Most of these gripes have been solved by the constant quality of life improvements for the game since release. They did a big update yesterday and another hotfix this morning
Awesome review! This game looks really neat and I am pretty curious about it now...just worried about the difficulty as I've heard it can be pretty tough!
Star Ocean The Second Story R's visuals are lightyears better than this game. This title does visually look quite good for a lower budget indie, for sure. It's a good looking game. But SOTSS-R looks absolutely phenomenal. Wandering Sword just can't touch it.
Literally just finished a run of this game, it's crazy. Little tight on the reigns, railroading you a bit throughout the game until you hit a point where you can clear all the content a newly unlocked region has to offer the moment they set you loose there. But. Oh my god the actual games fun as hell. Nearly right out the gate you can freely roam (aside from blocked off regions and every sect before you visit wudang) and shape yourself and others into whatever you wanna achieve. There's a way to do whatever you set out to do. Immortal freak that destroys the opponents ability to fight back by punching them directly in their menu and stats? My favorite. Dex built dodge tank that punishes opponents for playing the game? Grow up, but yeah. Poison? P o i s o n . Guy who traverses/attacks the entire screen every split second? Almost sure thats possible, gotta look at some stuff tho. Also the characters you get add so many details and insights to the entire game. Almost nobody you run into is forgotten by the story. I'm surprised most of them aren't necessary. A few of em I ran into on my own were (maybe??), but I'd hafta see if it's mandatory to fight that scorpion, if not there's an entire major story arc that would be wildly different. Sticking around the western area after clearing up issues and investigating was supposedly a side quest too, but oh my god. Just be sure to visit the towns once you're done with the main quest there, trust me. In fact, visit every town and every zone/dungeon all the time, I'm not kidding. You don't know something won't happen. There's some jank, one of my party members up and forgot about their questline I guess, and the drama with the beggars sect very Very suddenly ends without explaining to you what the fuck happened or why. Most of it's pretty solid though. Games got a lotta replay value with the inheritance system too, letting you get special items by unlocking sect legacies or carry over skills you've mastered, but that depends on how ambitious you were before one of your many ends. It also let's you raise your alchemy before the game starts. Alchemy is difficult to train (lotta rare ingredients and not a lotta exp for making stuff), has limited uses (as in most of the stat raising pills can be used 3 times per character), and isn't very effective (said pills increase minor stats by single digit margins or fractions of a percent). Okay, maybe alchemy was a bad example. But all in all, this games insanely good, ESPECIALLY for the price. Go grab it, I think they're still adding content, all of it's free. The story's phenomenal. Go fucking play it.
I really love the Octopath engine, i just wish that the studios wouldn't nearly always use such muted colors. There's nothing in the engine that dictates this since its just basically UE4, and i get that it's an aesthetic choice, but it doesnt need to be EVERY game lol. Ok rant over.
The art style looks great, but with some of the issues that you mentioned...it's a shame that these specific flaws (such as with healing) are there. I'm tempted to try it though.
Just wanted to say that the whole not being able to use healing items in battle is a non issue. You have several different cultivation stances Some of them restore hp/mp Some give you an hp shield Etc It gives some nice options to circumvent the situation If you just look at your abilities and stratagize a bit. Honestly too many games let you use consumable items willy nilly And it just destroys the game difficulty.
@@dkr4673 also you can build yourself to regenerate so hard and fast that it's indistinguishable from blocking or dodging the hit. Also unless you're using it to cut damage, MP stops being an object mid game. There is the issue where a blocked or dodged hit still applies on hit effects, but honestly fuck dex builds.
it's really sad , nowaydays people only talk about artstyles and visuals , since when did we stop caring about the story ? ... i'd rather play a game with only boxes instead of sprites , for a great story.
immediate problem with the pixel art. they all have a 3 frame breathing animation in which in the 3rd frame they blink. so their breathing is tied to their blinking. it looks so weird. 2 frame animation for breathing would look better as well, 3 frames is overkill and looks bad. characters should blink every 5 frames so that it alternates between inhaling and exhaling, and 5 frames would give enough time given how slow the animation is to look like a more natural blinking cycle
@@vgnvideogameninja2930 Thanks. I did it on switch and got to the end of the demo. In the demo there were 3 explorable areas with their own monsters, two monster battle areas of which you could do the first 3 levels (G,F,E), and the ability to synthesize monsters.
