Maid of Salvation

Shizuka, a Maid of Salvation, exists to purify fallen souls that turn into demons when they reach purgatory. as a Maid you have no memory of your past life, you simply serve the will of your master and undertake missions to clear impure souls from lands connected to your Sanctuary base via portals, each of which will unlock as you progress, allowing you to discover more items, weapons and chain abilities to move you along your path.

In this sense it's a typical top down action game, though unlike many modern games there's no random element to enemy type or position within each map. This does make it easier to plan your load-out and approach before each mission, but it also takes away any surprises, so it's a matter of taste as to whether that appeals or not. 

Controls are fairly standard - you can attack, block, dash and jump while enemies can be taken on head-first or snuck up on, opening up the possibility for a nasty stabbing attack. Ranged weapons can be fired until the gauge runs down, this can be refilled by using your melee weapon which can also block and parry. The button layout favours the dash and block buttons on the right-side top buttons, with the map and activate buttons on the left. For some reason I kept hitting the map key when I went to dash which was enormously frustrating, so I suggest you remap some of the controls if this bothers you too. 

You can power up Shizuka by spending mana you collect on the battlefield against her stats - Vitality, Strength, Mind and Activity - or by spending the Wedge Stones you earn by levelling up via this process on the skill tree, though annoyingly the game locked me out of the second set of skills about halfway through so I had to muddle on without them.

While progress through the game is straightforward for the most part, some of the quests are annoyingly vague. One quest requires you to lure a cat down from a pillar in Sanctuary, but you're given no pointers on what's needed to achieve this. Subsequently there's an annoying meow every time I went back to Sanctuary that just irked me. Thankfully the relaxing score, which sounds like something Howard Shore would write, kept me sane. The music throughout the rest of the game is suitable if not overly memorable.

Graphically the game is very sharp - it runs well on Steam Deck too, with fluid movement, no stutter and a solid framerate. It is, if I'm critical, a touch bland to look at. The environments are quite stark - deserts, caves and ruins - which feel like they could serve anything. Assets are sharp and I loved the water effects, but there's no real character to it. Yasha felt bright, lively and full of charm, this feels flat by comparison. I understand it's set in purgatory, but I'm not sure it needed to look this dull.

What saves the game is the addictive nature of the combat and growth. Yes, the enemies are limited (further still by the amount of colour swaps on enemies) but the combat is really quite sublime. Every hit feels crunchy, latter enemies provide a decent challenge as they begin to block, lock onto you with projectiles or stay out of reach, it becomes a gauntlet to get from one side of the screen to the other, but never feels unfair. Shizuka is a pretty tame character, she's submissive (though curious) and  the other maids are similarly doll-like in attitude and appearance. I have a great time playing the game, but I know I'll forget about entirely in 6 months as it's just not particularly memorable - not a criticism I can level at Silly Polly Beast which will haunt me for years!

Bosses are big and mostly enjoyable, but the colour palette is muddy in the main, looking like a Zack Snyder film.

When the bosses do arrive, they're fun enough, but they feel like mid-level bosses in the main as they have limited attack patterns and I beat pretty much all of them on my first run. Just be patient, avoid attacks and pile in while they're resting. If you can't wait, empty your ranged weapon at them. It was always fun but never overly challenging. Well until the last breath of the game when difficulty spikes and multiple bosses come at you, probably the only bit of real frustration throughout the entire game.

Another saving grace is the price - at just over £10 this is a game that offers terrific value for money - as I say, I really enjoyed playing it and found it hard to put down, ultimately that's what matters. There's just something lacking in the presentation and character design that a little more design language could have fixed to make it something really special. 

Overall, I think fans of the genre will enjoy the game, though it's doesn't offer anything particularly new or groundbreaking. What it does offer is solid and enjoyable, but I don't think you'll remember it for long once you move on. Much like the characters in the game itself.