Hi! I'm Tom, Level Designer and 3D artist at ACE Team. Just wanted to thank you for taking your time to make such an awesome video on Clash. We're very proud here at ACE with the game, and seeing people enjoy it this much is always heartwarming. I'm really sad I didn't catch this video sooner, you definitely got a new subscriber!
This game had one of my favorite world designs ever! Everything is so detailed and fun to explore, while still feeling like a real world. I instantly bought and played the older ZC games after this one, and it was really fun to see how the world evolved (or de-evolved?) over the course of the story. I'm hoping the game sold well enough to warrant a sequel!
Map design is amazing in clash of artifacts, it beats dark souls 1 in my opinion. This game bought me mostly by exploration, such an adventure. It scratch that metrovidania vibe to me. Amazing work guys❤
I love how deeply you feel the games you talk about, and how you express yourself. When you poetically talk about the environments or even mechanics, it shows an impressionable nature, susceptible to the beauty that was crafted for one.
What a big video. Love to see Artifacts of Chaos get more acknowledgment and recognition. I still have to explore the first two Zeno Clash games for myself, even amidst what i hear about Zeno Clash 2. I hadn't experienced those before, so i am not as affected by the happenings of the series when i first stepped foot in Zenozoik through the Artifacts of Chaos. Which apparently is meant to be a prequel of sorts. Personally, regarding the combat, i think you've missed something by sticking only to the dominant strategy: truly defining a personal combat style. You seemed to barely touch upon it, but this is one of the main things that incentivizes exploration. There are of course ingredients to help making potions to heal, weapons for an extra edge in combat which replaces the main attack string, and the burnable figurines to upgrade individual styles and special attacks. And i think that *that* is what gives the gameplay its flavour. The different styles all have different animations and damage values, that some players may prefer over others. And attacks can be very quickly performed one after another, by pressing a new attack the *moment* a hit lands on an enemy. Let's take a look at the stances again: -Boxing Stance, simple and practical for most situations. -Claw Stance, i believe that the thing with this one is that it tends to avoid higher-hitting attacks, and its own attacks are quite wide. Though it's not as high damage. -Spear Stance, gives some extra range and seems to be based on concentrating a series of attacks on a single enemy from afar. -Mammoth stance has probably the highest base damage in the game, but it is also slow. -Corwid Stance is weird, as it should be. A kind of Drunken Boxing vibe, where the backwards attack makes DISTANCE and attacks back quite quickly. And i believe the sideways dodge is a headbutt that puts you back in the initial position. -Lightning Stance, Shadow Stance and Crab Stance i find harder to quantify based on my memories. In general, i think we'll have to find people more experienced with Fighting Games to take a look at, and analyze, the properties of the different stances. Now, with Mammoth Stance, it's definitely the slowest of all the styles. Especially in its main attack string. But the DODGE attacks come out quite quickly! And the Charge attack slams the ground, so if one manages to stagger or topple an enemy, and the opportunity is there-- drop that mastodont on the sucker. But if you seek a good normal attack string and decent dodge to pair with Mammoth's damage, to build your way up to staggering an opponent, then Boxing is your friend. Heck, you can even start a normal Boxing string, and switch stances at the end for a heavy Mammoth Stance string finisher. However, i don't think Mammoth Stance synergizes especially well with Spear Stance, for example, because that one is about keeping distance. And i find that Mammoth's greatest strengths lie in staying close to the enemy, and mainly using dodging attacks. That's only *one* example of the considerations one can make with the combat system and stances. And to add onto all of this, there's the Special Attacks. Rapid Punch is a great distance closer, and the Uppercut can be used to avoid a high-hitting attack in its chargeup animation. But if you want to attack enemies that are lying down with a high-damage attack, and aren't a fan of Mammoth stance as a whole: you can utilize the Axe Kick (for some reason defined as a Dropkick) to do the job. It doesn't hit AS hard, but it does come out faster. Of course a player is going to speed through it by using dominant strategies, but i find that a lot of the fun in this game is from crafting one's own fighting style, refining it, and upgrading it using the Figurine Burners. Though that last part (the upgrade figurines) for me, places it in a similar position to the weapons system in Darksiders. There is a base moveset, and there is a numbers part to it by way of equipment and weapons. Especially the crafting of a Possessed Weapon can trivialize most encounters. As such, most players may not try to become more technically proficient at the game. But i don't think the player is necessarily *forced* to do this. It can be a lot of fun, but if someone seeks extra challenge: you don't have to equip every new piece of better equipment. And similarly, in Clash, one doesn't *need* to keep on upgrading styles to raise their power and other properties. Admittedly, i suppose this comes more into the territory of using a personal challenge, rather than the game being tough from the outset. But on the plus side (for both Darksiders 2 and Clash), the requirement for an outside component does incentivize exploration. And Zenozoik is a beautiful world *more* than worth exploring. I wish Kya: Dark Lineage did a similar thing, or perhaps a more Ratchet & Clank type structure for adding new moves. Love that game, amidst all its shortcomings. So, uh, giant comment on my end. Sharing and saying how i feel about a specific thing, I guess. Do whatever you want with it. I don't really know how to end this message, other than: Thank you for taking the time to make this video, and i wish you a good rest of your week-- as well as good luck and fun on future projects, be they for YT or outside of it.
