Customer Reviews

X-Blades

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was South Peak's last chance with me. After the travesty that was Two Worlds I was skeptical of even this purchase. I will admit the cover caught my attention. While not the best illustration in existence, the concept of playing a scantily clad female wielding two devastating gun blades heavily appeals to me. So, with some reservations, I made my purchase. I figured it was a hack and slash, a very simplistic game concept, so how could South Peak really screw that up. Oh my, let me tell you how!

Pros:
+Beautiful levels
+Scantily clad female with dual wielding gunblades
+Excellent magical abilities
+Awesome combos
+Well developed booklet
+Leveling up mechanic is interesting
Cons:
-PLAYING THROUGH THE GAME TWICE!!!!
-Levels are the size of my room
-Bosses are really easy to beat
-Items are incredibly easy to locate (because there is only one room!)
-Ayumi's in game figure looks weird
-Lame story line
-Bad voice acting
-LEVELS ARE THE SIZE OF MY ROOM!

Details on the above list:
Actually, I'll start off with the good aspects first. The levels look beautiful. The texturing is quite impressive. Aside from some "too bright" lighting on the outdoor levels, I really had no issues with this part of the game. I did like their level up system quite a bit. You basically kill a bunch of creatures and you get soul points then you spend these soul points to get upgrades. The upgrades were really cool. You can get fire burst, ice, earthquake, and lightning magic. You then bind these to a button on the controller and when you get enough rage from hitting your enemies you can execute these special magical attacks. I actually did like this mechanic throughout game play. You can also upgrade your gun blades to get different kinds of firing options. These were pretty decent also. No machine gun option though... would have been cool, but very unrealistic.

One aspect that some people may be divided on is the way you heal. You heal by spending your soul points or hitting green crystals distributed throughout the levels. Maybe being able to essentially heal whenever you want seems like a cop out to some people, but if you run out of souls, you're screwed, so I actually liked this mechanic in the end. Plus the game has a built in element where it gets more expensive every time you use that feature, so I think this balances it out. I opted to save up my points and go for the regeneration feature. Of course you can always double back and replay levels you know you can beat and collect millions of souls to activate all the upgrades before the end of the game, if one is so inclined.

The booklet for this game is incredibly comprehensive. It gives you a full background on what your character is doing there and so forth. It gives you a run down of all the enemies and a few tips on beating them. If you're really getting into trouble there's a strategy guide section that you can read for tips on how to beat certain bosses. It also has all the normal stuff that goes over spells, upgrades and user controls.

All of that sounds like it should be a fun game shouldn't it? Yeah, I thought so too until I actually started playing through this game! Okay, I know I haven't mentioned it yet, you play as a girl named Ayumi. She's supposed to be a treasure hunter; yeah I thought there might be a Tomb Raider influence as well. Anyway this story is outright lame. I know my low rating might not make sense in context of my good review for Onechanbara (which also was recently released and is a hack n' slash). Let me try to explain, they both have fairly stupid story lines. I wasn't expecting anything incredible from X-blades, but I was expecting a little bit more from them. I mean, this company attempted to write an RPG and failed miserably, but I figured they'd try to at least learn from their mistakes. If you read the introduction in the booklet you already get annoyed with Ayumi. We're clearly engaging in a fantastical world and she's complaining about her parents wanting her to be a pharmacist! Seriously, read the booklet if you don't believe me. Luckily none of that makes its way into the game.

Okay, so the story is bad, but the script is even worse. Coupled with terrible voice acting, once again (just like in Two Worlds), makes the cut scenes atrocious. Okay, the voice acting is a little better than two worlds, but any time Ayumi talks it just doesn't feel like the voice actress fits with her. I can't really put my finger on why, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I know it's a minor quibble. But then they introduce Jay, whom you can also read about in the booklet. He's apparently supposed to be some sort of "love interest"? Worst execution of this I have ever come across. There is ZERO character development in this and that's what I had a huge problem with. At least Onechanbara attempts to have character development and they do a better job of it compared to this.

I was expecting Ayumi's figure to be a bit different. They boasted something about the combination of Anime and this video game. They're trying something new and I'm not really docking them harshly for trying out something different (read below to find out why I'm actually giving this a low rating). But I think people should be aware that Ayumi's figure (the one you control) in game and in the animated sequences does not look like something you would normally expect from the average video game. They don't appear to have used the usual rendering techniques on these main character types and her skin texture looks really bizarre to me. It's tough to explain and I don't know what they did on a technical level, just thought other buyers should know that it is not what you'd normally encounter.

