Hi! I was art director on Slave Zero X (I designed characters/enemies/painted cutscene sprites etc.), and while I didn't handle gameplay, which your review was primarily concerned with, I wanted to express my thanks for such an in-depth assessment! It's really worthwhile hearing someone with an understanding of our own influences reflect on the title. We have plans to continue iterating on the existing design and incorporating player feedback as much as possible! I'm glad you felt able to recommend us - it means a lot coming from someone with your experience!
While I'll say everything Mark has said in his review is 100% correct, I still do commend the team. This title definitely needs polish, mostly gameplay, but it's still such a fantastic thing that it could be made in 2024. We don't get games like this anymore, and I'm hoping we can see it continue to grow and be improved upon. Thanks for all the hard work the team did!
Thank you for your work on Slave Zero X man. I really love your art on this game, I could never imagine a more perfect art style tailored for me personally, and it instantly pulled me in when I saw the trailers for this game a few months back. I'm still mixed on the gameplay as a whole and I'll consider repurchasing and re-evaluating my response, but damn I hope you get more work because you did fantastic for a game I just learn about on an after thought.
That's awesome to hear francine! Well you did an outstanding job on the game, no doubt about it. I really love the art of this game and I think it's hands down the game's strongest hooking point for players. I've heard divided feelings on the gameplay (which is understandable), but pretty much everyone I've talked to loves the art style. I'm really glad to hear you all are going to continuing working on the game, because i do think it has a lot of great potential and I do hope it can connect with a wider audience :-) I've been playing it a lot more than expected and am strongly considering going for a no death run.
I love Strider 2 but the combat doesn't have that DMC or Guilty Gear intuitive combat style with tons of different attacks and maneuvers that those Vanillaware games have. Btw hopefully Capcom includes Strider 2 on a hopeful Capcom Arcade Stadium 3 release (with the Stage 0 built in that was exclusive to the PS1 version).@@phantomgamer4463
We're in agreement about the handling of the tutorial elements of the game, mostly. This is a somewhat complicated toolkit you have on offer here, and I don't think flashing a bunch of screens of input tutorials before you start the game, as the game currently does, is a good way of teaching you how to apply them. I found the way they DID try to communicate that info bad for retention, and as a consequence, I spent a good chunk of the early game without understanding certain core concepts to the gameplay. I think a better, more in-depth demonstration of how to apply the game's mechanics would actually be a really good fit for the Training mode out on the menu. Maybe do it like Devil May Cry 5's thing where you can try a move out in the shop before you purchase it permanently.
The info retention thing seems to be a problem a lot of folks have come out with, and while i do agree that it could be done better, i'm also wondering if anyone decided to stop and go into training mode to see if they missed anything. It's the first thing i did when i opened the game, before actually playing the first stage, but that's just because i don't like going into anything unprepared.
@@just_matt214I'd bet most players don't really see the value in doing that tbh. You kinda have to work towards making someone the type of person to test things out and actually use Training mode in some cases. Some people wouldn't even know what to do once they get there. They don't know how to mess around with things and experiment yet. You have to learn how to learn, and how you teach yourself. I play fighting games often, spend lot of time in Training mode and I know I don't use it properly (or at least not to the fullest extent). Some people are just lazy about it and I don't really mean it negatively. Its just a fact that they don't feel like dealing with that. At least not explicitly. So you have to try make it happen passively. I personally think the info retention aspect is a strength of having to unlock skills rather than having the whole deal at once. It fosters mastery and that's a necessary part of learning. You have to get to points where you don't have to think about things so you only think about the new things and just do the stuff you already know. Thoughtlessly, but with intention. Its a passive learning/teaching tool and keeps people engaged with tangible development that they most likely don't need to be convinced to value.
I think, once again, fight'n rage did this well. When I first played the game I didn't really enjoy it but then I tried the training mode, which doesn't just teach you controls, it forces you to do combos, which you need to understand the mechanics to pull off. Once I knew how to combo, I was able to go back and blast through the game. I feel this applies to a lot of beat em ups really, until you know some combos it's not as fun to bumble your way through the game. Some people like discovering combos from scratch but I think giving the players some bread and butter ones makes things a lot smoother, unless the game has like zero commitment and you can combo everything into everything al la dmc (not a bad thing per say)
@@GoldScale57 I didn't really think of it that way, but that is a *great* point. I guess i'm kinda just used to this sort of thing, so i went into training mode and kinda just *knew* there would be this and that input to try out, so i just went, did a double air rave then started the game, I guess that's more indicative of my own brainrot than the simplicity of the systems... That said i *really* hope they keep the option to start the game with every move cause i cannot stand action games limiting your moveset - even if it's done for the right reasons.
I would argue that the ramp up in dmc is a way to get you to focus on one aspect of the system, get it down and then they layer another one on top of that. By the end your using all the systems without noticing it, so when you go into the new difficulty your ready. Throwing everything at you is overwhelming and you’re most likely going to miss things that you wouldn’t if they did the slow feed. Also, for game design it’s easier to design the emotes through the game with the knowledge this is your move set, like how some enemies are a bit challenging with your beginning tool set but a breeze when you got all of them and have figured them out. So with that in mind they make enemies that game skills almost the same speed you do. Just my take on it, and for background Ive played all the dmcs and ninja gaidens( even 3 😔)
You are exactly right, if those games allowed you to played on DMD with all the unlocks the player would just get bodied due to having to deal with too many mechanics as well as the relentless enemies, the way it works out is that the first playthrough is sort of the "tutorial" where the stakes aren't as high and the latter is the real deal, its similar as to how in shmups you can play through the game spamming continues but then after you learned you try 1cc as the real deal.
I've been thinking about it, and I think a good way to handle Tanky Enemies, is by just making them tanky if you spam. What I mean is, the more combo you do, the more damage you deal to these kind of enemies. You could could In-Lore call this something such as "Overwhelming their armor" or something, but it would be pretty much a reversal of "Just spam to survive" tactic.
the graphics really remind me of mad stalker and strider 2, which is awesome, and I'm a huge fan of guilty gear and dmc so I may have to give this a try despite its flaws
Yeah I love the graphics of this game. If you are a guilty gear player I think you are going to come into the game a step ahead, because the mechanics are heavily GG inspired, so you'll pick up on the combo system pretty quickly. The trickier part is that I hope you've played some 3rd strike as well ha, as parries become required in the later stages.
9:37 But Mega Man (especially the X and Zero series) does this and their replayability is impeccable with awesome level design. It's just that you don't need a thousand text boxes, but levels that teach you how to play. That is not wrong, is just the right way to present a game (teaching people how to play it without being intrusive).
4:3 Mark is sick! Love the presentation:) Great review. Lucky to have you man! Nobody is doing in-depth reviews like this, and certainly not for a 30 dollar indie. I’m going to grab this eventually - hope your feedback gets to the devs by then. the Matthewmatosis mention lol.
Glad you are enjoying the CRT aesthetic ha. I did it for a vid a while back, the DOJ review I believe, and thought, hey if I polish this up more it could make for a cool on camera vibe that might fit in the with gameplay footage in a cool way. And yes, i do think with some choice patches the game will be easier to recommend to a wider audience. As it is now, the game is pretty cool and has a lot of potential, but it's got a serious wild side that's going to be tough to power through.
It's crazy that Slave Zero got a sequel. I remember loving the Dreamcast game when I was a kid. I like it so much I bought it again on STEAM. I'll be picking this up this weekend since I have a business trip coming up. Will be great to play on my STEAM Deck while in the hotel room.
great review. Just throwing an idea for consideration - since the video is so long it would be good to have UA-cam chapters/sections added. I understand it might take a lot of additional time which you might lack - but it would be very helpful for people looking for specific information.
I'm really happy to hear that my dude! One of the goals for my reviews is not just to review a specific game, but to also discuss game design more generally, so I'm glad my reviews have been providing helpful perspectives :-)
DEVS: PLEASE hire Mark as a gameplay consultant if you’re making a modern arcade-style game. This man is right on the money in his analysis and could really help hone your game mechanics. It is so frustrating and disappointing to see games like this with such amazing aesthetics and worthwhile experimentation squander their potential by opting for gimmicks and unpolished/not thoroughly thought out enough gameplay design. I was so looking forward to this game from its trailers, and now that I’ve seen Mark stream it and how messy the gameplay seems I’m really not very interested.
this. the game almost feels unfinished. like we have an excellent artstyle and solid player mechanics but not that great of a game surrounding them. even for $25 it's not worth it unless major patching according to Mark's critiques are done
Ha that would be pretty cool! Yeah the game has a lot of potential but it gets pretty messy and wild at some points, like if you get tossed in the corner with spear dudes going all out jeez ha. I think the potential for this game to be for a wider audience is there, it just needs to polish up some of its more wild ideas and please allow for directional air techs.
In terms of tutorials, classic arcade games often did it right by having tutorials either be a separate section or just a quick series of screenshots that show you what each button does and how to perform essential moves. I will wait until Slave Zero X updates its game to have this before I even buy it. Because if knowing a lot of tech is important to even having a good time with SZX, then I'm not going to suffer through it while being ignorant of these essential mechanics (like that "quick stand" you mention at 26 minutes that looks like it's essential for good defense when you get hit). Big yes on encounter selects. Please add them. Please make them a standard for action games from now on until the end of time. As for overlapping buttons (in this case, Roman Cancels and Devil Trigger bizarrely being the same button), why not add directional inputs for these specific combat options? Why not have one directional input be for Devil Trigger (let's say, you press Down while pressing the button) and another directional input (let's say, you press Forward) for Roman Cancel? There shouldn't have to be any context sensitivity, especially in a game like this inspired by fighting games that either have little or no context sensitivity. As far as what motivates me to keep playing games like DMC3 even though I already have SS ranks in all missions, it's the same thing that motivates me to keep playing Ninja Gaiden 2 and Razor's Edge even though those games have horrendous scoring systems that pretty much all high-level players of those games outright ignore. It's because getting better at these games is just inherently satisfying. Did I get SS ranks on all missions on DMD in DMC3? Great. Now check out this guy on UA-cam who has SS ranks on all missions on DMD in DMC3 without ANY upgrades whatsoever, all while still being stylish! That motivates me to keep playing. I want to get better. I've personally never had a problem with intrinsic motivation in any game worth grinding my skills out, because if a game actually has depth, then that automatically entices me to fully explore that depth master that game (the Nioh games for example don't even have any kind of a scoring mechanic, and yet I devote thousands of hours to those games anyway because of the insane mechanical depth those games have). That said, I do agree with you that SZX having an in-game leaderboard is a good inclusion and that score- or rank-oriented games should include them from now on, because there are many people out there who (for some bizarre reason) need that extrinsic motivation to keep on playing. Anyway, great review. I'll keep this game wishlisted and come back in a few months once they've ironed out the kinks.
