Kiai Resonance Reviews

A really charming one-hit kill Samurai duel game which, sadly, feels incomplete. The art and gameplay are extremely evocative making you feel like you are actually dueling within a kaiga painting. The fighting system is very simple composed of three stances similar to rock-paper-scissors with precise button timing added into the mix. While simple the gameplay is definitely not simplistic forcing you to observe your opponent, strategise and precisely time your attack. Besides the offline duel mode (single and two player) there are also varied Challenges and online two-player (ranked and unranked) matches. I really like this game and what it offers. Unfortunately there isn't much content here. There are only two fighter outfits and three fields to fight in. Being able to customise your samurai would have been a great addition. Also online play is basically dead which makes completing ranked achievements a burden. There might be the possibility of arranging matches through the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/360450/discussions/]Community Hub[/url] beforehand to mitigate this issue. The game really is great and it pains me to say its only worth it at a discount because of its general abandonware feel.

The art is beautiful indeed, but that's all this game has to sell. The gameplay, albeit technical because it relies on reflexes and mindgame, is slow (on purpose, I assume, to fit with the zen atmosphere of the graphics and the music) and becomes boring quite fast. The content is rachitic for a solo player, and I don't see myself suggesting a friend to play with me when we could play Nidhogg. I got it for one dollar but it still felt too expensive, as someone else commented this game feels like a prototype, albeit promising but a prototype nonetheless.

Kiai Resonance is simple done right. The game is a 1v1 samurai 1-hit kill 2d fighter. The skills and controls are simple to learn - the game is more about picking a stance and timing your attack than memorizing combos. The content is somewhat limited. There is a reasonable tutorial, several challenges, and versus mode has a regular mode and a "rush" mode - in which both players run forward until they clash. That being said the game has enough content to be enjoyable, it would just be nice to see more. The art and music is simple and fits in well with the game. Kiai Resonance feels like it could be great with more content, however it is still fun as it stands. The price tag is very reasonable. You're not likely to face any surprises - if the trailer looks appealing then you will enjoy the game. Subscribe to my curator page for more local multiplayer recommendations: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/7189360/

After some hours playing, I have to say, this is a good game. Challenges are funny, they don't take much time anyway but still entertaining, I recommed doing them first before playing online, but that's up to each one. The singleplayer mode is for practice, since there is no story mode. There is also a local multiplayer for 2 players. The online is really fun, but since the matches are user-hosted, if the player hosting has a bad connection lag can be awful, also, there are not much players yet, but everyday since its release there are more players on the scoreboard. The visuals are beautiful, how some parts of the maps are animated, and some other are in a front layer, not all in the background, it really looks like a "living painting" with the warriors fighting. By the way, my favourite map is "Water" based on Tani Buncho's "Grasses and Moon" painting. The soundtrack is wonderful, I think it suits every map so good (each map has its own), but things to be said, the menu song, despite being relaxing, can become repetitive to some, because it's a short simple melody, and if you have a long wait for an online match, you have to listen to it until you find a player (if you have music activated in the options) The only bad thing I can say is that there's a lack of content, it would be nice to have some customization for the charachters, a "Challenge Editor" to make our own challenges and share them in the Workshop, more maps, for example. There is one unlockable map, making them 4 maps in total. To sum up, entertaining game, with more options than it may seem at first, it's a lot of fun when you learn "distracting techniques" and defeat a player with such tricks. The price is maybe a little high for the lack of content, but I do [b]not[/b] think it is actually abusive.

It honestly pains me to give this game a bad rating, but the truth is that there isnt much that this game offers. But on the other hand I absolutely love the conept of a fight game inside a japanese painting. The fighting is quite simple and rather boring. But with my brother we did manage to have fun for an entire hour with this game. I would accept the game as it is, if it wasnt that obvious that it is half finished. A lenghty and challanging campaign would be great alongside some more unlockable backgrounds. Regardless I think that is worth experiencing just for the sake of a great concept. However, just looking at the trailer/gameplay video might be enough for you to have that experience.

