Clash: Artifacts of Chaos

Zenozoic with Souls-progression, the good kind (Undead Burg), not the bad (mostly the rest). ACE took Souls' good elements, like camp-based auto-saves and very limited healing options, and placed them in a dense and bizarre world that never loses its complexity or appeal. The combat can be as reactive or proactive as the player chooses. A poor man's God Hand (which is still better than 99% of all Soulslikes) or a dodge/parry-fest; the player is the limit as all moves can be chained into each other while abilites and combat stances can be interchanged. The story remains in the background but offers enough to think about. The objective negatives are some inconsequential jank, such as sub-optimal menus or geometry collisions. Nothing game-breaking, really. My subjective negatives are the lack of special abilities, the Boy and the aggressiveness meter could have offered some fun combinations, and the lack of completely customizable controls, as the four presets all leave something to be desired.

This is truly an underrated gem. Fun story, engaging combat, Fair but challenging and this game really rewards exploration. With some very personal an minor tweaks this game would go from a 9/10 to a solid 10/10. ----SOME TIPS FOR FIRST TIME PLAYERS---- You become stronger through levelling and through putting voodoo dolls you find around the map in your chosen combat styles. There are many styles to choose from and you can unlock new ones through the totem challenges. There is also a "heavy" ranged one you can unlock later. IMPORTANT: This game DOES NOT always save after completing a story objective. So if you completed a tough battle or did significant progress. Backtrack to a campfire, just interacting with the potion making pot is enough to save your game. I personally did 2 tough story fights and about 40 minutes of progress died and was sent all the way back. If you don't know if a campfire is close. Look around in the air for smoke. Smoke = campfire spot. There will be plants, bugs, animals and random treasures you find around the map. The natural resources are brightly colored, the bags, sacks, backpacks etc always have a red line around them. You can us…

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I'm not usually a fan of this kind of genre with games that offer really challenging combat. But as much as I struggled with this particular game, I don't think I regret even a single minute of it. Clash offers, I think, one of the most interesting stories I've seen in a long time with gaming. Especially in the way that it connects to other games in this series. Without getting into spoilers, the goal here is to explain why the world of the games that come after it in its timeline abandoned their one law in favor of anarchy. Their one law has a really fun effect on gameplay as it comes in the form of a ritual you must perform before combat. Basically, before every round of combat, you have to play a little dice game in order to either gain some kind of advantage or disadvantage. Yeah, there's going to be times where it makes a fight much harder than it needs to be, but it's an interesting system and I never really felt like it made anything unfair. While I'm not really a fan of deep but challenging fighting games, I stuck around because of the world, the music, and the story. Your character is tasked with protecting this weird little feathery goober who has the ability to heal i…

Not at all what I expected - I came in completely blind and I am having the best time with this. Eccentric art style and character design, cute interactions between the main protagonists, atmospheric and sometimes beautiful music, and upbeat combat. I would definitely recommend to players that long for a peculiar duo against the world-type game, spiced up with quick reflex-combat. Only real issue I have forgetting to go to a camp. Every now and then when I die I wake up in a completely different region. So don't forget to camp (or go to nearby camps). Also the map seems a vague but to me, that encourages exploration which is usually highly rewarded.

A long awaited return to the madness of Zenozoik. The third person perspective shift in combat is a welcome change from the Zenoclash games, with the customization of different styles and special moves making it worth picking every fight you can. The design is top notch as always, indulging in every artist's fever dream. All the mystery and confusion blabbered by the deformed lunatics you meet reminds me why I sorely missed this loopy place.