The Vagrant

I paid 0.79 cents for this gem of a game.
I'm speechless at the quality and price of this game.
There are no words.
So many unknown masterpieces.

This was sitting in my library for years, thinking it's Kusoge-Odin Sphere.
But it's actually really good and a great hommage to Vanillaware.

I will split this review into two sections. The game/gameplay and technical issues.
I had a lot of fun playing this game. The first parts feel like some classic good game, and like 75% of it was very good. The story is surprisingly way better than I expected. the exploration and fighting is also good. But I didn't like several design decisions, specially on the later parts where things start to feel more unfair. I feel like a little balancing would improve this game a lot.
There are 4 difficulty levels, and even on level 2 of 4, the closer you are to the end the more likely you are to get oneshot. This will happen EVEN if you decide to build defensively. This (among other things) might force you to grind and slow the game, or pressure you into fighting in a non fun way, spamming healing and stat boosting "just in case ".
Part of the problem is that in my case the game lags (more of this later) and dodging and even using the right combos might be impossible sometimes.
Honestly, going for optional stuff has decreased my enjoyment of the later parts of the game a lot.
About technical issues. I admit my laptop is already a little outdated. The most modern game I remember playing nicely was Dark Souls 3. Despite the simple graphics this game might be laggy for you even on low graphics settings. Some specific fights were very bad because of this. Probably related to lag there are several random bugs that happened to me:
Bosses that stop attacking. Accelerating weirdly and going out of bounds. Death trigger not working after losing all health.
Also, I once paused and closed the laptop and when I opened it again the game crashed.
Overall, the first hours were completely worth it to me

A hidden gem, The Vagrant offers a compelling 2D action RPG experience with challenging gameplay. You take control of Vivian, a skilled swordswoman searching for her missing father. Your journey leads you through diverse landscapes, from peaceful villages to spooky castles and ravaged battlefields.
The core gameplay is combat-focused, requiring strategic thinking and skillful execution through combos, charge attacks, and special skills. The game's strengths include an engaging combat system, beautiful hand-drawn environments, robust character progression with customizable builds, a fulfilling list of achievements, and a New Game+ mode for extended play.
However, the game has high difficulty with a steep learning curve, limited narrative focus, and may require time spent on resource grinding for upgrades.
Overall, The Vagrant is ideal for those who enjoy challenging action RPGs and achievement hunting but less suited for those seeking a deep story or casual gameplay.

Great hack and slasher that pays tribute to Muramasa the Demon Blade and Odin Sphere, not sure if there is any developer cross over, but I would be really surprised if there wasn't. Hope there is a sequel or DLC in the near future

this game is like the DMC mix with dynasty hybrid into a side scroll game.
This game are not that hard to be reach the "dark soul level", so new player could really got used to this game in easy, the monster didn't hurt you that high so there really no huge pleasure land on the player shoulder.
this game developer did try to work on everything of this game and coop most of this game into higher quality game, the graphic is decent and the background is high detail, all of the NPC look different, the UI and map are welcome thing in this game.
as I say this game not dark soul type, with skills to use and light attack with heavy attack which is really simple enough, however the game didn't teach about the skill tree part which is kind of lame which may let new player lost into this maze.
the main character is blonde big boobs lady with attracted looking, there are item and weapons random drop to pick up that made this game like diablo, but some time the game will some time lock a zone to force you fight the monster is unpleasant to bear with.
final there time that thing not clear, like I meeting the first boss which setting are "you can't win battle" and I wasted all my potion and found that out which are small thing that upset me.
with only 1 dollar there really nothing to complain, pick it up and give this game a try.

beautiful graphics, deep involving story, fun upgrading system.