RONIN: Two Souls CHAPTER 1 Reviews

Reminds me of Way of the Samurai 3 a little bit. Not a bad short game if you in to medieval Japan and Samurai and real Ninjas. on the movie kind.

It has rpg elements, cool atmophere and nice easter eggs but thats about it, combat is shallow for now and writing is pretty meh. I am still hopeful for its future.

This is a game that I want to like, but it's got some glaring issues that need to be solved before I can recommend it to anyone. It's an extremely beautiful game and the atmosphere is were the game shines but the dueling combat is extremely frustrating to learn and then incredibly dull once you learn it. You'll be getting one-shott'd in the beginning trying to parry and mix up stances, and being very frustrated when you try to use a stance you don't have quite enough stamina for and the game drains you back do zero without doing anything. But then you realize you just need to keep advancing forward and parrying until the enemy runs out of stamina and work them over with the lowest costing stance. It also seems to be poorly optimized, dunno if it's from the new update or what, but the longer i played the slower and slower it would get, agnostic to quality settings, I gave up when it was chugging at 10 fps on both low and epic. For reference I'm running: ryzen 9 3900x rx 6900xt 32g ram

[h1] Unfinished and Buggy for 2 years [/h1] So, I've had this game in my library for awhile. Tried playing it multiple times but something put me off. Until just now, I've finished the game. It had constant bugs, literary errors (due to bad translation), audio errors (voice lines being repeated(VA not being very good; not in sync with screen text and talking over other subtitles)); not to mention some VA lines would randomly be in Turkish. and my frame rate dropped halfway through the game. Overall, having played 4 hours and finishing it in one sitting; I can say it was bare-able and somewhat enjoyable at the very least. I really like the combat system. Adding more and different skills would be amazing. The graphics in this game, before the frame rate randomly went rogue is stunning. Game has potential, but its pretty raw as is. Wouldn't recommend playing it.

Played through the whole first Chapter. [h1] Positives: [/h1] - The combat and equipment system in this game is very good. - I really liked exploring the island and having random encounters where I have to make decisions. - The graphics are great, there are some things to be fixed yet, but this is an early access game! - The story is good and has you wanting to explore more and get to know the whole story. [h1] What can be done better: [/h1] - The walking feels a bit chunky, especially with the carts. [h1] Issues I had: [/h1] - The voice acting was in Turkish which broke my immersion, but since this game is in Early Access, hoping either English or Japanese voice acting will come at full release! - The face of Kenji is almost not animated which ruins cutscenes. - 'Easter eggs' like Among us references, just break the whole immersion. [h1] Accessibility: [/h1] - Can be played with a Keyboard+Mouse or Controller. - V-Sync can be enabled. - No colorblind option. Check my other reviews over at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38844457-Bottled-Tastes/] BottledTastes Curator Page [/url]

I'm soft when it comes to recommendations. I don't give a thumbs down very often, but I have to for this game. For $15 you get around 5-10 hours of content and that's pushing it. The writing is bad, and the brief lines of voice acting don't save it. I am enjoying the exploration part of the game, and I like the combat system albeit really easy once you figure it out, but save your money. I can go into excruciating detail if it will help the developer but I will save my breath and just tell you to avoid until a sale.

Environments look nice. Game play is sincerely lacking. Combat doesn't feel fun or polished in anyway. Maybe eventually this game could be something, but currently it isn't all that great.

Very beautiful and slow-moving game, set in a pseudo ancient Japan. The combat baffled me the first few times, but then I figured it out and it turned out to be very simple. Inventory management is challenging, since you start out with just a handful of slots, but the biggest challenge (for me) is the English translations of dialog. NPCs often say things awkwardly, and sometimes they simply don't make any sense. But exploring the island is addictive, and I found it hard to put down.

