So my first impressions were not good, now I have spent some time with the game I will give an update:
-I love the combat system, its deep, I feel I have only scratched the surface of what is possible, it makes me want to immediately retry another level upon completion rather than progress into the story (are there leaderboards in this game? Would be a criminal omission if there aren't any)
-The touchscreen controls do kinda suck, its not just that the touchscreen is a tad unresponsive at times, but inputting on the touchscreen after holding the gamepad normally, just feels a chore, having to move you hand to the touchscreen away from the buttons, holding the gamepad with your left hand with your hand over the left thumb stick also doesn't feel nice, using the stick is so much better, especially when you quickly want to draw a sword, hit x then move to this group of enemies, draw a sword hit x etc etc, its just using the thumb stick to draw the unite hand I find pretty hard
-This game feels very old school, in that it doesn't hold hands or give you prompts as to what to do next, I have read fellow posts about this, I think it is a failing that what to do isn't obvious, I don't want the game to hold my hand, nor do I want skyward levels of tuition and guidance, but cues could be subtle, expect to scratch your head at least a few times
-The normal difficulty is too difficult I feel for me for an initial playthrough, often though, I feel that it's not the game is too difficult, its just that I don't understand what to do, or cannot follow what the hell is going on, that first boss fight left me feeling bemused once I had finally defeated him, I'm sure on subsequent playthroughs things will just click more and more
-The music is fine, but I stand by what I said, the opening music to the opening stage is TERRIBLE
-The graphics are pretty awesome, I like the art style and I can't think of anything else that really apes this games aesthetic
-The isometric viewpoint: hmmmm or should I say the fixed isometric viewpoint, I haven't played a fixed isometric game since.... I dunno Captain Quazar on the 3do, I often find it to be a bit of a hindrance, buildings blocking your view don't always go invisible when they should, and that secrety area on the first proper level, hmmmmm
-There are other unrefined elements and quirks but they aren't game breaking, just a tad annoying, the areas where you end up inside the gamepad so to speak are a bit janky
Overall I am thoroughly enjoying it, I haven't really played a game quite like it ever, it's like some bastard child of Viewtiful Joe, 90s saturday morning cartoons, Pikmin, DmC with a sprinkle of old school arcade action, it feels fresh, exceptionally kinetic and quite visceral at times, it does however have a few gaping flaws, its core gameplay is refined, but the excution is not.
8/10
Am probably opening myself up to ridicule publising this but heres my first five frustating minutes with it, like sex, don't expect your first time to be very good but it get betters with practice and perserverance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-hAmq8PZsc
