Pharaonic

Pharonic, a visually delicious dedicated combat based Egyptian themed Hack and Slash and in my opinion a very underrated game in the Souls Like genre. Control Responsiveness is perfect. Combat is based on stamina and frankly if you don't know how to manage your stamina in Pharonic then yes you will criticize control responsiveness as no combat action may occur without stamina and yes you will get beaten to a pulp. The interface has a stamina bar which must be monitored constantly in order to optimize your next move. Weapons and Armors are plentiful and associated stats do make a difference, a huge difference as Pharonic is a stamina based game. You will not necessarily use the best weapon found or the best armor found. You must be strategic in your loadout to match your style of play. Weapons, armor, magic implements and attribute boosting rings must be carefully and thoughtfully selected. Pharonic is a pseudo 2.5D game. Combat takes place on two dimensional plane but exploration allows movement around a 3D map. For this reason alone Pharonic is extremely unique and movement in this regard is well executed. However, implementation conflicts with the game's static maps which I will subsequently address. You are not locked in to any one direction. The game is certainly not open world but you do have freedom of movement to a degree. The in game map objectively speaking leaves much to be desired. The maps are static and there are no location pointers identifying where you are on the level. Levels rotate but as stated maps are static so new players will have difficulty identifying locations. There is a strategy guide at trueachievements which mitigates map issues. Eventually you will become "Pharonic map literate". The map issue will primarily affect the user experience on the earlier levels. Subsequently as you learn stage layouts navigation will be simple. Though I submit that I have no knowledge of the game's inner workings each of the many stages has it's starting skill level set based on the user's skill level upon entry. Once a stage level is set the stage skill level does not reset under any circumstance. Therefore you can grind to level up within the stage but don't have to. Going back to early stages to "mop up" achievements and so forth confirms this. Inherently there is some repetition involved as map enemy encounters are reset under several conditions. 1) Saving the game which can be done on each stage at shrines. 2) On death you are resuscitated with full health and mana. 3) Starting the game on any level. Repetition in Pharonic is going to be an acquired taste but in reality it's no different than many games in other genres. The claim that you have to fight already fought enemies is mostly false. The game is designed so that many enemies already encountered may be bypassed. There are battles that are force locked or gated within a 2D arena. These battles are not skippable and represent usually the most challenging within the stage. The developers therefore have struck a nice balance between enemy non-repetitive and repetitive encounters enabling stage advancement by making the player work for their progression. Enemies are varied enough and very well designed. Many have multiple move-sets which you will be required to master or at least be able to recognize. Bosses are very varied in design and each stage has one. Some are more challenging than others. For the many enemies throughout the game you will have to adjust your loadouts to either go for more stamina but less offense and / or protection or less stamina but more offense and / or protection. Combat scenarios evolve from the mundane 1 vs 1 encounters to multiple concurrent enemies and this is where the difficult especially ramps up. Here the 2D combat plane has weaknesses. Occasionally there might be an enemy that executes a special charge move from off the screen. Two enemies may attack milliseconds apart making defense and stamina management very difficult as when you execute a shield block, the block is only successful if you have not depleted stamina. As a result you'll take damage when enemy offense overwhelms your stamina meter. Finally, within gated arenas damage avoidance may be very difficult when cornered (to this I say don't get cornered :p). Thankfully I'll categorize these "faults" as nitpicks and with mastery of the game they will not be much of a problem. I thoroughly enjoyed the combat in Pharonic and many times seeking out to re-play difficult scenarios. There is an element of magic involved and in my opinion (it is my review :p) the implementation is perfect. As a plebe you start out with very little health and mana but these attributes vastly increase as you level. Mana cannot be regenerated (at fountains) once used. Mana however, as health can be replenished at shrines. There are many magic implementations to be acquired and chosen throughout the game. Selection and usage must be properly managed. Mana allocation is not too much where magic dominates the game but it's there for combat support. Playing the game through to the end I've come to appreciate the developer implementation. Pharonic can be played with a controller or mouse and k/b. Both methods of input are completely re-mappable. Pharonic is an underrated gem with great combat. A very challenging entry and one worth your time assuming you're up for a serious challenge.