[h2] Unfortunately, a Potential Abandonware full of Bloated Promises [/h2] [h3][u]Graphics & Animations – 2.5 / 5[/u][/h3] + UE4 used + Some acceptable natural environments reflecting Asian atmosphere + A day-night cycle kit is used, slightly lifting up graphics quality - It is not game design at all to simply use UE’s Foliage Paint Tool and spread trees all around - Game is about Asian cultures but we don’t have any Asian looking characters - All 3D character models look alike, a simple copy-paste of each other, including their clothes. Putting a different hat on a model doesn’t make him a different person - Skin textures look like plastic - No physics present - Lots of collusion, unwrap and LOD bugs present all around - Main character occasionally suffers from shaky animations and sometimes hands pass through weapons - Animations are horrid; everyone has similar actions, doing same hand movements, no matters the concept of dialogue and they tend to flicker [h3][u]System Requirements – 3.5 / 5[/u][/h3] + Any average gaming computer can play it mostly in 60 FPS - Optimization is ignored; in various moments and areas, even my GTX 1070 card felt spikes, sudden freezes and low FPS [h3][u]AI & Difficulty – 1 / 5[/u][/h3] - AI is non-existent, we only have dialogues buried within Unreal Engine’s behavior tree with no real programming concepts - All enemies are dumb, have no combat intelligence nor skills; the more you advance further, they just gain more stamina and health, nothing else - Combats are absurdly easy; with same tactics anyone can easily enter any fight with no proper equipment. Very boring, repetitive and unchallenging - No difficulty settings [h3][u]Audio & Language – 2.5 / 5[/u][/h3] + Footstep sounds are done properly on woods, grass etc - There are somewhat little ambient sounds and only sword clashes - The narrator audio is only in Turkish and he sounds very dull and soulless - Sadly, they have no proper knowledge in English. Not only translation dialogues are lacking and boring in many cases, but also sometimes sudden language shifts occur between Turkish and English. Then, it is painful to understand quests, you just guess and randomly loop around with boredom[/p] [h3][u]Music – 3.5 / 5[/u][/h3] + The only good feature of this game; they are not perfect, actually quite similar but at least they give you the grasp of some Asian atmosphere, increasing motivation [h3][u]BUGs & Mechanics – 1 / 5[/u][/h3] + Loot system adds somewhat a cosmetic richness + Photo mode is present, but not interesting - All the bugs previously mentioned in Graphics and Languages - Systematic bugs such as after defeating enemies occasionally you see them standing in your way again - Serious sword collusion bugs, for ex. sometimes enemy’s blade is penetrating us, yet it does not damage at all, we can still make a block or vice versa. It’s probably a conditional statement & timing error in programming - Game was initially designed as an adventure but suddenly & unsuccessfully changed into an RPG trial - Current inventory setup and insignificant item gathering lacks the feeling of progression - The loot gained from enemies are all similar and worthless unlike real RPGs - No abilities or any skill tree - Level-up means nothing, no gains - So-called samurai fights are the worst ever in history, just lousy, pointless. No action movements, evasions and any techniques on the contrary to promises - Our character can switch among 3 strikes, whereas enemies only strike from top👎🏻 - No freedom with your sword and environmental interaction with objects. You are only limited to sword fights, whereas in previous betas, we could slice our way through bamboos, i.e. misleading advert - Our character's jump is ridiculously weak and illogical - Game lacks any sort of horseback riding or fast travelling. We spend most of game time running in meaningless lands - The entire map is quite small which can be completely run in only 10 minutes, however, looking for some specific buggy items, missing locations & people takes most of your time. This was not enjoyable at all. May be developers deliberately aimed to occupy your 2 hours with boresome walks so that you won't be eligible for refund 👎🏻 [h3][u]Story & Length – 1.5 / 5[/u][/h3] - The game actually promised 5 chapters, covering Kenji’s story as a Samurai but this plan hasn’t been fulfilled despite 2 years of development. You have only 1 active chapter so far, which is ridiculously short, finishing within 2 hours - Entire map consists of only this island where you begin, no more areas - Doing a test run, it was possible to run around the entire island in only 10 minutes!.. - When you reach shores, you will notice some distant island pieces ahead, never bother them, they are just visuals, you can't go through water and visit them - Considering the slow development phase & inexperienced developers, it would be such a miracle to get any new chapters soon. Btw, main developers are said to be heading to military soon, which means there can’t be any updates for a year or longer, hence the game is currently destined to be abandoned [h3][u]Gameplay & Atmosphere – 1.5 / 5[/u][/h3] - It is no way an RPG but feels more like a super simplified adventure at its best - It was initially designed to be an adventure, following Kenji’s adventures but somehow developers decided to add RPG elements inside but obviously they failed on the core design - You feel nothing related to your equipment and character progression - Everything regarding your character is only rolling around health and stamina and a bit of cosmetics appearance, nothing else. So-called armor is exactly the same as health and other traits are insignificant - Quest system just appears in visuality; it is boring, repetitive and not properly effective on story - You can simply skip all quests and reach the final location - Your entire island map is pretty small; it is possible to run around in 10 minutes - The island has no life at all, nothing notable; no wild animals or random bandit battles or anyone strolling around. After playing only once, you learn a few locations and that’s all - Current sword duels totally kill this game👎🏻 Even a little kid can easily defeat the most challenging enemy with full health. For ex, you have 3 health, 5 stamina and you simply visit the most challenging area, facing an enemy with 15 health, 10 stamina, you simply kill him in 3-4 sword swings, taking no damage. You just need to act stupid on purpose to die (?) Actually, their fight system was in FPS before, felt more exciting & compatible with game design. Obviously, they have no skills to handle this so picked a lamer fight design [h3][u]Price Vs Quality – 1.5 / 5[/u][/h3] - 15 dollars for such an unfinished potential abandonware made with copy-paste kits is quite demanding. They need to work much more to deserve this price - The regional price of game is actually 18TL, which equals to 2.5 USD, in its current state & pricing for foreigners, this game is a true money trap [hr] [h2][u]Final Verdict – 1.7 / 5[/u][/h2] Ronin Two Souls just feels like a bloated buggy disappointing title. I couldn’t stand it more than an hour; it was tiresome to wander aimlessly in same lands, seeing same faces and withstanding this primitive fight system. It is hopelessly short, boring and waste of time. Actually, I have no expectations considering the unfortunate fact that 2 years already passed with this project and it’s very far away from being a proper game, I can’t even call it a game, it rather feels like in pre-alpha stage and looks like a walking simulator. A potential hit & run money trap which should be avoided in current state.