I did actually cut out a more detailed section on the combat stances and upgrade system because I didn't really like the way I had written it, it was getting too granular and didn't feel like I still wanted to encourage people to play the game. Your comment is a much better explanation and summation of the combat system than what I had. It lets the good shine through, and I definitely agree with this assessment. I don't know whether the range of attacks or the attack's hitbox really impacted my gameplay at all, though, but that's likely because I played with keyboard and mouse. I'd imagine those aspects would be much more meaningful on a controller, especially given that there's no triggered lock-on system. Clash also does better to explain the combat mechanics much better than Kya: Dark Lineage ever did, but they do have nearly 20 years of hindsight!
@@MEDYuzu Thank you for the reply, and the compliment on the explanation! I see. Fair enough, i don't know how much effort it takes to make a video, but i reckon if one gets stuck on a segment of writing, it can bring a hit onto the motivation to talk about that subject. And it's clear that the themes and narrative, along with the look of the world, are the part of Zeno Clash that most strongly have your attention. There actually is a lock-on system, on controller i believe it's done by pressing the R3 button/analog stick, but i haven't looked at the controls from the Main Menu to see how those can be triggered on keyboard. If you revisit Zeno Clash with a controller, i hope it may be a smoother time. What kind of combat style do you usually go for in games, outside of the dominant strategy? Keeping at a distance, close-up but evasive, punishing openings in enemies' animations and attacks, or something else? To be honest, on the front of actually *explaining* combat mechanics, i don't think Kya is necessarily worse than Clash: AoC. Heck, i didn't even know there was an attack performed from a running animation, until i had already finished the game and looked up others' stuff about it. I still went through the entire game having fun, with aforementioned Mammoth Stance being one of the most present ones at my side, but i switched up for a while whenever i found a new Special Attack or Stance. (WARNING: Big post incoming) In some ways, the explanations of combat in Kya are even faster. You select a bracelet, go into the Dojo, you get the button prompt to perform a move against the dummy-- and you're good to go! Do it well, and on to the next button prompt. And do that until you think you've got the hang of it. When it comes to moves where one had to hold the R2 button, that training place was welcome to finally get the hang of it. (I do have to admit, what helped me personally is that i wrote all the attacks and moves down on a piece of paper when i first collected all Bracelets) What I can hold against the tutorial in Kya, are two things: -Every time you succeed or fail one of the move inputs, there's a quick cut to Dojo owner Akasa celebrating or facepalming, and a voice clip. When it comes to combo strings like the second Bracelet's, you have to perform the full string, or else you hear the annoying voice clip every time you try to deviate from it. -And this, in turn, leads to not being able to experiment with moves in a safe space. The directional inputs for the Kick attacks that the second Bracelet offer, could offer a *wealth* of custom combo starters. Do a leg sweep twice in a row before performing a double salto kick to send the enemy flying, and then moving forward for a normal three-hit combo as the enemy falls down, for example. So in that regard, i'd say the combat in Kya is explained fine. But there's not really encouragement to experiment with moves in a controlled environment, especially with the annoying "You failed"/"good job!" animations of Akasa, and how there's not really a... i guess "freeform" mode in the Dojo, where Akasa DOESN't judge your every single action. Here's an example of some combo stuff a person has managed to come up with, while also depicting the full combat moveset! ua-cam.com/video/lUiUgy51NS4/v-deo.html Admittedly, these things are mainly combo-focused. But there's also the little wealth of evades and Grabs. I think those are simpler to get the hang of: Grabs are different based on positioning relative to the enemy, and can be used to knock Wolfun into one another. ...which admittedly, i never did. Or at least not in that *way*, with the side- and front grabs. BUT there is still merit in grabbing Wolfun from the back, to use them as human shield, biggol bowling ball or for the spinny flail move. And when paired with the side dodges and the Jumpover move, which are *fantastic* for repositioning oneself or, once again, send a Wolfun into their friends, there's a decent amount of opportunities to damage Wolfun that aren't strictly related to building custom combos. Other than the earlier-mentioned issues (and some others, like enemy positioning), i think the combat in Kya is still one of my favourites in any game out there. And I dearly hope for it to get a second chance sometime, so it may be able to live up to its potential. It's strong in gameplay, but not as strong in terms of charm. And i think that, instead of having random merchants sell the stuff you need, having different specific NPCs that offer the stuff you need at certain points could have done a lot to offset that. Kind of like in Ratchet and Clank. And the Wolfun as collectable could still come into play, with stuff like the merchant giving Kya a discount (or outright for free) if she's defeated a certain amount of Wolfun-- but if the player wants to get the tool *now*, they could spend some money to do so. Plus, it'd be fun to see NPCs that represent the different movesets of each Bracelet. Like a Kicker, a Grappler, an Evasive one, etc. You'd get an idea of what the bracelet offers, some extra personality to the world and the folks that inhabit it, and an option to buy it immediately or first explore to do some more fighting and exorcising. Sorry about this all, i'm rambling big-time. Kya may be to me what the Zeno Clash franchise is to, judging by how passionately you speak of the franchise. And there's not many people out there that talk about either. (though Zeno Clash is, fortunately, more accessible). If you read through it all: thank you for doing so. And again, thank you for taking the time to reply as well.
