Obviously, the historical context here is Chinese and not Japanese. The facts recounted take place during the Warring States Period, which began in the 2th century BC. AD and therefore provides us with a certain change of scenery. Accused of her father's murder, Princess Ji is forced to flee the palace and seeks revenge against Duke Tian, who framed her and married her sister Shu. This a priori prosaic context is tinged very quickly with fantasy, which leads Ji to set foot in the realm of the dead and to meet ghosts, skeletons, old gods, demons and other lost souls. This supernatural aspect is obviously not displeasing to us. It is all the easier to appreciate it as the artistic direction turns out to be frankly attractive. She is brilliantly inspired by Chinese prints and offers us a colorful XNUMXD, where shimmering special effects rub shoulders with decorations and characters that one would swear were painted by hand and cut out of paper.
The result sits somewhere between the graphics of Muramasa: The Demon Blade and those of Mark of the Ninja, two highly commendable benchmarks. Chinese calligraphy, a few extremely stylized fixed screens, and a quote or two from Confucius further reinforce the Asian atmosphere. Moreover, the developers did not hesitate to make us fight at times in Chinese shadows, when the heroine and her opponents find themselves behind screens. The combat system is also quite successful. The most relentless players may at first regret the lack of complexity of the combos, since it is enough to hammer the same key to get the basic shots. But you have to take into account the souls that you win over the course of the clashes and which allow you to unlock additional blows. Above all, it quickly becomes necessary to be tactical if you don't want to spend too much time facing each opponent.
CHINESE TORMENTS
The game offers us a particularly important parry and dodge (dash type). The first allows not only to block certain blows but also to follow up on very powerful ripostes. The second offers a few precious frames of invincibility. The range of movements also tends to favor everything that is "air control", since it is possible to chain jumps, double jumps, dodges and blows to stay as long as possible in the air and hurt enemies high perched. As for weapons, you have to be content with double swords (fast but whose damage remains measured) assigned to one key, and the great sword (heavy and powerful) assigned to another. Again, this system is not as basic as one might think at first glance. Some enemies are indeed equipped with super armor, insensitive to weak blows. It is therefore necessary to first empty their armor bar with the great sword before being able to place a few well-felt blows, and thus try to empty their life bar before their magic armor reappears. Of course, the game does not forget to regularly put a few bosses in our path. These special enemies are imposing, very stylish, and the joy of defeating them is increased tenfold by the possibility of recovering a "soul shard" each time. This component allows you to unlock a special move relating to each boss, which you can then invoke at will or almost (a quantity of charges and a reloading time still limit abuse).
The six intermediate bosses that we face before the final boss thus give access respectively to a black hole which attracts and injures enemies, to a spider's web which immobilizes them, to a healing spell, to a long shot of arrows , a devastating cannon blast and a mighty dragon breath. These different elements ensure good times and good sensations with the controller in hand. Unfortunately, the game still suffers from a few minor flaws. Thus, the levels are relatively linear, even if some puzzles and hidden bonuses come very slightly to enrich the exploration. In addition, you have to suffer at each change of zone a black screen hiding a load. These breaks are fortunately extremely brief (about a second) but their repetitiveness somewhat chops up the rhythm of the adventure. Finally, the final sequence does not reserve any major revelations, but is content to display a few lines of text a little too expeditiously. And above all, this end comes after only three hours of play, or even four if you decide to take your time and search for all the bonuses. Only scoring enthusiasts will be able to prolong the pleasure thanks to a timed challenge mode in which you have to face all the bosses again. But this bonus remains very anecdotal, so much so that the developers do not offer any online ranking but only invite players to take screenshots of their best time and share it manually with their friends...
