Nariko is the most powerful character i have ever played in a video game.
I was blown away by how powerful this woman was, I would bet on her to win against Kratos and he's my favorite and was the most powerful character I had played until now. It was insanely fun to play as her. You basically fight off small army after small army almost never fighting any less than 10 enemies at one time or it sure felt that way, and they kept comin!
As Nariko you wield the heavenly sword. You never upgrade your weapon, it's always the same with three different attack forms: slow/strong, fast/weak/aoe, and normal. They are all usable against every enemy but you do need to switch it up on certain enemies. For example you can use your weak weapon against heavy enemies but you need to use your slower attack in order to open them up to weaker attacks first and so on. The controls were pretty easy to manage.
While you don't upgrade the weapon itself you do unlock additional combo moves as you play the game.
When you play as Kai her only weapon is something like a crossbow and it's a little on the boring side. The way her levels are set up is just you spamming bolts into enemies which isn't a bad thing, it's just definitely not as fun as playing Nariko. However! There was a mechanic I really enjoyed in the game. While throwing objects as Nariko or shooting arrows as Kai if you held the throw/shoot button down you would enter a slow-mo mode and control where your arrow or object was going. The best part about it was that you had to tilt the controller itself left or right and up and down in order to turn it. Some parts where you were forced to do so were pretty frustrating but the mechanic itself was very fun. It's like sniping in Bulletstorm (if you've played it, and if you haven't you should!) where you control the bullet. The head-shots felt pretty rewarding and were just funny.
Another mini-game I liked was blowing up enemies with a cannon. The army you launch cannons at looked and felt huge, it was great, it's now the game with my favorite cannon action.
The game made me think of movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and such. It's a martial arts fantasy thing, really cool. The story wasn't very deep or driven but it was poetic. The characters were great, even the main enemies, they all had a personality I was interested in.
Then it was time to fight the boss. I think I spent an hour on him, it was ridiculous! The mechanics of the fight are pretty awesome, there's three phases to him and thankfully each phase is a "check point" kind of thing. What pissed me off and drove me nuts is how precise all your actions had to be, your dodging had to be perfectly timed, attacks were insanely hard to hit with, it was freakin crazy. He's the hardest boss I can remember facing in a very, very long time. Sadly some people probably found him to be really easy. =p I just was not prepared for that.
While all the previous bosses in the game were an ok challenge, not a single one of them was half as hard as the final boss. They were pretty cool bosses also. One of them had an attack i could not figure out how to dodge at all but i was still able to beat her. =p
The quick-time events during boss fights were kind of ridiculous. you had a split second to react to them resulting in unnecessary re-try's, thankfully there weren't a lot of them.
I believe the duration of the game is around five hours long not including how long it took me to beat the last boss.
I was blown away by how powerful this woman was, I would bet on her to win against Kratos and he's my favorite and was the most powerful character I had played until now. It was insanely fun to play as her. You basically fight off small army after small army almost never fighting any less than 10 enemies at one time or it sure felt that way, and they kept comin!
Characters & Weapon Styles
You play as two characters, Nariko is the one you play for most of the game and then there's Kai. Kai is a wonderful character, she has a really sweet personality and she's pretty loony. We don't know where or how but one day Nariko had saved Kai's life so Kai looks up to her.As Nariko you wield the heavenly sword. You never upgrade your weapon, it's always the same with three different attack forms: slow/strong, fast/weak/aoe, and normal. They are all usable against every enemy but you do need to switch it up on certain enemies. For example you can use your weak weapon against heavy enemies but you need to use your slower attack in order to open them up to weaker attacks first and so on. The controls were pretty easy to manage.
While you don't upgrade the weapon itself you do unlock additional combo moves as you play the game.
When you play as Kai her only weapon is something like a crossbow and it's a little on the boring side. The way her levels are set up is just you spamming bolts into enemies which isn't a bad thing, it's just definitely not as fun as playing Nariko. However! There was a mechanic I really enjoyed in the game. While throwing objects as Nariko or shooting arrows as Kai if you held the throw/shoot button down you would enter a slow-mo mode and control where your arrow or object was going. The best part about it was that you had to tilt the controller itself left or right and up and down in order to turn it. Some parts where you were forced to do so were pretty frustrating but the mechanic itself was very fun. It's like sniping in Bulletstorm (if you've played it, and if you haven't you should!) where you control the bullet. The head-shots felt pretty rewarding and were just funny.
Another mini-game I liked was blowing up enemies with a cannon. The army you launch cannons at looked and felt huge, it was great, it's now the game with my favorite cannon action.
Same Model Enemies But Still Fun
The enemies you fight are clones of each other. You have your normal dudes, then sword dudes, then hammer dudes, and then awesome ninja chicks and probably a couple of others I'm forgetting. Each model type represents a different fighting style and all that, typical old school video game stuff. That didn't bother me at all because I really enjoyed the combat. You're a total freakin badass.Powerful Combat
The hack and slash styled combat was a lot of fun. My favorite part of it was the counter-attacks and finishing moves. When you counter-attack at the right time you actually kill your enemy, it's pretty neat. There was only a few finishing moves but they were really impressive quick in game cut scene's, a couple of which focused on smashing the enemies privates, it was pure awesome. I loved watching those over and over again.The game made me think of movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and such. It's a martial arts fantasy thing, really cool. The story wasn't very deep or driven but it was poetic. The characters were great, even the main enemies, they all had a personality I was interested in.
Final Boss Ridiculously Frustrating
I was really in love with the game until I got to the final boss. It's still stuck in my head so much that I have had a hard time writing this review, it really pissed me off! While playing the game I remember thinking "every gamer needs to play this!" but then I got to the last boss and lost my damn mind. The final battle before and between the last boss was absolutely incredible. It was the perfect ending to a crazy awesome game.Then it was time to fight the boss. I think I spent an hour on him, it was ridiculous! The mechanics of the fight are pretty awesome, there's three phases to him and thankfully each phase is a "check point" kind of thing. What pissed me off and drove me nuts is how precise all your actions had to be, your dodging had to be perfectly timed, attacks were insanely hard to hit with, it was freakin crazy. He's the hardest boss I can remember facing in a very, very long time. Sadly some people probably found him to be really easy. =p I just was not prepared for that.
While all the previous bosses in the game were an ok challenge, not a single one of them was half as hard as the final boss. They were pretty cool bosses also. One of them had an attack i could not figure out how to dodge at all but i was still able to beat her. =p
The quick-time events during boss fights were kind of ridiculous. you had a split second to react to them resulting in unnecessary re-try's, thankfully there weren't a lot of them.
Female Role-Model?
I couldn't help but feel this game had "girl power" written all over it and I thought that was awesome! It made me wonder why Nariko isn't advertised more as a role model. Probably cuz she's not fully clothed. haha That aside she is a total badass independent and strong woman. She was never objectified. On top of that, the ninja women you come across in the game are the strongest of the normal enemies and are fully clothed. =p I thought that was cool.A Bit Of Anime Style
The graphics are beautiful still, there are some in game cinematic's that aren't impressive but overall it's still very nice looking. A lot of the cut scene's and even some in game moments had a really cool anime style to them with a main screen showing you the main action and then a comic book style panel kind of in the corner and on the side showing a character focus.Final Thoughts
The game kicks major ass and I was hoping to have written a much better review but that last boss made me wanna smash the developers faces in and warped my thoughts on the game. I did my best. =p It's definitely worth playing.I believe the duration of the game is around five hours long not including how long it took me to beat the last boss.
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