Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior
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Summary
Sand Door Studios’Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warriorhas the gameplay of an action - escapade with only notional aspirations towards being a teaser . This dynamic never fully coheres , though the game ’s method acting of incorporating prerecorded clones to puzzle out increasingly larger isometric fight encounters is definitely one deserving explore . We ’ve seen this concept in games before , and it immediately progress to sense here , butLysfangaloses sheen as its orbit grow bogged down with idea and restrictions , all while main character Imë stays primarily the same . It ’s a biz which feels finally stifling , despite some interesting mechanics .
Imë is the armoured Lysfanga of the New Kingdom Antala , indue by the Goddess of Time and tasked with protecting her kingdom from a mysterious new threat . She sports familiar political hack - and - slash action - RPG control both in and out of combat , and can swing her sword into simple combos and repeatedly panache - dodge on a short cooldown , with combat relegated to specific zone throughout each layer . After entering battle , players equip one alive spell , a runic letter which affords a special effect , and an ultimate - like power which can be dismiss off after doling out enough terms .
Get so into the best action function - playing video games for a challenge that ’s actually deserving your time .
Lysfanga ’s ocular esthetical and introduce mythology combines aspect of Mesoamerican fine art , Japanese yokai , and Persian armour , along with some more generic fantasy discriminative stimulus . The layer themselves are quite spacious , though the deficiency of a map or scope in the HUD can make search for hidden objects a chore , and it can be severe to reorient from a mid - level reload after spending clock time away from the biz .
The Best Warrior To Have At Your Side: Yourself
One of the first conflict inLysfanga : The Time Shift Warriorfeels most descriptive of the game ’ central dissertation , with the instrumentalist bear in front of three lane of static enemy , creature known as " Raxes . " From here , Imë can spend one time - restricted “ life ” crush those in the left lane , another defeating the Raxes on the rightfield , then habituate a third to finish off the last one in the center and figure out the encounter . On the covert , all three of these try eventually fire off simultaneously , with each path the actor formulate laid out onto the next .
The system of rules introduces some fun but fairly obvious techniques using these subsequent ghosts or “ end . ” player can pound down a bad opposition over multiple attempts and end , though it ’s potential to mistakenly pull out aggro , which then risks hustling targets out of the elbow room of antecedently lethal damage at the hands of retiring remnant . Certain Raxes continuously heal and revive each other , so Imë will have to ensure they all go down at around the same time , and shielded enemies can kibosh attack from one remnant while another strike their vulnerable can .
Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warrior is a combination hack - and - slash action deed of conveyance and puzzler with too piffling in both element .
Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior is a combination hack-and-slash action title and puzzler with too little in both elements.
Whenever the player ’s HP or fighting timekeeper hits zero , they pop the scrap over from the beginning , but can also trigger a tactically early “ death ” at will . There are only a few remnant to control at the start , but gather shards in each tier adds more and more backups to the militia , to the point where we regularly employed up to ten in the longer conflict near the final stage of the secret plan .
Each encounter inLysfanga : The Time Shift Warriorcan be reactivated on the smudge to account - Salmon Portland Chase toward a faster solve but , even with the given par culmination time , there ’s no penalty for failing to encounter it … or , more significantly , any reward for besting it . Personal leaderboards and the opportunity to directly revisit past fights eventually unlock as a incentive feature in the hub , but the game struggles to conjure any understanding to play back them , other than to simply quiz player skill .
Attractive Levels, But There’s Little Need To Explore
Screenshots ofLysfanga : The Time Shift Warriormay inculpate a extensive mathematical function rich with exploration chance but , sadly , there is n’t much to see or seek out . navigate off the beat itinerary can result in some lore , spherical “ motes of deception ” which act as currency , or a gem chest ; the latter contains either alternate outfit colour for Imë , an equippable runic letter ( though these more impactful treasures are seldom if ever hidden out of the way of life ) , or a remnant fragment .
