Game Review - Shuyan Saga

Game Review: Shuyan Saga by Lofty Sky Entertainment Inc
Score: +7/-2

Shuyan Saga is a graphic novel series where action scenes come alive in 3D combat gameplay. Set in an ancient Chinese martial arts fantasy universe, you embark on a life-changing journey as Shuyan to become a true disciple of Kung Fu and stop the evil Guer horde from destroying the Five Kingdoms.

I got Shuyan Saga for free through Indiegala. If you know of Indiegala's basically weekly freebies, a lot of the items are by today's standards trashy productions and rehashed gameplay. And if you look the core gameplay elements, Shuyan Saga is actually a very simple combination of visual novel with choice branches, and fairly simple combat. But with this humble framework, the developers have got a winner here because how they use it to tell the story is appropriate, exciting, and satisfying.

++ Fast paced, gripping story excellently told. The story is told in basically static comic book scenes and it's a personal choice whether this art direction is fine with you or not, but the story itself has very exciting pacing. There are no wasted scenes and no excessive reading (which frequently appears in visual novel games). You are moved from one scene to the next at an almost breathless pace which keeps the momentum up. It's what they call a "page turner" -- once you start, you just don't want to put it down. Often games start slow and try to pick up momentum, or start strong but slow down for the tutorial then try to pick up again. In contrast, Shuyan Saga is go-go-go from the get-go with no grind in between.

+ Basic yet satisfying combat. There's a mix of overhead camera one-versus-many combat and zoomed in one-versus-one more strategic combat where you either attack high or low, block or dodge -- and all of it feels like you are doing kung-fu. It's not complicated but overall it plays fluidly and fast-paced.

+As the game progresses you are introduced to more techniques, which increases the depth of the combat system.

+ You can choose your combat difficulty to adjust how challenging you want it -- you can even skip combat entirely if you just want to experience the story or quickly replay the game to choose different story choices. The ability to skip combat is an excellent decision that makes the story accessible to everyone.

+ Replay value in "Tournament" mode instead of simply replaying the story.

- The interface for some of the advanced moves do not seem as intuitive as they should be. This really starts in Chapter 2 when you reach the Mountain and are taught a new technique. Even though the instruction looks simple, proper results are not reliable. There is a repeatable tutorial to help you master it, but it is still frustrating because you can do the same thing and not get the same result. Fortunately, there is an option to "Skip", but really it requires more player feedback or better instruction.

+- You only appear to have choices in dialog but ultimately the story plays out in the same way. You just get different conversations -- which is more than most games give you, but don't get your hopes up for "choices matter".