Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior is an action-adventure recreation developed by Sand Door Studio and revealed by Quantic Dream. Its distinctive twist on hack ‘n’ slash is the sport’s greatest characteristic…however that’s about it.
You play as Imë, the Lysfanga of the New Kingdom. The Goddess offers you the powers to rewind time and reincarnate your self to construct a military of clones. Via this energy, you may defeat huge hordes of enemies, generally known as Raxes, in battle after battle all through the sport.
The story follows Imë as she explores the Kingdom, hopping from one battle to a different, piecing collectively what occurred to the Kingdom prior to now and what’s occurring now. Often, I’d be tremendous into this lore, however Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior missed the mark for me. Exposition is sprinkled all through narrative quips between Imë and her robotic allies. There are additionally numerous statues and different areas on this planet to take a look at and get the characters to elucidate extra.
I wasn’t on this. First, the villain is named The Stranger all through the sport till the top. I couldn’t join with him as a foul man or care about why he was doing what he was doing. Second, a log retains monitor of the enemies, characters, lore, and many others. The story felt extra like a “collectible” for the log relatively than stable lore to intrigue the participant.
I appreciated the Kingdom for its graphics relatively than its story. It’s a disgrace that exploration is woefully slender. The Kingdom is empty (rightfully so for the reason that Raxes took over), however the surroundings nonetheless appears good. Nonetheless, the sport is linear, solely permitting you to go in a single route. For those who don’t hit an invisible wall and the way in which you go isn’t progress to the following battle, you’ll stroll a protracted technique to a useless finish with a treasure chest or different collectible, which will be traded in to vary Imë’s outfit.
And no, the outfits don’t improve Imë in any respect. They’re purely aesthetic. Imë doesn’t have protection, power, well being, or something of that nature. The one upgrades you obtain all through are what you discover in chests and what the Goddess offers you as you progress.
The Goddess will give you 4 powers, every being a robust assault in opposition to the Raxes with cooldown time. Your robotic buddies will provide you with spells, starting from further assaults to defensive strikes. You’ll additionally discover runes in these chests, much like spells. For instance, one rune will quicken your cooldown time in your Goddess powers and offer you a powerful backstab, simply to call a pair. You’ll be able to equip a complete of 1 spell, one rune, and one Goddess energy per battle. Mixing and matching these powers was enjoyable, however I rapidly discovered favorites and caught with them for a lot of the recreation.
Additional powers apart, the center of the sport is the battles themselves. Imë can rewind time. Every time she does, a clone of herself, generally known as a Remnant, seems, mimicking her earlier actions. The battles themselves are hack ‘n’ slash, however they’ve quite a lot of technique. To not point out, the battles are timed, and the clock ticks quicker every time you rewind.
Earlier than every battle, you’ll see the entire area and the place the Raxes are situated. That is the time to strategize the place to begin and what number of enemies you need to defeat earlier than rewinding time. The clones will repeat what you simply did so you may transfer on to different enemies.
As well as, every battle has a gimmick. Some battles are small, and others cowl an enormous space. Doorways could also be a characteristic the place you undergo a purple door, and all the opposite purple doorways will shut whereas yellow doorways will open. Remnants can undergo closed doorways however nonetheless activate them to open and shut. I received myself caught behind doorways many occasions as a result of conserving monitor of the Remnants was difficult. You earn extra Remnants for each 4 shards you discover. You’ll additionally get a freebie after defeating a boss. By the top of the sport, I had 13 of them.
Raxes have gimmicks, too. Some can solely be defeated by being hit within the again, whereas others are “twins” and are related. You kill one, and the opposite will heal it, so you need to kill each concurrently. And sure, the twins are sometimes at reverse ends of the battle space, so that you want two Remnants to work collectively, timing it good.
As you progress in Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior, battles don’t get any simpler. You earn extra spells, runes, Goddess powers, and Remnants. Nonetheless, as an alternative of with the ability to grasp these abilities, the sport repeatedly throws new gimmicks at you every battle. A few battles earlier than the boss, the Raxes may solely be defeated by a specific weapon. Imë has a sword, rings, and a trident, so I needed to swap weapons in the course of fight. You’ll be able to’t swap weapons except you will have a selected rune outfitted, so it compelled me to make use of a rune I didn’t need.
Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warriors forces you to make use of your entire arsenal all through the sport. At first, that is advantageous. I need the sport to point out me alternative ways to make the most of my abilities and talents. Nonetheless, by the top, particularly for a hack ‘n’ slash recreation, I need to use my favorites and button-mash my technique to victory. And, with the rewind and Remnants, there’s nonetheless loads of technique to go round, so I wouldn’t lose the principle level of the battle mechanics.
Regardless, I did have time with the sport. I beat the principle story in beneath 14 hours. I want I had gotten extra into the story and the world-building. Nonetheless, the sport solely permits Imë to maneuver from one battle to a different, sometimes discovering chests should you look arduous sufficient. The sport crashed on me a couple of occasions and lagged sometimes, which was annoying. Nonetheless, it autosaves so usually that it was by no means a loss.
