Hello everyone, once again.
It really has been a while since I last did any video game reviews, and it's totally not because of my epic publishing schedule that I've spoken so much about.
So there has been a few games I've been pretty curious to try out on mobile, and one of these games is called Ronin: The Last Samurai. I saw it, it looked nice and I thought "Let's have a go at this, shall we?"
From what I can tell, this game appears to be a mix between hack and slash plus roguelike games. The hack and slash aspect however is not like the stereotypical ones that have a whole lot of action going on. This one happens to be much more tame and relies a lot on timing.
In the game, you fight a handful of enemies as you progress. How combat works is that you have two controls in the game - one for attacking and another one for defense and movement.
For the game's combat system, there is the basic attack, the heavy attack which can be performed by holding down the attack button and a different move called the counter flash attack.
For that last one, it is done by tapping the attack button at the right time when the enemy is about to land a heavy attack.
As for defense, there is the standard block where you block the enemy's attack by holding down the button. But there is also the ability to parry attacks which can be done by tapping the block button just before the enemy's attack hits.
Between the two, blocking is able reduce most of the damage received while parrying blocks all the damage in every scenario.
There is also this feature called the posture damage indicator. When it maxes out, the character (be it yourself or the enemy) will get stunned for some time.
While blocking attacks reduce most of the damage received, it will also cause you to receive some posture damage. So, while blocking is an easier option, it can eventually lead to getting stunned if your posture damage maxes out. And trust me, the enemies will take maximum advantage to attack you when you are stunned.
This makes parrying the safer option since you can deflect all the damage and at the same time it deals posture damage to the enemy which can stun them. But this can be a bit tricky to get.
So, while a normal block is the easier option, it is not the most reliable one.
There are different chapters in the game (I'm not so sure of how many there are) and each of them has 20 different stages.
You get some kind of experience points when you pass a stage and when you get enough, you level up.
After leveling up, the game gives you three different abilities to choose one from which improves your character's abilities. There are different abilities like having more health, being able to counter and parry attacks easier, having a higher critical hit rate and damage or having your ultimate skill charge up faster. However, the max level for this is 8, so that means you get to choose about 8 different abilities from leveling up. Unless you pick the skill that raises the maximum level which allows you to select more skills when you level up.
There are also times where you have to rescue a bystander who grants you unique skills to choose from when you succeed like being able to deal fire damage or increasing your max hp after passing each stage. The abilities vary depending on who you rescue.
There are also bosses in the game, there are two for each chapter which are at the tenth and twentieth stages. Of course just as you would expect from a boss, they have a much larger health capacity, trickier attack patterns that do more damage and some of them have a few special abilities of their own. It may take a few attempts to actually learn about them.
This game was certainly an interesting one to check out, but there are a few things that I noticed about it.
First of all, you know those games where it is completely functional as an offline video game, but the devs make it require an internet connection to play anyway?
Yeah, this is one of those games.
There are different game modes other than the main mode in the game like:
The Land of Chaos where you have to defeat enemies using a certain gimmick like parrying or using the counter flash attack to gain upgrade materials or the gems that serve as the premium currency.
Raid which is more like idle farming. You set the duration of the raid, which can be at least 1 hour, and start it. You can't play any games when you start this though until it's over. I think now is probably a good time to say that this game uses Onigiri which serves as some sort of energy points which are needed to go to battle. The maximum duration of the raid you can set depends on the amount of energy points that you have available.
Yokai battle is the one that is more like an actual raid where you do as much damage to an enemy within the given time.
Nightmare altar which I believe is basically a glorified name for "survival mode".
and the Arena of Carnage which is pretty much PvP.
With some of the game modes, it would make a bit of sense why the game would require an internet connection. But honestly, remove those and I think the game would still work pretty well.
And there is also a faction system in the game, but frankly I don't really care about it.
On a side note, I want to appreciate the fact that the devs made it completely optional to watch an ad for a few rewards like an equipment chest or a free revive and not shoving an ad to your face after every battle or something of that degree.
Of course, the game does have a magnificent artstyle which was what dragged me to play this game. Plus I like the fact that the game has voice acting in Japanese too.
But, maybe I'm being a bit nit picky here, some of the voice lines sound a bit... off.
Kind of like if the voiced dialogue was a bit too loud or if the person's microphone was a bit too close to the mouth or something. I really wish there was a way to show you what I mean.
And yes, I can't really get over the fact that the asset used as the block button was also used in Shadow Fight 3.
At least the game gives a generous amount of the premium currency for completing all the daily quests. Unlike most games nowadays...
Overall, I would say that this is a pretty decent game and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to give it a shot. Frankly, the games entire vibe - the user interface, the use of an "energy" system to play a game, in fact its entire vibe, just reminds me of mobile games from around 2016 or something.