As a result , the secret plan oftentimes skin to make its gameplay rewarding . After the hub area is unbolted , there are touch that Imë will finally incur gear craft by a golem – these magical voiced zombie make up the majority of the game ’s NPCs – but this is a total misdirect . Instead , a blacksmith robot is recruit much , much afterwards in the story , who then function as the primary path to pass those collectible motes of magic . What do they provide in replication ? Nothing but simple armour re - colors . It ’s just a complete puff of air of a late - degree unlock .
Lysfanga ’s visual esthetic and presented mythology combines aspects of Mesoamerican artistic creation , Japanese yokai , and Persian armor , along with some more generic fantasy cues .
At least the environment are nice to calculate at , even presented as slightly familiarly generic to options we ’ve find out before . There are ruptured engineering science - infuse temple , jungle - gag downfall , lots of elaborate stonework and yawning doorways to go through . Characters and enemies are mostly captured in a simplistic style with minimal detail , but there are gorgeous graphic symbol portraits for dialogue succession , as well as paint art in menus and cutscene stills . The chiefly zoomed - out perspective echo the phantasy stylings ofDOTAorLeague of Legends , and the environments do possess some distinct personality and color choices , but they continue mostly forgettable once the game shuts off .
The Combat Fails to Evolve Over Time
Even with an interesting concept to start with , Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warriorquickly decays , mostly due to its unfirm base and raw simplicity . We ’ve witness the mechanic of contain clone of retiring effort a few times before – like in 2013 ’s indie hitThe Swapper – though the biz ’s ARPG controls presents this puzzle concept alongside combat which feels more akin toHades , Curse of the Dead Gods , and other “ alternate - less ” define - perspective natural action game .
However , many of those games are beef up by their creative randomness , with a rotation of equipping , boons , and lasting upgrades to support individualized builds . InLysfanga , it ’s completely potential to flap the game with the equipment found in its first hr . runic letter and spells are not built equally , the bulk of them are barely worth the swop , and they do n’t descale or evolve over time . away from the three weapons which unlock at fundamental points in the story , no equipment can be hot - swapped once combat has begin , so player always need to dedicate to a strict loadout for each combat . It ’s gentle enough to re-start , but being unable to switch - or even combine the effects of more than one rune or spell - causes the activeness to feel inescapably shallow .
Furthermore , while Imë herself maintain a bare moveset , enemies grow more and more complicated , eventually extending the fighting into ennui . By the third and final deed , match can let in any of the following : color - coded monsters that can only be defeated by an diametric - color Imë , a shielded foeman which blocks dashes , aggressive flushed mob who can hardly be stun - locked , and lounge lizard which teleport before dying , which often means a later remnant must track them down to deal out the killing blow . It ’s as if the enemy ’s potential continues to expand while the player ’ remains in traction .
Final Thoughts & Review Score
2.5/5
With no reward for outflank completion times inLysfanga , it ’s promiscuous enough to get just good enough to get by , with some extended encounters feeling like a task to play back . Even after more remnant are unlocked by the end of the plot , fights plainly grow longer , not smarter . in the end , these upgrade neglect to act as a consistent part of the secret plan ’s integral combat teaser and feel more like “ free life ” to drop on beast - draw a puff effort .
mayhap it ’s thatLysfangacan’t figure out how to square the circle between a combat biz and a puzzle game . The plot is never sufficiently challenged on either condition , with the combat often clunky thanks to its combo commits and random AOE price , and the puzzler aspects faint and fiddly , mostly interested with restricting the already - limited gear selection or haphazardly expanding enemy HP . Its worldbuilding remains quite interesting with some characterful style throughout , butLysfanga : The Time shift key Warriorneeds more substantial goals and reward to breathe in its players onward to the next closed circuit .
A digital PC computer code was provided toScreen Rantfor the purpose of this review .
Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warrior is a hack - and - slash activeness game from developer Sand Door Studio . player bear the use of Lysfanga , the name given to the defender of the kingdom of Antala , as they utilize their control of time to overwhelm the hordes of demon have it away as the Raxes and agitate to doctor peace of mind to a forgotten world .
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