I'm updating my review for 2025 since I'm coming back to this game in an attempt to finally snap it in half for a couple categories and challenges and also because this game is just amazing. Words don't even begin to describe how much aligned with this game to make it a design masterpiece. I can confidently say it hits all three major boxes without compromise for what I'd consider to be the gold standard for a VR game. I'll go over what this game does amazingly but also cover the few things I feel this game gets wrong.


First, the core combat is extremely well designed and one of the best loops out of any game I've ever played period. Nothing in the game feels like its unfair when I mess up and has a deceptively high skill ceiling even after a first glance. The base attack and block system feel extremely satisfying and fun to perform but the management between specials, traits, augments, and more give a lot wider skill expression that isn't purely mechanical and I appreciate that. The gameplay and design also takes full advantage VR as a medium. The physical swinging feeling of the weapons takes full advantage of the unique atmosphere and mechanical attributes that VR offers. This game, by far, takes the most advantage and runs with it while not falling into a trap of gunning for full realism or going for completely absurd/off the walls logic and rules.

Second, this game runs buttery smooth while having an amazing and stylish look I could compare to Team Fortress 2 or the Super Mario Galaxy games in terms of how the art style holds up with maintaining performance and age. I don't know what black magic Schell did to make a game look this good and have it run smoothy. Any PC with a 2070 or higher can easily hit 120 FPS and most modern systems should be able to do 144 if you're running an Index like I am and get 100% resolution. There a lot of VR games have aimed for either close to realism, a pixel retro vibe, or a full cartoon aesthetic for the graphical core of the game. The full neon and synthwave atmosphere in contrast with swordplay is also just an amazingly unique take on the Hack and Slash genre as a whole.

Third, this game isn't afraid to be HARD while still providing plenty of accessibility. All four difficulties are tuned and crafted to justify their own existence and provide a steady curve for players to improve and master. Most players won't clear Relentless or Nightmare but the difficulties provide a ton of replay value for players that want something to grind toward and eventually clear and even master. On the opposite end, relaxed is a perfect way to allow players to learn and casually play the game and is great for people who are not used to VR games and want to get into them as well. You can turn this either a massive power fantasy, a grueling campaign, or a back and forth tug of war depending on what your preferences and how much you care about progressing in the game. The game also lets you go as fast or as slow as you would like, giving you plenty of options to either mow through a ton of enemies like you're an unstoppable juggernaut at once or pick each enemy off one by one, playing paitently and looking for the right timing to stike for the kill.


That being said, there are a couple of complaints I have with the game, mainly from a balance and long term replayability perspective.



These points while longer I feel are NOT deal breakers in any capacity and I'm puting here just on the offchance a sequal does get made, DLC gets made, or in the blue moon chance this is like a 1.3.1 update.

While most of the weapons are very well balanced, there are a few that either feel much weaker or WAY stronger than other weapons in a way that is not interesting. While balance should never be the focal point of a single player game, I do feel its important that if options are going to swing to one extreme or another, it should do so in an interesting way. some good examples of this being done right are the Duelist's edge and Cold Iron Greataxe or traits such as Tenacious or Chrono-Locked where the strengths are either require a specific play style to be effective, a great cost or hard condition to be held, or long term planning to get the most value out of. What I think the biggest example of this rune being broken is The Captain's Warhammer and to a lesser extent, how Two-Handed balance was taken as a whole. What makes the weapon good isnt a specific condition you have to hold or a playstyle that aims to be interesting but raw numbers. It feels especially weird since it feels like with Fate's End and Cold Iron that they took into account the number balancing with health and guard damage with how heavy and with the downsides they had. (Granted I had playtested the 1.3 update and didn't intially notice how cracked the numbers were for the weapon so I can't even say theres that real of a fault.) On the other end, there's something like the High Arcanist's blade which feels underwheming. This feels like it wants to be a secondary medium weight weapon but the stats and affect don't allign with either a main or secondary, putting it into an awkward spot where its not terrible, it just feels bad. It doesnt have a good supportive or aggressive burst and the main special it farms for, Shardatorm takes too long to get online while not having stats that make it fine to use unlike Gemini Esper which can hold it's own until it gets all 3 super upgrades.

As for Long Term replayability, the first thing I want to make clear is that even with the single campaign, I feel the game has plenty of content to justify its price given the raw quality of the content. While more would be appreciated, my big problem lies with some quality of life features, and features that could have added injected more life into not only the existing campaign but any future ones as well. My first and biggest gripe is the inability to go between weapon levels on a file. In challenge run or any run that needs to be setup with weapons of a specific level, you have to create a new file and grind out the aether to the level the weapons you need or you have to externally manage save files and import a file where you've already grinded out the aether to level everything. I'll be providing a file in the future where all the weapons are level 1 and I have CRAP ton of aether for anyone that need a fresh file to adjust weapons. Another feature that I really wished was added was a seed system. Having a way to replay either insanely powerful or especially challenging seeds would have given both boosted the game's replayability and also the ability to share some of the best moments or build you have ever gotten. Some small additions I would like have liked to have seen are things like a streak counter for how many runs you've won, some small stat counters for lifetime horror kills, weapon wins, lifetime aether collected, etc. Smaller things that while they don't add much to the game, they add a sense of progression and growth to help keep players wanting to play make it feel more polished despite the game being pretty polished as a whole.



Overall, I'd say this game alone is reason enough to get into VR and should be one of the first 5 games you buy if you are looking to start gaming in VR whether it be on a Quest, a Vive, A Bigscreen Beyond, or any number of headsets in 2025. This game keeps aging like fine wine even 5 years after its release in an ecosystem where gaming was in it's infancy. I pray Schell either releases a sequel to this game or adds DLC to get more players to play and try it out to see just how good the game is as a whole. Please buy this game if you haven't already or get this game as a gift for one of your friends if they are looking to get into VR.