Wow, you are really selling Kya's combat system as something way better than what I remember playing! It has been 2 years since I played Kya and I wasn't particularly good at inputting combinations of attacks back then so I might think differently of it now. I definitely remember the later bosses and the big ninja Wulfen being able to block my attacks while they were attacking, though. I also checked my old video and I definitely didn't go to the Dojo whenever I got a new bracelet so I wasn't getting the full moveset with each upgrade haha! As for my preferred combat style, it depends on the game really. In World of Warcraft I liked to be up close and relentless, and those specs usually had great flexibility in movement which I'd always make use of. I remember healers used to get mad at me because I wouldn't stop running around. But then sometimes I like to equip a big sword and joust enemies. When I played Dark Souls, I got a huge Greatsword that attacked so slowly that I'd only ever hit an enemy once before rolling away to start again, and I really enjoyed that! It allowed the enemy to be more expressive instead of being stunlocked by my overwhelming offence. This is also how I like to play Hollow Knight; sword only, no magic. And I'm also partial to some ranged combat if the system fits. I like to micro in RTS games which is a thing that transfers pretty well to that Diablo style camera perspective and control scheme. I don't think I've ever played a game that you could use a stutter-step style movement to increase your damage outside of top down perspective games though, but it'd be awesome to see if someone has tried!
@@MEDYuzu I'm glad to hear that! There's quite a lot going on with the combat system there. In regards to the Kronos (the ninja mummy Wolfun) and enemies blocking, there's something you should know about it. If you use similar moves/combos more often, a Wolfun will defend more against that move. So you have to mix up what combos you hit them with. And enemies tend to learn from your inputs at different speeds. The Scrawnies and Grunts can come in color-coded varieties of Blue, Yellow and Black-colored garments, each color denoting the speed at which they learn your inputs and block accordingly-- as well as the presence of an extra move or two. For example, i believe that Wolfun Grunts in blue garments, are incapable of performing red-colored attacks that break guards, unless they wield a club. Generally the presence of a weapon influences the moveset too, of course, but the armed Scrawnies -regardless of color type- have a polevaulting move up their sleeve. It covers a lot of distance and knocks Kya back, but i generally find that they walk away for a short bit before performing that one. In any case, to come back to Wolfuns blocking: -As said before, you can try to avoid this by mixing up combos to hit them with. -You can find opportunities during their attack or windup animations to hit them, like sidestepping when a Wolfun performs an attack straight ahead and using any which attack to punish them. -Which partially doubles for the next point: repositioning yourself. The aforementioned sidestep is great in this regard, but so is the Jumpover move. No Wolfun can defend from the back, though Kronos are immune to this. -Any grab is a hard counter to a block, which goes for both Kya and the Wolfun. Though for Kya, it's a bit finicky to pull off where it concerns distance between her and a Wolfun. -And of course, you can use the Wolfun themselves to inflict damage. I haven't seen this being done often, or done it deliberately myself. But Wolfun falling down from uppercuts; being knocked into their allies from sidegrabs (elbow shoves) or the Overboard grab (left analog stick away from enemy + grab) that launches them behind Kya; jumping on their backs to bulldoze them into their allies, or grabbing their tail to spin them around like Bowser (provided you have enough windup time) ; or plain use them as human shield and kick them into incoming enemies: it's all great options to harm the Wolfun. Oh, also final thing regarding the Kronos: A while back i did some experimenting, and found that in a three-hit punch combo, if they are blocking, they often teleport on the third hit to the side, in an attempt to counterattack. But by pressing the Grab button quickly enough, i was able to grab them *before* they could pull off their attack. I have to admit, it's been a while and I don't know how regularly or consistently this could be pulled off, but i'm still kinda proud of myself for having found that. If you ever find yourself returning to Kya, i hope it may be a more interesting time for you! It's not top-of-the-line or the best, but by something, does it try. And for me, i think it generally does what it does quite well. I see! I've never played WoW, but i reckon that for some bosses, the extra mobility is more than welcome. That's really a number of different combat styles for different games, based on all what you describe. The term "micro" in this context, i presume refers to the term micro-managing? Like taking care of one's items, assets and resources and planning ahead in smaller instances to work towards a big picture? I'm not very experienced where it concerns RTS games and their techniques-- as you can tell, i've been more at action games with my mind.
I stumbled across this game while looking at discounted game titles, and was shocked to see "CLASH" with the same font from Zeno Clash. I absolutely loved the first game, and knew I had to pick this up. I was a bit sad to see the reception to this game was just either the usual "Why doesn't this have the polish of a triple A game?" and "soulslike", but I'm quite thankful someone did a proper review for this game. Great work, you got a new subscriber!
As a guy who pronounces things wrong randomly all the time, and speaks with people who say other languages, I can't imagine the citizens of Zenozoik care about pronouncing things wrong. I would say them saying things wrong is even better, if not really an oversight.
Excellent review yuzu although you did not mention the sublime soundtrack or the inventory system that ties in with the weapon crafting mechanic but overall it was concise and. informative but about that whole "Pseudo Anarchy" aspect you commented on it make sense because Clash: artefacts of chaos is a prequel to the first two Zeno clash titles taking place hundreds if not a thousand years in the past. so things would obviously be different the semi ordered society of the inhabitants Zenozoik is the result of the ritual which is actually just the bastardisation of their previous law and governmental system that wasn't just a dice game because it is stated that when. the chimeras and humans were first locked away in Zenozoik they built their own civilisation that was much more structured and ordered but through subsequent generations would degrade over time whether by the. Zenos becoming more neurotic by their chimerism or by another problem made them forget the old ways and they had to cling onto the things they still possessed . it also ties into with the original Zeno clash games being completely lawless is that at the end of the game Pseudo after being heart broken by his adopted son leaving him came to the conclusion that the. ritual was unjust and tyrannic because it lead to the dictatorial rule of Gemini so he destroyed the artefact of pain rendering the ritual useless making Zenozoik truly lawless. P.S the checkerboard pattern you see throughout the game isn't just thematically connected to the dice game but is also a reference to the punk fantasy illustrator John Blanche who used the pattern in his artworks that are taken as inspiration for Zenoclash.