The game was fun, the story was weak AF. Orthodox sect are all shady and full of bad people who cares more about their reputation than doing good. The Final Boss is 100% justified in what he does yet your MC is a yes-man that never second guess his orders and just do what he is told. Worth the price tho, wont replay.
If you're going to have magic martial arts powers, why not lean into the xianxia elements with more fantasy elements? Besides that, it looks like a pretty awesome game. The HD 2D style was really well implemented.
@@razorflossrazor2937 I just dislike pseudo-historical pseudo-fantastical works. Like the King Arthur movie from 2004 for example that tries to pretend it's about the "real Arthur" but has fantastical fighters in the form of ex-Roman legionaries in Briton and Merlin is a druid, with real powers.
@@DoggyP00 Because zombies aren't sci-fi? They are unrelated. If you are going to make a sci-fi game with spaceships, you should include other vehicles... looking at you Starfield.
Yeah the UI/UX is a total nightmare ESPECIALLY if u play with controller. Gameplay SEEMS fun, but it's way too basic and eventually vecome MMO-ish where u just stand and spam attack. Story and chars are extremely generic too, typical chinese wuxia cultivation. Visuals are great, but I dont recommend playing this game.
Most of these gripes have been solved by the constant quality of life improvements for the game since release. They did a big update yesterday and another hotfix this morning
Hi Sackchief! Thanks so much for covering Wandering Sword!
Awesome review! This game looks really neat and I am pretty curious about it now...just worried about the difficulty as I've heard it can be pretty tough!
It's not tough if you grind enough😂
The art style reminds me of the Star Ocean 2 remake coming out later this year.
Star Ocean The Second Story R's visuals are lightyears better than this game. This title does visually look quite good for a lower budget indie, for sure. It's a good looking game. But SOTSS-R looks absolutely phenomenal. Wandering Sword just can't touch it.
@vgnvideogameninja2930 You got that right.
I loved every minute of this game. The huge side quests which included wars and pirate rebellions were really good
Literally just finished a run of this game, it's crazy. Little tight on the reigns, railroading you a bit throughout the game until you hit a point where you can clear all the content a newly unlocked region has to offer the moment they set you loose there.
But. Oh my god the actual games fun as hell. Nearly right out the gate you can freely roam (aside from blocked off regions and every sect before you visit wudang) and shape yourself and others into whatever you wanna achieve. There's a way to do whatever you set out to do. Immortal freak that destroys the opponents ability to fight back by punching them directly in their menu and stats? My favorite. Dex built dodge tank that punishes opponents for playing the game? Grow up, but yeah. Poison? P o i s o n . Guy who traverses/attacks the entire screen every split second? Almost sure thats possible, gotta look at some stuff tho.
Also the characters you get add so many details and insights to the entire game. Almost nobody you run into is forgotten by the story. I'm surprised most of them aren't necessary. A few of em I ran into on my own were (maybe??), but I'd hafta see if it's mandatory to fight that scorpion, if not there's an entire major story arc that would be wildly different. Sticking around the western area after clearing up issues and investigating was supposedly a side quest too, but oh my god. Just be sure to visit the towns once you're done with the main quest there, trust me. In fact, visit every town and every zone/dungeon all the time, I'm not kidding. You don't know something won't happen.
There's some jank, one of my party members up and forgot about their questline I guess, and the drama with the beggars sect very Very suddenly ends without explaining to you what the fuck happened or why. Most of it's pretty solid though.
Games got a lotta replay value with the inheritance system too, letting you get special items by unlocking sect legacies or carry over skills you've mastered, but that depends on how ambitious you were before one of your many ends. It also let's you raise your alchemy before the game starts. Alchemy is difficult to train (lotta rare ingredients and not a lotta exp for making stuff), has limited uses (as in most of the stat raising pills can be used 3 times per character), and isn't very effective (said pills increase minor stats by single digit margins or fractions of a percent). Okay, maybe alchemy was a bad example.
