First Cut: Samurai Duel

This game is EXCELLENT. This is classic 2D combat action, but also a faithful rendition of katana battles. I have played this game only for a very short time and I am in love with it and I am determined to master all the modes, however I immediately went to check multiplayer because I want to buy this/tell my friends to get it and us all fight, but the multiplayer is only for two players in the same room. This is ok because I will get my cousin or brothers to come over sometime and play. But with online multiplayer I could play with any of my friends any time (like all I'd want is the ability to invite my friend to fight me, and he be player 2.) So I'm going to get good at First Cut now, it's beautiful, and the fights are intense, and it is well worth the money. But my wishes for First Cut: 2? Online multiplayer :)

The idea is great but the execution is severely lacking. The different stance attacks are repurposed versions of the same attack meant to open different stances up leading to a game of simon says where matching stances is the only point of each of the 3 attacks. Grab attacks get input read by opponents on higher difficulties making them feel pretty useless. And counter attacks often get input red by the ai and blocked as a result. Thus the game that should be all about mastering the sword becomes a game where you spam dodge and do the same charge bait maneuver to beat bosses. When you beat an opponent, it feels far too often as though it was a matter of luck and not you having outplayed your opponent, due to the barebones mechanics. I am also not sold on the enemy design. Since most enemies share the exact same moveset as you the fights feel extremely samey, and due to the lack of well fleshed out mechanics, the designer has trouble differentiating them and having the player feel as though they are progressing in terms of encountering more difficult and interesting opponents. This game used to be an itch.io download and yet, in spite of now being a commercial release, it still is not at the commercial quality level, which is quite a shame. I hope the developer takes the failures of this game to improve their next outing.

Played well on my PC handheld AokZoe A1pro Beautiful sound and pixel art. Its a paper scissors rock type of fighting style and is a great game to play on the go or between big games. I got pass halfway through the campaign and had to bump down to easy (which was still hard). Thank you developers for that option!!! I was able to finish the game, and I loved it (and hated it top lol)!

In terms of content and visuals, this game is right up my alley. I'm definitely a Samurai fan and trained kenjutsu, so this just works for me. Especially the one hit, one kill dynamic just fits real Samurai training just as well as it harkens back to the movies, of course. I like the game modes, love the campaign os far (only a few levels in). What is kind of insane is the variety: You could easily make a game like this and just repeat assets for a level ad naseum but the dev switches it up so often, there is no way to get bored. Except... The difficulty of the campaign seems pretty crazy. I'm a decent gamer I'd say. But being a few levels in, I need a bazillion tries for one level. I heard the game was difficult, so I started on "Easy". I haven't tried, but if this is easy, then I won't last a second on any of the other modes. Either I've just not gotten used to the counter mechanics enough, or this is a very bad case of difficulty creep during production because the dev is too good at his own game.