The combat and the camera actually makes me think a lot of GodHand. In GodHand, you have a similar limitation with the camera (with a few differences). Your character (Gene) is very fast. He can't block anything but he can dodge just about everything. That and there are plenty of tricks and tips with the animation cancelling and what not. GodHand is a very good (if flawed) game, and the combat in this game made me think of that (albeit not as over the top in some aspects)
Amazing video! I'm so glad that a semblance of discourse now exists for the wonderfully weird world of Zenozoik. Thus, I hope to add something to the discourse! I think Word pronouncing it "zen-oh-zoh-ik" could actually be intentional! In ZC2, when you gather the cubes and go into the Last Tomb, you find text detailing the exile of the first peoples that became the population of Zenozoik. It reveals that the original name of the land was actually "Cenozoic". If I recall correctly, it was to reference the new and raw nature of what that land would represent. So, Word might still be using a pronunciation of "Zenozoik" more similar to "Cenozoic," because he could have been around to remember that older name. Thank you for your wonderfully verbose work in opening up opportunities for conversations such as this!
I appreciate the shout out! I was worried I went a little too far and got condescending in my comment, but Im glad you could appreciate my perspective!
Its worth noting that some of my thoughts and observations were inspired by a recent spice8rack video that discussed the history of mental healthcare, though you were right in assuming id had personal experiences informing my take as well.
I'm sorry to hear you've been having troubles, I hope you've been doing better. Spice8rack isn't a channel name I'm familiar with, I might have to check them out
I just finished Clash a week ago and I have to disagree with your thoughts about Word. His entire presence serves mostly to highlight Pseudo's personality and character development. At this point in the story the player is hopefully invested enough to care about what the creature has to say, whereas Pseudo treats him just as you'd expect, cementing the impression he already gave you along the journey. It was clearly directed to be this way.
Thia game reminds me of neir. Nobody talked about it when it came out and the reviews were pretty low. It found a place in my heart and this game has also. Great ost and visual style. Fun characters and good story.
Was looking forward to your review on this one. I bought it yesterday, I'm about 5 hours in. So far I think it's better than ZC2 but not as good as the first one. The first contact with Zenozoik on ZC1 was done so incredibly and I think they didn't do as good a job when they switched from linear to semi open world. I don't think the world is as much fun when it's done like this, but that's just me. The artifact dice game is nothing special but I thought the concept was really cool, also the artifacts themselves look cool as well. I'm not sure if it's a soulslike game thing (since I never played one before) or this game in specific but the instructions are kind of vague and confusing (apart from the combat, which is pretty straight forward). The visuals are amazing but the whole part about collectibles and even the UI was not done very well imo. I'm still having fun with it but not as much as I hoped. At least so far. Also, how do I equip clothes? I bought two pieces but pseudo didn't equip them automatically haha, or maybe the game glitched, idk.
There's a whole row of tabs in the inventory menu, it's a little cluttered because of HOW MANY things you can customise so it's understandable that you'd miss it. I don't disagree with the levels vs open world thing, honestly. The more directed experience is usually a better one, but then the run time takes a hit and they probably didn't want people saying the game was too short. Making an open world at least handles that aspect better. And also the whole Dark Souls style interconnected world design thing they were going for. The people are HUNGRY for that style of world design, and I think they did a great job capturing that
@@MEDYuzu God, I didn't even KNOW there was an inventory haha. I looked over the controls now as I did before and it doesn't mention an inventory or the I key anywhere, which I instinctively typed and it opened. Now the collectibles actually make sense. Thank you!
the way I read GEMINI motivations is that she just want to heal her other heads, no matter the price. but it is not the personal price that she should have been concerned about rather the price of send her civilians to hunt Pseudo down. it's a boring read which is probably why ace team kept it vague.
I think her motivation is a bit more insidious when you remember the boy can only do major healing by transferring life energy from one source to another. That means in order to heal herself, she'd have to drain the life from others.
nothing is well communicated in this game. even a successful parry isn't obvious, the feedback and animations are not clear. the hits have zero weight or feeling. the art is all this game has going for it. the gameplay itself below average. the exploration is dreadful. stick to the edges of the map(corridors) and spam the pickup button. sleep and walk those same spots all over again? nah hell no. art style is what gets this game a pass.
hello Yuzu This game is BEAUTIFUL Grotesque it's on Xbox so i will purchase it to support the Devs as it's an obvious Labour of Love and such creativity should nurtured
![[Tomato] Clash: Artifacts of Chaos : I'm VERY powerful. People FEAR me. :(](/img/n.gif)
Hi! I'm Tom, Level Designer and 3D artist at ACE Team. Just wanted to thank you for taking your time to make such an awesome video on Clash. We're very proud here at ACE with the game, and seeing people enjoy it this much is always heartwarming. I'm really sad I didn't catch this video sooner, you definitely got a new subscriber!
You guys really made something special! I'm so happy to have had the privilege of playing such a wonderful game
This game had one of my favorite world designs ever! Everything is so detailed and fun to explore, while still feeling like a real world. I instantly bought and played the older ZC games after this one, and it was really fun to see how the world evolved (or de-evolved?) over the course of the story. I'm hoping the game sold well enough to warrant a sequel!
just saw the game in my local store and bought it :-) looks cool can`t wait to try it out.