Spent about 3 hours in this game and finished the part that game offers. I've got some notes through the game. First of all, devs of this game really put an effort there. I am trusting them that they are going to consider all the comments about the game and try to make best of it. I am an rpg player, I like wandering around, going to everything I see interesting. Most importantly, I. NEVER. MISS. A. CHEST. I am saying this because I like this genre. And this game is about to achieve it. I'll not categorize my thoughts as pros and cons. I'll just talk about the game. They actually worked for the cinematics. This is an upvote from the start. Turkish dub is great. It has soul, character. Not all the dialogs have narration but this is something we see in lots of the rpg games. World looks nice, I liked running around and discovering. For a moment my eyes looked for animals around the world but it didn't bother me much. We need to find some colorful feathers for expanding our backpack in the game. Maybe we can go hunting to gather them, if they put animals. But this might get the game out of it's purpose. This is not a survival game after all. Just saying this because, we might need more things to get busy with around the world other than the quests. Also, I think we need a compass in the hud. I find myself looking at the map too many times to see where I am headed. I know they are gonna work on the characters so I am not gonna talk negative about them for now. Fighting system needs some improvements. I never cared for my equipment or the enemies' health or level. Almost never used blocking. I just choose the stance that I use everytime and hit while enemy is aproaching. Win every time. I think they can add some other parameters to fights. Enemy changes their stances maybe and we make our move according to that? I don't know, it's not my business but I expect an improved fighting system. I like how you can decide to act against an npc. I saw a pirate guy, I had my chance to attack him but instead, I wanted to talk to him and things went different with a side quest. Also game has some easter eggs and jokes around the world. They were entertaining. I played end of the game twice with different dialog options with Kai. One of them has another joke about todays world. Some other things from my notes: -I think we need an option to eat foods without taking them in our bag. Bag management is a thing in this game and I wouldn't want to drop something, take the food, eat it, take the item you dropped back. -I played it with my controller. When I open loot menu, it drops the first item in the bag. Opening loot and dropping item use same button. Game continues to keep that button active after opening the inventory menu, so it drops it. I had to use my keyboard when I needed to go for looting. -Another controller problem: When I wanted to walk and push my left stick a little, character moves with the same running animaton but slowly like an old man. Kind of funny, but it takes you away from the atmosphere. -Active quest indicators are not visible if you are not looking at the right direction. I think at least we should see them as little dots or only the distance number when we look away from the quest directory. So we don't have to turn around and look for the quest mark everytime I get another quest. -Game stays in fps mode after a dialog. -Last one, inventory needs a compare system when we are looking for the equipment's stats. Especially on the loot menu. I have to go back to my inventory and see my equipments stats and go back to loot to compare them. Now, About some negative comments that I saw. I want to talk about them to make things clear for those who read their comments. What were you expecting really when you play beginning of a early access game when you say "it's just about helping people in the village."? Seriously, I am sure these guys never went for to the end of the game. What do you want? An epic and strong character at the beginning in an rpg game? Name one rpg game that you are like a boss and kill everyone and do epic quest at the start of your game. Have you guys forgotten that you delivered some shitty vegetables and stuff to High Hrotgar, 7000 steps above in Skyrim? Helped a cat to run away from Fort Joy in Original Sin 2? Dealed with Dandelion's messes in Witcher games? This is a beginning of a story, I don't know if it is going to be good or bad. It has to start somewhere. And it actually did at the end of the early access. Anyways, liked the game and enjoyed it. Price is good. Needs some more work and I want to trust that devs are gonna improve it.