Alright, onto what playing the game is actually like. Now, I don't do game reviews unless I successfully beat the game or at least get to the final boss. I beat this game. I suffered through every single level. Here's where X-blades does a face plant in the world of hack n' slash. The levels are incredibly small. Beautiful looking elements, as I said above, but I'm seriously playing on a level the size of my room! Here's how this game works. You enter into a level; it's mostly a gigantic room. Lots of monsters spawn, you kill ALL of them, and then you get a screen that says level complete! Are you kidding me?! This is ALL I have to do. There's nothing to explore, there's no hidden passages. Nothing! You can walk around within the one room and break jars or coffins to get items that give you souls, but that is IT. There is then a door on the opposite side from where you came in and you go through that and you get a stats screen showing your accomplishments. You are then brought into another room to repeat this process over and over again. There are a couple one room levels where you simply have to make it across something like spinning blades, but there are only three levels like that and they're both incredibly lame and very un-puzzle like. I'd rather be in the one room killing hordes... at least I get to do something semi-interesting.

I know, that sounds incredibly boring. At first cutting down tons of monsters is quite a lot of fun. As you encounter new monsters they get put into your bestiary (accessed when you hit start) and if you're having trouble the bestiary will tell you how to beat that monster. The bosses are less than challenging. Consulting the bestiary and learning the exact method to beat them puts their life span at about five minutes. The only one that took me a little while to beat was The Dark in one section, but that's because some wind weapon he used kept blowing me back so I'd have to walk back up and get close again. Other than that they're all incredibly easy to beat.

The small levels are by far NOT the worst part. If that's not bad enough you have to play through this game TWICE. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever encountered. I know doubling back in some games for a level is one thing, but seriously... an outright replay! You make it to one side of the map you beat The Dark there and THEN you have to go ALL the way back. You go through all the same exact levels again! Sure they have different bosses and slightly tougher enemies, but you still see the same exact level design over and over. What a waste of time! What lazy design!

I still can't believe someone managed to mess up one of the easiest game concepts in existence. I'm seriously giving up on this developer. Maybe someday they will produce a stellar game, but I will no longer be purchasing their items on release day. This was far from a good game and there are far superior games out there. If they could only capture some of the cooler mechanics they had and harness them into a well written game they'd have quite a gem on their hands.

When I got this yesterday (10 FEB 09), I thought to myself on how the fact that there is a scantily clad woman with big swords going around slashing would be fun.

Okay... Firsts things first. They cell color shaded the entire cut scenes of the game. I thought at first it was really cool... but then we actually get into the game. The game at first is simple, and all around just clunky. The first scene kind of skipped here are there, but I think that might be my Xbox (I hope not). So when I began playing this game it is just that a hack n' slash genre. However, it is aggrevating that the character jumps sooo slowly. She glides in the air. Then I remembered the game Devil May Cry. What I didn't know is that she actually had guns for use.

Jeeze, the controls should have been really thought out. The controls seem clunky and clumsy. The forward flip which is a quick flip where you hold forward down and press A at the same time is rediculously difficult to master and has no leway in non-timing experts.

Now the levels, some of the levels are just filled with just too much light or lens flare. I think the creators pushed too much into the scenary when you don't look at it.

Mini-boss... prepare for every mini boss to be a very long and arduous task just take them down. "Unaffected by magic, swords, and your guns." Wait how do you kill him? Kill his minions why he is totally unphased by your attacks...

I find myself using global spells as MASS destruction spells just to keep them off my back. The repetition occurred the second level of the game. "Shoot, shoot, shoot, slash, slash, slash, magic, magic, magic etc."

Okay bottom line the game is fun if you don't care about repitition, laughable voice acting by the only male character in the game, somewhat clumsy controls, and frustrating jumping physics.

The experience point system isn't anything new at all. You gain experience points for killing things, and you spend the experience points to buy spells.

But, the only unique thing I found was that you can use the "Souls" (experience points) to heal yourself over and over and over again. Just be forewarned it gets expensive.

Story line is half decent though a personal friend of mine stated that the "story line" is "good." I didn't want to break it to him that the story line was entirely cliche.

Okay lemme break it down.

Pros:
Half Decent Story Line
Beautiful Scenery
Well done in game graphics (looks almost flawless)
Very little clipping
Just all around fun Hack n' Slash Genre
Purchasing of health with Experience Points

Cons:
Half Decent Story Line
Too much glare in some levels
Clumsy Controls
Poor Jumping Physics
Poor use of controls
Cell Shading Cut Scenes (not-so-good)
Laughable male character voice acting.
Purchasing of health with Experience points.

