Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade has arrived digitally onto the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, but today we will be taking a look at the Nintendo Switch version of the game. What did we find out? Well, let’s explore.
Title:
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade
Publisher:
Game Source Entertainment
Developer:
7QUARK
Platform:
Nintendo Switch
Resolution:
1920 x 1080
Audio:
Japanese
Subtitles:
English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Korean
Local Players:
1
Online Players:
N/A
Install:
YES (1.7GB)
Our View:
Developed by 7QUARK, and published globally by Game Source Entertainment, Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a top-down rougelite action-RPG that thrusts players into a chaotic world filled with demons, gigantic boss fights and structured gameplay that leaves you wanting something… more refined.
Confused? I am as well. I absolutely love the aesthetic, the character designs, and the simplistic but inviting combat within Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade, but the repetitive and structured nature of the game quickly lost its appeal on me. Combine this with the lack of voice-acting, despite being advertised as such, and you too might also find yourself wanting something a bit more refined.
On the surface Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade looks to offer action-RPG combat with three different characters, and a story that sees you attempt to save the mortal realm from demonic threat. While this is true the three characters available have their own unique story, and that’s in addition to the different fighting styles.
These characters are Shigure, the nurtured daughter and trained samurai, Sara, the ditzy oni demon with twin swords, and Taketora, the loyal bodyguard known for his archery skills, and once selected you’ll get to experience their unique story and fighting style. Shigure is searching for her mentor, who has ventured to defeat the Nine-Tailed Fox. Sara, an emissary from the demon world, is looking for the prophesied Okami. Taketora, who is the protector of Shigure (as a child), sees him look for the lord of the land after a demon attack from the Nine-Tailed Foxes army.
What we have here then is 3 individual stories, for 3 different characters, in 1 game, rather than 3 different perspectives of the same story or a single story with interchangeable characters. That’s not all, as each story share the same locations, characters, enemies, and boss fights.
As these stories differ greatly, they do offer a compelling reason to play again with a different character, but how these stories are portrayed to the player leaves more to be desired. Of course I’m referring to the lack of voice-acting and repetitive structed gameplay. The story moments within the game are presented as visual novel sequences, with character art that changes depending on the situation, but due to the lack of voice-acting it fails to immerse you into the story being told.
The dialogue can sometimes feel flat at times as well, even with the odd bit of humor thrown in, but there isn’t much in terms of character development or world building outside of the basic facts used to progress the story forward. Using the auto-scroll option for text is also not advised, as this displays text at a faster rate than what you’d be comfortable reading at.
The core gameplay loop of Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade meanwhile is to progress through areas, defeat bosses, and collect resources in order to upgrade talents, weapons and orb abilities, with the objective of clearing the entire campaign in a single session. If you die you will be reincarnated within the village and you’ll be able to upgrade your character, thus making your character stronger. So the more you play (and die) will result in a better equipped character.
Unfortunately this is where the repetitive and structured nature of the game comes in. For starters there is only a limited amount of orb abilities and upgradable talents available, as well as six upgradable weapons per character, all of which will require multiple sessions to obtain. There isn’t a leveling system either, so your chosen character will only have stats that are improved by orb abilities, talents, weapon upgrades and other perks acquired while out in the field of battle.
Weapons do offer a bit of variety with each having unique abilities, although you can only carry two during one session. The good news is that at least you can swap between them in battle and passive skills for a weapon will activate regardless of the weapon being used.
Sadly there isn’t any armor to boost defence, but you can purchase talismans and ramen during rest periods in the game, which appear after every boss fight, to temporarily raise your characters stats. Recovery items can also be purchased, but sadly these cannot be held and are instead used instantly when purchased.
The repetitive aspect of the game meanwhile stems from the fact you’ll be replaying the same areas (and boss fights) over and over again. If you are skilled enough you will be able to progress through the game without much hassle, as the general enemies are pretty easy.
But for those unskilled, or new to this type of genre (such as myself), then you will find yourself playing the same portions of the game multiple times before reaching somewhere new, which isn’t particularly fun in long sessions. The boss fights are cool and fun to fight against, but they are damage sponges and can throw multiple attacks off at once that deal way more damage then you’d like.
As there are three different characters available, you’ll need to experience this tediousness two more times, as each area (and boss fight) is exactly the same regardless of character chosen. There are some differences, such as different enemies or area layouts, but ultimately it is the same structure. As mentioned previously the only difference comes in the form of the characters fighting style, and the story that appears when you a defeat a boss with that character for the first time.
From a combat perspective then the game is pretty simple and straight forward, with each character having a Light and Heavy attack alongside a Parry and Dash. The Parry button can also be used to do a Mystic Artes or Grand Mystic Artes, but these require a yellow circle to appear above the enemy in order to activate. It is simple and effective combat, but there are some drawbacks.
Firstly you cannot lock-on to enemies, and you will only attack in the direction you are facing. Secondly the dash can only be used twice (unless upgraded) and requires a cool down, which isn’t ideal during the later boss fights. The timing for parrying and using a Mystic Artes can also be difficult to achieve without some practice.
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a diamond in the rough. It has the potential to be a great experience, but it hasn’t been smoothed out. Visually the game is beautiful, with its Japanese-styled visuals and vibrant top-down gameplay, but the gameplay fundamentals need refining to make it more enjoyable for all players.
The repetitive nature, regardless of character chosen, should be a celebrated gameplay feature, but instead feels hampered due to repeated usage of all locations, characters and enemies and it quickly looses its appeal in longer sessions. The lack of voice-acting during visual novel sequences also pulls this experience down further, especially as characters do have voices (or grunts) for attack patterns.
Initially I was excited to play this game, but after a couple of hours I became bored rather than compelled to progress forward as I was fighting the same enemies, in the same locations, repeatedly. Combine this with the occasional crashes when dying (which resulted in some progress being lost) and the constant loading times between areas, and you too will look for something else to play.
If you enjoy rougelite games with repetitive structure and challenging boss fights, then Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade might be the game for you, but if you are looking for a simplistic action-RPG with steady progression and customisation then you’ll want to look elsewhere. It’s an OK game, but it could (and potentially should) have been better.
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is now available digitally for the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo eShop. A physical edition is also planned for release within Europe and North America.
Shigure Gameplay:
Sara Gameplay:
Tekotara Gameplay:
