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Shiness - Review @ Old Man Mordaith

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by RPGWatch, May 15, 2017.

  1. RPGWatch

    RPGWatch Watching... ★ SPS Account Holder

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    [​IMG]Old Man Mordaith has reviewed the Action RPG Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom:

    Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom - A Troubled World An Embattled Beauty
    Shiness: The Lightining Kingdom was created by the French indie studio Enigami. While published by the well recognized company that is Focus Home Interactive, this would be the ambitious first project for Enigami. Going to Kickstarter in May of 2014, the game eventually earned a bit over 130,000 dollars, surpassing it's 100,000 goal.

    This impressive-looking game would follow a fellowship of mixed creatures, mostly focused on the character Chado, a Waki - a furry, bipedal creature that may be part squirrel, but I was never really sure. Chado has a chip on his shoulders, but is never really angst-ridden like many JRPG protagonists, and he has the rare ability to see spirit creatures called the Shiness. Getting advice and often talking with his Shiness pal Terra, Chado eventually feels like an outcast in his own town, so he grabs an airship and takes off with his mechanic pal Poky. Eventually you meet more characters to add to the party as the gang quests to find The Lands of Life.

    The game promised to be a strange hybrid. A few parts arena fighting game, a splash of manga, and a dose of JRPG. For what it's worth, Enigami delivered on the intention. After having its release date pushed back several times, Shiness: The Lightining Kingdom finally arrived in April of 2017 at the price of $29.99 USD - and is available on Steam, Xbox One and PS4.

    [...]

    The Room From Hell
    So there was a room. A room that nicely sums up my experiences with Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom. I will avoid posting in-depth spoilers, but in one of the later areas of Act I you come to a room where you need to climb a ladder, traverse an obnoxious path that is easy to fall from, and need to get the right angle to do a puzzle. Each time you fell, you would need to once again find the sweet spot to be able to interact with the ladder.

    Then endure the slow climbing animation only to carefully try to traverse the platform again.

    Then, maybe you'll luck out with your angle and get the simple puzzle to work.

    Oh, did I mention, sometimes if you fell there were monsters waiting for you? Sometimes three - three hard ones.

    And being the terrible noob I am, I fell often.

    And that is a summary of my experience with the game: Struggling to interact with it, slowly climbing above painful and poorly executed combat mechanics, only to be suddenly and irritatingly be brought back down to them. All the while trying very hard to get to the brief moments of worthwhile exploration and puzzles.

    While I do not know the under-the-hood mechanics of the game, there is a lot of tweaking here that could be done. In my review I made several observations that if even one was followed, would have made the game a much more enjoyable experience for myself.

    This game has some very loud and proud fans, and good for them. I, however, am not one of them.

    Rating 5.5/10
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 16, 2017
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