Reaper - Tale of a Pale Swordsman

[h1] Mobile game pretty much with simple controls. Everything is super slow, character jumps take long enough to make you fall asleep in the meantime. Controls are left, right, jump and smash. Levels design is horrible as you only move left or right without any substantial platforming. Quests boring to play. Overall unnecessary game in your library. [/h1]

Neat game, or so it would be, if controls weren't so awful. Well, to be more specific, the dash controls. Because, despite what the tutorial tells you - dash/dash attack isn't bound to "double tapping the direction" - it is actually bound to "press the direction key within about 2s after you have moved in that direction". Why is that a problem? Well, imagine you moved in the direction of the enemy to attack them - you would want to stop in front of them, instead of bumping and taking damage, right? Now imagine you stop just a little bit too early, or, god forbid, the enemy moves a bit away from you. What, do you think, would happen when you press the same direction again? That's right - you dash. Dash, wasting an action point (skull) on an utterly pathetic attack that does almost no damage and, more often than not, leads you to bump into a different enemy when it ends. This one thing basically renders the game unplayable. And, of course, being a mobile port - there's no rebinding of anything, and options for anything other than volume

A mobile port with gameplay mechanics and controls to match. The cute art is the game's best asset. Everything else: the overall speed, the auto attack mechanic, the floaty movement, the tedious battles, — makes for an experience best avoided.

I love this game—the art is beautiful, and it has a great story and good music—but... It’s a PC port of a mobile game, which brings some issues: Keyboard controls are terrible, even though they’re decent on a controller or Steam Deck. Screen scaling isn't perfect; things that worked in the mobile version—like staying airborne indefinitely while hitting a monster—don't work anymore. This is really annoying since many enemies tend to fly far away, plus the ceiling is very high and the lateral view is limited. Things inherent to the game that I find stupid: The Dark Harvest. Why have an arena mode that doesn't interact with the main story save file when there's already an arena in the campaign? They should combine the two to make it easier to earn money for upgrades. The way coins fly off-screen (even if there's a lore explanation for it). You make a few choices during the story, but they don't influence anything other than the amount of XP and gold you earn. The final fight was a bit underwhelming. It's also annoying how you get locked into a mission once a fight starts. Finally, you never take part in the war that follows the elimination of the demons, nor do you get revenge on th…

Peak

Reaper has a lot of charm — the art style is genuinely beautiful and the dialogue/story kept me engaged longer than I expected from a mobile port — but the PC experience is rough around the edges in ways that are hard to ignore. The auto-attack system made sense on a touchscreen, but on PC it just means you shuffle up to enemies and watch your character swing while you wait to build rage skulls for the actual interesting moves. The floaty movement combined with bouncing gold coins that fly offscreen every time you kill something turned what should be satisfying moments into minor frustrations that compound over hours of play. The dash triggering from a double-tap is genuinely dangerous near pits, and some enemy types feel less like skill checks and more like slot machines. It's worth picking up on a deep sale if you like the aesthetic and want something low-stakes to zone out to, but at full price there are better options.