Yasha: Legends Of The Demon Blade - An Indie Roguelike RPG That Should be On Your Radar
Nov. 27, 2024Yasha: Legends Of The Demon Blade – An Indie Roguelike RPG That Should be On Your Radar
Yasha: Legends of The Demon Blade is set in the Edo Period of Japan. Not much is known about the story yet but from the Steam page, it says that Humans and Demons used to live in coexistence, but this balance is now being threatened because of the rise of the Nine-Tailed Fox who is sort of like the head honcho of the demons. The Fox then rallied the demons to sow chaos across the mortal realm and it’ll be your mission to stop them. It’s some pretty standard fantasy plot, but you’re probably wondering what the significance of the demon blade in the title is to the game’s story.
The title does say Legends Of The Demon Blade, and a huge part of the game is how you collect parts of the Demon Blade to forge your own weapons. Also, a dialogue with the blacksmith when you’re playing as Sara says that your primary mission is to retrieve the components of the Demon Blade so I guess the story does kind of revolve around it. I’m not entirely sure how though, maybe it’s because you’ll be crafting strong weapons you can use to beat the demons who are ravaging the land. I’m just trying to connect the dots based on the information that we have so these are just speculation, but I really do feel that the story will be taking that sort of direction.
The game plays somewhat similarly to other roguelikes where you get the chance to develop your character by getting upgrades called “Soul Orbs”. These Soul Orbs are only temporary because you lose all of these and any progress you have made if your character dies. What’s neat though is you can give your character some permanent upgrades after a death, making sure you enter your next playthrough a bit stronger. Of course, if you’re someone who really loves a good challenge you can choose not to, so you can sort of control your difficulty level manually. The game’s levels are pretty straight forward, you just need to beat all the enemies found on that stage before you can proceed. And once you do beat the enemies, you can get a Soul Orb to improve your weapons’ abilities and interact with the Neko Shrine, which gives you random bonuses that range from food to special amulets.
Once you’re all set, you then proceed to the next stage and do the same things until you reach the boss. Now, in this demo there are only two bosses available, A giant crab named General Kani and a giant Octopus whose name I forgot. These bosses have their own mechanics that you can exploit to make their fights way easier. The stages in between the boss fights are procedurally generated so there’s no guarantee that you’ll be going against the same set of enemies as a previous playthrough, Heck, even the town hub is procedurally generated so you won’t really know which shops you’ll be expected to encounter.
Town Hubs are a place where you can recuperate and purchase items and upgrades for your character. They’re usually placed after a boss fight and right before entering a new stage. These town hubs also usually have a hidden challenge that you can participate in. The shops found in the town hub change with every visit. You’ll sometimes see a ramen shop that allows you to get buffs when you eat their food or a trinket merchant who sells you upgrades which sometimes have side-effects. There’s also a cart where a giant hand pokes your forehead and allows you to purchase Soul Orbs so you can improve your weapon abilities.
But what makes the game noteworthy isn’t the bosses or the stages, it’s how customizable the playable characters are. Before you start your playthrough, the game asks you which character you would like to choose between Shigure, Sara, and Taketora.
Shigure is one of the characters you can pick, and honestly, she’s a blast to play. She uses dual katanas, and you can switch between two of them at any time, which opens up a ton of fun combos. Her combos are mostly about combining her light and heavy attacks, with her heavy slashes that cover these massive arcs, especially when you pick the right swords.
When I played as her, I kind of focused on maximizing her AoE potential. I went with the Crimson Autumn sword which is like some sort of flame sword and the Red Crane Sword. The Red Crane Sword is a sword that only allows you to use heavy attacks, and it slows your attack speed down a bit, but the tradeoff is this huge slashing arc that’s perfect for taking out groups of enemies. Also, if you generate enough Red Crane stacks, your damage output will increase exponentially. The Crimson Autumn, on the other hand, lets you burn enemies that will explode once you’ve attacked them a lot. Its signature ability is it creates a burning field around you that damages anything nearby. Together, they’re pretty insane. The Crane Sword even buffs your overall damage with crane stacks, so pairing the two felt super powerful. The only downside was that my attack speed took a hit with the Crane Sword, but mastering when to dash and to reposition or escape made up for it.
What’s cool is how the different swords can actually interact with each other and set up combos. For example, there’s one sword that focuses on light attacks and scatters flower petals that explode if you iai slash them with any sword. There’s also one sword that spouts water with each slash, kind of like what you see in Demon Slayer with the water-breathing style. That sword’s attacks debuffs enemies and makes them receive more damage. It’s completely different from my heavy attack build but just as fun. You can really experiment with all kinds of combos, so there’s always something new to try. Also, her upgrades before you start another playthrough are more focused on increasing her mystical arts damage, which is very useful against boss fights. Honestly, Shigure ended up being my favorite character to play. Her versatility, AoE, and the sheer variety in her weapon choices make her stand out. If you like stylish combos with weapons that synergize with each other then she’s definitely worth checking out.
On top of all that, a fun fact is that Shigure’s voice actress is Yoko Hikasa, who also voices Utahime Iori fromJujutsu Kaisenand Yoh Asakura fromShaman King.If you’re a fan of those shows, you might recognize her voice while playing, which is just nice.