Extrinsic vs intrinsic is a pretty meaningless distinction here, it doesn't map onto anything cleanly. To even talk about getting better vs worse in a game implies some stable set of criteria you're aiming for. Unless "getting better" means mapping out a game's possibility space, which nobody does because think about what that would imply - it goes far beyond "combos" and other bullshit and enters the realm of absurdity. The difference is whether those criteria are formal and exist in-game, or if they're informal and only exist in the minds of the players as some kind of general non-specific idea. There could also be external formal incentives like community participation, speedrun boards, style contests, etc. The only distinction between people who "need extrinsic motivators" and people who play to "get better inherently" is that the former group just finds the latter's standards for performance too vague & arbitrary. The fact that players desire informal performance criteria to the point where they will imagine & then adhere to them while playing is more of an argument that everyone needs these "extrinsic" style motivators, even if they don't realize.
True we need more real gamers that play quality I would recommend you hard games to master like touhou Dpachi osu these games are very fun and hard DMC ninja gaiden are greatness
I need to play that game. I referenced it's footage in the review, but I need to sink my teeth into it at some point and see how good it is ha. Yeah def a hidden gem in the GG library.
I preordered a physical copy sight unseen. I only heard what it was & that sold me. I only just started seeing the game in action & I'm excited. As a fan of tougher beat 'em ups like Final Vendetta & Fight'n Rage along with DMC & Bayonetta... this is going be a challenge I welcome.
Oh that's really cool. I bet the physical version has a lot of cool art and so forth included. Yes, this one will absolutely be a challenge, in some good ways and bad ha. My advice for a newer player to the game is really look into the combo system in training mode for a while before playing, that's gonna help you get going on the right foot. Also running and dashing are uber important.
@ultimablackmage Do consider checking out Soulstice, Charlie Murder and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile as well where it concerns beat-em-ups and hack-and-slash and character action/whatever the name is these days. And on the notion of beat-em-ups, this video of various upcoming games in that genre may be of note. ua-cam.com/video/4gbc-TiwRAI/v-deo.html
I can see myself getting a little too annoyed at the shortcomings, if there are any updates or fixes for some of these though, I'd gladly consider a purchase.
I've already played this game yesterday and refunded, no its is not worth $25 dollars, get this on sale. I understand that this game was inspired by Strider 2, but game is just really confused of what its gameplay system wants to be, balancing anime fighters and brawlers all with none of these systems connecting together into a loop. For the time I did play it it was fun to tear enemies up, but its also draws negatives from the genres its influenced on like enemies juggling with no aerial dodges or recoveries, unexpected arena hazards, very limited combos since its a linear brawling game, and clearing enemy waves quickly is hard since it wants you to combo really well against singular foes rather than multiple, this whole game feels like 2 genres fighting against each other rather than help each other, like seeing the sheer complexity of anime fighters combined with the style of Strider 2 sounds amazing, but this idea wasn't thought out well, and I'd rather see some kind of "sequel" happen where there's more thought put into a system like this, and its a shame too because I WANTED to love this game, I could not have imagine a more perfect game that fits my tastes, but there's also so much out of your control that you need to prepare for. There are some positives, as I think the positives and negatives equally match each other with the 2-D fighting being well understood except I could never understand how to get off the ground to extend combos, and the game's production values are held up by artists and composers of the game, but that's super easy to say since that's like saying the graphics are nice despite the gameplay being not great. If I wanted to offer pointers to the Dev Team, making the combat closer to crowd control would have been much better, or at least open more ways to clear the screen and stop enemies from ganging up on me. Astro Boy Omega Factor is the perfect counter point to this game, there's limited combos, it's a 2D scroller, and a shmup/beat-em-up hybrid. The biggest thing that game has over Slave Zero X is that you have total control over the game, but it still remains hard, with moves and combos simplified to button presses, enemies, hazards, and bosses are fair enough to telegraph, the levels are never unfair and short enough to finish, and this game was developed in 2003 for children. Understanding what this game was going for, should be an example if another game like Slave Zero X were to be made, or if the Slave Zero X devs decide to make a sequel.
I’m almost through the game and it kind of sounds like you just didn’t learn the mechanics. There is a combat loop with F sync/burst and you can recover in the air with burst or doing a quick rise. Also watch some combo videos and you will see there are a decent amount of combo routes. This game is not for a lot of people due to the difficulty but man I am enjoying the hell out of it
Yeah i think at this point, the $25 bucks is a bit steep, with all the issues and so forth. So I can def understand hanging tight and waiting for it to go on sale and keep an eye out for some update patches.
Oh yea, the combo sound effect is a cool idea, in that it gives you an audio cue to how the combo is progressing. That being said, the actual sound effect itself might be a bit much ha. Also I turned off the voice acting when I played, it's not bad or anything but a bit much at times.
I love the game and beat it yesterday twice! I've been playing DMC, Street Fighter, and Guilty Gear ever since I was a kid and this game did an awesome job doing that my only complaint was enemies would have invincible at certain times when they shouldn't and Shou would sometimes whiff certain attacks leaving me confused but it was definitely a great trip of nostalgia for me. I hope we get more games like this in the future.
One thing I will criticize about this review (literally everything else I’ve 100% agreed with just playing my way through it) I feel you’re wrong about burst. I’ve had the problem of accidentally using Roman cancel when trying to hit Fatal Sync, but I don’t think the solution is to remove golden burst. Golden burst is massively useful because if you do it you get 100% meter instantly, which is obviously great for healing A better option would to just make fatal sync into a Roman cancel at the same time. Also a block button would do wonders for this game, there’s far too many enemies and hit boxes on screen for our only defensive options to be an ineffectual dash or a somewhat inconsistent parry. I do hope we get a sequel or possibly a DLC where we play as atavaka or something like MGR did with Jetstream Sam, and they fix some of the issues. My own personal criticism of the game is unfortunately, the aesthetics seemed to take a huge from seat. Mostly in the tracks you run on, which often have encounters allow enemies to get launched around corners, making spacing difficult, and at times unfairly ending your combo prematurely because you had no clue if your hit boxes would reach or not Regardless I do love this game to death and I’m glad it’s getting coverage, and I’m glad a review like yours came out that shares my own opinions in wanting this game to be good
Liked the review; been on the fence about this game. Sounds like it's worth giving a shot. Curious, though, if you or anyone has any recommendation on "2d" beat 'em ups? I loved the recent Ninja Saviors remake, but my knowledge of that particular type of beat 'em up is pretty limited.
Any version of Mad Stalker is worth trying, I haven't played Panzer Bandit but some people seem to like it. some of the Ninja Warriors devs made the snes power rangers games and gear fighter for Playstation and they all play similarly on a single plane but are more limited and smaller scope than their non--licensed games.
I completely forgot that Power Rangers game was kind of like that, but I think two planes? I played it a ton as a kid. But I'll check out those recommendations. Apprecaite it 8)@@JetWolfEX
Oh great question mushi, honestly the single plane beat em up subgenre isn't very strong or popular, even among beat em ups. The only other ones that i've played were pretty damn jank (other than ninja warriors) lol. Slave Zero X, issues aside, it def one of the better ones.
Ska Studios is strong on that front with stuff like The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (more of a 2D character action game) and Charlie Murder, which is set in a goofy punk rock horror apocalypse and has the five members of the band as different "Classes" to replay the game with. For example, there's a guy named Tommy Homicide who is a "Shaman" if i remember correctly, and can turn the severed heads of enemies into totems that provide passive buffs. I *would* want to mention the recent Cookie Cutter but that's more of a metroidvania. I think that one's still cool though, and the dev of that one wants to substantially support it for a long time to come (like adding entire new story beats, characters, environments, weapons) after making it as technically solid as it can be by looking for feedback and criticism.
The game has been surprisingly under the radar! I thought it would get a lot more coverage than it has, so I'm glad my vid has helped bring a bit more attention to it. Whether people are interested in the game or not, it def is an interesting conversation piece in terms of game design.
the STORE MUSIC IS SOOOOO GOOOD. I put that shit on last night for hours. such a good vibe, gives me a lynchian, like twin peaks feelings with a sci fi twist.
This game has been on my radar for a while. I still think certain aspects of the game look super cool, but after seeing and hearing stuff about it since the demo, it looks really unpolished tbh. I'm hoping the devs release some patches for Slave Zero X, in that case I might still end up playing it eventually.
Oh yeah I saw this expressed in another comment ha. yeah the concept is a cool idea, though the actual sound effect itself probably could be toned down.
