Bleak Sword DX Reviews

nice

not bad, little frustrating sometimes but not bad.

A remarkable game. Graphics, gameplay and music are extremely cohesive. Few elements driven to their fullest to achieve great depth. Graphics are especially original, beautiful and, well, bleak. Combat done right feels awesome, but be warned: it can be very difficult. Those complaining about threadbare plot should consider that this is a minimalist game, although it's true that it could be deeper. Also, gameplay is not as airtight as it seems (necromancers are a slight blunder, several bosses are underwhelming, parry and counter mechanics can sometimes leave you exposed to attack, punishing you even when doing things right). Overall, however, it is VERY tight. Undeniably good whether you like it or not.

If you don't have the time for a whole Soulslike, this can scratch the same itch in a shorter time. The combat system is nicely boiled down to the essentials of Soulslike combat. The game is split into multiple stages, each with a handful of encounters. At the end of a stage, there is a bossfight. My main complaint is the way items work. They are given to you randomly at the end of a stage and usually are consumables that temporarily strengthen you for one stage. BUT, if you die, you drop your current XP and all items - meaning you can't use them anymore to make yourself stronger for the stage you're having difficulty with. You can beat this in an afternoon if you're good and keep at it. If you have limited time, this is a good way to spend it.

I liked this game--for the most part. The pixel art isn't too shabby, although relatively simplistic compared to virtually any other pixel game. In terms of difficulty, I got through the main game on normal in a little under 3 hours, but I've got a decent amount of Souls game experience. There's very little story, but I wasn't expecting much on that front so that's fine. With the extremely limited arena spaces, which I was a little concerned about, it turned out alright for the most part. Probably the best section in the game--for me--was riding on horseback. It was very creative compared to the rest of the game, and it felt very much like a lot of thought was put into it. And while I still recommend the game, I've got some gripes. Combat is based on a stamina system, but on top of that attacking does seem to randomly have a delay sometimes. That kind of nonsense makes for somewhat aggravating moments when you push the button, you've clearly got stamina to attack, and instead your character just does nothing. Too many almost deaths and some actual deaths from things completely out of player control. Difficulty is fine; not feeling like you've got control during combat is arbitrary, and bad. In addition to that, there's a few too many times when a boss or enemy just wombo-combos you. They attack; your dodge i-frames don't seem to trigger, and you get caught; the enemy prepares another attack as they spin/move, which hooks your body on them; the game delays your next dodge, so you get struck again; and suddenly, you die or lose almost all your health. Ultimately, as a player, I just give up and move onto the next try rather than bother interacting with the game. I would also complain that too many bosses have no parryable attacks. The game lets you parry, but deeper into the game the more it just doesn't really matter. Robbing the player of nuance and options, making everything into roll-spam, makes me feel less like I'm skilled and more like I'm just lucky to beat things. Of the three stats you can increase--attack, defense, HP--it means there's very little point to upgrading defense, because getting hit generally means losing anyway. It would be *better* if improving the defense stat allowed the player to parry more and more heavier hitting attacks, giving a reason to bother learning to parry and a separate strategy. While I recommend people try out the game, it's unlikely I'll be returning to this for a harder difficulty level or the arena mode or boss rush options.

Not worth 10 bucks, closer to 5, and that's if you enjoy it. I enjoy the game, but... Couldn't recommend. 5 dollar at most type game. Very, very, very grindy.