Next up is Sara, and this character is all about speed and mobility. She dual-wields blades, chaining together crazy fast combos that just feel super satisfying. Unlike Shigure, who mixes heavy and light attacks, Sara mostly sticks to light attacks. She does have a heavy attack, but it’s kind of awkward to use unless you’re finishing someone off since it makes her pause completely until the animation finishes, so it’s not the easiest attack to work into her combos.
Sara’s gameplay really focuses on mobility, with a lot of her upgrades reducing her dash cooldown. What makes her unique is that her weapons can be used together at the same time, unlike Shigure, who has to switch between hers. This lets you stack their abilities seamlessly. For my setup, I went with the Fire Lotus and Butcher Knife. Both of these are great for Sara because they deal extra damage when she dashes near enemies. Oh, and her dashes actually do damage too. The AoE is pretty small, but with these weapons, it’s enough to wreck groups of enemies. The Fire Lotus even shoots out a flaming drill projectile that can hit multiple enemies and bounce around if you grab the right Soul Orb upgrade. With this combo, I was able to tear through the game. One demo playthrough only took me about six minutes, and that included doing a hidden challenge in the demonic festival town hub.
Sara is ridiculously fun and probably the easiest character to play once you get the hang of her. The catch though is that she’s a bit of a glass cannon. She takes the most damage out of all three characters, so you’ll be relying on her dashes a lot to avoid getting hit. That’s also why upgrading her dash is so important. You start with only two dash bars, which feels pretty limiting at first, but once you unlock three bars and reduce the cooldown, she becomes an unstoppable blur. At that point, you barely even have to worry about taking damage anymore because enemies just can’t hit you. Honestly, if you build her right, she might make the game feel a little too easy, but hey, it’s still a ton of fun to blitz through enemies.
Oh, and fun fact: Sara’s voice actress is Ayana Taketatsu, who’s worked on some iconic Atlus games. She voices Labrys inPersona 4 Arenaand Nuwa inShin Megami Tensei V.If you’re into those games, you might recognize her voice.
And finally, we’ve got Taketora, the anthropomorphic tiger bowman. He’s the only character of the three who can consistently use ranged attacks without relying on weapon abilities, which makes him perfect if you like to play it safe and attack from a distance. His light attacks fire arrows, and you can hold the button to charge up a shot, which also lets you trigger his weapon abilities. He’s got heavy attacks too. They’re slow but they pack a punch (and yes, they’re literal punches).
Taketora’s upgrades focus on reducing the charge time for his attacks, which is great because they take a while to fully charge. If I had to sum him up in one word, it would beslow. His mobility is low, his dashes cover barely any distance, his walking speed is sluggish, and his charge attacks take time to execute. But what he lacks in speed, he makes up for with raw power. His arrows hit like a truck, especially when you pair the right Soul Orb upgrades with his weapon abilities.
Speaking of weapons, Taketora can switch between two bows, just like how Shigure swaps swords. These bows can synergize to buff him or debuff enemies, adding some strategic depth. Most weapon abilities are triggered by performing charge attacks once you’ve built enough stacks, and I found this easier to pull off and manage compared to some of Shigure’s weapon’s mechanics. I mostly used the Sunset bow, which lets me shoot out flaming arrows and call forth meteors to hit my enemies, and the Chinzei bow which increases my damage output whenever I hit an enemy with a charged shot. I just noticed that I used flame weapons for all the characters in this demo. It’s just a bit easier when enemies have the burnt debuff. Also, while Taketora is slow, he’s surprisingly tanky. He takes less damage than the other characters, which balances out his lack of mobility. He’s basically the opposite of Sara where she’s fast but squishy, Taketora is slow but sturdy.
I’ll be honest, though, he’s not really my style. I’m more of a fast-paced, up-close combat type of player, so his slower, ranged-focused playstyle didn’t click with me. His melee attacks are also painfully slow, and if you’re up against an enemy, you’ll usually get hit before your attack even lands. I mostly saved his heavy attacks for finishing off downed enemies.
Fun fact: Taketora is voiced by Rikiya Koyama, who’s been in tons of iconic roles. You might know him as Coyote Starrk fromBleach, Mamoru Takamura fromHajime no Ippo, or Taiga Saejima from theYakuzaseries. If you’re a fan of his work, you’ll definitely appreciate his voice acting here.
Overall, the game is enjoyable. I like the amount of customization available for the characters and how well it caters to different playstyles. If I had to nitpick, I’d say Sara could use a slight nerf because she’s kind of overpowered, and Taketora could definitely be a little faster. Right now, playing as him feels like hauling around a ton of Frosted Flakes. Just give him a bit more speed.
I do have one particular gripe with the parrying system. It’s ridiculously hard to pull off. At first, I thought it was just a skill issue on my part but even after really trying to nail it, I only managed to succeed three times out of about ten attempts. I checked the game’s Steam community hub, and apparently, I’m not alone. A lot of people are saying the parry window is just way too small.
On top of that, I feel like parrying is kind of pointless in stages with tons of mobs. Sure, you can block one attack, but it doesn’t stop the rest of them from swarming you. It’s just way easier to dash out of the way and reposition instead of risking a parry in a mob frenzy. That said, parrying does shine in boss fights since it gives you a chance to temporarily immobilize the boss. I just wish they’d tweak it a bit and maybe widen the timing window or make it more rewarding by giving you some invincibility frames because as it stands, it feels more frustrating than fun.
The demo’s out on Steam, so if you’re curious, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try. What about you guys? Have you played it yet? Or is it something you think you’ll check out? Let me know your thoughts!
Megidola