This was a very interesting and deep review. I think that this game was developed with players like you in mind. It will probably be a cult hit. I guess this one is not for me, though. I was expecting you to mention that one of the devs also worked in Devil Engine. (The arcade controller issue sounds more like a you problem, Mark 🤣)
Slave Zero is one of the Dreamcasts long forgotten games it’s great to see that it’s gotten an unexpected sequel in the form of a hack’n slash beat’em up
Great review. Just completed this. You hit on alot of my issues with the game. The art style is top tier but the gameplay could use some polish. It could potentially be great but theres alot of issues that added up for me. I had maybe 10-20 game crashes and soft locks, where I could not proceed past a downed boss. I installed an update near the end of the game and it fixed the soft locked boss, but the PC still crashed on the final form of the final boss. That was my first main issue, stability. Second to that the juggling was extremely irritating since theres often no way to get out of it reliably. The last big issue was the controls can be a little rigid, especially the ability to trigger certain special moves. If you are moving or striking it does the unintended move, as you mentioned. This was a critical issue since those moves are the only thing keeping you alive sometimes, since its the only way to get health back. When it does the wrong move and you are unable to charge that bar, it can result in death alot of times. The game does throw alot of the same shit but with more armor and mixes in guns later on, which is more annoying than anything. The final form of the final boss was also a huge pain in the ass. I beat most of the humanoid bosses near the end of the game , on my first try, since I had the pacing of the game down (3X combo at a distance, charge meter, use devil trigger, let it wear off then use down,down,down,x,y move right before it wears off, use the L3 button to regain bar instantly, rinse and repeat) , however the final form of the final boss was super fucking unclear. I had no idea when I was making contact aside from some blood on the hands sometimes. I was unable to interrupt his one hit kill move so I had to do a speedrun method of killing the final form in 9 seconds, shown here: ua-cam.com/video/GLrZdIUZfag/v-deo.html I really should not have to fuckin do that shit to beat the game. I could not fight the guy normally and I probably tried for 1-2+ hours on that one form, yet I beat previous harder bosses quickly once I had the game down. This was just unclear and held me up for no good reasons. It wasnt difficult to survive the fight, just didnt know what the fuck was going on. EVERY time he went into his one hit kill move animation it was game over. I saw no indications that I could interrupt it, no visible blood from strikes, my down down down,x,y move seemed to do nothing, etc. Thought that was really shitty. The game definately has some clunkiness and issues. I still like the game, it just feels like it could be so much more. Its probably a 7 for me instead of a 9 or better. I pretty much ran through the final stages, humanoid bosses without much problem, so it was the opposite for me. I just couldnt figure out that final asshole. The parry system is also reminiscent of Metal Gear Rising in that you can spam the parry move as your playing normally and get the parries from just spamming. I got used to tapping the directionals while doing other shit and it works MOST of the time it seems. While I dont think there should be a recover animation that slows you down if you miss a parry (game can be rigid enough), maybe there should be a timing window where the parry doesnt work again if you miss it. Nothing that interrupts gameplay otherwise. Its a hard one to reccomend since the game doesnt really teach you the things you need to know, atleast not well. I mashed my way through maybe the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the game without really understanding that I had other moves, or bothering to look it up. My good friend had to break down the pacing of the moves and how everything works and then I got the rhythym down and the game became much more managable. Had I not had this guidance I wouldve had a HELL of a time trying to beat the rest of the game when the difficulty spiked. Pressing X and then forward and Y as your only move, trying to control crowds that way, only goes so far. I am the type that loves brutal challenges but likes to jump right in, not read shit, etc, so I am stubborn like that. I figure ill deal with shit when I run into issues later and then do my research. Id reccomend players look up what everything does before trying to mash through, like a typical beat em up. This game has that crowd control aspect but its really important to know what your moves and meters do, and how to regen meter so you can get in that rhthym and get health back, use those power moves,etc.
Not that relevant for this video but another recent 2D game that wasn't really hiding its DMC inspirations was the new Prince of Persia metroidvania of all things. Maybe it will become a new trend?
When I first downloaded the demo for this game I knew you were going to review it haha. Also yeah, the aesthetics instantly drew me in, they did it extremely well. But it did seem a bit mugen, great comparison. Hopefully they can address some of these key gameplay issues over a couple patches
Yeah it's the type of game that is just baiting me taste wise: sega saturn style graphics - check, blood and cyberpunk vibe - check, dmc/guilty gear inspired combat system - check. Also yes, I'm really curious what the update patches for the game will be. The game isn't getting that much coverage which surprises me a little, I thought IGN and eurogamer would do reviews but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Thanks for reviewing this game, it deserves so much praise. I have a feeling we are going to get more awesome games like these that have huge inspirations from some classic games that the devs grew up with but also have their own style. Like how games were produced back in the 2000s if that makes sense
Hey I was a bit late as the physical PS5 release was delayed until a few days ago, but I played through the game and spent some time with it after that. I *really* enjoyed it. I think the combat and art are phenomenal, with some blemishes here and there. They did update the Izuna Drop to flip the enemy too, but it's still kind of pointless to use with your other options being straight up better. The game exceeded my expectations, I just wish it had a few more levels and enemy types. 9-9.5/10 game for me, there's nothing quite like this game on the market really..and man the art just takes me back to Einhander and Strider 2. I think the art adds a lot to the gameplay honestly, same with the animations.
Oh yeah the art of the game is def a step ahead of the gameplay, no doubt about it. I'm really hoping with some patches and so forth the gameplay can catch up ha.
@@TheElectricUndergroundYeah the fundamentals seem solid and patchable. Just need to adjust values. It's not like DMC2 where the only way to fix it would be to make a different game.
@brya9681 3 minutes ago Indies are truly the ones that picked up the game ideas AAA studios used to make in the 5th and 6th generation. Where they used to take chances and make like half a dozen niche, creative and original games to supplement their big releases. I'll take a creative , 6 or 7/10 game that doesn't quite hit completely over a boring, safe game that does those boring and safe ideas amazingly any day of the week. Video games are an art medium and I'm happy when I see games that treat it as such, even if they aren't amazing.
Personally it was my biggest gripe with the game like the first couple of hours are great. but then the later have it was just kind of tedious and annoying. just due to the fact that you don't unlock any new movies. I hyped myself up thinking that I would unlock better moves. Similar to the first boss you lose/can beat to in the first stage. Just to find that you don't unlock no new moves, basically what you see is what you get learn how to utilize that. Which is okay because I do like fighting games but that kind of gets boring after a while. But for now I just put the game down. An just figured hopefully they can patch it. Hopefully add better attack patterns for your character similar to zero from Mega Man X4. It kills me cuz the character is super cool and everything but it's just plain vanilla ice cream with him.
Good review. I’m wondering how Poppy Works will fine-tune the game and respond to feedback. Think this will get an enhanced release like Devil Engine Ignition?
yeah I'm curious to see what they'll do with upcoming patches as well. I think it's safe to say that they will update the final boss as i do think it is unfinished and they probably had to rush the game out the door to meet publishing deadlines. Beyond that though, I'm curious what else they'll do, it's always hard to predict these types of things ha.
The izuna drop feels great to pull off. But I think it needs to be buffed honestly. It should do more damage than it does and it needs some more exit s. A lot of times in the later stages I end up getting smacked by surrounding enemies right after doing an izuna.
Bro, I remember slave zero the OG game on dreamcast LOL I thought it was a slave zero remake. And cool insight on the overlooked old-school mixing of 2d/3d. Cool design idea using your Sony CRT too 😎😎
1000% agree that more variety was needed with enemies and their movesets. Also agree completely on the armored evenmies. I really liked the crosshair and visual shake ups though. I thought the crosshair especially added cool context to Enyo's character and it changed things up just enough to have something different happen without making it infuriating. And for the visibilty in the club, I just thought it reminded me of the club scene in Devilman Crybaby so I liked it lol.
Yes I think keeping an eye on the game and following along with the updates is a good idea. I think its a few really solid patches away from being easier to recommend overall ha.
I really had no clue this review was coming (or that this game even exists), but I greatly enjoyed the in-depth gameplay discussion. I agree that the visuals of the game are awesome! And the main character has a great design, like a mix between Justice and Hakumen.
Oh what a coincidence I find this channel for tekken 8 and I find this! Just bought this game to take a break from tekken it’s a real breath of fresh air
That's an awesome overlap! Welcome to the channel! yes i noticed my tekken 8 vid has been crazy popular (which makes me happy) so I hope all the new subs also enjoy my discussion of arcade games generally, though I do plan on having some more tekken 8 follow up vids too :-)
@@TheElectricUnderground glad I found your channel your video instantly clicked with me as I never feel that “sand trap” more than when I finish a game against a masher and then take those tendencies I used to win against a fundamental purple player who sees through everything lol (hard stuck garyu btw) having fun learning! def subscribing for more from you!
Oh yeah it's absolutely possible! I think this game isn't too far off, it just needs a few smart adjustments and beefing up of the enemy design and i think it could be on track to being excellent.
I had no idea this game existed, but I'm definitely gonna pick it up. Your review was lukewarm, but I'm a BIG fan of games with this sort of "2D character action"-esque combat, and the selection of em is sooooo small. Like Viewtiful Joe, Vanillaware's stuff, Astlibra, and Icey are pretty much all that comes to mind. I'll take anything thats half decent, lol
This looks pretty sick. I faintly remember seeing something on this when it was announced but it fell off my radar. This as well as another similarly fast paced 2D action platformer called "Oblivion Override" just came out and it is closely priced as well. Debating on which one to check out first. Nice review either way!
Oblivion Override is a roguelite so thats a pretty big difference. Its pretty fun and build making is simple but satisfying. There's not really too much actual combos though or like launchers and OTGs stuff like that
Yeah it's a pretty fun time. I think you'd enjoy it Dingo, at least the first half ha. I'm not sure how you'll feel about the later stages though. Being a fighting game player though, you'll at least be familiar with the mechanics.
Thank you my dude! It was kinda tricky to title this review because it's a pretty obscure game it seems, so I was trying to sort of communicate what the game is going for and what it's weaknesses are in the title.
Ha yeah, Bog and I talk about that context sensitivity vid of his all the time, both where we agree and disagree with it. But this example of the DT overlapping with roman cancel was just such a perfect example of the thing he was warning against. There are other times where I think context sensitivity is good though.
Don't know if it has been mentioned, but DMC4 actually does have leaderboards for score! I'm not sure about the newer version of the game but the 360/PS3 version had leaderboards for bloody palace and each mission for every difficulty, if I remember correctly.
The games art style is definitely it's best feature, Its a shame the levels start to fall apart mid point on, it does have that janky feel in some of the clips you showed. With patches it could be saved, hopefully the devs are taking notes, nice video editing btw. I'll still put this on my wishlist and keep an eye on it.
What are your thoughts on the Tales series? Before Berseria, the games were heavily influenced by fighting games, and especially in the older games, spacing is super important to avoiding damage, rather than dodging or parrying.
Also, just do what dmc remake did, put the training spot in the loading screen, that was a great way to hide loading and give the player time to mess around
I bought this game immediately when it came out, but I'm still torn on how I feel about it. I can't wait for future updates to smooth out all of the uneven things based off feedback, though!
I am really hype for this game, I'll be buying the CE on PS5 day 1. It gives me serious Strider 2 vibes with its graphics, very 2.5D PS1/Dreamcast era. It does it for me.
My only real gripe with the game is more the romance subplot between Shou and Isamu, and really that's more a me issue than the game as that game is really my pick for GOTY 2024 so far (at least until Metaphor: ReFantazio comes out, 'cuz JRPGs are still my jam).
@@TheElectricUnderground Found it interesting. In two minds whether to check it out now though 😅. It looks awesome but there are couple of things that would bother me a little.
