El Shaddai Review

[Smooth Operator]

The problem here seems that a lot of people come into this game wanting Bayonetta or DMC (the older ones) and fail to realize that this game is all about the story and environments and art style.

Those are excuses of a poor developer.
If the game is really about story, environments and art style it should have a completely different build to it.

But no they made combat and platforming the biggest game components, yet both of these parts are not well done.
And that in the end is the overarching feel of it, trying to endure the dominating bad parts in the hope to find some nuggets of good, for a 60$ game this does not cut it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

That's fine but if you can't find something you want to do that is fun then it's your own fault, not the game's. The game does have a way for you to play and enjoy it, it's not it's fault that people misinterpret it and go at it the wrong way.


It's not like there's a ton of ways to play this game or anything though, what's the issue is that people were expecting to derive fun from the wrong aspects thus were let down, in effect they were blaming the game for their own expectations of it, ones it never tried to cultivate or enforce and that is unfair.

Wow, so much pretension in this post. I hope you realize people can "get it" and still think it's not fun. This happens a lot with movies, I think Donnie Darko is a bad movie, I understood it and got it, I still think it sucks. And, the director's follow up films just prove how much he sucks at making movies.

I played the demo to this game and I was able to grasp the combat towards the end, and I was rather disappointed at the simplicity. I'm not religious so the story and subject matter don't interest me and if I were to play this game, it would be for the gameplay, and I found it very lacking.

And the game's director, Takeyasu Sawaki, said this game was meant to be enjoyed by both casual and hardcore gamers. And many hardcore gamers have been disappointed by the simplistic and repetitive combat.

You don't need to be the religious sort to find creation and angels and whatnot captivating if only from a myth and fairytale standpoint. Even if you're not religious I think questions this game deals with would still interest you.

The demo is just that really, you can't get into a story from a demo, even if you do, then it ends and you're left empty. No, if you think this game is all about the action you certainly do not get it.

If you do get it and yet still choose to not go into the game looking for an experience different to that in DMC or Bayonetta, you're judging the game unfairly and not adjusting your expectations accordingly. It's like going to see a movie titled "Romance and Butterflies of the rainbow pony" expecting to be thrilled by the action scenes and manly monologues, you both aren't doing it justice and have already doomed your experience with it before you begun.


I never said the battle system was deep, I said the game was great despite it's shallow battle system.

 

[BeerTent]

I'm sorry to shit on you, but...

Wow! A good review! I wonder if all of that Ad revenue had anything to do with it?! Who could have thought the most anticipated game evar would be this awesome! I was hooked at the part where you jumped on sand, and there was this one eyed guy!

Those adverts were really fucking annoying.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

It's by the team behind "Okami" isn't it? I sure hope it comes to PC: it looks amazingly stunning, visually at least. A game based upon Hebrew mythology is refreshing, I'd definitely pick it up.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

You don't need to be the religious sort to find creation and angels and whatnot captivating if only from a myth and fairytale standpoint. Even if you're not religious I think questions this game deals with would still interest you.

The demo is just that really, you can't get into a story from a demo, even if you do, then it ends and you're left empty. No, if you think this game is all about the action you certainly do not get it.

If you do get it and yet still choose to not go into the game looking for an experience different to that in DMC or Bayonetta, you're judging the game unfairly and not adjusting your expectations accordingly. It's like going to see a movie titled "Romance and Butterflies of the rainbow pony" expecting to be thrilled by the action scenes and manly monologues, you both aren't doing it justice and have already doomed your experience with it before you begun.

I never said the battle system was deep, I said the game was great despite it's shallow battle system.

Biblical mythology just doesn't interest me. I was not interested in anything story-wise that I experienced in the demo.

From a gameplay standpoint, the primarily gameplay element is combat so the combat should be good. The combat can be different and doesn't have to be like Bayonetta or DMC but it still should be good.

I went into the demo expecting a story heavily inspired from the Bible and an action game, which it is an action game. I was disappointed by the gameplay and I didn't find the story to be interesting whatsoever.

I don't care what YOU said the battle system was going to be like as I wasn't going off of your description of the game when I tried the demo over a month ago, I was going off what the DIRECTOR of the game described the game as. The game's director said the combat was supposed to be simple but also deep enough that the hardcore crowd would find the gameplay captivating, and the gameplay failed at being captivating for me.

Arty games like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Braid, etc. are great because the gameplay is top-notch along with the games being very artistic. The puzzles in ICO are great, Shadow of the Colossus has awesome boss battles, and Braid's puzzles were just ingenious.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

You don't need to be the religious sort to find creation and angels and whatnot captivating if only from a myth and fairytale standpoint. Even if you're not religious I think questions this game deals with would still interest you.

The demo is just that really, you can't get into a story from a demo, even if you do, then it ends and you're left empty. No, if you think this game is all about the action you certainly do not get it.

If you do get it and yet still choose to not go into the game looking for an experience different to that in DMC or Bayonetta, you're judging the game unfairly and not adjusting your expectations accordingly. It's like going to see a movie titled "Romance and Butterflies of the rainbow pony" expecting to be thrilled by the action scenes and manly monologues, you both aren't doing it justice and have already doomed your experience with it before you begun.

I never said the battle system was deep, I said the game was great despite it's shallow battle system.

Biblical mythology just doesn't interest me. I was not interested in anything story-wise that I experienced in the demo.

From a gameplay standpoint, the primarily gameplay element is combat so the combat should be good. The combat can be different and doesn't have to be like Bayonetta or DMC but it still should be good.

