Keylocker | Turn Based Cyberpunk Action

Signed up for what sounded like a cyberpunk JRPG. Got that, sure, but I also got personally assessed on my rhythm skills mid battle, and I would like to report to the court that I do not have any. The premise is great. Music is illegal on this grim little planet, and you play a singer with a jukebot drummer sidekick, out here trying to bring rock and roll back through the sheer power of civil disobedience and electric riffs. Noble goal. Very punk. The problem is that every single attack, block, and parry in this game requires me to actually hit a button in time to the beat, and as someone with the rhythm of a malfunctioning metronome, I turned every single boss fight into a deeply humbling personal audit of my own inadequacy. I would charge up a big flashy attack, miss the timing, and watch it fizzle out like I'd just bombed an open mic in front of the entire corrupt government I was supposed to be overthrowing. That said, once you start clicking with the timing, which took me embarrassingly long, the combat turns genuinely satisfying, this seamless flow of dodging, parrying, and blasting enemies with music that feels like nothing else out there.

For as good as it looks and sounds, Keylocker is actually pretty boring. It has some good ideas like the classes, skill tree replacing generic level ups, and positional combat, but all of it is only good on paper. In execution, you're doing the same stuff over and over with little enemy variety in the most empty rooms I've ever seen. The story is pretty typical Tumblr-esque young adult cyberpunk adventure without any actually strong characters. The worldbuilding is alright, but the moment-to-moment gameplay was putting me to sleep. 5/10. I didn't hate it, but its charm wore thin pretty quickly.

Very cool art, a rocking soundtrack, and some fun characters and designs. You can tell a lot of love has been poured into this, but it does have a major wall that will block off many potential players. So far, however, Keylocker's combat just isn't for me. My main gripe is that it puts way too much importance on timing hits. In series like Paper Mario, hit timing is usually a bonus. In Keylocker, it is IMPERATIVE. No action input means you attack with a wet noodle, and get hit by a truck. Early or late to the precise frame is not much better. Get the precise frame and you avoid all damage entirely, and do massive damage. In my opinion, this game would be much more approachable if they softened this system. I was a big fan of Virgo vs the Zodiac, and thoroughly enjoyed that game, so all the best to these devs. Unfortunately I ended up watching a playthrough of Keylocker, despite really wanting to play through it myself. If you are a big fan of hardcore action inputs, this will definitely be your thing.

Delightfully weird TTRPG, Great characters, a fun universe and a punchy combat system. Edit: I've been running in a circle for 3 hours looking for one npc to talk to with no clear direction as to where they are. It feels like a waste of time once you repeat the same battles against the same ennemies 40 times in the same environment.

Keylocker | Turn Based Cyberpunk Action was designed for Nintendo Switch handhelds - the reality is that regardless of the platform order it was released on, it was fundamentally built for the lowest-spec hardware available... a portable gaming appliance. Keylocker is a 2D retro pixelcrap RPG made with GameMaker Studio for the Nintendo Switch (no, it doesn't matter in which order they launched the game on which platforms, it was designed for the lowest common denominator). On top of the mountain of technical defects (this is a Nintendo Switch game, and even the Nintendo Switch can do 3D graphics but the devs couldn't get their head around it so they made a 2D game), we have a mediocre at best Cyberpunk themed RPG with pages of badly written Cyberpunk 2077 fan-fiction interrupted occasionally by badly imbalanced 2D ISO tactical turn based combat. Yawn. There's an overwhelming amount of mediocre Visual Novel/E-book style cutscenes in this game. The developers failed one of the most basic, fundamental requirements of game design.. "Show, don't tell." So you'll spend a huge amount of time not playing the game, but clicking through endless lines of poorly written VN text cutscenes…

Fantastic game. Based on the low reviews count (225 currently) I would classify this as a hidden gem. Feels like a modern take on Earthbound with a cyber horror twist. Great game.