I played the demo for this game a long while ago and it felt really unbalanced in terms of being way too easy. I just ran through mashing and I completely destroyed all the enemies, it sounds like that's not the case anymore?
it is and it isn't. So the game has more difficulty that kicks in during the 2nd half, but the basic gameplan of slashing and mashing still is too effective ha.
When I played Mortal Kombat Mythology I believed these genres are incompatible. So Slave Zero, in all it's jank, gets a kudos for that. Side Note-If you replaced DMC with Souls and GG with Tekken/SC you get Severance: Blade of Darkness, very underrated game. Very fundamental and hard.
God I miss when fighting games (and beat ‘em ups) were violent. Take modern Street Fighter since SF4. Street Fighter 4 was meant to be a throwback to Street Fighter 2, at one point it even just was a remake of Street Fighter 2, but Street Fighter 2 ain’t as goofy as Street Fighter 4 and 5. There were some exaggerated facial expression with eyes popping out (the live action Mad Max movie did this too) and cartoony indicators for when a character was dizzy. But there was also blood on high hard attack (and claw and bite attacks) and random vomiting on mid attacks. These were cool little extra bits of detail that for whatever years are just gone now. It makes not even the slightest bit of sense given that Street Fighter 2 is by a large margin the best preforming Street Fighter game Capcom has as made, (as well as just one of the best performing games in general) and now Street Fighter is routinely outperformed by Mortal Kombat...so it ain’t like you can say violence would lose them customers. Like Street Fighter 2 blood sprite, when you do see it, isn’t all that far off from the amount of blood you see come out in the recent Mortal Kombat 1. The lack of violence just seems weird when you look at the manga that inspired Street Fighter 2, stuff like Riki-Oh (which was turned into a famously violent live action Hong Kong movie) and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures. I could get the shift away from violence if Street Fighter was outperforming stuff like Mortal Kombat, and Capcom’s own Resident Evil series, but it’s not. It was nice to see them put a damage model system on characters in Street Fighter 6, even if it doesn’t go as far as 2 and 3’s win/lose screen portraits, but it seems like almost every time I see a Street Fighter 6 video on UA-cam the person has that nice little aesthetic thing turned off. I’m really surprised Tekken or Virtua Fighter never got damage modeling systems along the lines of boxing and now MMA games. Especially Tekken, since Namco used to really like showing off nice new models and tech, and those damage model systems boxing games would have were always part of the marketing push of what new things they could do.
Yes indeed. Violence has been toned down so much over the years. This is why i personally loved Mother Russia Bleeds. Great beat em up, violent as it gets, you turn into a killing machine injecting yourself with drugs extracted from convulsing enemies. Pixel art is a treat aswell and it goes for dirt cheap nowadays.
@@MadderR3d Yeah, Mother Russia Bleeds is cool. Although I do wish it was better looking, like at least as good looking as Streets of Rage 3 sprites made for the Sega Genesis. It’s a shame Le Cartel Studio never followed it up at all. It’s been seven years since it came out. Four years since their last game. Still no hint of a follow up of any kind, at least as far as I know.
I would say they did a good job design wise the sprites and music are great and love the cyberpunk dystopian setting, the background artists did a good job. I would have accepted a gradual progression of unlocking moves during the game like DMC3 but the way it is now is fine with me. My only issue with the game is the game turns into musou halfway through, it comes to a point where doing stylish combos becomes less effective and you need to go for the safest and most efficient strats because of the sheer amount of enemies appearing on screen. Also hyper armor enemies that attack constantly is something no one likes. EX moves should have been executed differently ( maybe an EX button with directional ) most playthroughs I've seen people barely use ex moves because it's plinking light to heavy and they don't recognize what is cancellable right away this design would be less harsh on your fingers and simpler ( after a while my thumb was sore from plinking light to heavy it's almost similar timing to JC'ing in DMC3 ) Parrying is not really useful vs hordes of enemies, mostly useful vs bosses in a more controlled setting. I would have included a tech roll or slide to get out of mobs of enemies if you get knocked down, if you don't want to use tech flip because it does not have much invincibility. I wouldn't dismiss the game, you could tell they are trying to make something great and brave enough to dip into this really niche genre. hope they fix some issues and improve it, because I still had a good time despite some of the flaws.
More than DMC it reminds me of NG, I mean I havent played the game but not having more than one type of weapon is a critical design flaw if you want to make it like dmc or bayo, with that addition it would not only make the game way more enjoyable it would make dealing with different enemy types a question of mastering an arsenal more than a question of priority targeting
Havent played musou but I imagine this game is what the combat in those games is like, just kinda slow n tedius But it does look great. Spiral staircase fight is one of the most badass set pieces Ive seen in a beat em up
You should try sengoku basara (especially sengoku basara 4 sumeragi or yukimura den). Imo, sengoku basara is neither slow, nor tedious, and its really interesting to see capcom's dmc design sensibilities (in the sense that characters have a decent sized movelist of standalone moves with various purposes as opposed to branching strings of attacks ala ninja gaiden or bayonetta) in a musou game. That being said, sengoku basara, is not particularily challenging and while I appreciate the gameplay, the main draw is definitely the hilarious cutscenes and charming characters.
Ha it's funny how much this game annoys you Bog. I do get why though, it's def very character actiony vs beat em up. It does have some muso vibes at times, but at least there is a bit more meat to it than that, I think it's more like a MUGEN than a muso. Still, something about the game I do find myself being drawn to, to keep on playing. I'm seriously considering doing a no death run at this point.
It feels "slow and tedious" if you don't go for aerial raves or relaunches, use your tools aside from light attacks or just keep dropping combos. But that would make *DMC3* feel slow and tedious, so i don't think that's really an argument here.
@@just_matt214 You can do "relaunches" with the basic 3 hit combo into dash, I throw in a dash attack and some ex moves for damage and thats about it. The core game is slow and tedious - once you have enemies on 1 side, there is no threat anymore unless they have armor, and yet you gotta mashmashmash the attack buttons shmup with no autofire style still. Wtf is the purpose of this? I wish the game lowered its enemy HP to about 1/5 across the board, reduced counts but actually let them jump over you, spawned them more actively from the sides, gave them better mobility AI etc. But them the COMBOZZZ would go into the dumpster and the game cares too much about that to make combat enjoyable. And you cant tell me DMC3 doesnt get tedious as shit on DMD if you let a single bulky enemy DT. Atleast outside of that the enemy HP is on the lower side
Liked the game, but the later juggling abuse of some scenarios are cheap in a not fun manner. Thought nothing would be more cheap than combining the flame spear guy with the golden shoulder brute and their locking stun combos, where you feel like a volleyball. But then comes the red haired samurai. At that point, you could just let the controller and just watch him throw you left and right. I did just that. Like cheap old tekken match. It's like the devs gives you an extremely high skill floor parry move, with frame perfect demand, as a cool option, only to make it almost obligatory on later enemies, most of them don't even having a tell of the upcoming attacks. It just a guessing game on that level. Other thing that could be improved is the RB actions. It activates the "devil trigger", wich is used for special moves abuse and health recovery, but also is kind of a break stun move. When yo in the heat of action and wants to activate the devil trigger to recover some health, is not unlikely he will just do the break move, with no use AND wasting the power bar, wich needs to be full for the devil triger, adding a trouble you really didn't need in that moment. It's a good game, soured by these things.
You got it right ,i like a good challenge but its got to be designed right,i would say the first dark souls and doom 1 and 2 on ultra violence are great examples of difficulty thats hard but fun and addictive.
Hi! I was art director on Slave Zero X (I designed characters/enemies/painted cutscene sprites etc.), and while I didn't handle gameplay, which your review was primarily concerned with, I wanted to express my thanks for such an in-depth assessment! It's really worthwhile hearing someone with an understanding of our own influences reflect on the title. We have plans to continue iterating on the existing design and incorporating player feedback as much as possible! I'm glad you felt able to recommend us - it means a lot coming from someone with your experience!
While I'll say everything Mark has said in his review is 100% correct, I still do commend the team. This title definitely needs polish, mostly gameplay, but it's still such a fantastic thing that it could be made in 2024. We don't get games like this anymore, and I'm hoping we can see it continue to grow and be improved upon. Thanks for all the hard work the team did!
Thank you for your work on Slave Zero X man. I really love your art on this game, I could never imagine a more perfect art style tailored for me personally, and it instantly pulled me in when I saw the trailers for this game a few months back. I'm still mixed on the gameplay as a whole and I'll consider repurchasing and re-evaluating my response, but damn I hope you get more work because you did fantastic for a game I just learn about on an after thought.
Gorgeous work! This is really a looker!
That's awesome to hear francine! Well you did an outstanding job on the game, no doubt about it. I really love the art of this game and I think it's hands down the game's strongest hooking point for players. I've heard divided feelings on the gameplay (which is understandable), but pretty much everyone I've talked to loves the art style. I'm really glad to hear you all are going to continuing working on the game, because i do think it has a lot of great potential and I do hope it can connect with a wider audience :-) I've been playing it a lot more than expected and am strongly considering going for a no death run.
I haven’t had a chance to play the game yet but I absolutely love the look of it. The main character’s design is so cool.
DMC + Guilty Gear + 2D Beat'em Up = Vanillaware's golden trio of Dragon's Crown, Muramasa and Odin Sphere :D
you missed Strider 2
I love Strider 2 but the combat doesn't have that DMC or Guilty Gear intuitive combat style with tons of different attacks and maneuvers that those Vanillaware games have. Btw hopefully Capcom includes Strider 2 on a hopeful Capcom Arcade Stadium 3 release (with the Stage 0 built in that was exclusive to the PS1 version).@@phantomgamer4463
no
What about MegaMan zero 3
The devs of this seem to be Hakumen mains.
I was hoping someone would bring that up lol.
We're in agreement about the handling of the tutorial elements of the game, mostly. This is a somewhat complicated toolkit you have on offer here, and I don't think flashing a bunch of screens of input tutorials before you start the game, as the game currently does, is a good way of teaching you how to apply them. I found the way they DID try to communicate that info bad for retention, and as a consequence, I spent a good chunk of the early game without understanding certain core concepts to the gameplay.
I think a better, more in-depth demonstration of how to apply the game's mechanics would actually be a really good fit for the Training mode out on the menu. Maybe do it like Devil May Cry 5's thing where you can try a move out in the shop before you purchase it permanently.