Hands down my new fav. game m8
Map design is amazing in clash of artifacts, it beats dark souls 1 in my opinion. This game bought me mostly by exploration, such an adventure. It scratch that metrovidania vibe to me. Amazing work guys❤
I love how deeply you feel the games you talk about, and how you express yourself. When you poetically talk about the environments or even mechanics, it shows an impressionable nature, susceptible to the beauty that was crafted for one.
5:23 It is pretty implied she is sick somehow, as the MC states more than once that she is ''rotting''. Therefore the need for the boy bird abilities.
What a big video. Love to see Artifacts of Chaos get more acknowledgment and recognition.
I still have to explore the first two Zeno Clash games for myself, even amidst what i hear about Zeno Clash 2. I hadn't experienced those before, so i am not as affected by the happenings of the series when i first stepped foot in Zenozoik through the Artifacts of Chaos. Which apparently is meant to be a prequel of sorts.
Personally, regarding the combat, i think you've missed something by sticking only to the dominant strategy: truly defining a personal combat style.
You seemed to barely touch upon it, but this is one of the main things that incentivizes exploration. There are of course ingredients to help making potions to heal, weapons for an extra edge in combat which replaces the main attack string, and the burnable figurines to upgrade individual styles and special attacks.
And i think that *that* is what gives the gameplay its flavour. The different styles all have different animations and damage values, that some players may prefer over others. And attacks can be very quickly performed one after another, by pressing a new attack the *moment* a hit lands on an enemy.
Let's take a look at the stances again:
-Boxing Stance, simple and practical for most situations.
-Claw Stance, i believe that the thing with this one is that it tends to avoid higher-hitting attacks, and its own attacks are quite wide. Though it's not as high damage.
-Spear Stance, gives some extra range and seems to be based on concentrating a series of attacks on a single enemy from afar.
-Mammoth stance has probably the highest base damage in the game, but it is also slow.
-Corwid Stance is weird, as it should be. A kind of Drunken Boxing vibe, where the backwards attack makes DISTANCE and attacks back quite quickly. And i believe the sideways dodge is a headbutt that puts you back in the initial position.
-Lightning Stance, Shadow Stance and Crab Stance i find harder to quantify based on my memories. In general, i think we'll have to find people more experienced with Fighting Games to take a look at, and analyze, the properties of the different stances.
Now, with Mammoth Stance, it's definitely the slowest of all the styles. Especially in its main attack string. But the DODGE attacks come out quite quickly! And the Charge attack slams the ground, so if one manages to stagger or topple an enemy, and the opportunity is there-- drop that mastodont on the sucker.
But if you seek a good normal attack string and decent dodge to pair with Mammoth's damage, to build your way up to staggering an opponent, then Boxing is your friend. Heck, you can even start a normal Boxing string, and switch stances at the end for a heavy Mammoth Stance string finisher.
However, i don't think Mammoth Stance synergizes especially well with Spear Stance, for example, because that one is about keeping distance. And i find that Mammoth's greatest strengths lie in staying close to the enemy, and mainly using dodging attacks.
That's only *one* example of the considerations one can make with the combat system and stances. And to add onto all of this, there's the Special Attacks. Rapid Punch is a great distance closer, and the Uppercut can be used to avoid a high-hitting attack in its chargeup animation. But if you want to attack enemies that are lying down with a high-damage attack, and aren't a fan of Mammoth stance as a whole: you can utilize the Axe Kick (for some reason defined as a Dropkick) to do the job. It doesn't hit AS hard, but it does come out faster.
Of course a player is going to speed through it by using dominant strategies, but i find that a lot of the fun in this game is from crafting one's own fighting style, refining it, and upgrading it using the Figurine Burners.
Though that last part (the upgrade figurines) for me, places it in a similar position to the weapons system in Darksiders. There is a base moveset, and there is a numbers part to it by way of equipment and weapons. Especially the crafting of a Possessed Weapon can trivialize most encounters. As such, most players may not try to become more technically proficient at the game.
But i don't think the player is necessarily *forced* to do this. It can be a lot of fun, but if someone seeks extra challenge: you don't have to equip every new piece of better equipment. And similarly, in Clash, one doesn't *need* to keep on upgrading styles to raise their power and other properties.
Admittedly, i suppose this comes more into the territory of using a personal challenge, rather than the game being tough from the outset.
But on the plus side (for both Darksiders 2 and Clash), the requirement for an outside component does incentivize exploration. And Zenozoik is a beautiful world *more* than worth exploring.
I wish Kya: Dark Lineage did a similar thing, or perhaps a more Ratchet & Clank type structure for adding new moves. Love that game, amidst all its shortcomings.
So, uh, giant comment on my end. Sharing and saying how i feel about a specific thing, I guess. Do whatever you want with it. I don't really know how to end this message, other than: Thank you for taking the time to make this video, and i wish you a good rest of your week-- as well as good luck and fun on future projects, be they for YT or outside of it.
I did actually cut out a more detailed section on the combat stances and upgrade system because I didn't really like the way I had written it, it was getting too granular and didn't feel like I still wanted to encourage people to play the game. Your comment is a much better explanation and summation of the combat system than what I had. It lets the good shine through, and I definitely agree with this assessment. I don't know whether the range of attacks or the attack's hitbox really impacted my gameplay at all, though, but that's likely because I played with keyboard and mouse. I'd imagine those aspects would be much more meaningful on a controller, especially given that there's no triggered lock-on system.
Clash also does better to explain the combat mechanics much better than Kya: Dark Lineage ever did, but they do have nearly 20 years of hindsight!
