playing as V it felt like the winning strategy was just buttonmashing
How are we still making these criticisms in 2025 😔
This is why discussing action games in mainstream spheres sucks balls because half of the criticisms are as lazy as this. Y'all should do better.
OK, so I'm gonna say this about action games: if you approach them like you do every other game—one playthrough and you move on—most are gonna disappoint you. DMC5 in particular is possibly the worst culprit; however, if you're willing to commit to exploring their depth and play on the highest difficulties, holy shit some of the best gaming you'll ever experience.
This is why I cannot take casual reviews of action games seriously because any action game fan knows the first playthrough is the tutorial, while for most people it's the whole game.
I can't really fault people for wanting to move on after one playthrough, but when they say stuff like "I played DMC… and it's not that good" I just wanna say: yeah, no shit, because you didn't stick around to explore why everyone else is praising it—you played the tutorial and moved on.
We could argue whether this is bad game design, but the truth is not only does it work, I don't believe there's any way for a game like DMC or Bayonetta to feed all of its combat depth to players in one playthrough. Hell, it's not enough for the muscle memory to kick in to get even close to mastering everything, so I cannot really blame devs that much.
Hmm… for me, it's less about memory and more about helping myself see a pattern of what I like and what I don't, which eventually helps me make better purchasing decisions.
Like, when I look at a list of my favorite games, I can conclusively tell you: I like challenging, replayable games with real-time action, synergy among their mechanics, and mechanical variety.
For me, this knowledge would not have been attainable if I didn't sit down and put together a list of what I like/what I don't like.
There already is a Steam page and the description says co-op action RPG.
I mean, perspective matters, I suppose: you could use isometric/top down and 3rd person to make a distinction between PoE and HZD, but then again I don't play either, or ARPGs in general, so that's as nuanced of a take as I could have on this.
I'm glad Suda51 is still making new IPs, but I'm kinda over his gameplay? It needs to evolve somehow… like, melee here looks a lot like Killer Is Dead, which was serviceable, but not great.
Of course, everything else is captivating, as it always is, but I'll need more from the gameplay to get invested in this.
Tag fighters aren't my thing and ASW are headed in the opposite direction of what I want from a fighting game, but I'm happy for them! They came a long way and more or less stuck to their guns, which's admirable.
I'm happy to go down with Plus R, P4AU, and Under Night though.