The info retention thing seems to be a problem a lot of folks have come out with, and while i do agree that it could be done better, i'm also wondering if anyone decided to stop and go into training mode to see if they missed anything.
It's the first thing i did when i opened the game, before actually playing the first stage, but that's just because i don't like going into anything unprepared.
@@just_matt214I'd bet most players don't really see the value in doing that tbh. You kinda have to work towards making someone the type of person to test things out and actually use Training mode in some cases. Some people wouldn't even know what to do once they get there. They don't know how to mess around with things and experiment yet. You have to learn how to learn, and how you teach yourself. I play fighting games often, spend lot of time in Training mode and I know I don't use it properly (or at least not to the fullest extent). Some people are just lazy about it and I don't really mean it negatively. Its just a fact that they don't feel like dealing with that. At least not explicitly. So you have to try make it happen passively.
I personally think the info retention aspect is a strength of having to unlock skills rather than having the whole deal at once. It fosters mastery and that's a necessary part of learning. You have to get to points where you don't have to think about things so you only think about the new things and just do the stuff you already know. Thoughtlessly, but with intention. Its a passive learning/teaching tool and keeps people engaged with tangible development that they most likely don't need to be convinced to value.
I think, once again, fight'n rage did this well. When I first played the game I didn't really enjoy it but then I tried the training mode, which doesn't just teach you controls, it forces you to do combos, which you need to understand the mechanics to pull off. Once I knew how to combo, I was able to go back and blast through the game. I feel this applies to a lot of beat em ups really, until you know some combos it's not as fun to bumble your way through the game. Some people like discovering combos from scratch but I think giving the players some bread and butter ones makes things a lot smoother, unless the game has like zero commitment and you can combo everything into everything al la dmc (not a bad thing per say)
@@GoldScale57 I didn't really think of it that way, but that is a *great* point.
I guess i'm kinda just used to this sort of thing, so i went into training mode and kinda just *knew* there would be this and that input to try out, so i just went, did a double air rave then started the game, I guess that's more indicative of my own brainrot than the simplicity of the systems...
That said i *really* hope they keep the option to start the game with every move cause i cannot stand action games limiting your moveset - even if it's done for the right reasons.
I would argue that the ramp up in dmc is a way to get you to focus on one aspect of the system, get it down and then they layer another one on top of that. By the end your using all the systems without noticing it, so when you go into the new difficulty your ready.
Throwing everything at you is overwhelming and you’re most likely going to miss things that you wouldn’t if they did the slow feed.
Also, for game design it’s easier to design the emotes through the game with the knowledge this is your move set, like how some enemies are a bit challenging with your beginning tool set but a breeze when you got all of them and have figured them out. So with that in mind they make enemies that game skills almost the same speed you do.
Just my take on it, and for background Ive played all the dmcs and ninja gaidens( even 3 😔)
You are exactly right, if those games allowed you to played on DMD with all the unlocks the player would just get bodied due to having to deal with too many mechanics as well as the relentless enemies, the way it works out is that the first playthrough is sort of the "tutorial" where the stakes aren't as high and the latter is the real deal, its similar as to how in shmups you can play through the game spamming continues but then after you learned you try 1cc as the real deal.
I've been thinking about it, and I think a good way to handle Tanky Enemies, is by just making them tanky if you spam.
What I mean is, the more combo you do, the more damage you deal to these kind of enemies. You could could In-Lore call this something such as "Overwhelming their armor" or something, but it would be pretty much a reversal of "Just spam to survive" tactic.
the graphics really remind me of mad stalker and strider 2, which is awesome, and I'm a huge fan of guilty gear and dmc so I may have to give this a try despite its flaws
Yeah I love the graphics of this game. If you are a guilty gear player I think you are going to come into the game a step ahead, because the mechanics are heavily GG inspired, so you'll pick up on the combo system pretty quickly. The trickier part is that I hope you've played some 3rd strike as well ha, as parries become required in the later stages.
9:37 But Mega Man (especially the X and Zero series) does this and their replayability is impeccable with awesome level design. It's just that you don't need a thousand text boxes, but levels that teach you how to play. That is not wrong, is just the right way to present a game (teaching people how to play it without being intrusive).
4:3 Mark is sick! Love the presentation:)
Great review. Lucky to have you man! Nobody is doing in-depth reviews like this, and certainly not for a 30 dollar indie.
I’m going to grab this eventually - hope your feedback gets to the devs by then.
the Matthewmatosis mention lol.
Glad you are enjoying the CRT aesthetic ha. I did it for a vid a while back, the DOJ review I believe, and thought, hey if I polish this up more it could make for a cool on camera vibe that might fit in the with gameplay footage in a cool way. And yes, i do think with some choice patches the game will be easier to recommend to a wider audience. As it is now, the game is pretty cool and has a lot of potential, but it's got a serious wild side that's going to be tough to power through.
i was gonna say lol, nice little Matthewmatosis mention
It's crazy that Slave Zero got a sequel. I remember loving the Dreamcast game when I was a kid. I like it so much I bought it again on STEAM. I'll be picking this up this weekend since I have a business trip coming up. Will be great to play on my STEAM Deck while in the hotel room.
Oh yeah I have been playing it a bunch on the steam deck. Man, the steam deck rules, one of my best gaming purchases perhaps ever.
It's surreal. Very memorable back when it launched on PC. Last days of the 3DFX cards if I recall
Slave Zero… that’s a name I haven’t heard since I had a dream cast ! This looks cool af !
great review. Just throwing an idea for consideration - since the video is so long it would be good to have UA-cam chapters/sections added. I understand it might take a lot of additional time which you might lack - but it would be very helpful for people looking for specific information.
This game absolutely filters casuals. Kino game in this day and age.
yeah it def isn't afraid to slap newer players around, which I respect. I think it does go a little too kaizo at times though ha.
What does Kino mean in this context? In my language "Kino" means cinema so I'm a bit confused lol
@@brotbrotsen1100 people say kino to basically say "peak cinema" when talking about movies, so in this context it just means the cream of the crop.
Movies simulator fanboys wont like it 😂
Love your reviews, for someone who is trying to make a beat em up, this are really informative, your have a great eye for arcade games.
I'm really happy to hear that my dude! One of the goals for my reviews is not just to review a specific game, but to also discuss game design more generally, so I'm glad my reviews have been providing helpful perspectives :-)
sadly he`s full of shit and people that don´t know much buy all is bullcrap.
Really sad.
DEVS: PLEASE hire Mark as a gameplay consultant if you’re making a modern arcade-style game. This man is right on the money in his analysis and could really help hone your game mechanics.
It is so frustrating and disappointing to see games like this with such amazing aesthetics and worthwhile experimentation squander their potential by opting for gimmicks and unpolished/not thoroughly thought out enough gameplay design.
I was so looking forward to this game from its trailers, and now that I’ve seen Mark stream it and how messy the gameplay seems I’m really not very interested.
this. the game almost feels unfinished. like we have an excellent artstyle and solid player mechanics but not that great of a game surrounding them. even for $25 it's not worth it unless major patching according to Mark's critiques are done
Ha that would be pretty cool! Yeah the game has a lot of potential but it gets pretty messy and wild at some points, like if you get tossed in the corner with spear dudes going all out jeez ha. I think the potential for this game to be for a wider audience is there, it just needs to polish up some of its more wild ideas and please allow for directional air techs.
But he likes FF16 that game is dog water.
This channel is a gold mine for game design lessons, regardless it focuses mainly on beat'em family of genres.
In terms of tutorials, classic arcade games often did it right by having tutorials either be a separate section or just a quick series of screenshots that show you what each button does and how to perform essential moves. I will wait until Slave Zero X updates its game to have this before I even buy it. Because if knowing a lot of tech is important to even having a good time with SZX, then I'm not going to suffer through it while being ignorant of these essential mechanics (like that "quick stand" you mention at 26 minutes that looks like it's essential for good defense when you get hit).
Big yes on encounter selects. Please add them. Please make them a standard for action games from now on until the end of time.
As for overlapping buttons (in this case, Roman Cancels and Devil Trigger bizarrely being the same button), why not add directional inputs for these specific combat options? Why not have one directional input be for Devil Trigger (let's say, you press Down while pressing the button) and another directional input (let's say, you press Forward) for Roman Cancel? There shouldn't have to be any context sensitivity, especially in a game like this inspired by fighting games that either have little or no context sensitivity.
As far as what motivates me to keep playing games like DMC3 even though I already have SS ranks in all missions, it's the same thing that motivates me to keep playing Ninja Gaiden 2 and Razor's Edge even though those games have horrendous scoring systems that pretty much all high-level players of those games outright ignore. It's because getting better at these games is just inherently satisfying. Did I get SS ranks on all missions on DMD in DMC3? Great. Now check out this guy on UA-cam who has SS ranks on all missions on DMD in DMC3 without ANY upgrades whatsoever, all while still being stylish! That motivates me to keep playing. I want to get better. I've personally never had a problem with intrinsic motivation in any game worth grinding my skills out, because if a game actually has depth, then that automatically entices me to fully explore that depth master that game (the Nioh games for example don't even have any kind of a scoring mechanic, and yet I devote thousands of hours to those games anyway because of the insane mechanical depth those games have). That said, I do agree with you that SZX having an in-game leaderboard is a good inclusion and that score- or rank-oriented games should include them from now on, because there are many people out there who (for some bizarre reason) need that extrinsic motivation to keep on playing.
Anyway, great review. I'll keep this game wishlisted and come back in a few months once they've ironed out the kinks.
Extrinsic vs intrinsic is a pretty meaningless distinction here, it doesn't map onto anything cleanly. To even talk about getting better vs worse in a game implies some stable set of criteria you're aiming for. Unless "getting better" means mapping out a game's possibility space, which nobody does because think about what that would imply - it goes far beyond "combos" and other bullshit and enters the realm of absurdity.
The difference is whether those criteria are formal and exist in-game, or if they're informal and only exist in the minds of the players as some kind of general non-specific idea. There could also be external formal incentives like community participation, speedrun boards, style contests, etc. The only distinction between people who "need extrinsic motivators" and people who play to "get better inherently" is that the former group just finds the latter's standards for performance too vague & arbitrary.
The fact that players desire informal performance criteria to the point where they will imagine & then adhere to them while playing is more of an argument that everyone needs these "extrinsic" style motivators, even if they don't realize.