@@MEDYuzu Thank you for the reply, and the compliment on the explanation!
I see. Fair enough, i don't know how much effort it takes to make a video, but i reckon if one gets stuck on a segment of writing, it can bring a hit onto the motivation to talk about that subject. And it's clear that the themes and narrative, along with the look of the world, are the part of Zeno Clash that most strongly have your attention.
There actually is a lock-on system, on controller i believe it's done by pressing the R3 button/analog stick, but i haven't looked at the controls from the Main Menu to see how those can be triggered on keyboard. If you revisit Zeno Clash with a controller, i hope it may be a smoother time.
What kind of combat style do you usually go for in games, outside of the dominant strategy? Keeping at a distance, close-up but evasive, punishing openings in enemies' animations and attacks, or something else?
To be honest, on the front of actually *explaining* combat mechanics, i don't think Kya is necessarily worse than Clash: AoC. Heck, i didn't even know there was an attack performed from a running animation, until i had already finished the game and looked up others' stuff about it.
I still went through the entire game having fun, with aforementioned Mammoth Stance being one of the most present ones at my side, but i switched up for a while whenever i found a new Special Attack or Stance.
(WARNING: Big post incoming)
In some ways, the explanations of combat in Kya are even faster. You select a bracelet, go into the Dojo, you get the button prompt to perform a move against the dummy-- and you're good to go! Do it well, and on to the next button prompt. And do that until you think you've got the hang of it.
When it comes to moves where one had to hold the R2 button, that training place was welcome to finally get the hang of it.
(I do have to admit, what helped me personally is that i wrote all the attacks and moves down on a piece of paper when i first collected all Bracelets)
What I can hold against the tutorial in Kya, are two things:
-Every time you succeed or fail one of the move inputs, there's a quick cut to Dojo owner Akasa celebrating or facepalming, and a voice clip. When it comes to combo strings like the second Bracelet's, you have to perform the full string, or else you hear the annoying voice clip every time you try to deviate from it.
-And this, in turn, leads to not being able to experiment with moves in a safe space. The directional inputs for the Kick attacks that the second Bracelet offer, could offer a *wealth* of custom combo starters. Do a leg sweep twice in a row before performing a double salto kick to send the enemy flying, and then moving forward for a normal three-hit combo as the enemy falls down, for example.
So in that regard, i'd say the combat in Kya is explained fine. But there's not really encouragement to experiment with moves in a controlled environment, especially with the annoying "You failed"/"good job!" animations of Akasa, and how there's not really a... i guess "freeform" mode in the Dojo, where Akasa DOESN't judge your every single action.
Here's an example of some combo stuff a person has managed to come up with, while also depicting the full combat moveset!
ua-cam.com/video/lUiUgy51NS4/v-deo.html
Admittedly, these things are mainly combo-focused. But there's also the little wealth of evades and Grabs. I think those are simpler to get the hang of: Grabs are different based on positioning relative to the enemy, and can be used to knock Wolfun into one another. ...which admittedly, i never did. Or at least not in that *way*, with the side- and front grabs.
BUT there is still merit in grabbing Wolfun from the back, to use them as human shield, biggol bowling ball or for the spinny flail move.
And when paired with the side dodges and the Jumpover move, which are *fantastic* for repositioning oneself or, once again, send a Wolfun into their friends, there's a decent amount of opportunities to damage Wolfun that aren't strictly related to building custom combos.
Other than the earlier-mentioned issues (and some others, like enemy positioning), i think the combat in Kya is still one of my favourites in any game out there. And I dearly hope for it to get a second chance sometime, so it may be able to live up to its potential. It's strong in gameplay, but not as strong in terms of charm.
And i think that, instead of having random merchants sell the stuff you need, having different specific NPCs that offer the stuff you need at certain points could have done a lot to offset that. Kind of like in Ratchet and Clank.
And the Wolfun as collectable could still come into play, with stuff like the merchant giving Kya a discount (or outright for free) if she's defeated a certain amount of Wolfun-- but if the player wants to get the tool *now*, they could spend some money to do so.
Plus, it'd be fun to see NPCs that represent the different movesets of each Bracelet. Like a Kicker, a Grappler, an Evasive one, etc.
You'd get an idea of what the bracelet offers, some extra personality to the world and the folks that inhabit it, and an option to buy it immediately or first explore to do some more fighting and exorcising.
Sorry about this all, i'm rambling big-time. Kya may be to me what the Zeno Clash franchise is to, judging by how passionately you speak of the franchise. And there's not many people out there that talk about either. (though Zeno Clash is, fortunately, more accessible).
If you read through it all: thank you for doing so. And again, thank you for taking the time to reply as well.
Wow, you are really selling Kya's combat system as something way better than what I remember playing! It has been 2 years since I played Kya and I wasn't particularly good at inputting combinations of attacks back then so I might think differently of it now. I definitely remember the later bosses and the big ninja Wulfen being able to block my attacks while they were attacking, though. I also checked my old video and I definitely didn't go to the Dojo whenever I got a new bracelet so I wasn't getting the full moveset with each upgrade haha!
As for my preferred combat style, it depends on the game really. In World of Warcraft I liked to be up close and relentless, and those specs usually had great flexibility in movement which I'd always make use of. I remember healers used to get mad at me because I wouldn't stop running around. But then sometimes I like to equip a big sword and joust enemies. When I played Dark Souls, I got a huge Greatsword that attacked so slowly that I'd only ever hit an enemy once before rolling away to start again, and I really enjoyed that! It allowed the enemy to be more expressive instead of being stunlocked by my overwhelming offence. This is also how I like to play Hollow Knight; sword only, no magic. And I'm also partial to some ranged combat if the system fits. I like to micro in RTS games which is a thing that transfers pretty well to that Diablo style camera perspective and control scheme. I don't think I've ever played a game that you could use a stutter-step style movement to increase your damage outside of top down perspective games though, but it'd be awesome to see if someone has tried!
