Reaper - Tale of a Pale Swordsman

Reaper is an odd one. I've spent a while trying to figure out what I think of it, but after some deliberation I can't recommend this game. I'd say mixed if I could though, and here's why: Pros: This game looks great, it's a really nice visual style, in 27 hours I never grew tired. It's simplistic, but it has a charm to it. In addition, the game's story is surprisingly good - It was willing to take darker turns and wasn't afraid to shy away from some more adult themes, and I really respect that. The designers and writers, and to an extent the sound designers, did a great job - and if I was rating the game just based on that then I'd happily suggest it. Unfortunately, there's some rather awful flaws Cons: The combat just... sucks. I've tried everything I can, I've tried crit builds, raw damage builds, tank builds... nothing works. The game has no immunity frames, which means unless you manage to get a lot of block by about level 20, the game because so very painful - things start doing ten or so damage even with a hundred plus armour, the screen becomes filled with projectiles and you are not immune to any of it. That, combined with having to rely on so much RNG - do you crit? do you resurrect? Does the enemy turn to face you immediately? Do you spawn in the middle of a bunch of enemies and get shot down within seconds? It's not even just that, the enemies themselves are often a problem. Projectile spam, ridiculously awkward enemies who refuse to let you get at them (looking at you shield pikemen and ground vehicles), these are just the most of the problems this game has with combat. You're way too squishy, collecting money is a massive pain, living itself is fraught with luck and complications, enemies scale up so much that everything feels like a slog to get through even with the best gear... and the last boss? It's all of these problems, except instead of being invulnerable periodically, it just has a 90% unmitigateable damage reduction. Just absolute ass. Money being such a problem to get in battle wouldn't be *too* bad, if one of the achievements requires you to get 300k using ONLY MONEY EARNED IN BATTLE, despite it not saying that, and it doesn't work in dark harvest (which is the games endless mode, except it's just battles - which means it's just the bad parts). The heart of this game is something fantastic, something I really respect and enjoy. The story, the world, the visuals are all great - it's not the most groundbreaking, but it's not afraid to take some risks with it and I respect that a lot. But when I'm playing the game, I'm just waiting for it to be over - waiting for the next cut-scene, the next bit of dialogue, the next part that's fun. If you buy this game, and I don't blame you if you do, then I strongly advise that you don't try to complete it. Play the main story, then stop. That's the game at it's best. Without the ♥♥♥♥ controls, awful combat and poor economy management, this game would be fantastic. Sadly, that's almost all of the game.