I went into the demo expecting a story heavily inspired from the Bible and an action game, which it is an action game. I was disappointed by the gameplay and I didn't find the story to be interesting whatsoever.

I don't care what YOU said the battle system was going to be like as I wasn't going off of your description of the game when I tried the demo over a month ago, I was going off what the DIRECTOR of the game described the game as. The game's director said the combat was supposed to be simple but also deep enough that the hardcore crowd would find the gameplay captivating, and the gameplay failed at being captivating for me.

Arty games like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Braid, etc. are great because the gameplay is top-notch along with the games being very artistic. The puzzles in ICO are great, Shadow of the Colossus has awesome boss battles, and Braid's puzzles were just ingenious.

This may shock you into disbelief and horror but I didn't find the gameplay in Shadow of the Colossus all that fun, that game was all about the atmosphere and the cool boss designs that were beaten with a puzle-style action game element, as well as the simple uniqueness of having a game with only bosses to beat. I didn't find anything deep about "shine sword, run till mountain attacks, stab mountain in shiny spot 3 times, repeat", sure, it felt great and epic...but that wasn't due to the gameplay, it was due to the themes and the deliverance and yes, the art style. Elements I like in this game as well.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

This may shock you into disbelief and horror but I didn't find the gameplay in Shadow of the Colossus all that fun, that game was all about the atmosphere and the cool boss designs that were beaten with a puzle-style action game element, as well as the simple uniqueness of having a game with only bosses to beat. I didn't find anything deep about "shine sword, run till mountain attacks, stab mountain in shiny spot 3 times, repeat", sure, it felt great and epic...but that wasn't due to the gameplay, it was due to the themes and the deliverance and yes, the art style. Elements I like in this game as well.

It doesn't shock me as people have different tastes. I'm not going to tell you that it's your fault for not finding the gameplay fun with something along the lines of "the game does have a way for you to play and enjoy it, it's not it's fault that people misinterpret it and go at it the wrong way." Some of the SotC boss fights are some of my favorite all-time boss fights because of several reasons and one of them being the gameplay, which I thought was great. If a game doesn't deliver in gameplay, then I have a hard time enjoying it unless it's a straight adventure-type game where there really isn't any gameplay outside of walking around and talking to people.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

This may shock you into disbelief and horror but I didn't find the gameplay in Shadow of the Colossus all that fun, that game was all about the atmosphere and the cool boss designs that were beaten with a puzle-style action game element, as well as the simple uniqueness of having a game with only bosses to beat. I didn't find anything deep about "shine sword, run till mountain attacks, stab mountain in shiny spot 3 times, repeat", sure, it felt great and epic...but that wasn't due to the gameplay, it was due to the themes and the deliverance and yes, the art style. Elements I like in this game as well.

It doesn't shock me as people have different tastes. I'm not going to tell you that it's your fault for not finding the gameplay fun with something along the lines of "the game does have a way for you to play and enjoy it, it's not it's fault that people misinterpret it and go at it the wrong way." Some of the SotC boss fights are some of my favorite all-time boss fights because of several reasons and one of them being the gameplay, which I thought was great. If a game doesn't deliver in gameplay, then I have a hard time enjoying it unless it's a straight adventure-type game where there really isn't any gameplay outside of walking around and talking to people.

But I did enjoy it, I enjoyed it by deriving fun from elements not about the gameplay. I never said I didn't enjoy the game, only that it's gameplay wasn't the reason for my enjoying it. That's the entire point really, even though as you say I have different tastes, through adjusting my attitude and expectations I managed to have fun with the game.

 

[Genixma]

Oh my god, awesome art direction! I've not heard of this game until now. I'll have to check it out.

Alright, how have you NOT heard of it? No I'm not talking it was the biggest game of the year. I'm saying one day I went back to watch all the Zero Punctuations. And EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. had the same. bloody. 30. second. trailer. advertised. At the begin of the videos. Now I'm no mathemetician but there are (currently) 212 episodes of ZP every single one advertising the 30 second El Shaddai trailer. lets see...

106 minutes of my life down the drain. And I have never hated a game more. They could make a bloody Twilight game and I couldn't loathe it and hold it in abhor as much as I do El Shaddai.

tl;dr: It was advertised on the Escapist more than ZP is, I hate this game due to the migraine of how much it was advertised on here. It was kinda hard not to of heard of it. Oh look a squirrel made of cheese.

 

[DustyDrB]

Oh my god, awesome art direction! I've not heard of this game until now. I'll have to check it out.

Alright, how have you NOT heard of it? No I'm not talking it was the biggest game of the year. I'm saying one day I went back to watch all the Zero Punctuations. And EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. had the same. bloody. 30. second. trailer. advertised. At the begin of the videos. Now I'm no mathemetician but there are (currently) 212 episodes of ZP every single one advertising the 30 second El Shaddai trailer. lets see...

106 minutes of my life down the drain. And I have never hated a game more. They could make a bloody Twilight game and I couldn't loathe it and hold it in abhor as much as I do El Shaddai.

tl;dr: It was advertised on the Escapist more than ZP is, I hate this game due to the migraine of how much it was advertised on here. It was kinda hard not to of heard of it. Oh look a squirrel made of cheese.

I'm Pub Clubber. I see no ads here.

 

[strawberrycreme]

I played the game through twice, so here's my opinion. It's really really really pretty, and it has really nice music. My favorite part was stealing weapons from the enemies and then killing them with their own weapons. My second favorite part was the dance-off.

My least favorite part was Lucifel talking on his cell phone. It just... made no sense at all. It was completely genre-breaking and kind of annoying. Also, underneath his armor, Enoch was in blue jeans for some reason.