Overall a beautiful well designed game that had such great potential. Sadly this game decided to link online achievements to a completely dead game. Maybe if they focused on a story or even more gameplay elements when the bare bones of the in-game structure were really well made. My achievement hunters avoid. I got this in a bundle for free so I wouldn't pay the $5 price tag, wait for next sale. Also the font is atrocious

Kiai Resonance is a 2D, 2 player (local and online) where timing and 'stance' is everything. The game has a fantastic ambience to it, traditonal Japanese music and backgrounds: you do feel like you are playing hand drawn characters on cloth - I think the presentation for what is really a simple premise of a game is excellent. You have 3 modes of stance: high, low or middle. These modes combined with charge and jump back can make the game fall into the twitch game category, as you must strike from your stance at just the right moment: there is clearly some luck in there as well. Each stance is either a defence, counter strike or strike. I've just spent an hour playing the 'solo' portion of the game and found that the A.I. can be beaten quite easily, This is not a criticism as it would appear the real attraction of the game is the online component, which incidently has rankings: however I could not match up with anyone online [the game is afterall new, and I sincereley hope that people go online] The solo play is IMHO only available so you can get a feel for the stances and movement. There is also a section with challenges that will assist in your quest to follow Bushido and become the ultimate Samurai - these challenges, actually are quite challenging. If you like these sort of fighting games, get it. However it may be prudent to wait until it has some online action, as the solo and challenges will bore quickly. enjoy +cards +achievements

[i]Red as autumn leaves... ...I go to my ancestors... ...Will they accept me?[/i] GAMEPLAY: The gameplay of Kiai Resonance is, difficult to describe. It is a two-player, two-dimensional (2D) duelling game. Basically, you have two players in a 2D plane fighting with the same weapon, to the death. Speaking of Death, it's a one-hit kill system. If the sword as much grazes you, you instantly die, making the game very tense. It also makes it, in a sense, strategic. In my experience, most matches last less than a minute if they even reach thirty-seconds. This was how duels were in real life, very quick, brutal affairs. The player has many tricks to use against AI and Humans alike... The player has three stances, high, middle, and low. Each stance has it's own advantages and disadvantages. They have different purposes and different uses. Unlike Nidhogg, where each strike did the samething. Players can also parry, lock swords, and even charge/jump backwards. [i]All bleeding, friend and foe... ...streams fading into river calm... ...Finally we are one![/i] -[i]Ikeda Kanagonda[/i] GRAPHICS: The graphics of Kiai Resonance are not 'impressive' according to the current standard. However, they are in my opinion, amazing. It is in imitation of traditional Japanese art and fits the game's theme and feel perfectly. It is as if watching an animated painting, objects in the environment move as well. Also, unlike Nidhogg, this game already has working multiplayer. Complete with a ranking system. [i]Brothers around me... ...Cherry Blossoms falling from trees... ...The perfect death![/i] -[i]Point_Man[/i] [i]disclaimer: I totally got these haikus from the twcenter[/i]

A very good one-hit-kills game. You can make power shouts! Whoaaaaahhh! huuueooo! Has amazing Japanese samurai art and is short enough for you to only focus on having fun. To bring you closer to being a samurai you can have a drinking game, a sip of sake each time you fail to kill your opponent. P.S. If you manage to get all trading cards they offer beautiful and clean artwork in 1920x1080 (not a single watermark by the art creator).

The good: I think my favorite aspect of this game is how it looks like you're playing an animated painting. The art and animations are simplistic but really supplement the game. The gameplay itself plays out much like one might expect a one strike kill game to play. It's mostly a reimagining of rock paper scissors but with a twist. That twist being that you can see what your opponant is going to throw and can make changes, and so can he. So the match becomes a mind game as well as a test of twitch reflexes. The bad: Well the biggest problem that I've noticed is the lack of content and variation. All opponants look exactly the same and for all I know use the same AI. There's no kind of storymode that one might traditionally find in a fighting game. I haven't tried local versus mode, so I'll assume that functions, however the online competition has been a ghost town every time I've made the attempt. Final thoughts: Kiai Resonance feels like a great alpha build game. The core gameplay is beautiful and working as one might expect, but where's the content? Where are the different modes to offer some variety? I would be hopeful if this was an early access game that we might see the polish that this game deserves, but I see no indication that developement will continue. As of the time the I'm writing this review, Kiai Resonance is on sale for $4.49 and may be worth it just to enjoy the traditional styled Japanese art and get a small taste of some fun gameplay. For me, the lack of being able to do anything other than face the same AI over and over really takes away from the experience, so I don't see people really getting much playtime out of a title like this.