@@MEDYuzu I'm glad to hear that! There's quite a lot going on with the combat system there.
In regards to the Kronos (the ninja mummy Wolfun) and enemies blocking, there's something you should know about it.
If you use similar moves/combos more often, a Wolfun will defend more against that move. So you have to mix up what combos you hit them with. And enemies tend to learn from your inputs at different speeds.
The Scrawnies and Grunts can come in color-coded varieties of Blue, Yellow and Black-colored garments, each color denoting the speed at which they learn your inputs and block accordingly-- as well as the presence of an extra move or two.
For example, i believe that Wolfun Grunts in blue garments, are incapable of performing red-colored attacks that break guards, unless they wield a club.
Generally the presence of a weapon influences the moveset too, of course, but the armed Scrawnies -regardless of color type- have a polevaulting move up their sleeve. It covers a lot of distance and knocks Kya back, but i generally find that they walk away for a short bit before performing that one.
In any case, to come back to Wolfuns blocking:
-As said before, you can try to avoid this by mixing up combos to hit them with.
-You can find opportunities during their attack or windup animations to hit them, like sidestepping when a Wolfun performs an attack straight ahead and using any which attack to punish them.
-Which partially doubles for the next point: repositioning yourself. The aforementioned sidestep is great in this regard, but so is the Jumpover move. No Wolfun can defend from the back, though Kronos are immune to this.
-Any grab is a hard counter to a block, which goes for both Kya and the Wolfun. Though for Kya, it's a bit finicky to pull off where it concerns distance between her and a Wolfun.
-And of course, you can use the Wolfun themselves to inflict damage. I haven't seen this being done often, or done it deliberately myself.
But Wolfun falling down from uppercuts; being knocked into their allies from sidegrabs (elbow shoves) or the Overboard grab (left analog stick away from enemy + grab) that launches them behind Kya;
jumping on their backs to bulldoze them into their allies, or grabbing their tail to spin them around like Bowser (provided you have enough windup time) ;
or plain use them as human shield and kick them into incoming enemies: it's all great options to harm the Wolfun.
Oh, also final thing regarding the Kronos:
A while back i did some experimenting, and found that in a three-hit punch combo, if they are blocking, they often teleport on the third hit to the side, in an attempt to counterattack.
But by pressing the Grab button quickly enough, i was able to grab them *before* they could pull off their attack.
I have to admit, it's been a while and I don't know how regularly or consistently this could be pulled off, but i'm still kinda proud of myself for having found that.
If you ever find yourself returning to Kya, i hope it may be a more interesting time for you! It's not top-of-the-line or the best, but by something, does it try. And for me, i think it generally does what it does quite well.
I see! I've never played WoW, but i reckon that for some bosses, the extra mobility is more than welcome. That's really a number of different combat styles for different games, based on all what you describe.
The term "micro" in this context, i presume refers to the term micro-managing? Like taking care of one's items, assets and resources and planning ahead in smaller instances to work towards a big picture?
I'm not very experienced where it concerns RTS games and their techniques-- as you can tell, i've been more at action games with my mind.
I stumbled across this game while looking at discounted game titles, and was shocked to see "CLASH" with the same font from Zeno Clash. I absolutely loved the first game, and knew I had to pick this up. I was a bit sad to see the reception to this game was just either the usual "Why doesn't this have the polish of a triple A game?" and "soulslike", but I'm quite thankful someone did a proper review for this game. Great work, you got a new subscriber!
After playing this for myself I haven’t seen many people talk about it in the same way you have! Fantastic essay, you just earned an new sub!
This game is a peak action packed adventure
As a guy who pronounces things wrong randomly all the time, and speaks with people who say other languages, I can't imagine the citizens of Zenozoik care about pronouncing things wrong. I would say them saying things wrong is even better, if not really an oversight.
Excellent review yuzu although you did not mention the sublime soundtrack or the inventory system that ties in with the weapon crafting mechanic but overall it was concise and. informative but about that whole "Pseudo Anarchy" aspect you commented on it make sense because Clash: artefacts of chaos is a prequel to the first two Zeno clash titles taking place hundreds if not a thousand years in the past. so things would obviously be different the semi ordered society of the inhabitants Zenozoik is the result of the ritual which is actually just the bastardisation of their previous law and governmental system that wasn't just a dice game because it is stated that when. the chimeras and humans were first locked away in Zenozoik they built their own civilisation that was much more structured and ordered but through subsequent generations would degrade over time whether by the. Zenos becoming more neurotic by their chimerism or by another problem made them forget the old ways and they had to cling onto the things they still possessed . it also ties into with the original Zeno clash games being completely lawless is that at the end of the game Pseudo after being heart broken by his adopted son leaving him came to the conclusion that the. ritual was unjust and tyrannic because it lead to the dictatorial rule of Gemini so he destroyed the artefact of pain rendering the ritual useless making Zenozoik truly lawless. P.S the checkerboard pattern you see throughout the game isn't just thematically connected to the dice game but is also a reference to the punk fantasy illustrator John Blanche who used the pattern in his artworks that are taken as inspiration for Zenoclash.
The warhammer guy?
