Shadow Prisoner Reviews

GAME IS GOOD. ONLINE IS BROKEN. FIX THE F##KING NETCODE AND REVIEW WILL BE POSITIVE

Purchased this game on a whim after seeing it will be at EVO 2025 as a BYOC side bracket, and it was surprisingly extremely fun. If you're looking to support an indie dev with clearly true love and passion for the genre then I highly recommend and hope you will buy this game. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] **Prefacing for all these bullet points that these are all my observations from the game. I'll try to point out when I'm not 100% certain about mechanics, but hopefully you can still get an idea of how the game is played** * Air-dasher/anime fighter with double jumps. Able to do double jumps and still retain your air dash afterwards. * 4 Button fighter typical of most anime fighters. With an A (Light Normal), B (Medium Normal), C (Heavy Normal), and D button (multiple functions, explained below). There is also an E button (Special), but from what I could discover on my own it is literally only used for one character in the game. * D Button is a major aspect of the game tied to several key mechanics. 1. While blocking, holding D will push back your opponent's further while you are guarding their move. It also negates chip damage received from blocking specials and supers. Tied to a separate gauge below your health bar that I will refer to as Barrier gauge. Mechanic works like Blazblue's Barrier. 2. While performing any normal, special, or super, pressing D while your stick is in neutral (not holding any direction) will cancel the startup/active/recovery frames for for 50% meter. I will refer to it as Rapid Cancel (RC) due to its similarities with Blazblue's mechanic of the same name. This is where combos can get nutty, and pressure gets absolutely fucked up and degenerate. 3. While holding forward, pressing D will forward dash. Will not work for backdash or airdash. * A+B is the Gift System, the defining aspect of the game. Gift is an "Enhanced" version of your character, but it varies per character. Some characters Gift will have them equipping a weapon which will unlock new and/or enhanced normals and specials, or an entirely new moveset altogether. Other Gifts will switch into a completely new character with an entirely unique and different moveset. Gift can also be used like RC as it will briefly freeze the screen and cancel any of your actions which enables for extended combos and pressure. There is a Gift gauge that is indicated near your health bar that will drain over time while you are in Gift. Once Gift runs out you must wait for it to refill completely until it can be used again. You are typically able to get at least 2 Gifts a round and it lasts awhile. * B+C is a ground throw with a whiff animation. It can be teched. Throws from observation seem to be unreactable/near instant, but you need to be point blank. There is also seemingly no throw invincibility on wake-up in this game. There are no back throws or air throws. * Most move list are about average for a fighter. Some characters have shorter move lists while some characters have long one. All motions primarily consist of 236 (qcb), 214 (qcb), 63124 (hcb), 41236 (hcf), and 623 (dp). * Canceling normals into each other work similar to BlazBlue = weaker normals cancel into higher strength, so A > B > C is the average combo route. * Standard anime fighter combos with jump cancelling normals into air combos and knockdown. Some characters have crazy loops, and I'm sure there's a lot more room for optimization in this game. * There is air blocking. * There is air teching. No ground techs. * Every character has different health totals. * Meter gauge is used for RC (50%) and Supers (100%). Meter gauge goes up to 300%. Absolutely insane meter gain in this game, with no meter penalty for RC or super. Meter is gained from hitting your opponent and seems to be the same regardless of hit or on block. Pressure is honestly pretty fucked up because of this and some characrters will absolutely make this a 1 player game as you eat mix-up after mix-up. There is no meter gain from being hit or blocking which makes the game feel insanely one-sided. * Every round both players will begin with 100% meter and full Gift Gauge. [h2]Positives[/h2] * A lot of basic QoTL that is very unexpected but appreciated for an indie fighting game. Things like in-game frame data (just missing if a move is + or - on block, has everything else), instant rematch, ssome characters with multiple costumes, fully functional training mode, etc. * Incredibly big roster with 4 unlockable characters. Considering the Gift system too, the roster size feels even "bigger" because you are literally playing a different character. * Story Mode. I can't comment fully because I need to sit down and go through it proper, but I was surprised to there was actually a decent amount of text. * Some characters have multiple costumes, although not the norm. * Color Editor. Can't comment fully as I have not had a chance to experiment with it. * Voice acting * Unexpectedly a decent soundtrack * Graphics gives me major 2000s nostalgia. Heavily reminds me of character models from the online MMO, Mabinogi. Although I can understand this can be a negative for some. * Pure fun anime insanity from the mechanics to the characters. I main "Perfect Schneider" who has fullscreen lasers, a one-button Fireball (5C), teleports, and is the only character in the game that I see where the E button has a purpose because he also has a puppet on top of that. Absolutely insane and cracked boss character, might be banworthy to be honest lmao. Among that, there are crazy things like regular Schneider 5C being a cancellable 2 hit normal that goes from low to overhead and feels unreactable, and to some other characters just having what feels like straight up unreactable high/low mix-ups in general. One girl in this game straight up has Urien's Aegis Reflector when she is in her Gift, while also having a super that setups a fullscreen laser that slowly fires off one at a time up to 5 times. [h2]Negatives[/h2] * Online is unplayable. Despite it having an actual decent lobby system with ranked and casual matches, I ended up having major game crashes and lag playing with a friend in the same region as me. We had to play the game on Parsec so that we could play each other. * Game feels very "unbalanced." Although this may be a positive for some. Mainly feel like if your character does not have access to hard knockdowns (typically off a super ender) then they can really struggle to get any pressure started. * Some stages can cause massive frame drops. I play on a PC that can run Street Fighter 6 fine on medium settings. I NEEDED to lower the graphical settings in this game just so it could run at 60 FPS lmao. It runs fine on training mode, but when you start playing on stages with assets in the background that are animated/moving it'll cause the game to drop to a 30 FPS. * Animations and visual effects look very dated. * Obviously an indie game so it isn't perfect and can be lacking in some features, but for its price tag and being an indie title I truly think it is worth its price tag. [h2]Suggestions[/h2] * Rework Meter Gain. 1. I'm fine with it being a 1 player game, but either every character should feel like that or it should be toned down where you're not blocking 5 mix-ups in a row but instead maybe 2 or 3. 2. Meter penalties for RC/Super perhaps. 3. Different meter gain dependant on if a move hits or is blocked. 4, Meter gain for defenders either naturally, or a sort of Instant Block system, or both. * Implement more defensive options. With how insane offense is, there needs to be some sort of defensive mechanics so matches don't feel one-sided. Either a Burst, Instant Block, back and air throws, ground tech, invincibile backdash, guard cancel, or something. Needs a bit more interactive gameplay for defenders (totally not a huge hidden buff to P-Schneider).

Responsive movement, snappy offense, fun characters, and an indescribable personality. Steam screenshots do not do this justice, you need the controller in your hands. In some ways, totally unpolished. In other ways, more polished than most high-profile commercial fighting games. Very excited to see where this goes...?!