I came across the game after I found the combat system in Hogwarts Legacy engaging, with blocking, environment usage and swift movement. While this is obviously rapier-based combat, it is in its own way magical. It is enjoyable to fight enemies, using your sword, random elements and daring tricks. To top it off, it is short, no-nonsense. There is not too much between the player and his goal: fighting enemies. It is great. (still, the last boss fight humbled me, I had to decrease the difficulty.)

Works flawlessly on Steam Deck.

TLDR; funny writing/voice acting coupled with an interesting combat system plagued by faulty autotargeting. This game has infuriating flaws, but its charms stills won me over.

A game that recreates the witty charm and almost circus-like action of musqueteer movies? I was sold from the start!

I love how colorful this game is, the artstyle and little details of animation. The writing is funny and the voice acting of even random guards really delivers.

The combat is very based on using the environment and properly countering enemy attacks, be it by parrying or dodging. It's really a dueling game that throws lot of enemies at you at the same time to force you to separate them so you can have 1x1 duels. The combat feels really good when it works, but I had a mixed experience with this game due in part to my skill issue, but also some things that are totally the game's fault.

Your main enemies in this game will be camera and the infuriating autotargetting, mostly the latter. The game randomly changes target during fights, a real problem when you need to keep applying pressure to an enemy to fill their guard bar and remove one of their (usually) 2 health orbs (like is Sekiro). There's supposedly manual targeting, but I could never make it work. I often got stuck in the scenery, taking damage as I tried to negotiate it. Some enemies instantly restore all their guard if you make a mistake dealing with their attacks while you don't regenerate health so easily, meaning you can constantly go back to zero while gradually being closer to death.

All this becomes a problem in the bigger boss fights, where you need to restart all over again when you die.I got so frustrated I put the game on easy and I still had trouble with the duelist type bosses, the ones if you make a mistake they restore their guard bar. That's the skill issue, the switch between some parry attacks and dodge attacks was too quick for me and I kept fumbling and losing progress in the fight. Plus I found the button arrangement in the controller a bit awkward since I don't usually use them, but fortunately you can remap with gamepad buttons. I finished the game with keyboard & mouse.

This game made me quite mad at times, but I chuckled as much as I cursed. Fitting I say, since the cloak & dagger heroes usually mix charming and aggravating moments when dealing with their nemesis. I'd love to see a more polished version of this combat system, sans the random autotargeting.

This is a lovely little game, just the right mixture of tense sword fighting and platforming. Fights involve a decent amount of planning, and can be very short when you play them just right, but otherwise can provide a tense challenge when you can't quite read your opponent right.

Lots of character, flair and wholesomeness. Definitely looking forward to the sequel!