True we need more real gamers that play quality
I would recommend you hard games to master like touhou Dpachi osu these games are very fun and hard
DMC ninja gaiden are greatness
Guilty gaer Judgement does not get enough credit or recognition
I need to play that game. I referenced it's footage in the review, but I need to sink my teeth into it at some point and see how good it is ha. Yeah def a hidden gem in the GG library.
@@TheElectricUnderground
Have you checked it out yet?
I preordered a physical copy sight unseen. I only heard what it was & that sold me. I only just started seeing the game in action & I'm excited. As a fan of tougher beat 'em ups like Final Vendetta & Fight'n Rage along with DMC & Bayonetta... this is going be a challenge I welcome.
Final vendetta is absolutely phenomenal, happy to see it getting some love
Oh that's really cool. I bet the physical version has a lot of cool art and so forth included. Yes, this one will absolutely be a challenge, in some good ways and bad ha. My advice for a newer player to the game is really look into the combo system in training mode for a while before playing, that's gonna help you get going on the right foot. Also running and dashing are uber important.
@ultimablackmage Do consider checking out Soulstice, Charlie Murder and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile as well where it concerns beat-em-ups and hack-and-slash and character action/whatever the name is these days.
And on the notion of beat-em-ups, this video of various upcoming games in that genre may be of note.
ua-cam.com/video/4gbc-TiwRAI/v-deo.html
I loved final vendetta. Always makes me smile when i see someone dropping it's name in comments.
I can see myself getting a little too annoyed at the shortcomings, if there are any updates or fixes for some of these though, I'd gladly consider a purchase.
I've already played this game yesterday and refunded, no its is not worth $25 dollars, get this on sale. I understand that this game was inspired by Strider 2, but game is just really confused of what its gameplay system wants to be, balancing anime fighters and brawlers all with none of these systems connecting together into a loop. For the time I did play it it was fun to tear enemies up, but its also draws negatives from the genres its influenced on like enemies juggling with no aerial dodges or recoveries, unexpected arena hazards, very limited combos since its a linear brawling game, and clearing enemy waves quickly is hard since it wants you to combo really well against singular foes rather than multiple, this whole game feels like 2 genres fighting against each other rather than help each other, like seeing the sheer complexity of anime fighters combined with the style of Strider 2 sounds amazing, but this idea wasn't thought out well, and I'd rather see some kind of "sequel" happen where there's more thought put into a system like this, and its a shame too because I WANTED to love this game, I could not have imagine a more perfect game that fits my tastes, but there's also so much out of your control that you need to prepare for.
There are some positives, as I think the positives and negatives equally match each other with the 2-D fighting being well understood except I could never understand how to get off the ground to extend combos, and the game's production values are held up by artists and composers of the game, but that's super easy to say since that's like saying the graphics are nice despite the gameplay being not great. If I wanted to offer pointers to the Dev Team, making the combat closer to crowd control would have been much better, or at least open more ways to clear the screen and stop enemies from ganging up on me.
Astro Boy Omega Factor is the perfect counter point to this game, there's limited combos, it's a 2D scroller, and a shmup/beat-em-up hybrid. The biggest thing that game has over Slave Zero X is that you have total control over the game, but it still remains hard, with moves and combos simplified to button presses, enemies, hazards, and bosses are fair enough to telegraph, the levels are never unfair and short enough to finish, and this game was developed in 2003 for children. Understanding what this game was going for, should be an example if another game like Slave Zero X were to be made, or if the Slave Zero X devs decide to make a sequel.
I’m almost through the game and it kind of sounds like you just didn’t learn the mechanics. There is a combat loop with F sync/burst and you can recover in the air with burst or doing a quick rise. Also watch some combo videos and you will see there are a decent amount of combo routes. This game is not for a lot of people due to the difficulty but man I am enjoying the hell out of it
Yeah i think at this point, the $25 bucks is a bit steep, with all the issues and so forth. So I can def understand hanging tight and waiting for it to go on sale and keep an eye out for some update patches.
I watched a bit of your live stream of this game… sound design is crucial to me and that rising pitch sound during combos was pretty grating. 😅
Oh yea, the combo sound effect is a cool idea, in that it gives you an audio cue to how the combo is progressing. That being said, the actual sound effect itself might be a bit much ha. Also I turned off the voice acting when I played, it's not bad or anything but a bit much at times.
I love the game and beat it yesterday twice! I've been playing DMC, Street Fighter, and Guilty Gear ever since I was a kid and this game did an awesome job doing that my only complaint was enemies would have invincible at certain times when they shouldn't and Shou would sometimes whiff certain attacks leaving me confused but it was definitely a great trip of nostalgia for me. I hope we get more games like this in the future.
One thing I will criticize about this review (literally everything else I’ve 100% agreed with just playing my way through it)
I feel you’re wrong about burst. I’ve had the problem of accidentally using Roman cancel when trying to hit Fatal Sync, but I don’t think the solution is to remove golden burst. Golden burst is massively useful because if you do it you get 100% meter instantly, which is obviously great for healing
A better option would to just make fatal sync into a Roman cancel at the same time. Also a block button would do wonders for this game, there’s far too many enemies and hit boxes on screen for our only defensive options to be an ineffectual dash or a somewhat inconsistent parry.
I do hope we get a sequel or possibly a DLC where we play as atavaka or something like MGR did with Jetstream Sam, and they fix some of the issues.
My own personal criticism of the game is unfortunately, the aesthetics seemed to take a huge from seat. Mostly in the tracks you run on, which often have encounters allow enemies to get launched around corners, making spacing difficult, and at times unfairly ending your combo prematurely because you had no clue if your hit boxes would reach or not
Regardless I do love this game to death and I’m glad it’s getting coverage, and I’m glad a review like yours came out that shares my own opinions in wanting this game to be good
Liked the review; been on the fence about this game. Sounds like it's worth giving a shot.
Curious, though, if you or anyone has any recommendation on "2d" beat 'em ups? I loved the recent Ninja Saviors remake, but my knowledge of that particular type of beat 'em up is pretty limited.
Any version of Mad Stalker is worth trying, I haven't played Panzer Bandit but some people seem to like it. some of the Ninja Warriors devs made the snes power rangers games and gear fighter for Playstation and they all play similarly on a single plane but are more limited and smaller scope than their non--licensed games.
I completely forgot that Power Rangers game was kind of like that, but I think two planes? I played it a ton as a kid. But I'll check out those recommendations. Apprecaite it 8)@@JetWolfEX
Oh great question mushi, honestly the single plane beat em up subgenre isn't very strong or popular, even among beat em ups. The only other ones that i've played were pretty damn jank (other than ninja warriors) lol. Slave Zero X, issues aside, it def one of the better ones.
Tiny Toons Busters Bad Dream and Astro Boy The Omega Factor. Actually rely on crowd control not combos.
Ska Studios is strong on that front with stuff like The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (more of a 2D character action game) and Charlie Murder, which is set in a goofy punk rock horror apocalypse and has the five members of the band as different "Classes" to replay the game with. For example, there's a guy named Tommy Homicide who is a "Shaman" if i remember correctly, and can turn the severed heads of enemies into totems that provide passive buffs.
I *would* want to mention the recent Cookie Cutter but that's more of a metroidvania. I think that one's still cool though, and the dev of that one wants to substantially support it for a long time to come (like adding entire new story beats, characters, environments, weapons) after making it as technically solid as it can be by looking for feedback and criticism.
I trusted you for Wanted:Dead, I’ll trust you for this one as well! Looking forward to play it
Cool! Never heard of this game and it looks right up my alley. Thanks for the video.
The game has been surprisingly under the radar! I thought it would get a lot more coverage than it has, so I'm glad my vid has helped bring a bit more attention to it. Whether people are interested in the game or not, it def is an interesting conversation piece in terms of game design.
the STORE MUSIC IS SOOOOO GOOOD. I put that shit on last night for hours. such a good vibe, gives me a lynchian, like twin peaks feelings with a sci fi twist.
This game has been on my radar for a while. I still think certain aspects of the game look super cool, but after seeing and hearing stuff about it since the demo, it looks really unpolished tbh. I'm hoping the devs release some patches for Slave Zero X, in that case I might still end up playing it eventually.
The combo sounds in this game gave me a headache when you streamed it lol
Oh yeah I saw this expressed in another comment ha. yeah the concept is a cool idea, though the actual sound effect itself probably could be toned down.
This was a very interesting and deep review. I think that this game was developed with players like you in mind. It will probably be a cult hit. I guess this one is not for me, though. I was expecting you to mention that one of the devs also worked in Devil Engine. (The arcade controller issue sounds more like a you problem, Mark 🤣)
Slave Zero is one of the Dreamcasts long forgotten games it’s great to see that it’s gotten an unexpected sequel in the form of a hack’n slash beat’em up
Great review. Just completed this. You hit on alot of my issues with the game. The art style is top tier but the gameplay could use some polish. It could potentially be great but theres alot of issues that added up for me. I had maybe 10-20 game crashes and soft locks, where I could not proceed past a downed boss. I installed an update near the end of the game and it fixed the soft locked boss, but the PC still crashed on the final form of the final boss. That was my first main issue, stability. Second to that the juggling was extremely irritating since theres often no way to get out of it reliably. The last big issue was the controls can be a little rigid, especially the ability to trigger certain special moves. If you are moving or striking it does the unintended move, as you mentioned. This was a critical issue since those moves are the only thing keeping you alive sometimes, since its the only way to get health back. When it does the wrong move and you are unable to charge that bar, it can result in death alot of times. The game does throw alot of the same shit but with more armor and mixes in guns later on, which is more annoying than anything. The final form of the final boss was also a huge pain in the ass. I beat most of the humanoid bosses near the end of the game , on my first try, since I had the pacing of the game down (3X combo at a distance, charge meter, use devil trigger, let it wear off then use down,down,down,x,y move right before it wears off, use the L3 button to regain bar instantly, rinse and repeat) , however the final form of the final boss was super fucking unclear. I had no idea when I was making contact aside from some blood on the hands sometimes. I was unable to interrupt his one hit kill move so I had to do a speedrun method of killing the final form in 9 seconds, shown here:
ua-cam.com/video/GLrZdIUZfag/v-deo.html
I really should not have to fuckin do that shit to beat the game. I could not fight the guy normally and I probably tried for 1-2+ hours on that one form, yet I beat previous harder bosses quickly once I had the game down. This was just unclear and held me up for no good reasons. It wasnt difficult to survive the fight, just didnt know what the fuck was going on. EVERY time he went into his one hit kill move animation it was game over. I saw no indications that I could interrupt it, no visible blood from strikes, my down down down,x,y move seemed to do nothing, etc. Thought that was really shitty. The game definately has some clunkiness and issues. I still like the game, it just feels like it could be so much more. Its probably a 7 for me instead of a 9 or better. I pretty much ran through the final stages, humanoid bosses without much problem, so it was the opposite for me. I just couldnt figure out that final asshole.
