Yasha Legends of the Demon Blade

Regular readers will know I've been looking forward to the release of Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade for quite some time now. I covered the pre-release entry back in March and was suitably convinced that the game had more to offer than just gorgeous designs and colourful graphics.

Subsequently I was a little concerned at the mixed reviews filtering through since launch, with some finding the game's charm beginning to wane due to uninspired levels and flimsy gameplay. Let's see who's right and who's wrong.

Characters:

To recap my previous article, the game offers up three characters for you to take control of, each with their own story, upgrades and weapons, providing roguelike elements that allow you to keep your upgrades when you die and upgrade before returning to the fray. You can choose from immortal ninja girl Shigure, Oni emissary Sara and Demon Samurai tiger-man Taketora. Each handle differently and as you'd expect - Shigure is an all-rounder, Sara is fast but less powerful and Taketora is a tank. Having them around for longer than a demo, I'm pleased to say that each of them has an engaging story to follow. No matter who you play, Shigure is dominant in the story which makes her the de-facto main character. That's fine, it's good for the story that it has a strong throughline and it helps to have a singular narrative around which everyone can react. True, the translation is a bit iffy at times, but this slight lack of polish isn't an issue in comprehending what's going on. It would be nice if the game is successful to see the studio re-draft the script and provide an update so that the conversations can flow a little better.

No matter who you play, Shigure is central to the narrative

Gameplay

One of the contentions since launch has been the repetitive nature of the gameplay. This I can understand, mostly because I find most shooters and top-down combat games to be repetitive. However, it's a bit of a shame that, regardless of who you play, you'll be going through the same locations and bosses. This seems a bit of a waste given the three distinct journeys each character is taking and it obviously makes replay value a lot lower than a separate journey for each of them, but given that this is a roguelite game, it's not entirely unexpected. 

The saving grace is the combat - because each character varies so wildly, playing the same rooms doesn't mean you can use the same strategy, placing the variety in the characters rather than the environments. This is a clever bit of time management on the part of the developer, who I understand placed pretty much everything they had on the line to make this game, so by making the gameplay the difference maker, they've chosen wisely.

Combat varies depending on the upgrades you choose - and there are many!

And let's not beat around the bush, the combat is sublime. Every hit feels weighty, every injury due to lack of skill rather than unfairness and once you get a flow going, it's pure poetry. The dash mechanic allows you to zip around the screen at pace, though it's controlled via a gradually refilling bar, so you can't use it endlessly. You'll need to hit and run, dodge and dive and rally to deliver damage. Sara's agility and ability to dual-wield weapons makes her an insane damage-dealer, her fragility being no bar at all to how good she is in combat. Taketora has ranged weapons which makes him a good choice for those that like to pull back and still pose a threat, while Shigure is basically an all-rounder, though no less fun for her lack of gimmickry. 

As with the demo, you'll enter an area, kill everything in it, pick a prize and move on until death puts a stop to your advancement. It's simple and easy to pick up and play for this reason, each bite-size arena providing its own challenges, while the constant weapon upgrades provide not only more damage, but new abilities too, such as flaming rings of death that linger around enemies or create projectiles on the ground that can be fired when dashed a - these inventive death-dealing extras can change how you approach the whole game, and it's a lot of fun experimenting.

Dealing death provides its own variety...

So yes, the many-faceted upgrades and abilities provide the variety that the level design lacks when moving between characters, and even though I would have preferred to see something new in the boss stakes, I don't mind treading the same path while I have something new to smite my foes with. 

Bosses are huge! Shame they don't vary between characters, but you have near-endless ways to attack them

Other little extras, such as the ability to collect ingredients to cook meals are all retained between runs and character selection, giving a bit of extra progress to the game each time you play it. In fact, between the speed at which you get through the game (approx 30 minutes per run-through) and the variety of upgrades, characters and elements that carry over each time, you get a terrific sense of progress whether it's your first run through or your tenth. It's smart design.

All that said, I'm very pleased to have my pre-order down for the physical special edition (constantly moving release date aside). It feels like a game I'm more than happy to invest in, I love how it looks, the characters and the addictive gameplay, it doesn't matter how many times I finish it, I'm always feeling the itch for a new run. Yes, the lack of boss variety counts against it and I can understand players feeling miffed on this one issue, but honestly everything is just so much fun that I'm happy to overlook it myself.

This glorious animated short has been released to celebrate the launch of the game too: