Recent reviews by Ashbringer0512

first of all I love this game,
second, is it a masterpiece? no it is not, its a 7/10 or 8/10 but thats still a good game

now lets get into details, the game has been patched and perfomance has gotten a bit better, i still found some dips in some areas specially the tanta's castles at least on my pc the game hates other things running on the background, to be fair I was running it maxed at 4k. I did experience a few crashes that required a system restart for everything to work properly.


with that out of the game lets talk about the game.

STORY:
the story is pretty simple, it has a few twists but I saw those coming, the foreshadowing makes it a bit obvious I enjoyed nonetheless, its serviceable and the world and lore around it is quite interesting. a world where magic is abundant with their own godlike figures, set of rules, culture, a past and apparently an enemy nation hinting at the game being set in just one country.

CHARACTERS:
I do agree some lines and the attitude of the main character are bit offputing but in the context of the story its not that big of a deal, frey starts out being a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with a bit of a heart but an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ still, she however is not like that just for the sake of it or attempt at making her edgy or badass, she just doesn't know better, her life has sucked since day one, and its a miracle she is not truly a jerk inside out.

this personality leads to issues with some characters, to some annoying dialogues and avoidable situations but I think thats the point, she is rash. rude and selfish. its not comfortable to be around a character built for us to dislike but the slow transition into a more understanding character feels nice, By the end of the game I felt a bit attached. the execution wasnt perfect, the transition is not super smooth but I see what where going for and they still achieved some of it in my experience.

Cuff was kinda likeable for me, he had some weird lines and frey being antagonistic towards it made it easier to root for. then it becomes constant banter that can be dialed down in the settings (I didn't i wanted to hear most of the lines) I did get lots of repeated lines from both of them in the first quarter of the game and some of those lines are still present on the post game even though things have changed dramatically.

the side characters are kinda weak but theres lore about them in archive entries. they did their job I liked the interactions got attached to a looney old man and think the others are ok, not good, not impressive but serviceable.

QUESTS:
the main story quest is pretty straigh forward, go from point A to B and face whatever you encounter, if you get sidetracked along the way well thats on you, make the fun out of whatever you find.

side quests are called detours and require simple things like taking pictures or following a cat or going to specific point, none of them feel exceptional but i guess their simplicity helps not making them feel like a massive chore.

THE MAP (WORLD)
the world is huge, you might need some skills to get to other places so its not all available at once but its still huge.

I hate open world games, I don't like traveling miles just to get a flower or go through a questline that has me all over the place, but here I don't hate it. the world is huge but simple, theres a set of points of interes you can visit.

treasures show on the map as well (ignore them) most of the times these purple dots are just crafting materials you can get anywhere else.

but the rest is pretty straightforward and has some value, either stat points, new spells, nails, necklaces, capes or archive entries, you can exactly what each point gives you before even going there and killing the enemies.

the movement is fast and the combat fun if you learn the system so having simple places of going to a dungeon to fight enemies and a boss to get gear, or going to monuments to get more stats was pretty entertaining. I was always getting something in return for having fun with the combat.


however the world is not complex, theres not much to the villages or cities.


GAMEPLAY

MOVEMENT:
its all about flow, using the magic parkour is quite simple, just press a button and run around like being in a sonic game until your stamina runs out, go up hills and towers and stuff.
later on you will get aditions to these basic movement, you'll be able to speed up with fire for a bit pressing the button again when a flame shows up to restore all your stamina, or you can do timed jumps as soon as you touch the floor to go uphill faster and recover stamina as well.
maybe you need to cover longer distances than what a jump allows, well how about using a fire whip to pull yourself to another place to stand or to jump from, you can even target tree tops and feel like a pseudo spiderman web swinging.

maybe even that is not enough to get you where you need, well then you can float on a bubble or surf over lakes o maybe do a electrified high jump.

in the latest patch they also added a bit of a mid air jump to add more control to the parkour and believe me it meshes perfectly with all the movement skills.

there is also movement skills in combat, not just dodging, I recomend unlocking the magic switching spells, these let you reposition and change to another magic set at the same time, helping you pull off cool combos.

COMBAT:
I'd say this is the most important aspect of the game, at the start you might feel that is somewhat like a shooter and just spam the attack button and do almost no damage. the combat is a bit more involved, it feels like using ranged tools to capture a combat system akin to character action games like devil may cry, bayonetta etc.

the more spells you unlock, the better it feels.
every magic set has its own basic attack, it could be a chain of 4 consecutive pebbles, a bolt of lightning, a singular water bubble or a 4 hit fire sword combo.
adding to that each magic has 3 charged attacks with 3 levels of charge, all with different properties. these charged attacks are what most of the basic damage comes from.
however launching a charged attack takes time and leaves you open to being hit.
thats why theres shortcuts to use the most powerful version with no charge time at all.

If you finish a basic combo strick and keep the button pressed you will get the max version you have of the equipped charged attack.

if you do a dodging attack and then keep the button pressed you will the the maxed charged attack.

theres also support spells these have a cooldown but are versatile on what they provide for you, boosts, defense, distrancion, crowd control, debuffs, masive damage, aoe, etc.

if you use support spells most of the attack support spells allow you to instantly charge, you guessed it a max charged attack.

and every basic attack or charged attack reduces the cooldown of your support spells so if you constantly attacking and switching between magic types and support spells you will constantly have options to attack with.


CONCLUSION (TLDR)
if you like combos, fast action paced games, instant load times(ssd) and exploring with a greater move speed than most games. you will probably like this game. there is some flaws and if games like devil may cry don't really do it for you, this game might not be for you either.

best sonic game I have played in quite some time.

the characters are not flat, they feel like actual characters and theres some lore sprinkled in.

the game is not a masterpiece and its not close to perfect but its incredibly fun to just run around and experience the titan bossfights.

If you are a sonic fan buy it, if you like fast paced games try it.

theres some jank, but its a fun experience.

The amount of fun and replayability this game has, goes way beyond its price tag.

The world's feel entertaining and dangerous, while it can't compare to hand crafted levels the generated tile set is straightforward and easy to recognize.


I wish however that visitors could see a shared version of the hosts map instead of being in the dark.


Bossses feel challenging and fun to fight.

Be mindful however that pretty much every boss fight has you dealing with waves of adds besides the boss.

The graphics are okay, I like the artstyle a lot, makes me think of a surviving human in the darksiders apocalypse.

The gameplay is gratifying, getting your I frames in the roll through a boss trying to slash you and then shoot him a black hole in the face feels great.

The game is not perfect, I've encountered some minor bugs and some rolls of the world's are more interesting than others but the game is certainly worth it.

I also read its getting extra content soon

amazing, reminds me of advanced wars with a twist

amazing graphics, fun and viable characters

Yes there's some conection issues, yes p2p it's not great but this game is one of the most unique and entertaining things ive ever played from ubisoft, i liked AC but always complained about the combat being too bland, this is just like, hey chris we ubisoft finally decided to try something different and fresh and put some actual effort into it, im not saying this game is worth the deluxe editions or etc, its mainly multiplayer but i still enjoyed the campaign its fun and teaches you stuff, not like other addon stories that get you nowhere.


Conclusion the game isnt perfect but it deserves praise coming from a company full of bigger issues, its one of the best titles ubisoft has ever come up with, great performance and gameplay, what more could you ask for?