But all in all, this games insanely good, ESPECIALLY for the price. Go grab it, I think they're still adding content, all of it's free. The story's phenomenal. Go fucking play it.
I really love the Octopath engine, i just wish that the studios wouldn't nearly always use such muted colors. There's nothing in the engine that dictates this since its just basically UE4, and i get that it's an aesthetic choice, but it doesnt need to be EVERY game lol.
Ok rant over.
WoW! This game is dope! I'm getting it!
URL in the comment seems messed up. something about sep2023launch?
Looks awesome. I love this style? Can any kind person please give me a list of RPGs that use the HD-2D style?
Speaking of the font, what is up with the generic ass font choice?
The art style looks great, but with some of the issues that you mentioned...it's a shame that these specific flaws (such as with healing) are there. I'm tempted to try it though.
Just wanted to say that the whole not being able to use healing items in battle is a non issue.
You have several different cultivation stances
Some of them restore hp/mp
Some give you an hp shield
Etc
It gives some nice options to circumvent the situation
If you just look at your abilities and stratagize a bit.
Honestly too many games let you use consumable items willy nilly
And it just destroys the game difficulty.
@@dkr4673yeah having to decide between using a buff or attack and healing for your cultivation moves is really nice
@@dkr4673 You're right!
@@dkr4673 also you can build yourself to regenerate so hard and fast that it's indistinguishable from blocking or dodging the hit. Also unless you're using it to cut damage, MP stops being an object mid game.
There is the issue where a blocked or dodged hit still applies on hit effects, but honestly fuck dex builds.
Is the controller working properly on this game?
Nope
Works great for me, im using Steam Big Picture on my TV, awesome experience
it's really sad , nowaydays people only talk about artstyles and visuals , since when did we stop caring about the story ? ... i'd rather play a game with only boxes instead of sprites , for a great story.
immediate problem with the pixel art. they all have a 3 frame breathing animation in which in the 3rd frame they blink. so their breathing is tied to their blinking. it looks so weird. 2 frame animation for breathing would look better as well, 3 frames is overkill and looks bad. characters should blink every 5 frames so that it alternates between inhaling and exhaling, and 5 frames would give enough time given how slow the animation is to look like a more natural blinking cycle
Dragon Quest Monsters Demo is out
Really, thanks. All platforms, or just switch?
@@SnowmanStudios75 PS5 and Steam also.
@@vgnvideogameninja2930 Thanks. I did it on switch and got to the end of the demo. In the demo there were 3 explorable areas with their own monsters, two monster battle areas of which you could do the first 3 levels (G,F,E), and the ability to synthesize monsters.
The game was fun, the story was weak AF. Orthodox sect are all shady and full of bad people who cares more about their reputation than doing good. The Final Boss is 100% justified in what he does yet your MC is a yes-man that never second guess his orders and just do what he is told. Worth the price tho, wont replay.
I don't like HD 2D when the sprites and the background don't match like having 3D rendered backgrounds with pixelated characters.
If you're going to have magic martial arts powers, why not lean into the xianxia elements with more fantasy elements? Besides that, it looks like a pretty awesome game. The HD 2D style was really well implemented.
That's a subgenre of this.
@@razorflossrazor2937 I just dislike pseudo-historical pseudo-fantastical works. Like the King Arthur movie from 2004 for example that tries to pretend it's about the "real Arthur" but has fantastical fighters in the form of ex-Roman legionaries in Briton and Merlin is a druid, with real powers.
iF YOU'RE Ggoing to MAKE A ZOMBIE GMME WHY NOT GO FULL SCI FI AND ADD MECHS AND SPACESHIPS?
@@DoggyP00 Because zombies aren't sci-fi? They are unrelated. If you are going to make a sci-fi game with spaceships, you should include other vehicles... looking at you Starfield.
i wish they'd make a "star ocean: second story" remake from the ps1. one of best games ever
😉
Yeah the UI/UX is a total nightmare ESPECIALLY if u play with controller.
Gameplay SEEMS fun, but it's way too basic and eventually vecome MMO-ish where u just stand and spam attack. Story and chars are extremely generic too, typical chinese wuxia cultivation.
Visuals are great, but I dont recommend playing this game.