LogFAQs > #969621057

The Tarnishing of Juxtia (PC)

A C- Soulsclone. Warning this post will be a semi rant on how shit it is. Just to get this out of the way, if you found yourself playing this game it was probably because of how it looks. It looks amazing. Not Hollow Knight amazing, but you can tell its got its own distinct style going on and the story/plot felt right when you figured it all out. I think my favorite part of the lore is that there is a 3rd seemingly unrelated faction (though necessary for the Golden Ending but uhh more on that later) and that the eponymous Tarnishing is a wildcard 4th faction instead of the usual adversary that you have to defeat. Moreover, the world isn't really dead so much as severely damaged because of an ongoing war before the Tarnishing started. I really like what the game was going for if you just sit down and think about it.

But the praise stops there.

This game is barely playable. I would rather play Death's Gambit (which I still haven't beat due to that game having its own problems) than sit through this willingly. I won't bore you guys with the technicalities of it but basically the game boasts options in the vein of Skul. But because the enemies move way faster than you do (and the fact that you are slow af even for a dark souls clone with the stamina and everything), there is really only one build that actually works: the speedy tank.

Heavy Weapons are not useful at all and do not catch up with the daggers and the fist weapons. Other options include Magic. Boss Relics (every boss you beat gives you a neat special/super ala Ender Lilies). Passive Gifts which are minor relics that you can mix and match. The offers you all that, but none of them scale particularly well and you can't even upgrade them so your goto relics will always be the one that gives you Invincibility and the one that Summons Minions. That's it.

Okay time to shit on the stuff I praised about previously. Yeah the game looks great...for the first 3 zones. Then you're treated to a bunch of empty maps. Long hallway-like zones with no personality and wouldn't look out of place in Symphony of the Night. Like remember those corridors that encourage you to just grind for hearts and rare items? Thats 90% of the game.

And the story? Yeah okay still great. However there are only 2 conclusions you can attain and they're both shit. Like literally when you beat the respective Final Boss and True Final Boss, the game just goes to credits. Especially the latter. It's a waste of time and I only kept playing because it was short and it allowed me to be cheesy once I figured out how to play the cheese game.

What else. One more thing I guess is there is a weapons upgrade system but you can only truly upgrade ONE weapon in the whole game---you won't be able to find the resources you need to upgrade more. Finding only 3 final-tier upgrade mats implies though that the game wanted you to grind for the small mats in order to only be able to fully upgrade 3 of them. Which is fine. If I knew that ahead of time because the game even in its final stages kept dumping weapons on you such that it was virtually impossible to theorycraft unless you knew what was coming.

Alright thats it I'm done ranting about this shit. 4/10 souls clone.