@@MEDYuzu yes he also did illustrations for Steve Jacksons sorcery series which the developers read.
I've been waiting for some to cover this for such a long time! Cant wait to watch this through
The combat and the camera actually makes me think a lot of GodHand.
In GodHand, you have a similar limitation with the camera (with a few differences). Your character (Gene) is very fast. He can't block anything but he can dodge just about everything. That and there are plenty of tricks and tips with the animation cancelling and what not. GodHand is a very good (if flawed) game, and the combat in this game made me think of that (albeit not as over the top in some aspects)
Amazing video! I'm so glad that a semblance of discourse now exists for the wonderfully weird world of Zenozoik. Thus, I hope to add something to the discourse!
I think Word pronouncing it "zen-oh-zoh-ik" could actually be intentional! In ZC2, when you gather the cubes and go into the Last Tomb, you find text detailing the exile of the first peoples that became the population of Zenozoik. It reveals that the original name of the land was actually "Cenozoic". If I recall correctly, it was to reference the new and raw nature of what that land would represent. So, Word might still be using a pronunciation of "Zenozoik" more similar to "Cenozoic," because he could have been around to remember that older name.
Thank you for your wonderfully verbose work in opening up opportunities for conversations such as this!
I appreciate the shout out! I was worried I went a little too far and got condescending in my comment, but Im glad you could appreciate my perspective!
Its worth noting that some of my thoughts and observations were inspired by a recent spice8rack video that discussed the history of mental healthcare, though you were right in assuming id had personal experiences informing my take as well.
I'm sorry to hear you've been having troubles, I hope you've been doing better.
Spice8rack isn't a channel name I'm familiar with, I might have to check them out
I just finished Clash a week ago and I have to disagree with your thoughts about Word. His entire presence serves mostly to highlight Pseudo's personality and character development. At this point in the story the player is hopefully invested enough to care about what the creature has to say, whereas Pseudo treats him just as you'd expect, cementing the impression he already gave you along the journey. It was clearly directed to be this way.
Surprised and delighted to see any mention of this game, let alone a half hour review of the underlying political themes. Great work!
Thia game reminds me of neir. Nobody talked about it when it came out and the reviews were pretty low. It found a place in my heart and this game has also. Great ost and visual style. Fun characters and good story.
Was looking forward to your review on this one. I bought it yesterday, I'm about 5 hours in. So far I think it's better than ZC2 but not as good as the first one. The first contact with Zenozoik on ZC1 was done so incredibly and I think they didn't do as good a job when they switched from linear to semi open world. I don't think the world is as much fun when it's done like this, but that's just me.
The artifact dice game is nothing special but I thought the concept was really cool, also the artifacts themselves look cool as well.
I'm not sure if it's a soulslike game thing (since I never played one before) or this game in specific but the instructions are kind of vague and confusing (apart from the combat, which is pretty straight forward). The visuals are amazing but the whole part about collectibles and even the UI was not done very well imo.
I'm still having fun with it but not as much as I hoped. At least so far.
Also, how do I equip clothes? I bought two pieces but pseudo didn't equip them automatically haha, or maybe the game glitched, idk.
There's a whole row of tabs in the inventory menu, it's a little cluttered because of HOW MANY things you can customise so it's understandable that you'd miss it.
I don't disagree with the levels vs open world thing, honestly. The more directed experience is usually a better one, but then the run time takes a hit and they probably didn't want people saying the game was too short. Making an open world at least handles that aspect better. And also the whole Dark Souls style interconnected world design thing they were going for. The people are HUNGRY for that style of world design, and I think they did a great job capturing that
@@MEDYuzu God, I didn't even KNOW there was an inventory haha. I looked over the controls now as I did before and it doesn't mention an inventory or the I key anywhere, which I instinctively typed and it opened. Now the collectibles actually make sense. Thank you!
@@jin-yoshida Wow, that's really strange! I should've probably mentioned that in the video
How could I have slept on this gem?
I just bought this game for 8 uk pounds can't wait to play i hope it is as good as it looks
Subscribed for POG ROCK
the way I read GEMINI motivations is that she just want to heal her other heads, no matter the price. but it is not the personal price that she should have been concerned about rather the price of send her civilians to hunt Pseudo down. it's a boring read which is probably why ace team kept it vague.
I think her motivation is a bit more insidious when you remember the boy can only do major healing by transferring life energy from one source to another. That means in order to heal herself, she'd have to drain the life from others.
I was a little thrown off because the other one you talked about was first person
Yeah, the other 2 were in first person, and they also had normal-ish humans in them too
This is terrible, yet beatiful game. I love the idea (and the cold logic of the golem if you make it to the end - which, sadly, applies to me).
who knows there might be a sequel
What was the game at the beginning!?
Original Zeno Clash on the 360
She peed on herself and then starved.
i came into this expecting/hoping that this game was gonna be trashed on but now im actually convinced to maybe get it on a good sale
You wanted it to be bad?
nothing is well communicated in this game. even a successful parry isn't obvious, the feedback and animations are not clear. the hits have zero weight or feeling. the art is all this game has going for it. the gameplay itself below average. the exploration is dreadful. stick to the edges of the map(corridors) and spam the pickup button. sleep and walk those same spots all over again? nah hell no. art style is what gets this game a pass.
In other words it's yet another game bogged down by politics.
hello Yuzu This game is BEAUTIFUL Grotesque it's on Xbox so i will purchase it to support the Devs as it's an obvious Labour of Love and such creativity should nurtured
You're entitled to your wrong opinions.