Slave Zero X

Slave Zero X is a very unique indie game. It tries to do one specific thing, that is, combine the mechanics of a fighting game and place it within an action game setting, and does it fairly well. However it also fails in many aspects.
Starting with the negatives, the game doesnt really explain enough to you, the loading screen tips refer to move names, yet there is no move list found in the game. So when the game says that the "Takomaki DDT can be used to scoop grounded enemies", that information is useless because I have no idea what the Takomaki DDT is. In that case, you can infer it as the EX version of your air command grab, yet this is a problem prevalent in the game. A general lack of information on core mechanics.
Another example being parries, which take the Third Strike approach of having you move towards an attack in order to parry it. However, the game can throw attacks directly above you, how do you deal with those? I might be going insane but I swear I've parried with a down input, how and why did that work? No idea. Game never explains past "move towards attack to parry".
The biggest example is the style system and rankings. It felt wildly inconsistent, I could play near perfectly, get massive combos and get hit at most once or twice in a level, and be faced with a C or B. But then when playing poorly, suddenly a massive S rank would show up on my screen. I never got a grasp on the way the style system works all throughout, it's a massive missed opportunity because that's where the game's replayability comes from. But with a system that's so obtuse and weird, it's difficult to want to master it.
The game thrusts you into this playground, with enemies being little more than punching bags for you to explore your moveset. You're effectively asked to just fuck around and find out. And yet, for a game that so desperately wants you to appreciate the depth of it's combo system, to appreciate your protagonists abilities and make use of them, the training mode is very sparce in options. You cant pick what enemy you train against, you dont get meter refills, you cant change the stage design at all. It feels very limiting.
While I called enemies punching bags, later on the game introduces incredibly frustrating enemy designs, who have full armor on everything they do, which would be fine if they had clear telegraphs to make parrying or dodging easier. But instead you're faced with unreactable attacks that more often than not will lead to you getting combo'd for a solid 15 seconds, only to get smacked on wake up with nothing you could do. Just waiting for your burst meter to come back so you have some solace. Lord forbid you try and tech out of any combo either, it will just lead to a reset and another 15 seconds of your life gone. It's incredibly frustrating. Oftentimes, with how inconsistent your defensive options are, it winds up feeling like you're unable to do anything but wait to die and try again, hoping to not get hit this time. The burst function is made specifically to counter this issue, and it does it's job adequately, ensuring you get 2 or 3 tapped instead of one tapped in the later levels, but I think that's just a bandaid placed on poorly thought out difficulty. I never felt challenged by the game, it was just annoyance and frustration.
Also, this isnt specifically a consistent issue with the game but I wanna say I had to fight the final boss 3 times because the first two times the game crashed at the end, it sucked. It sucked a lot.

However! Now that I'm done moping about all the ways this game fails, I can explain why I still recommend it despite all the bitching and moaning I just did.
Like I said earlier, the game strives to give you a specific experience. And it's one that's never really been done before. And it succeeds. A single player fighting game is a dream a lot of people have and this is the closest we'll ever get.
It never got boring slashing through the hundreds of enemies the game throws at you. Seeing the combo counter tick up with that oh so satisfying sound, punching enemies to hard they explode into little bits all around the arena. Chaining ground bounces, wall bounces, jump cancels, dash cancels and dozens of different options to cut through the opposition. It has a similar satisfaction to musou games, just with an infinitely better combat system
Then we get to the games presentation which perfectly evokes the era it's trying to. The animation on sprites is absolutely beautiful to see, and the art seen in cutscenes has such a unique style that sticks out in the best way. The music is also amazing, Enough to make me spend the cash on the soundtrack despite getting the game for free as a present. The whole presentation evokes a strong sense of identity and I love it.
The plot I won't into here, I will just say it tackles it's themes very well. The characters are all very likable and well written. The voice acting from everyone is on point, I can't think of a single bad line delivery. There is a few typos and misspellings within the script but it's not enough to detract.
All in all, if you're interested in this game, you'll probably like it. Just be prepared for an experience that's rough around the edges, though personally, I will gladly that that over a boring one.

This game is difficult but very fun. Dont just give up after you die, chain combos. use your EX sparingly, time your supers for heals. insanely fun. dope presentation. only thing that would make it better is seeing through walls that cover the screen sometimes. try it out

this game is so so close to being a masterpiece.
the offensive side of the combat is fantastic. Fun and satisfying with room to just make it up and still get rewarded with dopamine. There really should be an option to bind EX moves to a button in my opinion. I struggle to do them when i want to and accidentally do them all the time from just inputting quickly.
Visuals I have no notes. Looks peak. Sound is similarly no notes. Its not the music i would choose for a game like this but I cant say whats there is bad. Voice acting is also phenomenal.
The issue is there are several points this game is lacking in, and they are lacking HARD. There's an overall sense of jank to a lot of things that really could use polishing, but you would hope this polish should be able to be fixed via a patch. Some crashes, weirdness in AI, and some other
The game is hard as balls, but most of that comes from the lack of defensive tools. You have a dodge with limited Invul frames, and a parry which you need to input using the stick. The dodge is unreliable and doesn't really help when you are sandwiched, and the parry is way too risky to be used in those same situations. This leads to frequent moments of getting knocked down one time and just being put into a situation that feels unfair and leads to you getting hit a ton
My hope to fix this would be to please for the love of god, add a block button. Make it so you can guard attacks with chip damage as a low risk option to deal with the absolute bombardment the game throws at you. It could also act as a potential input to parrying which would make it easier to do than needing to use the stick to parry. I get you wanna be third strike, but this game does not work with a 3s style parry.
Another thing that i genuinely do not understand, why do boss-like enemies not have collision? I can understand why groups of enemies don't, but the bosses that require you to dodge from side to side and parry very precisely do not work as well when you are able to side swap by just doing a standing combo or a heavy move. Its a minor annoyance, but they do add up.
Also please add a DP cuz i think it would be funny
I wanna say this game is something special, but as of now it feels like a cool idea that someone else could do way better. There is so much potential in this concept, world, and system, but I can't say its fully there. Please don't abandon this game.

Difficult as all hell, but man, this game is an underrated gem! Total ripper! A+

you know a game is good when you get 10 pages of text about in-game mechanics the moment you go through the intro level

beats you down but eventually opens up in a great way. i had a stellar time overcoming it, and i want to play it multiple times now.

I have mixed feelings towards this game but i think its charm just barely outweighs its faults.
The story, music and graphics are all great and made me want to dive deeper into this universe, and i was fairly invested by the end of it, The story of a human's fusion with a weird sentient armor thirsty for blood was entertaining and even quite touching at times, and the wonderfully rendered 3-D backgrounds and dopamine-inducing animations make for a lot of memorable moments,
The combat on the other end is voluntarily made obtuse and can quickly turn into a mess where you either juggle every enemy on screen or get juggled yourself until your health bottoms out, It's fun when it works, but expect cheap deaths and plenty of restarts with some frustrating checkpoint placements to boot.
It's entertaining, clunky and very unique.