All-in-all, this game is fun if you like to just go through the game and hack and slash. Simple game mechanics and enjoyable cut-scenes.

Plus the best part about this game is about a hot chick with swords and guns with practically nothing on goes around killing things. What do you expect from a game like this?

This game is quite pretty - Bloom effects, lens flare, cell shading, and the most fantastic backgrounds I've ever seen. Simply put, this is a beautiful cherry blossom of a game.

Seriously, once I stopped drooling, I played the game. It is smooth and fluid - and the main character is easy to control. It is just a shooter, but a FUN SHOOTER that has a good story to boot.

So, if you are looking for something different in a third person shooter -this will be the game for you.

I'll keep this short since other reviews mostly cover XBlades. This game is sweet! I like everything from the level design to the character design. I have not had this much fun with a game in a while. It's definitely a game that I would recommend to my friends.

I hope that South Peak decides to do a sequel, I want to see more. I give this game 5 stars, along with my highest recommendation.

Recommended!

You'd think that there's not a lot to expect from a game like this. A Devil May Cry clone with a half-dressed chick swinging two huge gun-swords around killing things. Seems like a sure thing.

And yet, it fails to deliver. The game tries to hide the half-baked level design by making you stand in place while monsters respawn until you kill enough to close the portal, just to stretch things out in a room roughly the size of a mens' bathroom stall.

The camera is apparently possessed of the various devils you're fighting, since it seems to do its level best to make sure you lock on to the wrong monsters, fall to your death, and generally die horribly.

Didn't expect much in the way of story, and I got just what I expected, but come on now. I didn't expect art and deep philosophical commentary from Onechanbara either, so can't really fault it for that. Unfortunately, I can fault it for being very much "not fun."

I was okay with the overly cartoonish effects, and I was okay with the Lara Croft ripoff of a story line & character. What irritated me about the game? Had I bought this for $5, none of the following would have.
But anyways, here were the problems: It started out interesting, with what seemed like an entertaining (if not overly original) storyline with an attractive female lead. It quickly led to a boring, linear story which never ended up going anywhere or explaining much of anything. There was not much in the way of challenge, and what really irks me about games is when they have you repeat a level at a later part of the game. This, to me, is pure laziness. It reminds me much of 'Circle of Doom: Kingdom Under Fire'. What fun is there in repeating a level exactly as you did before but with more difficult enemies?
If you like a no-brainer shooter/slasher, I guess you MIGHT like this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy those games too, which was why it surprised me how much I didn't like the game when all was said and done. I think this game fell short on almost every aspect: gameplay (another posting commented on the bad targeting and camera system, I agree 100%), storyline, and actual level/game layout. So much potential in this game had a few extra efforts been made.

This game is very repetitive. It's a decent hack n slash game if you're in to the whole killing monsters and trying to survive. There isnt much of a challenge, besides the survival against constant waves of monsters that come after you in one map.

i bought this game the same time as onechanbara worried about the later and ezpecing this one to be alot of fun by vidio footage of game play i have seen. it turned out just the oposit. I dont like the control. the lockon is even worse the onechanbaras lock on. stages are to small. and exploration seemed would be presant and is not. I have played 4 stages. that las was a 10 by 10 room that spawned enimies untill u killed enogh to open the gate. the mechanice to adance to the next "room" for every "room" regardless of how big or tiny they are.

graphicly game is nice. the idea of the game seems intertaining. but playing it is not. I have seen rave revies for this on a pc download sight. so all i can assume is that its a pc port that went horribly wrong. this game might be very fun on pc, but on xbox is not i wouldnt recomend this to anyone.

graphics: 4 i like the way game looked
sound: 3 voice donst match look of main char.
gamplay: 2. hit a button skill works. now try targetting 1 of the 4 goasts in your face and not that thing way back there 400 yards away.....
and this is gameplay enter room kill every thing in room to unlock door to next room. repeat over and over.while fighting a target system that never targets the monster u want.
rplay: 0 stars. game lost me with the 10 foot by 10 foot room with 3 doors.... realy? u make me suffer threw 3 stages of being hit because i cant attack the target i want to andthen put me in a 10 by 10 room and have to kill 60 enimie to advance. and then only 1 of the 2 new pathes is even open? pressed "X" button "return to desktop" and have not put back in my xbox since.