The parry system is also reminiscent of Metal Gear Rising in that you can spam the parry move as your playing normally and get the parries from just spamming. I got used to tapping the directionals while doing other shit and it works MOST of the time it seems. While I dont think there should be a recover animation that slows you down if you miss a parry (game can be rigid enough), maybe there should be a timing window where the parry doesnt work again if you miss it. Nothing that interrupts gameplay otherwise.
Its a hard one to reccomend since the game doesnt really teach you the things you need to know, atleast not well. I mashed my way through maybe the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the game without really understanding that I had other moves, or bothering to look it up. My good friend had to break down the pacing of the moves and how everything works and then I got the rhythym down and the game became much more managable. Had I not had this guidance I wouldve had a HELL of a time trying to beat the rest of the game when the difficulty spiked. Pressing X and then forward and Y as your only move, trying to control crowds that way, only goes so far. I am the type that loves brutal challenges but likes to jump right in, not read shit, etc, so I am stubborn like that. I figure ill deal with shit when I run into issues later and then do my research. Id reccomend players look up what everything does before trying to mash through, like a typical beat em up. This game has that crowd control aspect but its really important to know what your moves and meters do, and how to regen meter so you can get in that rhthym and get health back, use those power moves,etc.
Not that relevant for this video but another recent 2D game that wasn't really hiding its DMC inspirations was the new Prince of Persia metroidvania of all things. Maybe it will become a new trend?
yeah from what I've seen you can do a fuck ton of stuff with juggling
When I first downloaded the demo for this game I knew you were going to review it haha. Also yeah, the aesthetics instantly drew me in, they did it extremely well. But it did seem a bit mugen, great comparison. Hopefully they can address some of these key gameplay issues over a couple patches
Yeah it's the type of game that is just baiting me taste wise: sega saturn style graphics - check, blood and cyberpunk vibe - check, dmc/guilty gear inspired combat system - check. Also yes, I'm really curious what the update patches for the game will be. The game isn't getting that much coverage which surprises me a little, I thought IGN and eurogamer would do reviews but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Thanks for reviewing this game, it deserves so much praise. I have a feeling we are going to get more awesome games like these that have huge inspirations from some classic games that the devs grew up with but also have their own style. Like how games were produced back in the 2000s if that makes sense
Hey I was a bit late as the physical PS5 release was delayed until a few days ago, but I played through the game and spent some time with it after that. I *really* enjoyed it. I think the combat and art are phenomenal, with some blemishes here and there. They did update the Izuna Drop to flip the enemy too, but it's still kind of pointless to use with your other options being straight up better. The game exceeded my expectations, I just wish it had a few more levels and enemy types. 9-9.5/10 game for me, there's nothing quite like this game on the market really..and man the art just takes me back to Einhander and Strider 2. I think the art adds a lot to the gameplay honestly, same with the animations.
This game seems like the Art Book might be cooler than the actual game
Oh yeah the art of the game is def a step ahead of the gameplay, no doubt about it. I'm really hoping with some patches and so forth the gameplay can catch up ha.
@@TheElectricUndergroundYeah the fundamentals seem solid and patchable. Just need to adjust values. It's not like DMC2 where the only way to fix it would be to make a different game.
@brya9681
3 minutes ago
Indies are truly the ones that picked up the game ideas AAA studios used to make in the 5th and 6th generation. Where they used to take chances and make like half a dozen niche, creative and original games to supplement their big releases. I'll take a creative , 6 or 7/10 game that doesn't quite hit completely over a boring, safe game that does those boring and safe ideas amazingly any day of the week. Video games are an art medium and I'm happy when I see games that treat it as such, even if they aren't amazing.
This looks rad, definitely getting, thanks for covering!
Personally it was my biggest gripe with the game like the first couple of hours are great. but then the later have it was just kind of tedious and annoying. just due to the fact that you don't unlock any new movies. I hyped myself up thinking that I would unlock better moves. Similar to the first boss you lose/can beat to in the first stage. Just to find that you don't unlock no new moves, basically what you see is what you get learn how to utilize that. Which is okay because I do like fighting games but that kind of gets boring after a while. But for now I just put the game down. An just figured hopefully they can patch it. Hopefully add better attack patterns for your character similar to zero from Mega Man X4. It kills me cuz the character is super cool and everything but it's just plain vanilla ice cream with him.
Good review. I’m wondering how Poppy Works will fine-tune the game and respond to feedback. Think this will get an enhanced release like Devil Engine Ignition?
One of the people who worked on it left a comment on here addressing that
yeah I'm curious to see what they'll do with upcoming patches as well. I think it's safe to say that they will update the final boss as i do think it is unfinished and they probably had to rush the game out the door to meet publishing deadlines. Beyond that though, I'm curious what else they'll do, it's always hard to predict these types of things ha.
Honestly you had me at you can do an izuna drop
The izuna drop feels great to pull off. But I think it needs to be buffed honestly. It should do more damage than it does and it needs some more exit s. A lot of times in the later stages I end up getting smacked by surrounding enemies right after doing an izuna.
This is a must buy but I still appreciate the review.
I can def understand that this game is gonna be a strong draw for some players, based on how much there is in the combo system and so forth.
Bro, I remember slave zero the OG game on dreamcast LOL I thought it was a slave zero remake. And cool insight on the overlooked old-school mixing of 2d/3d. Cool design idea using your Sony CRT too 😎😎
I've heard Devil May Cry meets Guilty Gear, stopped the video and wishlisted it.
1000% agree that more variety was needed with enemies and their movesets. Also agree completely on the armored evenmies. I really liked the crosshair and visual shake ups though. I thought the crosshair especially added cool context to Enyo's character and it changed things up just enough to have something different happen without making it infuriating. And for the visibilty in the club, I just thought it reminded me of the club scene in Devilman Crybaby so I liked it lol.
Devil May Cry 4 is actually my favorite entry in the entire series. I really enjoyed the contrast of Nero’s game play compared to Dante.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Mark, much appreciated. I'll keep an eye on updates for the game. That last boss doesn't look fun at all.
Yes I think keeping an eye on the game and following along with the updates is a good idea. I think its a few really solid patches away from being easier to recommend overall ha.
I hope the developer is plugged into your review. I do enjoy your passionate opinions and no bullshit filter :) @@TheElectricUnderground
I really had no clue this review was coming (or that this game even exists), but I greatly enjoyed the in-depth gameplay discussion.
I agree that the visuals of the game are awesome! And the main character has a great design, like a mix between Justice and Hakumen.
Oh what a coincidence I find this channel for tekken 8 and I find this! Just bought this game to take a break from tekken it’s a real breath of fresh air
That's an awesome overlap! Welcome to the channel! yes i noticed my tekken 8 vid has been crazy popular (which makes me happy) so I hope all the new subs also enjoy my discussion of arcade games generally, though I do plan on having some more tekken 8 follow up vids too :-)
@@TheElectricUnderground glad I found your channel your video instantly clicked with me as I never feel that “sand trap” more than when I finish a game against a masher and then take those tendencies I used to win against a fundamental purple player who sees through everything lol (hard stuck garyu btw) having fun learning! def subscribing for more from you!
Panzer Bandit proved that 2d character action games can be made.....they are just VERY difficult to figure out
Oh yeah it's absolutely possible! I think this game isn't too far off, it just needs a few smart adjustments and beefing up of the enemy design and i think it could be on track to being excellent.
@@TheElectricUnderground The Dishwasher Dead Samurai/Vampire Smile are also amazing 2d character action games
Glad to see a review for this but, regarding the final boss comments
all I gotta say is. Git Gud.
I had no idea this game existed, but I'm definitely gonna pick it up. Your review was lukewarm, but I'm a BIG fan of games with this sort of "2D character action"-esque combat, and the selection of em is sooooo small. Like Viewtiful Joe, Vanillaware's stuff, Astlibra, and Icey are pretty much all that comes to mind. I'll take anything thats half decent, lol
It’s not DMC without more of moveset imo. 7/10. It definitely deserves a sequel
This looks pretty sick. I faintly remember seeing something on this when it was announced but it fell off my radar. This as well as another similarly fast paced 2D action platformer called "Oblivion Override" just came out and it is closely priced as well. Debating on which one to check out first.
Nice review either way!
Oblivion Override is a roguelite so thats a pretty big difference. Its pretty fun and build making is simple but satisfying. There's not really too much actual combos though or like launchers and OTGs stuff like that
Yeah it's a pretty fun time. I think you'd enjoy it Dingo, at least the first half ha. I'm not sure how you'll feel about the later stages though. Being a fighting game player though, you'll at least be familiar with the mechanics.
Damn did but realize that other game was a rogue lite. That’s too bad.
Title is really powerful
Thank you my dude! It was kinda tricky to title this review because it's a pretty obscure game it seems, so I was trying to sort of communicate what the game is going for and what it's weaknesses are in the title.
matthewmatosis mentioned (great review by the way, even by your own standards)
Ha yeah, Bog and I talk about that context sensitivity vid of his all the time, both where we agree and disagree with it. But this example of the DT overlapping with roman cancel was just such a perfect example of the thing he was warning against. There are other times where I think context sensitivity is good though.
Don't know if it has been mentioned, but DMC4 actually does have leaderboards for score! I'm not sure about the newer version of the game but the 360/PS3 version had leaderboards for bloody palace and each mission for every difficulty, if I remember correctly.
I dislike the final boss for the lack of hit indication fighting it.
The games art style is definitely it's best feature, Its a shame the levels start to fall apart mid point on, it does have that janky feel in some of the clips you showed. With patches it could be saved, hopefully the devs are taking notes, nice video editing btw. I'll still put this on my wishlist and keep an eye on it.
