TLDR: Great animation, good combat system without difficult enemies to back it up, good writing with a harsh tone, and a lot of crying, miserable rape.
In some games the "rape" tag is fairly minor. This is not one of them. Every sex scene features the (very well personified) heroine crying, tortured, and screaming from a mix of pain and fear. She is beaten, stabbed, and clearly hates every second of what is being inflicted upon her. Worse, she knows the same is happening to her friends and family. The scenes themselves can be hurried through, but are ultimately not skippable, so you can't get away from them. I played through the first few chapters, and ultimately stopped once I realized it was the rule rather than the exception. If that kind of thing isn't a turn-on, don't play this game.
The writing and story are better than most you can expect (this is what made the rape scenes worse for me - they spend a few minutes showing you the main character being read stories as a child by her older sister, and then witness horrible things happen to them). I like my games to be a little more playful in tone, rather than feeling bad that the main character just watched everyone she know get murdered before being stabbed through the chest. Again, that may be a personal preference.
The combat system was above average for games of this kind. Some great ideas - like combining the special attack with platforming - are unique and engaging. I liked the flexibility of the upgrade system, but found the vast majority of enemies to be so trivial that it didn't matter. Every enemy before the first boss was "run up and press heavy attack to win," and few after it were much harder. The first boss itself was very well designed - great animations, variety of moves, and pleasantly difficult. I'd love to see more games with a combat system as well designed as this.
I can't rate the game too poorly just because it made some decisions that didn't work for me personally (especially when there are warning tags), so my rating is based on the great combat system with lack of engaging enemy encounters.
In some games the "rape" tag is fairly minor. This is not one of them. Every sex scene features the (very well personified) heroine crying, tortured, and screaming from a mix of pain and fear. She is beaten, stabbed, and clearly hates every second of what is being inflicted upon her. Worse, she knows the same is happening to her friends and family. The scenes themselves can be hurried through, but are ultimately not skippable, so you can't get away from them. I played through the first few chapters, and ultimately stopped once I realized it was the rule rather than the exception. If that kind of thing isn't a turn-on, don't play this game.
The writing and story are better than most you can expect (this is what made the rape scenes worse for me - they spend a few minutes showing you the main character being read stories as a child by her older sister, and then witness horrible things happen to them). I like my games to be a little more playful in tone, rather than feeling bad that the main character just watched everyone she know get murdered before being stabbed through the chest. Again, that may be a personal preference.
The combat system was above average for games of this kind. Some great ideas - like combining the special attack with platforming - are unique and engaging. I liked the flexibility of the upgrade system, but found the vast majority of enemies to be so trivial that it didn't matter. Every enemy before the first boss was "run up and press heavy attack to win," and few after it were much harder. The first boss itself was very well designed - great animations, variety of moves, and pleasantly difficult. I'd love to see more games with a combat system as well designed as this.
I can't rate the game too poorly just because it made some decisions that didn't work for me personally (especially when there are warning tags), so my rating is based on the great combat system with lack of engaging enemy encounters.