An engaging story that filled me with... Heh, sorry, couldn't do that with a straight face (Incredibly long review).
"What the heck just happened?" That phrase is something, I'm sure, just about everyone who has beaten at least Iphyy's story is going (or has) to say. All Anti-Climatic endings aside, and a long story short, the game is a great bargain for what it is being sold for now; it has unbelievable amounts of enemies on screen at once on many different stages, and the different amount of characters that are playable helps keep it from being too repetitive (despite the fact your main attacks are still using only two buttons).
People are, however, overexaggerating how pressing the "X" and "Y" button is all you have to do to attack; while it's true you could beat the game by doing that, if you wanted to completely master the combat system you'd have to employ the L2 or R2 buttons for a swift stride-attack combo using the beforementioned buttons, or the "A" button to initiate and air manuver (And let us not forget the "B" button the initial the special combo).
The game itself is incredibly easy to beat, though it may get a little annoying with more advanced characters if you're not careful, as just rushing into to beat up on monsters will be increasingly risky as the game progresses. In addition, from what I hear, there are no checkpoints in the middle of missions (I don't know since I beat them all without dying ^_^;) which could be quite stressful for those who just want to mindlessly hack and slash, or those who do not have previous experience with this genre.
The one thing that I really liked about this game is the fact that you were able to go back and play any level you wanted to level up or acquire anything that you had missed previously due to just worrying about finishing without dying. This feature was sorely missed on such games as Kingdom Underfire on the regular Xbox and is always a welcome addition to any game of this genre in my humble opinion.
All in all, this game seemed like it was just testing out the power of the next generation console instead of actually trying to deliver an in depth game that doesn't have open-endings, gigantic plot holes, and a very limited amount of missions to be played even if you added all the characters up. Sure, you may have had a few better explanations or stories with one character more so than another (or trying to explain what happened in the other), but those were also figuritively based explainations (without going into depth, they were an alternate reality of what happened when someone else was under command) which is more confusing that plot-filling. Seriously, which one is real and what that heck just happened?
Moving on... The combat moves look pretty well made, and rarely did I ever find myself feeling like I'm doing the same repetitive task over and over again (which I knew I was, but it's nice not to feel like it), and each character has many, many different types of combat moves. In fact, it has so many that I get the feeling most people just randomly smashed two buttons and watched just a few combos appears instead of mastering each (which in itself is a feat, as you'd have to memorize all of them and then have perfect timing to employ them); also, some of the combos were so much better than the others that it would make sense just to use them over and over again just to make it easier for yourself.
There is one thing that I will give them credit for on this game...
Most of the levels were unique in their own way despite it being a hack and slash grinding game; there were large plains of battlefields where all you did is just hack and slash, then there were missions where you had to do specific tasks, in addition to there being others that just seemed like you were in a giant maze. There really was only one mission that I didn't like that much, and that is avoidable after the first time you beat it with any character it applies towards; which is a really good thing.
All in all, the game just barely borders on being "good". It has a lot of short comings... But it is also one of the firsts of its kind on the next generation system, and it was a moderately decent try that was entertaining enough for me to play through each of the character's "Storylines" in the very short "epic" war within the game. If there was one thing that I would change about the game I would put in the same system that Kingdom Underfire has in controlling your troops instead of the glitched system it has now; the map, select, and click system on Kingdom Underfire was just great.
Last Minute Pros:
-Unprecedented amount of enemies on screen; you could actually see hordes in the background rushing towards you while fighting the few hundred you have engaging you already.
- At least it has SOME story.
- Large-scaled battles that momentarily satiates your blood lust and wastes a good 15-20 minutes of your time (Well, that's 20 minutes where you won't be thinking about the next big game you're looking forward to).
- Nice looking attacks and combos for added entertainment
- Able to repeat any stage to level up or get missed items.
- Multiple characters delivers some different fighting styles to help limit the feeling of repetition.
Cons:
- Game some times slows down when a massive amount of monsters appear on the field in addition to you using your intensive combos.
- Items sometimes get stuck in unreachable places and sometimes the level ends without giving you a chance to get them.
- Cut scenes interrupt the combo process and may cause you to waste your charged up combos due to poor planning on the developer's part.
- Lack of checkpoints may cause players to repeat the entire level over and over again until their xbox 360 is burnt out (theoretically speaking).
- The story is too flawed, without any real history, and incredibly anti-climatic at specific times.
- Glitched control of your soldiers makes for their survival rate to be quite horrible at times; they never stay when you tell them to and sometimes the whole system gets jacked up all together in a mission.
- Sometimes, while you're in a cutscene, you may still be attacked by monsters and/or being unable to respond quick enough once the cutscene is over to blcok who is trying to pound on you (in addition to the beforementioned poorly planed cutscenes the game has).
Wishful Thinking:
If it gets a sequel I'd like to see a army control system similar to that within Kingdom Underfire (with the select, map, point, and click to issue orders).
An actually real item shop where you can buy armor on your troops and your characters, and actually see the armor equiped on them individually when they are either bought or equiped.
Also, the cutscenes really need to be planned better so that they do not actually interfer with the game play in the negative way it does now.
It might be a fun idea to also add a little RTS to this just to keep it from being a "rip-off" of another game. Like start at a home base each level where you just have tents in your camp and then start building buildings (have an rts overview for build/command army mode, and then the actually hero battle mode like it is now). Then you could just build and command your army and fight like you have been doing - in addition to gathering resources and defending workers and such in the process (would this not also make for a good online game play as well?).
- Tutorial: The tutorial in this game was pretty bad and it seems like it was just put in last-minute. There are no voice overs and the text is hard to read with the background scenery that it was place with. Lastly, some longer storylines for each character and more history for the world in general... Not just "an epic war" between the light we know nothing about and the darkness that was vaguely mentioned all in just 5 stages. Things to note: Music Though it wasn't quite obvious when I was just playing the game, it does have some very nice music that blends nicely with the pace of the game; it wasn't detremental to the experience at all for me.