I think Sengoku 3 is also a perfect point of reference for the beatumup mechanics of this game.
First thing I saw about the Trail Slash in the Sprites and already loved it. I didn't even knew this existed until just now and it looks great.
What are your thoughts on the Tales series? Before Berseria, the games were heavily influenced by fighting games, and especially in the older games, spacing is super important to avoiding damage, rather than dodging or parrying.
He looks like hakumen from blazblue
Also, just do what dmc remake did, put the training spot in the loading screen, that was a great way to hide loading and give the player time to mess around
I bought this game immediately when it came out, but I'm still torn on how I feel about it. I can't wait for future updates to smooth out all of the uneven things based off feedback, though!
I am really hype for this game, I'll be buying the CE on PS5 day 1. It gives me serious Strider 2 vibes with its graphics, very 2.5D PS1/Dreamcast era. It does it for me.
My only real gripe with the game is more the romance subplot between Shou and Isamu, and really that's more a me issue than the game as that game is really my pick for GOTY 2024 so far (at least until Metaphor: ReFantazio comes out, 'cuz JRPGs are still my jam).
Pre premier comment: Let's hope I show up on time this time. Looking forward to it!
Awesome! I love when people are able to tune into the premier.
@@TheElectricUnderground Found it interesting. In two minds whether to check it out now though 😅. It looks awesome but there are couple of things that would bother me a little.
The game is so dope, it's like strider 2 and dmc 3 had a baby
I played the demo for this game a long while ago and it felt really unbalanced in terms of being way too easy. I just ran through mashing and I completely destroyed all the enemies, it sounds like that's not the case anymore?
it is and it isn't. So the game has more difficulty that kicks in during the 2nd half, but the basic gameplan of slashing and mashing still is too effective ha.
Wow, what a great video! You just sold a copy of Slave Zero X. Thanks!
Seeing this makes me wonder how you feel about Vernal Edge.
When I played Mortal Kombat Mythology I believed these genres are incompatible. So Slave Zero, in all it's jank, gets a kudos for that.
Side Note-If you replaced DMC with Souls and GG with Tekken/SC you get Severance: Blade of Darkness, very underrated game. Very fundamental and hard.
I found out while loading up quake they did a sort of level pack of this game for quake for free to promote the game. How odd but cool lol
slave zero X + the option to play as a cute girl is my ideal game genre
I'm 8 sec deep into the video and to answer your question: YES, AND GIVE ME.
If this game delivers it, just WOW.
God I miss when fighting games (and beat ‘em ups) were violent. Take modern Street Fighter since SF4. Street Fighter 4 was meant to be a throwback to Street Fighter 2, at one point it even just was a remake of Street Fighter 2, but Street Fighter 2 ain’t as goofy as Street Fighter 4 and 5. There were some exaggerated facial expression with eyes popping out (the live action Mad Max movie did this too) and cartoony indicators for when a character was dizzy. But there was also blood on high hard attack (and claw and bite attacks) and random vomiting on mid attacks. These were cool little extra bits of detail that for whatever years are just gone now. It makes not even the slightest bit of sense given that Street Fighter 2 is by a large margin the best preforming Street Fighter game Capcom has as made, (as well as just one of the best performing games in general) and now Street Fighter is routinely outperformed by Mortal Kombat...so it ain’t like you can say violence would lose them customers. Like Street Fighter 2 blood sprite, when you do see it, isn’t all that far off from the amount of blood you see come out in the recent Mortal Kombat 1. The lack of violence just seems weird when you look at the manga that inspired Street Fighter 2, stuff like Riki-Oh (which was turned into a famously violent live action Hong Kong movie) and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures. I could get the shift away from violence if Street Fighter was outperforming stuff like Mortal Kombat, and Capcom’s own Resident Evil series, but it’s not.
It was nice to see them put a damage model system on characters in Street Fighter 6, even if it doesn’t go as far as 2 and 3’s win/lose screen portraits, but it seems like almost every time I see a Street Fighter 6 video on UA-cam the person has that nice little aesthetic thing turned off.
I’m really surprised Tekken or Virtua Fighter never got damage modeling systems along the lines of boxing and now MMA games. Especially Tekken, since Namco used to really like showing off nice new models and tech, and those damage model systems boxing games would have were always part of the marketing push of what new things they could do.
Yes indeed. Violence has been toned down so much over the years. This is why i personally loved Mother Russia Bleeds. Great beat em up, violent as it gets, you turn into a killing machine injecting yourself with drugs extracted from convulsing enemies. Pixel art is a treat aswell and it goes for dirt cheap nowadays.
@@MadderR3d Yeah, Mother Russia Bleeds is cool. Although I do wish it was better looking, like at least as good looking as Streets of Rage 3 sprites made for the Sega Genesis. It’s a shame Le Cartel Studio never followed it up at all. It’s been seven years since it came out. Four years since their last game. Still no hint of a follow up of any kind, at least as far as I know.
I would say they did a good job design wise the sprites and music are great and love the cyberpunk dystopian setting, the background artists did a good job. I would have accepted a gradual progression of unlocking moves during the game like DMC3 but the way it is now is fine with me. My only issue with the game is the game turns into musou halfway through, it comes to a point where doing stylish combos becomes less effective and you need to go for the safest and most efficient strats because of the sheer amount of enemies appearing on screen. Also hyper armor enemies that attack constantly is something no one likes. EX moves should have been executed differently ( maybe an EX button with directional ) most playthroughs I've seen people barely use ex moves because it's plinking light to heavy and they don't recognize what is cancellable right away this design would be less harsh on your fingers and simpler ( after a while my thumb was sore from plinking light to heavy it's almost similar timing to JC'ing in DMC3 ) Parrying is not really useful vs hordes of enemies, mostly useful vs bosses in a more controlled setting.
I would have included a tech roll or slide to get out of mobs of enemies if you get knocked down, if you don't want to use tech flip because it does not have much invincibility. I wouldn't dismiss the game, you could tell they are trying to make something great and brave enough to dip into this really niche genre. hope they fix some issues and improve it, because I still had a good time despite some of the flaws.
Hey, how do I send you a Korean style full collar faceplate for your Hori Rap 4?
Oh that would be awesome! message me on discord my dude!
Now this is my Roman Empire baby
30:20
That's how overdrive in BlazBlue works lol.
More than DMC it reminds me of NG, I mean I havent played the game but not having more than one type of weapon is a critical design flaw if you want to make it like dmc or bayo, with that addition it would not only make the game way more enjoyable it would make dealing with different enemy types a question of mastering an arsenal more than a question of priority targeting
12:35 you mean old guilty gear. They removed air teching in strive, and possibly going forward lmao.
I love the look and style of the game. Im waiting for it on switch ❤️
For the izuna drop, they gotta flip it and reverse it
Havent played musou but I imagine this game is what the combat in those games is like, just kinda slow n tedius
But it does look great. Spiral staircase fight is one of the most badass set pieces Ive seen in a beat em up
You should try sengoku basara (especially sengoku basara 4 sumeragi or yukimura den). Imo, sengoku basara is neither slow, nor tedious, and its really interesting to see capcom's dmc design sensibilities (in the sense that characters have a decent sized movelist of standalone moves with various purposes as opposed to branching strings of attacks ala ninja gaiden or bayonetta) in a musou game. That being said, sengoku basara, is not particularily challenging and while I appreciate the gameplay, the main draw is definitely the hilarious cutscenes and charming characters.
Ha it's funny how much this game annoys you Bog. I do get why though, it's def very character actiony vs beat em up. It does have some muso vibes at times, but at least there is a bit more meat to it than that, I think it's more like a MUGEN than a muso. Still, something about the game I do find myself being drawn to, to keep on playing. I'm seriously considering doing a no death run at this point.
It feels "slow and tedious" if you don't go for aerial raves or relaunches, use your tools aside from light attacks or just keep dropping combos.
But that would make *DMC3* feel slow and tedious, so i don't think that's really an argument here.
@@just_matt214 You can do "relaunches" with the basic 3 hit combo into dash, I throw in a dash attack and some ex moves for damage and thats about it. The core game is slow and tedious - once you have enemies on 1 side, there is no threat anymore unless they have armor, and yet you gotta mashmashmash the attack buttons shmup with no autofire style still. Wtf is the purpose of this? I wish the game lowered its enemy HP to about 1/5 across the board, reduced counts but actually let them jump over you, spawned them more actively from the sides, gave them better mobility AI etc. But them the COMBOZZZ would go into the dumpster and the game cares too much about that to make combat enjoyable. And you cant tell me DMC3 doesnt get tedious as shit on DMD if you let a single bulky enemy DT. Atleast outside of that the enemy HP is on the lower side
@@ericsanfacon3622 One day. I guess it might be what I think musou is then
Liked the game, but the later juggling abuse of some scenarios are cheap in a not fun manner. Thought nothing would be more cheap than combining the flame spear guy with the golden shoulder brute and their locking stun combos, where you feel like a volleyball. But then comes the red haired samurai. At that point, you could just let the controller and just watch him throw you left and right. I did just that. Like cheap old tekken match.
It's like the devs gives you an extremely high skill floor parry move, with frame perfect demand, as a cool option, only to make it almost obligatory on later enemies, most of them don't even having a tell of the upcoming attacks. It just a guessing game on that level.
Other thing that could be improved is the RB actions. It activates the "devil trigger", wich is used for special moves abuse and health recovery, but also is kind of a break stun move. When yo in the heat of action and wants to activate the devil trigger to recover some health, is not unlikely he will just do the break move, with no use AND wasting the power bar, wich needs to be full for the devil triger, adding a trouble you really didn't need in that moment.
It's a good game, soured by these things.
Have you played Blazblue Entropy Effect? Just picked it up like a week ago. It's really good.
Reminds me sooo much of Strider 2 on PS1.
was thinking about buying this today on gog
player mechanic is so strong and enemy being glorified punching bag is my problem with DMC 5
You got it right ,i like a good challenge but its got to be designed right,i would say the first dark souls and doom 1 and 2 on ultra violence are great examples of difficulty thats hard but fun and addictive.
It looks very good, reminds me of Strider for ps1…
ill get it on a sale
Always a smart play my friend. Especially if we get some patches here in the near future.
So is this coming out on pc or Consoles
Really good watch.. Love your reviews
Oh my God this game looks amazing.
Mugen-y is a compliment in my eyes