El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON HD Remaster

El Shaddai is nearly a hidden gem and needs to be played by everyone , I used to play this game when I had xbox 360 , I was never able to complete the game properly but now i I bought the game on steam and I ddidn't know about the pc port , This game is fancy and best combat mechanics , this game is really ahead of it's time . No other game has multi genre shift like this and very unique of it's elements and ignore the title , it's just doesn't make sense what the game is based on but I still Loved it and 9/10 and i Love lore drop like this . The combat is enjoyable at first, especially with the weapon-switching system, but it can become repetitive over time. The platforming also feels awkward in places, mostly because of the camera and stiff movement. That’s probably the biggest reason people end up loving the atmosphere more than the actual gameplay. My first time with El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, and honestly it feels like a forgotten gem. The art direction is incredible, every stage looks like a moving painting. The combat is fun and stylish, even if it gets repetitive later on. It’s not perfect, but the atmosphere, music, and strange beauty of this world make it memorable. It’s a shame more people don’t talk about this game, because it has a unique identity that still stands out today and one day I will 100% this game and complete on hard mode .

Despite releasing in 2021, this port features a garbo launcher straight out of 2008, and it'll ask you to download PhysX and restart your computer. At least for me using Proton and trying different versions, it just didn't launch, but I see others who got it working on Linux, so it might just be me... but I can't tolerate the choices made for this port and having to troubleshoot it like this.

Straight up broken, I tried every fix I could find without anything working. The game simply doesn't work. Save your money.

Been wanting to play El Shaddai for years, sadly it wont boot on my system due to my CPU having E-cores. Tried every solution listed in the forums sadly none of them worked. Makes me pretty sad as I wanted to play El Shaddai for many years, I'll guess I will have to wait until it makes its way to PS5 to finally be able to play it.

great remaster, inshallah I'll see a remake in my lifetime

Made it to the last couple of boss fights but got tired of the game and gave up. Not worth the time in my opinion. Story was a little too abstract for my tastes though I liked the trippy level designs. The main let-downs are the repetitive devil-may-cry rip-off combat and while I initially liked the mixture of 3D and 2D platforming the fixed camera makes it too hard to judge distance smoothly. It's challenging but not in a fun way, indeed some of the rotating platforms gave me motion sickness, something I've never experienced in a game before.

[h1] Still Beautiful, Still Kind of Bad [/h1] [spoiler] I'm only leaving a positive review because the game called me "Best Player" in the credits. I've been having a hard time of it, and flattery will get you everywhere with me. [/spoiler] El Shaddai is a creative, psychedelic, ambitious and visually gorgeous 7th gen disappointment, that balances cool ideas with ass ideas is about equal measure. Based on a non-canonical (well, unless you're a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church) book of the Bible, El Shaddai sees you play as the prophet and heavenly scribe Enoch, here reimagined as a Brad Pitt-looking twunk in fancy jeans, who is tasked by heaven to capture seven Fallen Angels who have holed up in a pocket dimension where they can play God as they see fit. The basic set-up should be a slam-dunk of simple, yet evocative storytelling: 7 Angels, 7 Levels of the Tower, 7 Realms, 7 Boss Fights, 7 Aspects of Human Nature the angels become obsessed with without ever truly being able to grasp them, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers... it should be pretty simple. Unfortunately, El Shaddai seeks to complicate the narrative while lacking the time and resources to fully execute on even the most simple and basic form of the story. As a result, the story is meandering, poorly-explained, unengaging and just kind of baffling and dull. It's not terrible. It certainly has some hype moments and no shortage of great ideas. It just doesn't really work. Gameplay is similarly undercooked. The game is a hack and slasher in the vein of Devil May Cry or God of War (though Lollipop Chainsaw and Knight's Contract are perhaps better comparisons in terms of depth...) that mixes simple, but overall fun enough combat with platforming that is either piss-easy or kind of bad. Gameplay would be good enough to support a good story, except for some bizarre decisions, such as locking basic HUD displays as a completion bonus, having the collectables you pick up throughout the game seemingly do nothing and having the bosses pop up to harass you in battles that carry no weight and rob the eventual real encounters of any weight. Where the game really, genuinely does shine is it's visuals and music. The levels are all unique, trippy, abstract realms of colour and texture completely unlike anything you've seen outside of maybe REZ. The characters and enemies also have an eerie, geometric feel to them, more reminiscent of High Modern Art than standard fantasy or Sci-Fi. At it's best, it feels like Picasso, Miro and Taro Okamoto got together and decided to make a BLAME! adaptation. At its worst, it's still very nice to look at. Overall, El Shaddai is too unique to give a thumbs-down (also it was nice to me in the credits and maybe it will be to you, too), though I advise you to proceed at your own risk. It could be your next favourite cult-classic, or it could be a complete waste of time to you.

I really admire when games do things that separate them or tell stories in such a vivid way whether it be by artistic representation or literary interpretation. El Shaddai hits this in every regard. As I get older and play the catalog of games of each era I start to understand the way in which they are made and that almost ruins the veil of immersion at times for me. It’s almost like another call of duty game, you know you start to see games that are just simply the same with the engine at its core just with a different texture pack. All of that preamble to say, it is very rare to find a game that is so hungry to push limits and attempt to do something in a genre that often times can be fitting into a box and checking those boxes off. El Shaddai has so many unique mechanics and designs that I am truly amazed. A reoccurring thought that happened when I was playing was how unique and beautiful these level designs are. This game was made on the PS3 in 2011 so you should definitely curb your expectation on how intricate it CAN be. However, on that note it is quite intricate for its age and there are so many one of a kind level designs that truly remind me of the PS3 era. It’s very hack and slashy, and genuinely a good level of difficulty in fights and even platforming. For what the designs are they are quite cool and even if you remove the religious/historical contexts the characters are pretty awesome and the ambiance the environments, there’s like a beautiful scene with stained glass and its just so freaking awesome to experience and see. The enemy designs and boss fights are pretty awesome too, I actually couldn’t wait to see what happens next on each session whether it be how the story progresses or genuinely just the artistic choices of the developers. I know that there are religious contexts to this story and My God, how they make such a beautiful rendition of what could be a very delicate subject. I kind of wish more games did this more openly where they take these touchy subjects and make them into these badass games but I know that’s not where the profit lies. El Shaddai does a wonderful job in being respectful and giving warnings on its inspirations and clearly labeling it as an inspiration. The only thing I didn’t necessarily like was how much interpretation is left in the story, they try very hard to fill you in on the story so you’re able to get the surface level and are able to follow along, but the deeper story you really have to pay attention and even gives you opportunities to do historical research. Regardless, as much as I would have liked a straight forward explanation after digesting the story it’s pretty awesome. Amazing voice acting and performances and emotional energy from the cast. Just such a peak PS3 game, what a beauty to play. The port is kinda sucky but for sure worth the resolution upgrade compared to PS3. It did crash on me and have some strange bugs at times but I chalk that up to a poor port. I am definitely so glad I got this on my steam handheld instead of my switch cause I definitely would have pushed that off for a long time and then to not be able to see that art in 2K res would be doing the artists a disservice. Such an awesome game, exceeded my expectations. Genuinely so crazy I am alive to experience such a work of art. Solid 8.5/10 for me.