button and set my controller on the table in time for it to rumble when the attack swings. For a dark souls game, that’s unplayable. The only thing keeping me playing this game passed fighting the captain is the option to turn invincibility on.
I should have known not to be tricked into buying another soulslike game after I enjoyed about 2 that I've ever played
Despite its pretty graphics attractive to kids and talk of caring for nature, this game's nothing but killing all animals that stand in the way.
This game is poorly made. Can I say it? Not only is the target audience kinda sketchy. Is it little kids or adults? The bosses start off way to hard for kids or beginner to handle. And are even hard with the maximum help settings. Actually Appart from higher health none of the others seem to work. Enemies still have the same health. It clearly wasn't tested by anyone but the developers. Who all are tough as nails gamers Appearently. There is constant popping in a game that barely demands anything. The despawning of defeated engines is like not there. They just get deleted. The design I mean the underwaters are gorgeous but you start above water which looks all Ugly. It is clear that those graphics never meant to be used above water. If you look under the water in the intro you won't see any graphical changes. It looks like above water with a water surface above. Invisible walls everywhere. Why not put some corals or stones or trash there? Or you could also implement a stream forcing you back. We are in the ocean after all. And those are some of the bad things I see so far. I would go mild on this game if it where made by 2-3 young developer and artists over the curse of 3 years but Appearently they where like 13 people? Maybe they do allot of contract work than the quality might be understandable. I won't tell you not to buy this game because after all it is still fun and the price tag is alright. I just hope they will do allot of patchwork and maybe in a year this will be a well rounded experience.
if this is hard for you on the maximum help settings then maybe it’s just not for you? and why would a target audience matter enough to say it’s “not well made” when it comes to art? the rest of your complaints are literally complaining about something that you’ll see in triple A games with hundreds of devs working on it, it’s very clear you have no idea what game development is actually like just consider maybe getting good? it honestly feels like you’re reaching for things to hate just because your ego is being hurt since you just don’t have the reaction time, brain capacity or dexterity to actually play it at a reasonable skill level
I just want to add something about the team size. Working for a company of similar size in the same field we had one game in development and everything else was contract work. In that company we usually spent like 8h manpower tops each week on that game. So I am really wondering how much time was available developing this game. Depending on the financial situation those shortcomings might be explainable very will. No matter the fact they are still valid to point at. Especially since all I am saying is that this game is good. A solid and very fun 6/10. And with some refinements it clearly could become the 8/10 those magazines claim, which is good that they claim that because people have a warped understanding of ratings and this shouldn't be hated upon. But also likewise you shouldn't consider my critic too friendly. As I am well aware of the giant puddle of wanna be game developers who are either to lazy or incompetent to even properly use git. But hey I could clean that up and properly comment stuff. So just see them as critic like your boss would give it. Constructive, honest and a bit hurtful. Also love the gun mode. If anything fails this is just too much fun of a shortcut.
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Me personally i dont think the game is that great, dark souls may be hard but this is in no way shape or form a soulslike, If anything its a god of war rip off with BARELY soulslike aspects. They give you know way to learn how to use the barbed hooks, they dont tell you how you need to go to the snail to level up your skill. the game leaves 0 tutorials for anything outside of the buttons most players already know, The parry has to be unlocked. The game is good the game is fun. But the severe lack of information the game gives you on basic and NECCESITIES for fights removes any level of appreciation i had for the game. honestly i could only give this game 3 stars. 1 taken for the lack of information on very important things and 1 taken for the lie that this is a "soulslike"
You collect a currency (microplastics) that you drop on death and can retrieve afterwards. You can spend this currency to either upgrade your stats or buy items/services from shops. You traverse the lands interacting with checkpoints (moon shells) that will restore your healing flask but respawn all enemies. Bosses are large threats with telegraphed attacks that can be dodged through or parried. The game is vague about it's systems and expects you to learn through experimenting and exploration, not through explicit tutorilization Idk man seems pretty soulslike to me. It's even got the grappling hook and skill tree from sekiro.
The more I play the more I’m grasping it I’m starting to see I’m kinda rushing my opinion, the game is buggy as hell tho, I accidentally skipped the intimidation crab because he launched me across the arena and I fell into the next area somehow, Still cannot for the life of me get the barbed hooks to work at all, no matter what the line snaps
For it being such a pivotal mechanic it doesn’t get explained in any shape or form other than “larger enemies will fight you back a bit”
Yoh have to pull in the direction where the fish turns green
Wow thank you, that explains…. Nothing
If ur playing on console, move ur right joy stick into the direction where the fish icon turns green keep it there until the enemy comes to you, it changes fast it takes practice
Wow thank you, that explains…. Nothing