The Shimmering Horizon and Cursed Blacksmith

Genuinely one of my favorite games in recent years.

After six hours with the game, I honestly think it’s really good, and the “Mixed” rating feels completely undeserved. Once I installed the patch, I finally figured out what the game is really about: the black sword is basically the guy’s d-i-c-k. If you go down, the female monsters come over and have their way with it. So, if you want to be a real man, you’ve got to stay hard at all times and never go down easily.

I don't play Mystery Dungeon games very often so I won't compare it much. On normal you can get pretty far by just preparing a strong set of weapons to use on the next. Its slow but you can make steady progress without too much effort as long as you're willing to take your time and learn. Its pretty satisfying building a weapon that can demolish an enemy that causes you trouble. There's a lot more direct metaprogression than is normal for this kind of game but I find it helpful to get through the main story and there's an endless mode for people who want a challenge. The storytelling is pretty lore-heavy, there's a major emphasis on worldbuilding as told in the description of every item and through a series of memories you unlock pretty naturally as you go through the game. An unfortunate result of this is that the main heroines wind up feeling less developed than the enemy elites as the player doesn't really get much of their PoV, with one exception. (in fact my favorite subplot appears to have no relationship to the main one whatsoever). I'll see how I feel when I get to the actual end but what I've gotten so far is more than worth the 20 it asks for.

An overall great game. I recommend at least trying the demo, but would also tell you that both the gameplay quality and the narrative's intrigue improve as you get farther into the game. The forging mechanic is robust and fun to play around with. There are over 100 weapons in the game, each with a signature skill, and more bonus effects than there are weapons. Crafting new weapons is always exciting because each one may give you a new weapon skill or bonus effect that you can incorporate into your arsenal to either help you explore deeper into the labyrinth or defeat the chapter boss. chapter bosses are challenging, sometimes brutal (looking at you, chapter 5), and oh so satisfying to beat after you formulate a plan, gather the needed resources, and execute it successfully. there's a lot to appreciate about the aesthetics of the game. The narrative is delivered in small, indirect doses at first that makes it easy to get hooked to. The pixel art both gives off a nostalgic feel and goes beyond that in some cases with minute details to express emotion, and I feel like some of the music selections match perfectly with the emotional tone of the immediate story situation. By the fi…

TL:DR Put it on casual difficulty, you'll enjoy the game and the art. It's literally not a matter of skill, it's EXTREME RNG mechanics that doom a run due to no fault of your own. Medium length version: By the standards of a H game, it went above and beyond. Great art, decent story, FULL voice acting. But if we're talking gameplay, It goes from fine to annoying in chapter 1-2, PULL your hair out in chapter 3 and beyond. Here's a few things that can end a 15-20 min run: 1. Step on an invisible plate that removes all walls on the map and aggro every enemy 2. Step on an invisible explosion plate 3. Go into a room and there's more than 2 monster girls 4. My absolute favorite: Absolutely nothing. No joke the game can just decide to make your next floor have double the enemy for NO reason, just pray to god you don't have bad RNG

Great game. But I think the voice acting is just okay.